My First Dive with the Pirate

The Last Pirate and Sir Richard Branson

A Pirate in the Mountains???

Our meeting

. . . He came to be known as “The Last pirate of the Caribbean”. To be exact, he officially gained that title in the year 2000 when A. J. Berstein wrote an article for Sport Diver magazine. The title? You guessed it, “The Last Pirate of the Caribbean” and it featured a full-page face shot of my favorite SCUBA diver, Bert Kilbride.
. . . . I met him in the fall of 1982 on the Caribbean island of Virgin Gorda. I had been introduced to him before but it was in passing and I really didn’t pay much attention. After all he was sitting at a table having dinner with a lady friend. And the person who introduced us was obviously someone he didn’t recognize. It was embarrassing and intrusive.
. . . . But let’s start at the beginning. In October of 1982 I was acting as crew on a 46’ Morgan sailboat that was supposed to be heading down island. After 13 days of getting yelled at and reprimanded I jumped ship. It’s not that I was horrible at crewing. I’d like to think that it was more of him being a horrible captain. Unfortunately it was only the two of us on board and it was his yacht. So if one had to go of course it would to be me.
. . . . . I found myself wondering the docks of Tortola asking everyone if they knew of a place I could sleep. It didn’t take long before I had a bunk. The first night of freedom I went to the local bar to ask around about jobs. In no time I had an offer to sail to North Sound Virgin Gorda to check out a position with a windsurfing company. It’s there that I became close friends with the infamous Bert Kilbride

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For the full Sport Diver magazine article click here;

The Last Pirate and Sir Richard Branson

. . . What does the “Last Pirate of the Caribbean”, Bert Kilbride, and “Mr. Virgin”, Sir Richard Branson have in common?

. . . . . . For starters they both owned a private island in the British Virgin Islands during the 1980’s and ‘90’s. Bert Kilbride owned a tiny island called Saba Rock and Richard Branson still owns Neckar Island. Both Islands are in the North Sound, Virgin Gorda area.
. . . . . .In the early 1960’s Bert bought his first island, Moskito Island. Named after the Moskito Indians not the insect. Soon after purchasing the island he was doing some pre-development exploration and discovered an ancient camp site. He found a few tools, a bowl and a pot with a face on it. In the water, close to shore, he came across another bowl with coral growing in it. He had his treasures checked out by the Royal Ontario Museum who declared them to be Arawak Indian artifacts. It has now been discovered that it was Taino Indians not Arawaks that populated the Caribbean Islands. The Taino’s spoke Arawak.
. . . . . . In 1970 Bert sold Moskito Island and bought Saba Rock. In 2007 Moskito Island changed hands again when Richard Branson bought it. That’s another thing Bert and Richard have in common. Soon after purchasing the island Richard asked Bert to mark on a map where he had found the artifcts. Which Bert did and I emailed it back to Rickard.
. . . . . Sadly, Bert passed away last year. His artifacts are now in my possession and I have decided to find them new homes. I was truly hoping Richard would build a “Bert Kilbride” museum on Moskito Island and purchase all the artifacts. But that hasn’t happened although he did purchase the pot with the face on it and a couple of other shipwreck artifacts. I have now listed the rest of the Taino artifacts on eBay as a group collection. If you would like to see them you can find them in my eBay store here. That is unless they have already sold. :-)

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A Pirate in the Mountains???

. . . .How did the Last Pirate of the Caribbean end up in the Mountains of Idaho?
. . . . . . It was September 1995. We had just gone through two major hurricanes in the span of 10 days! There was an incredible amount of damage on Saba Rock. What the first hurricane, Luis, didn’t destroy the second hurricane, Marilyn, did. All the docks from around the tiny island were floating out to sea or beached on nearby islands. Some of the roof was gone and the deck furniture had sunk right were the dock had collapsed from under it. We lost two dinghies and a 19ft whaler.
. . . . . . Bert was off island for Luis but he made it back just in time for Marilyn. As I was videoing the damage after the second storm I made the decision I that just didn’t want to do this anymore.
. . . . . . .I went inside, found Bert and told him, “You know, I don’t need to do this. I have a two-bedroom condo in Sun Valley, Idaho that has indoor plumbing, hot & cold running water, cable TV and a real telephone! Not to mention a fantastic view of the ski runs! I think I’m going to take Tyrel (my 7 year old grandson who we adopted) and move back to Idaho.”
. . . . . . And to this Bert says, “That’s OK honey, you’re the only woman I could get to stay this long.” (by this time I had been camping out on Saba Rock 13 years!)
. . . . . . Oh ya, I packed my bags that night! And the boy and I flew to Idaho within the week.
. . . . . . Now, I knew Bert really didn’t mean it the way it sounded and by November he as with us in Idaho.
. . . . . . Talk about a fish out of water! Sun Valley is 6,000 ft. above sea level. In November we have about 4 feet of snow. By December it’s up to around 6 feet deep and it isn’t going anywhere until spring! Bert hadn’t seen snow or ice since he left Massachusetts in the 1950’s. He moved to the tropics and never looked back.
. . . . . . .It was fun to see the pirate in the Mountains. I never thought I’d see the day! I’ve got to say he actually enjoyed playing in the snow with Tyrel. They would sled and play hockey in the driveway. We even went Ice-skating together. But his favorite thing was driving around and viewing the fantastic scenery and of course that always lead to stopping in at a local bar or two.
. . . . . . . I still have that condo with all it’s memories. Sometimes when I’m there I can feel Bert’s spirit around me. I guess he really did like the mountains after all. The condo is for sale now and getting a bit of attention.
I hopwhoever purchases it with enjoy Bert’s company and the history that goes with it.

To see the Idaho condo click here or on the Mt. Baldy picture to the right.

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