We had heard stories of over officious BVI officials, so arrival wasn't without a slight bit of anxiety. However that worry quickly evaporated when the friendly vet did a cursory review of Chanty's paperwork and gave us an "all clear". Actually, all the officials were very friendly and efficient.
Once again we saw evidence of 2017 Hurricane Irma that laid waste to so many of the Caribbean islands. There were broken or missing docks, some roofless homes and businesses still closed and others under repair or reconstruction, and boats left broken and/or high and dry.
Demo derby
The next morning we loosened the reins from the mooring ball and motor-sailed to the nearby Island of Jost Van Dyke and the popular White Bay, anchoring early behind the reef and close to the brilliant white sand beach. As the sun grew higher, more boats arrived and mono hulls (2 of us) were soon outnumbered by catamarans, a good many of them motor cats (no sailing configuration). The beach bars soon became filled with daytrippers shuttled over in open speed boats.
Different cats
Bathed in warm sunshine, we walked the sand beach and snorkelled in the crystal clear, sapphire blue waters, seeing some coloured fish but little coral of good quality.
Sun, sand, and sea
Disappointing coral
In an adjacent bay, a short dinghy ride away for us, we found the infamous Foxy's. Foxy and his beach bar and restaurant has been a fixture there for years and made popular his Caribbean hospitality and guitar strumming serenades to his patrons. By the merits of his contributions to tourism, he was knighted by the Queen of England.
Entertaining Foxy
Then it was back to Tortola for a brief stop at Cane Garden Bay. There we suffered the high cost of a taxi up the steep slopes and down to Road Town, the capitol of Tortola, to get our internet fixed (for our internet fix!)
Cane Garden Bay
Then for a more secluded and peaceful stop, we motor-sailed a short distance eastward to Guana Island anchoring by the pristine sand beach of White Bay and did a lucklustre snorkel at Monkey Point.
The closing of a day is hard to beat when we watch the sun sink below the sea, unimpeded by boats, islands, or clouds. Relaxed in our cockpit, we watched as the fiery orb died with a hint of a green flash, acknowledged by some faint cheers of nearby boats. The encore as the curtain fell was a sky of silky colours. Reds on the horizon seamlessly transformed to pinks then to a charcoal blue infiltrating the night sky above.
British Virgin Island anchorages:
N18°23.203' W064°42.115' Mar 11 Tortola (Soper's Hole)
N18°26.502' W064°25.821' Mar 12 Jost Van Dyke (White Bay)
N18°25.597' W064°39.709' Mar 13 Tortola (Cane Garden Bay)
N18°27.841' W064°34.257' Mar 14 Guana (Monkey Point)
N18°28.226' W064°34.473' Mar 14 Guana (White Bay)
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