The British Virgin Islands

Elizabeth Swann: “So that’s it, then? That’s the secret, grand adventure of the infamous Jack Sparrow. You spent three days lying on a beach drinking rum”
Jack Sparrow: “Welcome to the Caribbean, luv”

We had been warned about crowded anchorages and islands over-run with charter boats, so, prior to our arrival, we weren’t really excited about the BVI’s. We have, however, discovered that that these islands are not the charter capital of the world for nothing. They are truly gorgeous and we loved ‘em- even the crowds!

The British Virgins have a festive vibe day and night. Most of the people hanging around The Virgins fit into 1 of 4 categories…..there’s the dreadlocked islander (laid back, friendly and entrepreneurial by nature), there are the cruisers from all over the world enjoying a respite from long passages, third world countries and a lack of cold beverages…..there’s the retired day-sailors who spend weeks pottering from island to island, beach to beach, bar to bar….and then there’s the hordes of charterers- people who are in the B.V.I’s relaxing, partying or both on someone else’s boat without a worry in the world on their annual vacation. The B.V.I’s is a happy place.

With lovely beaches, bays, coves, clear, clean water, striking, volcanic islands with lush elevation to hike and explore, the British Virgins are like Australia’s Whitsundays- but on steroids. They have the added bonus of beach-house restaurants that spill out onto the sand, floating bars (with wifi), gorgeous topography, a rich, pirate history including haunted wrecks from the1800’s to dive/snorkel on and a culture and industry that revolves around sailing…I am sorely tempted to whip out my British passport and stay for a while….

In the early days, Columbus claimed the BVI’s but Spain didn’t seriously take an interest in them. The British also shunned them due to the navigational difficulties of the many surrounding reefs. And so, the islands became a safe haven for Pirates! Britain claimed the islands in 1628 and they are now a Crown Colony.

The development has been done tastefully and we appreciated that the resorts, restaurants and bars are low key, single story buildings designed to fit in with the environment. High rises and over development would leach the soul out of these islands.

Below: beach shacks on Jost Van Dyke Island. Tee-shirts (and a few underpants) in the rafters collection at the famous Foxy’s Bar/Grill…

Below; a natural spa bath at ‘Bubbly Pool’ Yost Van Dyke

Below: drinks at the ‘Soggy Dollar’ beach bar, Yost Van Dyke…apparently, payment for the drinks is often delivered sodden from the wet dinghy ride in, thus the name…it was a jovial place with a view that made us feel all warm ‘n’ fuzzy….wait. Maybe that was the rum punch…or a new cocktail we have discovered called the ‘Painkiller’ It’s kinda famous around these parts….”welcome to the Caribbean luv”

Above; Jaiya skippering the new dinghy and Below; rope tangle! One day its the prop, the next it’s a mooring ball. We have wrapped ropes around our prop more times than we can remember and we are just getting plain annoyed with ourselves now. The kids made a sign that is now posted on the door of the ignition box reminding us to check that all ropes are out of the water before we start the engines.

This one was a rope tangle around a mooring ball (at this stage, we had not yet worked out the best way to tie a catamaran up to a mooring ball and Russ had been messing around with the bridle..that got totally tangled and required much grunting, cursing and time to sort out). A lovely man from a charter boat came to help us out. He told us that his son, daughter in-law and grandchildren were cruising the islands further south and we later bumped into them in Granada

Happily, we now know the correct way to secure Tika to a mooring buoy (double lines- one from each hull, returning back to each cleat) It’s these basic things that you learn from experience!

Our windlass (anchor winch) cut out on us just as we were picking up anchor from a very crowded anchorage. We had a few stressful moments as we were getting too close to other boats and had to pull 40m of chain and the anchor itself up by hand! Jeeesh! I was at the wheel, Russ was pulling up the anchor and we had Kai inside constantly flipping the 12volt switch as we tried to use the winch for a split second at a time before it cut out…

Russ spent the following morning swapping switches over as the kids and I did school…

Below; the anchorages are like little floating villages at night…

Below: the restaurant at The Bight, Norman Island. Norman was a pirate who apparently buried a horde of bulging treasure chests in the numerous caves on Norman Island. Many (but not all) have been found…

The Norman Island caves were numerous and fun to explore… Many of them you could swim into, were pitch black inside and entry required timing the surging waves and swimming like crazy to get through without being pushed onto the rocks. One of them had a little pebbly beach inside and we sat on it shining our waterproof torches and imagining we were in a ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ movie scouring the depths of the spooky caverns for Norman’s missing treasure…

Below; we parked very close to the raucous floating bar- The Willie .T. Most nights we sat on the foredeck listening to the thumping 80’s music and watching drunk people throw themselves off the upper level of the stern… free and quality entertainment..

Just off Norman Island three striking rocks jut dramatically out of the sea. Under the surface of the water the ‘Three Indians’ are just as theatrical. Small tunnels and the architectural structure of the rocks’ foundation made the snorkelling interesting and fun.   

We spent a few nights at Deadman’s Bay, Peter Island. The north east side of Peter Island overlooks Dead Chest Island (it is shaped like a coffin and the hills are disturbingly like the shrouded figure of a body within) where allegedly the infamous pirate Blackbeard marooned 15 of his errant crew with naught but their sea chests and a bottle of rum (are you singing the song yet? “fifteen men on a dead mans chest, yo ho ho and a bottle of rum……” A few of them tried to swim across to the opposite bay but didn’t make it.. hence the title Deadman’s Bay… which is a stunning anchorage complete with a sweeping, white sandy beach, a hideously expensive resort and a picturesque hillside that rises up above the sparkling, turquoise water.

We shared a meal with our friends from Kookaburra who we had met in the early days of our trip in the Guna Yala Islands- Keith and Jamie who know these parts as well as the pirates of old, had helped us plan our Caribbean sojourn and it was lovely to catch up again now 5 months into our trip.

RMS Rhone was a 310’ long Royal Mail Ship that sank under the command of Captain Fredrick Whooley in a hurricane  in 1867 just off Salt Island. The Rhone tried to escape to the open sea but was overtaken by the eye of the hurricane and floundered on the rocks. 124 souls were lost. The snorkel/dive was fascinating. We tied up to a mooring at the RMS Rhone National Marine Park and jumped in. The first thing we saw were two ancient anchors strewn right under our port stern…

You can very clearly see the masts lying above the carcass of the hull, the humungous propeller, the shaft and perfect lines of intact portholes… Although we didn’t see it, apparently Captain Whooley’s personal teaspoon is embedded in a rock and still visible among the debris of the ship.

We explored The Baths; a series of caves, pools and smooth boulders that line the coast along the southern tip of Virgin Gouda. The bouldering involved vigorous climbing, splashing through tunnels, traversing around impassable monsters and even donning snorkelling gear and jumping in to swim around a jutting headland. We got scared off by cruise-ship crowds on our first day here but found a peaceful anchorage next door and basically got the place to ourselves early the following morning….crowds? what crowds? 

We were told that Richard Branson’s Necker Island had an open, high speed wifi so we parked off and admired his $25,000 per night resort from the water…… but alas, the open wifi was either a fallacy or was simply turned off We took off to Limerick Bay and were treated to a hilarious one-man pirate show. It was a night of conch shell blowing competitions, music, singing, dancing and laughtaaarrrggghh!!!

We visited the famous Bitter End Yacht Club and joined all the sexy people in the swanky cocktail lounge at Saba Rock. Full of super-yacht crew members having a night off, dressed up charterers, x-pat locals, martini drinking captains and their guests; all living it up in style. 

Our eyes and minds are starting to be opened to the possibilities of an entirely different perspective of lifestyle and time outside of the rat race! We feel blessed to be taking 18 months off but we have met many people creating long term lifestyles to dream about. There are people out here on all budgets and from a wide variety of backgrounds. We met a woman on a beach who sails 9 months a year with her husband and 3 daughters. They were beautiful, confident, free spirits and the girls frolicked happily on the shore as their mum gave us a few home-schooling tips. The oldest daughter (12yrs) was on the other side of the island surfing the famous Cane Garden surf break with her dad. I loved how passionate this woman was about the importance of time with her family and the richness of learning through travel. She was a long-term home-schooler and in one conversation gave us both the confidence and conviction that our crazy adventure is an investment in our children’s development. We also met an Aussie family on a 3.5yr sailing trip just in the Caribbean (wow! you could really slip into island time on that schedule!)

Below; I love this picture that Kai snapped from the drone. I am in the water snorkelling and Jaiya is playing around learning how to manoeuvre the dingy… We are at a relatively secluded anchorage at Anegada; the only flat, coral atoll of The Virgins- situated north of the main island group. The water was heavenly and we dinghied right around to the north side…..gunk holing for hours and occasionally jumping in to check out the snorkelling around one of the many bombies and reef drop offs…

The Virgins in motion;

Next Post: Our first visitors aboard Tika- St Martin and Antigua!

 

This entry was posted in The Sail.