Country Life 13-Oct-2021

No bitter end for BVI yacht club THE yachting community in the BVI is looking forward to raising a glass (or two) this autumn to toast the re-opening of the Bitter End Yacht Club in time for the sailing season to get under way. This much-loved international hub, named for its iconic location as the last stop before the Caribbean meets the waters of the open Atlantic, was devastated by Hurricane Irma in 2017. Now, after a careful reconstruction, the marina is set to re-open with vastly improved amenities, including a panoramic members’ lounge and a state-of-the-art clubhouse. There are a busy few months ahead: according to the Charter Yacht Society BVI, the majority of the 48 fully crewed yachts in the territory are already fully booked for the upcoming season. ‘Co-primary'…

WHEN Jack Sparrow stepped off his sinking boat on a balmy morning in 1720, setting off the chain of events that would lead to love, the removal of an ancient curse and cinematic piracy’s greatest success, the golden age of Caribbean raiders was almost coming to an end. As Commodore Norrington tries to do in the film, the Royal Navy was patrolling the West Indies to stamp out the pirates that threatened Britain’s lucrative maritime trade. It hadn’t always been like that, however. Less than 60 years earlier, British governors had been harnessing buccaneers to attack Spanish ships and settlements. Men with a taste for adventure (or nothing to lose) had been flocking to the West Indies since the 1500s. By the early 17th century, part of the island of Hispaniola…

Plenty of pirate festivals and tours add to the region's charm, making it the perfect place to escape the winter blues Barbados Set next to the Royal Westmoreland golf course, five-bedroom Seaduced has an open-plan living and dining area that flows onto a covered terrace with a spectacular pool beyond. $5.2 million (£3.8m), Realtors Limited (00 12 46 537 6946) Bahamas Perfect for entertaining, this magnificent house has four bedrooms, a swimming pool and 1,000sq ft of covered terracing overlooking an Old Fort Bay canal. $3.8 million (£2.78m), Knight Frank (020–7861 1553) Jamaica Built in the 18th-century and later home to Lord Brownlow, one of the Duke of Windsor's friends, five-bedroom Sussex was the first house in Jamaica to have a telephone line installed. $2.95 million (£2.087m), Coldwell Banker Jamaica Realty 00 18 76 403 7483 or 00 18…

FROM the striking mustard-yellow walls of the Palácio da Pena in Portugal to the sacred stepped walls of the Potala Palace in Tibet, royal palaces around the world are masterpieces of a country’s built heritage. But there’s something altogether especially captivating about those residences that have withstood the test of time to remain homes or governing spaces for working members of royal families and their households even today. Those presented here are among the most splendid and bustling of all. Grand Palace, Bangkok, Thailand More than a palace, this is a complex in the heart of Bangkok that has been the official residence of the kings of Siam since 1782. Work on it began when the capital city was moved across the Chao Phraya river from Thonburi to Bangkok after the execution…

Venice With medieval palazzi rising out of the Grand Canal, you can’t mistake when Bond is in Venice. He made his first visit in 1963 in From Russia With Love, in which Sean Connery and Daniela Bianchi (as Tatiana Romanova) stay in a hotel in San Giorgio Maggiore and drift under the Bridge of Sighs in a gondola. Strangely, Connery didn’t actually shoot the scenes in Venice—they were all done at Pinewood Studios and in Scotland. ‘Roger Moore rides a souped-up gondola down the Grand Canal’ By 1979, Moonraker had been filmed on location. In a thrilling scene, Roger Moore rides a souped-up gondola down the Grand Canal being chased by a speed boat. At the touch of a button, he manages to convert the gondola into a hovercraft and drives right through…

For all Bond's globetrotting, London is his stomping ground and features at some point in almost all the films. In No Time to Die, we see him walking in Whitehall next to the building known as Whitehall Court, which was an MI6 headquarters at the turn of the 20th century. In fact, the bombproof former headquarters of the Secret Intelligence Service, after being converted into a luxury penthouse, went on the market last August for £5.5 million. Other iconic London locations include the Langham Hotel, which was used in GoldenEye, and Rules in Covent Garden where M, Q and Moneypenny have all dined on screen, most recently in Spectre. Scotland is another classic Bond haunt and appears in many of the films. Apparently, Ian Fleming, Bond's creator, was so impressed with Sean…