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| The "crew" at Foxy's |
Jost Van Dyke
Ashore resembled a seaside holiday place – white sandy roads, colourful shops and clear aqua marine water. Jost Van Dyke hosts the famous Foxy's bar where we all celebrated our arrival into a new country – actually Don and I had not heard of Foxy's but apparently Foxy t-shirts can been seen walking the streets world wide. There is also the “Soggy Dollar” bar where you must have a “painkiller” and the list goes on....... we met Robin and Sue on the Australian boat “True Blue”, they came to White Rose 1 for sun downers and gave us valuable information on the upcoming Leeward Islands – what to see and what to avoid.
Lee in the Bubble Pool
Not being a great fan of rolly anchorages I was anxious to get underway the following morning – Ne'r Do Well and White Rose 1 made their way along the island to Little Jost Van Dyke – the anchorage was reported to be rolly but we found it excellent and had lots of fun in this spot. It was beautiful – but everywhere we have been so far is also – it just keeps getting better !! We hiked up to the top of a rock/bolder strewn hill covered with cacti and other prickly plants – great view. The next day we hiked to the “bubble pool” - the scenery was spectacular and the bubble pool lots of fun – the waves rush into a tiny alcove through a very narrow entrance across rocks which turns the waves into masses of tiny bubbles and froth – we stayed and played until we turned into prunes.
Our next destination was Norman Island – in order to reach this island we had to pass a few others and one of them contained “Soper's Hole”. This is the place to re-provision, get boat jobs done, repairs etc. so a busy full anchorage – as we passed close by I could see that the anchorage was perfectly calm and I almost got down on my knees and begged to stay there a while – a rolly boat gets very tiresome very quickly – anyway I held my opinion to myself and off we toddled to our new anchorage which had great snorkelling.
Norman Island – Privateer Bay has a series of 4 caves where snorkelling was excellent. We anchored in The Bight and took the dinghy along to the mooring balls. The balls have a line running from one to the other, some meters apart, which dinghies can tie up to – this keeps dinghies and their motors away from the snorkellers and also keeps anchors away from coral. The National Parks Trust has mooring balls in many locations to prevent damage to the sea bed by anchors. Our next stop was The Indians / Pelican Island, these amazing set of rocks were close to Norman Island and had mooring balls. We did a quick swim around the rocks – it was extremely rolly with waves and current trying to wash us up on the sharp edges of the rocks – I think everyone was glad to leave.
The Hard Life
White Bay on Peter Island was our next stop – I am getting used to these short hops to wonderful anchorages – we get up in the morning, maybe have a swim then up anchor and travel for an hour or two to the next pretty bay – tough life hey ?? Heather and Ray from Ne'r Do Well and Don and I walked up the steep road to the top of the hill and stared in wonder at the beautiful views – we even found a seat strategically placed to take in one side of the island and also a hut which contained a drink esky with ice cold water and plastic cups – my goodness !!! Being yachties our first thought was we should have brought our shampoo, sat on the ground under the esky and washed our hair :-). Most places we drop anchor Don will snorkel over the anchor and make sure it is dug in well, he was surprised to see a door mat near our anchor and an outdoor table. When we weighed anchor the next morning a new long sleeved bright blue dive top came up with the anchor – it had the BVI dive logo on it and Don wears it with pride.
White Bay Peter Island
Our next stop was Cooper Island where Don scuba dove on the wreck of the RMS Rhone – surprisingly well preserved wreck from early 1900’s.
The BVI's are the perfect place to bare boat – ie hire a catamaran or sailing boat and spend a week or two sailing the islands – all the islands are very close together and most bays are supplied with mooring balls. Each afternoon the games begin – charter boats appear from nowhere and race each other to the few available mooring balls, no patience or manners are involved – these guys zoom through anchorages with total disregard to safety or the wake they leave behind them. Those who are unsuccessful in acquiring a mooring ball have to anchor – they generally drop the anchor, pile 100 ft of chain on top of it then lower the dinghy and head for the nearest bar. Don and I hate being anywhere close to these knuckle heads because the chance of their boat dragging as soon as the wind picks up is 90%. The night we stayed in Cooper Island we spent many midnight hours watching charter boats re anchoring – two had chosen excellent spots right next to the wonderful snorkelling reef – never considering that when the tide changes their boat will be sitting on top of that same reef – and of course the tide did change in the middle of the night – after several attempts to anchor in depths too deep for the amount of chain on the boats. We have watched in horror as some of the charter boats got themselves into all kinds of pickles – as long as they stay away from White Rose then we are happy.
The island of Virgin Gorda was next and Spanish Town the anchorage. “The Baths” is an unusual formation of granite boulders – where the sea washes in between the huge rocks, large pools have been created where shafts of light play upon the water creating a dramatic effect. A trail leads up, over and under these huge granite boulders – it was amazing.
Our next stop was at the northern tip of Virgin Gorda where a large body of water is almost surrounded by land creating a calm anchorage (or at least that is what we hoped for). Our first anchorage was at Mosquito Bay – SV Caribbean Souls and Spirit met up with White Rose and Ne'r Do Well – the four musketeers were together again !! We played around this area for a few days then left for Anegada the northern most island of the BVI's.
Anegada
Hard at it again !
The BVI's are mostly mountainous volcanic formations. Anegada is comprised of coral and limestone and at its highest point is 28 feet above sea level. Anegada is 11 miles long fringed with beautiful white sandy beaches.
Beachside property goin cheap !
Ne'r Do Well and Don and I hired motor scooters each and travelled around the island looking for the pink flamingos – we stopped at pristine white beaches for a snorkel, were surprised and amazed to see the flamingos in their natural habitat and had a wonderful day. It was a wonderful finish to the spectacular British Virgin Islands.
The Flamin Flamingos
Off to St Martins our first stop in the Leeward Islands.
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