Left Saint Thomas, US Virgin Islands for a 2 week sailing trip aboard “Rochelle“ a 54 ft Amel.

Jost Van Dyke

Cleared customs at Great Harbour for the British Virgin Islands. Jost is a small community set along the white sandy beach front. All the sailors come ashore on their dinghies.  There are a few restaurants, guesthouses & beach bars the most famous being Foxy’s Bar which opened in the late 60’s by Foxy Callwood and who was there in the morning when we were there.

Foxy’s is decorated with clothing, flags, money etc and has free wi-fi. Busy and a good atmosphere. All the sailing crowd party in the evenings at Foxy’s  and used to be a place you would see Jimmy Buffett or Keith Richards.

Tortola

We headed toTortola through the Pilsbury Sound past a beautiful island called Sandy Cay, which is popular with the sailors.

We stopped at Cane Garden Bay, Tortola, which has some really nice homes set up in the hills and wandered the beach. The water was an incredible green and soooo warm!

There’s some really neat restaurants/ guesthouses/ bars along the waterfront at Cane Garden Bay.

We strolled along Cane Garden Bay beach before stumbling upon Stanley’s bar for a “Painkiller” – a potent rum drink that goes down very smoothly because of the heat! The view as you can see was incredible.

 

 

 

You get to see all sorts even a guy walking his goat.

 

 

 

We hired a car for the day and toured Tortola.  

 

 

From Carrot Bay down the East side of Tortola

 

 

 

An example of some of the colourful homes in and around Tortola.

 

 

 

 

Bomba’s Surfside Shack – note the underwear as decorations. Quite the party place in the evenings.

 

 

 

 

 

Smugglers Bay – beautiful!

 

 

 

 

 

Smugglers Bay Bar, yes they are everywhere….

 

 

 

Frenchmans Cay

 

 

 

 

 

Ridge Road goes across the Top of Tortola and has incredible views out to the other islands.

 

 

Ridge Road looking down to Road Town.

There is also a National Park called Sage Mnt at the top but its in the Rain Forest and we unfortunately got there and it poured and so they closed it!

 

Back to the sailing

In Pilsbury Sound you pass a lot of incredible islands that you can moor at and wander the beaches, relax or go snorkelling. We stopped at Guana Island and snorkelled Monkey Point.

Marina Cay is opposite Road Town, Tortola and is very popular as it is sheltered should a storm come through.

 

There is a open-air restaurant and bar on the waterfront (above photo far right). This is the view down on the beach.

 

 

 

 

Marina Cay has a bar at the top of the hill “Gunners” which has live bands in the late afternoon & great views. It was very busy!

 

 

 

Virgin Gorda

We headed to North Sound – Leverick Bay which is a large bay protected all around by islands and reefs. Michael Bean is the local entertainer and plays Pirate/ Jimmy Buffett songs (Arrrr!! – yes thats what Michael and I are doing). It’s busy so get there early for a seat and good view.  He’s very interactive with the audience.

We hired a car and drove around Virgin Gorda stopping to snorkel at The Baths

 

The snorkelling was good, but a busy place when the cruise ships come over with people.

 

 

 

Entrance fee is $3 and a 5-10 minute hike from the road. There are large granite boulders and the sea has washed in between them to form caves and pools that you can snorkel around or explore by foot.

 

There are two beaches at the baths depending on which entry you come down and through.

 

 

 

Before going back to Leverick Bay we stopped at Little Dix Bay and Resort. Nice!

We motored over to the Bitter End Yatch Club, which as it sounds is the very tip of the BVI’s for a Pina Colada.

 

Our captain Wayne recommended the Pina Coladas here. They were good. but the view was better!

Saba Rock is in the background and is a small island, which we unfortunately missed. Next time!

 

There are loads of places to snorkel between Virgin Gorda and St John US VI’s. We stopped at Prickly Pear Island, Cooper Island (Cistern Rock), Norman Island (The Blight & The Caves), St John (Salt Pond Bay & Waterlemon Cay) to name a few places. We saw Turtles, sting rays, Porcupine fish, trumpet fish, angelfish, parrotfish etc. The camera struggled to get good shots. (Double click on the photo to see it better)

Everwhere we went a Barracuda would suddenly appear. They are very curious and want to know what you are doing. Scarey looking though especially when they are really close!

St John

Two thirds of St John is protected by a National Park so there are some incredible walks/ hikes/ snorkelling and beaches. The bus ride from Salt Pond Bay to CruzBay is cheap $1, worth it as it’s a long way but scary because of the size of the bus and the windey roads.

Salt Pond Hike from Beach (Left) Reef Bay Trail (Right)