Yep; the BVI’s are to cruisers a vast desert. And yes I did name this blog after a GREAT book, Dune by Frank Herbert. I’ve just finished the last two in his series (yeah, he’s been gone 20 years), but his son and another author found an outline for the last book and since they’ve been writing Dune offshoots they  took it upon themselves to finish Herbert’s  last book (which they turned into two). What a great read.

However; traveling in the VI’s and the BVI’s is akin to traveling in a desert.  All the people are so foreign. Yeah, they may love boats, they may speak English, and love sailing but they don’t wish to share with cruisers. They’re here to party and see everything they can in a week or maybe two (Why one charter boat was giving people a tour of the BVI’s - 5 islands in one day!). About 1/2 of the charterers will wave back at you if you wave to them first! But actually meeting someone, sitting and having drinks with them, telling stories about boats, cruising and life; that just doesn’t happen here (It did happen once - we met a cool couple from NY of all places). The young want to party till the sun comes up, the older ones want to hang with their friends they’ve chartered with. Nothing wrong with that; just that  there is so much of it here we feel like we’re in exile.  We’ve not really met many new people, something we’re not really use to. All the people that we’ve met new here either work or are chartering.  And the charters are like lightening bugs. They last for a few minutes and then they’re gone. The  people working are cool but they have an agenda; a goal and they’re not loosing site of that goal. One “set of workers” said that they were working their tail off for “freedom chips”; aka $$$’s.  What for?  I guess they don’t figure anyone hanging around St. Thomas or the BVI’s is worth knowing. LOL

And the VI’s  are beautiful; but anyone can see the beauty in pictures. So we’re left to

Driving Range

entertaining ourselves. We’ve actually found a couple of tennis

Nanny Cay Tennis ?

courts and although we’re not golfers one driving range. One disappointing one was at Nanny Cay (where we paid to stay at the marina). At Nanny Cay there was no net, no fence, and obsticles on the court. The others we’ve seen (one requires you be a guest at their Expensive resort and the other at Leverick Bay charges $20 / hour. So, we’ve been walking as much as possible. We’ve not really been diving as in the BVI’s I can’t spear fish or lobster. :(  So I’m not really interested in going in the water then. But we’ve enjoyed walking and there are some hiking trails to the tops of the mountains where there are maintained lights for navigation or antennas or simply junction boxes for phone lines or electrical wiring.

Personal beef: I can’t really stomach that in places that don’t have the acrutiments we’re use to want to charge more the places that do!  Such as tennis. Here you get a carpeted court with sand brushed on, no strap on the fence, no club house, sometimes water sometimes not.  Where do they really get off thinking that they are worth more then in the US?  In Jost Van Dyke, you can get a pig roast dinner, eaten on picnic tables on a sandy / dirty floor for $30!

View Hiking (Saba Rock)

Leaving the trails we took a complimentary ferry to Gun Harbor and walked to Leverick Bay. Up the mountain (and they don’t really seem to believe in switch backs here) and then along the ridge past the Elementary school and down the other side. One noticeable difference here is that there aren’t as many cars nor as many people as in St. Thomas. Thereby making walking on the roads 100% safer. In St. Thomas we tried some walking along the roads but actually felt that it wasn’t safe so we had to either look for sidewalks or take a Safari ( a locals taxi). Here we walked with narry a car passing us and when they did there was plenty of room. The most dangerous part of the walk was the goats by the road and the steep inclines. Going up the road wasn’t near as difficult as going down, and the the goats were more warry of us then we of them.

In Leverick Bay we discovered that they have laundry machines that we can use; showers that come with the mooring, and a couple of restaurants. But the down side is no internet at the boat. A horrible down side. So I’ll either take the computer ashore (which I don’t like to do) or wait till we’re back on the Saba Rock side for the internet.  We don’t have to have it but it surely makes checking out the wx much easier and to add pictures to the blog  is then possible. We can’t send pics over the ham network.

Now we’re getting ready to leave. Tomorrow am early we should be on our way to St. Martin. The winds have finally calmed down enough that we can motor for 12 hours what would otherwise take 24 to sail or more. With the wind and current against us sailing isn’t much fun. And the saying that “Gentlemen never sail to windward” we’re trying to abide by. So hopefully our next post will be in St. Martin and there I’ll finish up on any observations of the BVI’s.

Fair Winds

I’ve finally figured out why I wasn’t enamored with the BVI’s.  They’re too much like Disney world. The country is setup for tourists. They bring tourists in by the boat load, (or plane load), everything is as neat and pristine as can be, most everything is done for you, the characters all play their parts and you go away with a great vacation experience. The place is beautiful beyond a doubt. The beaches are for the most part clean,  the water crystal drinking clear (don’t try to drink it as the salt will do wonders to your stomach with a brief visit only to return the same way), the mountains. The people are nice but not really open and one can’t really expect them to be.

I mean; how many people really get to know Goofy, or Mickey, or Mini at the World. The only way to get into Disney World  culture is to get a job there (one thing we’re not really interested in doing). So all the tourists see is what’s on the surface.

Wendy described getting to know a Caribbean Island as speed dating. However in speed dating you have two people making a connection. In the BVI’s (and AVI’s) you really only have one couple trying to make a connection (us). I would say visiting the VI’s is more like partaking in an escort service (I’m only surmising here). Maybe a fun evening; but one would never know the truth.

I understand St. Croix is different. Sorry we didn’t get there. There are so many places to see in the Caribbean that only if we wanted to spend 10 years or more cruising this area could we expect a better experience. And we’re not going to hang in the Caribbean for 10 years. There are too many boats here already!

Fair Winds