This Woman Was HereBritish Virgin Islands Archives

St Thomas

We flew into St. Thomas, where we were greeted with a counter offering free shots of rum. After we got our bags, the taxi manager just outside the doors directed us to a van taxi that would take us to our hotel, Bunker Hill. Our first stop was the ferry terminal, a ten-minute drive from the airport, where most of the passengers got off. An easy hop if you are headed to Tortola, where we are headed tomorrow. Streets are narrow and parked with cars, and the driver had choice words to say to pedestrians who tried to dart across the road between cars. Bunker Hill sits a few narrow, one-way streets above the harbor.

The young man behind the desk was helpful and gracious in canceling our son’s reservation fro Friday night (since he arrives early enough to catch the ferry to Tortola that afternoon instead of Sat am. He carried our big bags up the two flights of stairs to our room above a small terrace pool. Our balcony overlooks the painted tin roofs of town and horizon dotted with mountainous islands. The buildings are a pastel patchwork—yellows and purples and aqua shutters.

We took a refreshing dip in the pool and were relaxing poolside when David and Robin arrived (just as the bar and restaurant opened). We bought four dollar beers and seven dollar rum and cokes, which helped make up our mind to venture out the the bodega next door to purchase our own supplies, which we enjoyed along with the tropical breeze from our balcony. We had a very nice dinner in their open air restaurant—very fresh and well-prepared swordfish, a delicious seafood medley pasta and a mediocre jerk pork. Calamari appetizer not recommended ($16-24). We all hit the hay early since we were up at four am to make our flights.

Tortola

Breakfast at Bunker Hill was prepared to order in another open-air area on a higher level by yet another small pool. Instant coffee (apparently the norm here), fried eggs or pancakes with toast, choice of meat, and fresh juice. We strolled down two blocks tot the open air market beside the harbor where Robin and I bought larimar (a blue stone from the Dominican Republic) and turquoise jewelry. The main drag on the harbor was quiet (no cruise boats in port that day although they sometimes have as many as four or five). We took a taxi down to the ferry terminal ($4 per person and $4 per bag) where we bought round-trip tickets to Tortola ($80 each) and watched sea planes land and take off as we waited for the ferry.The trip over was a wild west ride as we bounced over the chop, arriving in Tortola about a half hour later, where we went through customs (they had no problem with the food I’d brought in for the trip—a couple box wines, canned chicken and salmon, and cheeses. We rented a car from Enterprise and drove the coast road, Francis Drake Highway around the southwest coast, stopping at a roadside grocery store to provision ourselves with cold beers and cocktail fixings, arriving at to the second ferry terminal, West End, also the end of the road, where we realized we’d missed the road over the mountain, a vertical ascent and descent that rivals a roller-coaster with hairpin turns on the downslope that make you pray for good brakes.

Our hotel, Sebastian’s on the Sea was at he bottom of the descent and we checked into our rooms facing out onto a tropical courtyard, changed into suits, and hit the beach with gin and tonics and snorkel gear. The water was deliciously warm, no need for wetsuits here, but other than a school of yellow striped fish , there were not many fish. Lolling in the tropical water with cocktails in hand with the sharp peaks of mountain islands on the horizon was lovely. We wandered down the beach to the Bamba Shack, a structure that resembles a kids’ fort cobbled together from driftwood and scraps of plywood and built on rickety pilings over the sand. Every surface is covered with graffiti and women’s underwear, but they boast a hell of a full moon party, which unfortunately we are going to miss on Saturday night.

We had dinner in Sebastian’s open-air restaurant overlooking the water and the Joss Van Dyke in the distance. Lobster mac and cheese was large enough for several people and the best any of us had ever tasted. The fresh red snapper and conch stew were also delicious (prices from $16-28). The tropical breezes and moonlight over the ocean made the meal unforgettable.

Tortola to check-in at the Moorings

This morning we are heading west to Long Beach, a mile long white sand beach and from there we may attempt Smuggler’s Cove although the road is unpaved and is supposedly quite rough.

After coffee in the tropical garden, Jordan and I had lobster mac and cheese for breakfast and the others had breakfast overlooking the water). We ventured north towards Smuggler’s Cove on a road that had a few ruts but wasn’t as bad as I had imagined. It was well worth it.

Smuggler’s Cove

There were three other cars in the small parking area, a portapotty and a flag down the beach that announced the bar was open. The beach is a steep horseshoe of white sand backed by seagrape trees and facing Joss Van Dyke. The snorkeling was better than it had been at Sebastian’s, with lots more coral(including fire coral, orange with white tips) and several schools of blue tangs, iridescent blue when the sun shafts caught them) and yellow drifting in the current beneath an orange moose horne-shaped coral. We checked out the bar that served expensive dishes (6 prawns for $17) but decided to head on up the northeast side of the island. We had a wonderful lunch on the beach in Cane Garden Bay. We had lobster sandwiches for $9 and Steve had the fish ad chips (fantastic blackened mahi with peppers and onions for $15). The bay was full of boats and the beach and water sprinkled with vacationers The eighty-foot luxury yacht (with its own powerboat and dinghy) we saw leaving Tortola pulled in and we had the entertainment of watching it set its anchors. After lunch we headed up the mountain on roads that went up hairpin up so steeply that you lost the horizon. The roads aren’t marked so we ended up at the National Park but back tracked and with directions to take the road by the pink bar, we made our way to Road Town. The streets in Road Town narrow and filled with parked cars and only occasionally signed but by making our way down hill we found the main harbor road which is one way with only one rotary to turn around easily but after a bit we nosed out way to the Moorings (absolutely no signage). Our boat, the Paradox, wouldn’t be ready until five so we hung out at the pool while we waited for JP who got in a few minutes after we were allowed on the Paradox, a thirty-nine foot catamaran.

The Paradox

We loaded our gear and then made a grocery store trip to the Riteway, a large store just a few miles north on the main drag. I was glad I had packed the food I did as everything is imported and therefore quite expensive, except eggs and rum, which were cheap. When we were provisioned, the boys went to dinner and Robin and I were so tired that all we wanted was wine and cheese while we got everything put away. The AC was a blessing that night as it was warm in the harbor with no breeze.

The Indians to Norman Island

After the boat walk-through where Olivin explained everything about the boat and then the Captains’ meeting for Dave and JP, Robin and I picked up fresh bread and apple tarts at the French Deli (on the same spit of land as the Moorings). We headed out before eleven.

The Indians

Our first mooring was at the Indians, several tall rock outcroppings surrounded by reefs in front of Pelican Island. It was our first time picking u a mooring ball (hooked with the gaff and then tied off with two ropes. The water was comfortable with our rash guards on, no need for wetsuits. A huge barracuda hovered beneath our boat and I made sure to turn my rings towards my palms, not to provoke it. Lots of sea fans and coral and several schools of blue tangs and of course parrot fish and small tropicals. The boys discovered an underwater passageway beneath the reef and pronounced it “so doable” and went back for the GoPro to film the adventure. It was a three-yard passageway about ten or twelve feet down, so it pushed the limit of breath. There were a half-dozen boats moored when we got there but only one by the time we left.

From there we motored to The Bight on Norman Island where we picked up another mooring in a harbor with perhaps thirty other boats. We got our snorkel gear together and launched the dingy for an adventure to the caves where we tied to a dingy mooring line and swam into a tall narrow cave with bright pinkish-purple coral covering the rocks. It was a strange feeling to swim from light into darkness. The second cave was larger and perhaps a hundred feet long, so the interior was in darkness and shallow enough to stand (no coral there). On the way out, we saw schools of hundreds of tiny fish silhowtted against the light. The best fish were perhaps forty feet off the shore where the water was perhaps thirty-feet deep. Schools of yellowtail and sergeant majors and parrot fish floated in sunbeams all around us. It felt like we were floating in an aquarium. Unfortunately, I twisted my ankle as we pulled Steve back into the dingy and although I was able to put weight on it when we got back to the boat, the ankle swelled up like crazy.

On the way back to the boat, we motored around Willy’s bar, a two-masted, two-story pirate boat lit up with white Christmas lights. We had ocktails on the deck watching the sun set over Saint John and Parrot Island. Dinner was chicken cooked on a grill on the side of the boat.

Virgin Gorda

The generator isn’t working but Dave made an appointment with a Moorings technician to meet us at the Bitter End in Gorda Sound tomorrow morning after we do the baths today.

The sail from Norman Island to Virgin Gorda was maybe three hours of exciting tacking back and forth into the wind.

The Baths

The Baths at Virgin Gorda is a huge boulder field of above and below water smooth, rounded boulders and sandy beaches. The boys did some rock climbing but at midday the boulders were too hot to climb. The snorkeling was the best we’ve had yet. At first all we saw were schools of shinners glinting blue and emerald in the water, but when we rounded the larger boulders and started swimming up the underwater canyons between them, the fish and coral and sea fans were everywhere. Swimming through vertical cliff faces covered with coral and tropicals was magical—like being on a deepwater dive on a cliff wall. Dave and Robin walked the inland path between beaches—through a steep boulder field, but we spent the entire time, over an hour, swimming from one beach to the other through underwater canyons.

Then we sailed another couple of hours to the harbor at the Bitter End Yacht club.

I had to make a menu adjustment because the canned crab I brought wasn’t suitable for the crab cakes I had planned, so I went with crab risotto to which I added chive cream cheese and green onions, very rich and delicious. Dessert was a flourless chocolate torte I had made at home with whipped cream and strawberries.

It takes a few days to adjust tot he rhythm of sailing—wind and sun and the sound of waves, the horizon dotted with hazy blue islands. The boys have gotten good at raising and lowering the sails and picking up and releasing moorings.

The Dogs and Trellis Bay

Jordan motored Steve and I ashore to buy more provisions (2 dozen eggs and two green peppers for $15). The shore is a high-end landscaped strip of shops and bars along the water with hotel cottages sprinkled on the mountain face above at the end of long flights of stairs. The view would be lovely but I wouldn’t want to have to climb those stairs after a night of rum punches. The boys rented a sunfish sailboat for an hour while we waited on the mechanic and had to be ingloriously towed in from the mouth of the harbor because the interior plug hadn’t been put in, and their hull filled with water, which made it hard for them to get out of irons. The boat mechanic didn’t arrive until a little before nine, so we won’t have time to make Anegada today. Instead, we’ll sail to Trellis Bay and try for Anegada tomorrow morning. Since Anegada is surrounded by reefs, it’s best to arrive early in the day to have the best visibility in the water to spot the brown of reefs.

Adastra

We sailed to the Dogs and anchored off of George Dog beside what has to be a boat out of a James Bond movie, the Adastra out of Hong Kong, a silver spaceship with flying buttresses. It looks like it could as easily submerge as take flight. The cabin steward was setting the table for lunch as we launched the dingy to take us to the end of the island on advice from a departing ship that the current was strong and hard to fight. Dave and JP stayed aboard.

The snorkeling was quite good with more varieties of coral than we’ve seen anywhere else, thin, straw-like branching coral (stag horn?) and rounded globule coral. We were drift snorkeling back towards the boat when I noticed our dinghy floating away carried by wind and current, and JP launched himself into the water in pursuit. Luckily he caught it and we sailed to Trellis Bay, arriving in mid-afternoon. We celebrated with rum punch and headed in to explore Aragorn’s metal sculptures and pottery studio. Huge globe sculptures cut from old mooring balls decorated the beach. They are filled with wood and lit for the full moon party. We didn’t come over on Saturday, figuring it might be hard to pick up a mooring, and indeed we were right, the moorings were filled two days in advance. The boys all got Aragon T-shirts and I got a pair of bamboo dolphin earnings. We also restocked beer and rum and then dinghied out to the Last Resort, an island bar/restaurant with a cage full of parachutes and an iguana. The sun filled the sky behind the mountains with gold, silhouetting the fifteen-foot cactus. The boys played spirited corn-hole and then we watched JP and Jordan split big jenga games.It was dark by the time we left, motoring around the invisible sand bar beside the island and back to the Paradox for chicken fajitas (surprisingly good with canned chicken) and chocolate torte for dessert. After dinner the boys motored over to the Abracadabra and took the girls they had been talking to at the Bitter End (all from Russia and Ukraine by way of San Diego and LA) out to the Last Resort. It turned out that the flipper Dave had recovered at the caves was one of theirs. At the Last Resort, they met a group of young people from all over the world (Australia, Paris, US) working and living on Tortola.

Anegada

The trip to Anegada took three hours and was easier than we had been led to believe. The channel in is marked with buoys but does take a sharp left jog into the harbor. We followed another Cat in, arriving at 10:45. The highest point on the island is 27 feet, so it is a flat sandy island of palms and Australian pines ringed with the second larges reef in the world.

Anagada

Moments after we moored a small boat approached offering a half day snorkel to horseshoe reef and to see the flamingoes. He promised that we could keep the conch we found and he would try to catch us a lobster to show us how it was done (for $350 for 4 hours). He can usually only take five, but he said we were small enough that he could accommodate all six of us. We decided to check out the competition, so after lunch we took the dinghy in and walked the line of restaurants ringing the beach.

Anagada beach bars

Each offered lobster dinners for $50 for a whole and $35 for a half. At the Lobster Shack, we were handed a flier for the Anegada Beach Club that offers a free shuttle for four or more guests. The beach settlement is a half dozen restaurants and bars and you have to get your order in by four pm if you want to order dinner.

Our plan is to have drinks and conch fritters and paella on the boat. Scooter rentals were $30 for two hours, enough to see the island.

David and the boys were up for that, but the Anegada Beach Club sounded good to the rest of us so we split up and luckily they were willing to send a shuttle for just three of us with three to follow later.

The Club was perfect for us—lounge chairs around a small refreshing pool with half and full hammocks in the shad of immense grape trees. After a rum punch in the pool, we decided to explore the beach.

Anegada Beach Club

The Club has quite a bit of infrastructure, a palm thatched bar/restaurant built with eucalyptus from Honduras, conch lined paths, a thatched beach bar and equipment rental pavilion and wild, modernistic tents with decks with hammock stands and wooden bathrooms off to one side. The beach was white sugar sand with palaces shading lounges facing a half moon bay. The bottom was sandy with sea grass out several hundred feet before the breakers that marked the reef, so we didn’t see much in the way of fish, but the water was refreshing and we were glad to have glimpsed the tent rooms. We ordered more rum punches once four o’clock happy hour hit and enjoyed the hammocks and jenga until the boys arrived. They loved their scooter adventure ( a low traffic venue for their first experience). More rum punches all around, a walk on the beach, and then conch fritters, cracked conch with coconut and nachos, all delicious but the cracked conch with chipotle dipping sauce was the biggest hit. The manager offerd to give us a tour of the tent rooms, which were spectacular, reminiscent of luxury African safari accommodations, all built in Honduras to their specifications and shipped up in containers.

Back aboard we called Kelly to book a snorkel trip for eight am, and enjoyed a delicious paella with chorizo, canned chicken and canned crab, followed by key lime pie, which I had brought the ingredients for in my suitcase. Before we went to bed, I made a huge pasta salad for lunch when we return from snorkeling.

Snorkeling Anegada and Cane Garden Bay

Kelly showed up a little after eight and we headed north into a stiff wind for a twenty-five minute sail towards horseshoe reef. On the way he pointed out conch island and the the pink flock of flamingoes feeding on shrimp and krill on a shallow reef, both of which we would get closer to on the way back). The snorkeling was the best I’ve seen anywhere, with the most fish and the healthiest coral. We circled two small reefs, with Kelly diving down to look for lobster and keeping his eye on all of us. The reef was between five and fifteen feet deep, with schools of blue tang, Barbados grunts, yellowtail and countless neon blue and yellow tropicals.

We didn’t see any dead or bleached coral, perhaps because the population of Anegada is 250 and the only other boat we saw was a bone fishing charter near the mangroves behind conch island. Kelly suggested that we swim up-curent and then drift back to the boat and do as much of the second reef behind the boat as we felt we could We are all strong swimmers and we stayed together because the current was strong, We were in the water for perhaps an hour and were glad to have rash guards, which keep you moderately warmer. In spite of his efforts, Kelly didn’t come up with a lobster on the first dive but we each found a prize queen conch and Steve found a helmet conch that Kelly promised to show us how to clean at conch island.The conchs were all over the sand bottom. The hardest part was getting back into the boat, but we managed it and went in for a second snorkel at a second reef. Kelley went up to a further reef and came up what must be a four to five pound lobster. We sailed back to conch island, a one hundred by ten foot high island of gorgeous conch shells. Kelly demonstrated how to clean the conch with a hammer and a butter knife and then showed us how to clean the animal. A helicopter went over, startling the flock of flamingoes but the settled into their pink island again and we approached slowly and quietly. When we were perhaps thirty feet from the flock, they took off in a cloud of pink and black, one of the most astounding sights I’ve ever seen. We got to see them do a low circle and settle again onto their feeding reef. Back at our boat, Kelly cleaned the rest of the conch meat and cut our gigantic lobster in two so we could cook it on the grill. He told us to soak both in water with a little vinegar before cooking and also gave us his recipe for conch ceviche, basically lime, onion and manage or orange and green pepper. We will also attempt a coconut cracked conch. All in all the best excursion ever and worth every bit of the sixty dollar a head cost.

We sailed for Cane Garden Bay around one after a lunch of pasta salad with crab, tomatoes, olives, celery, feta, peas, and slaw. The MIT crew, 300 MBA graduates, were just arriving in port, and the moorings were going to be full. Lots of flying fish as we approached Tortola. When we arrived in Cane Garden Bay a little after five, we were greeted by a large green turtle surfacing for air and eyeing us. We celebrated the amazing day with rum punch. By the time we got ourselves together to head into town, it was past six, but luckily Bobby’s Market was still open because we needed more bread, sunscreen, bleach for the conch shells and mango, orange and lime for the ceviche.

Cane Garden Bay

The town of Cane Garden Bay is charming—one palm tree lined street beside the water with a school, aboveground graveyard, lovely ship-like Baptist church with windows shaped like the prows of ships. Myett’s has a lovely tree covered courtyard and palm lined beach. The sun was setting on a picture post card palm lined beach with Jost Van Dyke silhouetted against the setting sun on the horizon.

I set to work on the ceviche—lime juice and orange and salsa. The dark part of the conch foot covering (the operculum) had to be cut off and the conch chopped and marinated for fifteen minutes. It was delicious served with corn chips. The lobster was done one at a time on the grill (which would accommodate twelve pieces of chicken but only one lobster half). A little garlic butter and it was heaven, enough for all six of us with sides of coleslaw and pasta salad.Tart key lime pie for dessert. The stars came out and we could see the light sprinkled island of St.Thomas twenty miles away on the western horizon.

Monkey Point on Guana Island

We got a late start, maybe 8:30 and our sail to Monkey Point on Guana Island, which involved tacking into the wind, a two a nd a half hour sail. The boys decided to stay aboard while we took the dinghy in to the snorkel area, which was completely different from anything we’d seen so far. Hundreds of thousands of glass minnows schooled close to the rocks and just outside to that, thousands of larger blue runners, and outside, below, and through them enormous silver tarpon cruised like submarines clearing a bubble through the schooling fish.

I’ve never experienced anything like that river of fish swimming under and around me, and glinting when they turned in the sunlight. Pelicans dove into the water like torpedoes. We swam out to the point where there were larger schools of the six and seven foot tarpon, which I have to say were intimidating, but there were plenty of snorkelers in the water and having swum with feeding tarpon in Belize, I remember being told they wouldn’t mess with us. We clambered out of the water over rocks and crossed the small opening in the rock to a sandy horseshoe beach on the other side of the island. The beach was decorated with cairns of white coral and we noticed a knotted rope up the steep side of the mountain. The Tortola side of the cut was sprinkled with houses but we were surprised at the luxury houses on Guana. How did they deliver materials? By barge? By helicopter? As we sailed out of the harbor we saw the rock called iguana head.

It was four by the time we reached White Bay and there were no moorings left; the same was true of Great Harbor, so we headed back across the straight to Cane Garden Bay, where the inn was also full, so we had to anchor out past the moored boats. Anchoring is an art in itself, especially in a bay where the wind shifts around 360 degrees. We had appetizers and rum punches while we waited to see if our anchor would hold before we headed in for dinner at Myett’s where ewe ordered two of their cracked conch and conch fritter appetizer ( a meal in itself) and watched the rehearsal for the Tortola Bollywood show put on by the Tortola Dance Project and scheduled for Friday night. By the time the meals arrived (mostly mani and grilled shrimp but I ordered Buffalo wings), I was too full to eat my particularly hot wings. Myett’s reggea band had a good lead singer with quite a range. Luckily, our boat was still securely anchored when we got back.

Soggy Dollar Bar at White Bay

We sailed back across the straight to Jost Van Dyke, figuring that we wanted to explore that island rather than returning to Norman Island, which we had already seen. It means getting up earlier Saturday morning to get the boat back by eleven, but we don’t want to miss the Soggy Dollar.

We sailed into White Bay around 10:30 in perfect time to pick up a mooring. Everyone who came in after us had to anchor in the rather crowded bay. Everyone took turns in the kayaks. The Soggy Dollar and beach area was hopping for lunch, every beach chair filled. We saw snorkel boats with twenty plus coming in. We had pizza for lunch, one white pizza with pesto and goat cheese base topped with lobster on one half and mahi on the other, then green onions and parmesan. The second had a tomato paste (from a tube) base with garlic eggplant spread (from a can) topped with chorizo, black olives, feta, goat cheese, and parmesan. Both were delicious.

Happy hour was painkillers at the Soggy Dollar, which had slowed down considerably. Then back to the boat for rum punch, cracked conch, clam chowder, salmon patties, cole slaw and crab risotto, with LA Burdicks chocolates for dessert. We have eaten well on this trip.