Cruising the Virgins is surprisingly affordable in a leased ship
By John Eckberg,
Staff Writer
ROAD TOWN, Tortola (Nov. 22, 2003) -- Despite golf's allure, fish
-- specifically, snorkeling to see them -- and sailing remain the
prime draw of the British Virgin
Islands, a destination that is surprisingly affordable in a
leased ship.
While you can rent a catamaran or mono-hull with a crew, by far
the best way to go is to do it yourself. It's called bare-boating.
Leave your clubs at home and rent sticks from Mahogany
Run before sharing the cost of a yacht with old friends, or
get a small one for your family. While sailing always has been a
challenge -- hence the number of shipwrecks in the region -- thankfully,
motoring a boat is not. Most, if not all, come with a diesel engine
or two that must be run at least two hours every day to recharge
batteries.
If you really want to sail, many companies offer sailing schools.
Once a prospective Popeye is accredited, firms will rent/lease 38-foot
and 47-foot catamarans that are privately owned and have full accommodations.
The harbor at Road Town, Tortola, has hundreds of yachts chartered
by Moorings but there are plenty of other companies as well. Start
your search at b-v-i.com/Charter/Bareboat/bareboat.htm.
Plan
on buying staples for the trip in town, and expect a Saturday bustle
at the dock on the day of departure. You'll find that hundreds of
boats are docked here. When a tropical storm skirted the island
this summer, about 80 yachts were moved to a back harbor, but that
still left a full harbor in Road Town that stretched for hundreds
of yards -- a mast-to-mast panorama of sailboats.
Though the stakes are markedly higher, captaining a yacht in the
B.V.I is really not unlike piloting a 28-foot pleasure boat at a
large state park lake.
Watch out for rocks near shore, don't venture out into storms and
pay attention to buoys because here the buoys actually mean something:
red is on your right on exiting a harbor, green is to the right
on reentry, ships with a wind from the right have the right-of-way.
And pray for tranquil seas always.
It is relatively easy to sail or motor up the Sir Francis Drake
Passage even as far as the north sound of Virgin Gorda. The key
is to do it in stages. Leave ample time for snorkeling the Baths
and the Caves of Virgin Gorda are popular stops. Make sure your
party's captain keeps a radio watch and eye out for stormy weather,
constantly checking and double-checking charts, the sky and the
radio during longer runs.
Because the islands and key points stretch into the distance one
after another from Norman
to Peter
to Cooper and onward it's easy to get confused without constant
re-reckoning. Motoring within easy sight of shore is reassuring
and catamarans tend to tame larger swells.
Great Snorkeling
If the map shows snorkeling, stop, tie up to a mooring and check
it out. Points or peninsulas on the open ocean side of islands have
reefs and shoreline that will usually offer a habitat for fish including
sharks. They are shy creatures, though, and always turn back into
the blue mist of the sea and away from snorkelers.
While sharks are relatively rare, you can expect to see vast silvery
curtains of neon tetras that glimmer like diamonds on sunny days
and thousands of persistent parrot fish with their toothy faces.
If you're lucky or very observant, you can spot a solemn grouper
down among the rocks and coral.
Calm anchorages mean great snorkeling over exotic coral, too: sprawling
elk horn, starlet and big pillar coral are everywhere. Expect to
see sea fans and fish too numerous to list.
Ports of Call
If you make it to Saba Rock up north (sabarock.com/), Executive
Chef Jeremiah Ethan Smith may be playing the role of dock greeter,
water seller and mooring registrar when you arrive. He will also
suggest places to snorkel. An executive chef here apparently has
many roles. Later at night, he'll be slicing tenderloin or pointing
out the swordfish in curry at his expansive buffet.
Down in St. John, check out Cruz Bay for shopping or for general
island interest. It's not on the BVI maps because it, like St. Thomas
(Mahogany Run Golf Course), is part of the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Jost Van Dyke, a sparsely inhabited island with a couple of small
resorts and camping areas, has reggae rock most nights at Foxy's
Bar, an unassuming beachfront shelter that is a legend among the
yachting crowd . At the bight a big bay - on Norman Island, the
permanently anchored William B. Thornton provides bare bones
meals of local fare, great libations and an occasional celebrity
sighting. Julia Roberts, Michael J. Fox, Kelsey Grammar, the old
pirate himself, Keith Richards, and other Rolling Stones have visited
this converted sloop.
In this area, jewelry, t-shirts and souvenirs are sold from ship
to ship by enterprising artists and others. Buy and marvel at the
brownies sold from the grocery boat Deliverance as it makes
its way from harbor to harbor making deliveries and picking up passengers.
From Norman Island's bight, it's a quick sail or motor back to
a home port like Tortola's Road Town -- another good reason to make
Norman your final sunset in the British Virgin Islands.
Orientation
The U.S. Virgin Islands (St. Thomas, St. John and St. Croix) and
British Virgin Islands (Tortola, Virgin Gorda, Jost van Dyke, Anegada,
Peter and Norman) lie just off the eastern tip of Puerto Rico, an
easy flight from Miami or Atlanta and a short hop from San Juan.
Some islands have the Caribbean
Sea on one side and the Atlantic on the other, and some are entirely
surrounded by either body of water. It's a moot distinction, but
the Caribbean
shore is always calmer, a good thing to know if you're sailing and
snorkeling among the islands. There are three golf courses in the
USVIs, but none in the BVIs yet.
Any opinions expressed above are those of the writer and do not necessarily represent the views of the management. The information in this story was accurate at the time of publication. All contact information, directions and prices should be confirmed directly with the golf course or resort before making reservations and/or travel plans.
|
