Jost Van Dyke, British Virgin Islands

We are down to our two last stops on this fabulous tour of the Leeward islands of the Caribbean, and they are both in the British Virgin Islands (BVI).

There are 4 larger islands in this archipelago and a bunch of small ones. Tortola is the largest and the capital, Road Town, is located there but the other 3 largest ones are Anegada, and two more which we’ll visit in the next two days. Jost Van Dyck today and Virgin Gorda, tomorrow. The population of this British Overseas Territory is about 36,000, with most of the population in Tortola and the rest scattered on 16 of the more than 50 islands.

Unlike other Caribbean islands it’s thought that Joost Van Dyck a Dutch privateer and perhaps sometimes pirate may have been the first one to discover this island; however, it was British Quakers fleeing persecution in England in the 1700s that first settled here. The island citizens were granted British citizenship in 2002. The current population is only approximately 300.

It’s thought that Joost Van Dyck and other pirates used the many bays and inlets as hiding places for their ships. Eventually sugar cane and cotton were grown on the island, which would have employed slaves although they were emancipated in all of BVI in 1838.

This island and many in the BVI were hit hard by Category 5 hurricanes, Irma and Maria, both in 2017. Most buildings were destroyed and the island was stripped of it’s vegetation. The islanders were mainly on their own and they worked together to combine their resources. The one remaining working refrigerator was at a beach bar named Foxy’s Tamarind Bar and Restaurant and all food that could be preserved was brought there. Foxy is a natural leader in the community and for his efforts, he was knighted in 1968 for his humanitarian efforts, and in other projects for improving life in BVI.

The draw to Jost Van Dyke is the many beautiful white sand beaches and coves around the islands that are ideal for boating. The bay at Great Harbour is the most well known and biggest, with White Beach in the next bay as a close second. There are restaurants and bars along both beaches some of which are really well known. After the emancipation, charcoal, a byproduct of the cotton and sugar cane industries became a viable export.

Jost Van Dyke’s population is unusual for the Caribbean because of its population’s young age. Nearly half the residents are under the age of 35 and almost 70% under the age of 50. Perhaps because of this that two of the most famous beach bars in the area are on the beaches of White Bay and Grand Harbour. Foxy’s and the Soggy Dollar Bar are institutions and a frequent stop by the yachting community. The Soggy Dollar Bar has been given credit for being the birthplace of the drink called the Painkiller.

Another bit of trivia we learned is that the architect and designer of the US Capital building in 1793 in Washington DC, William Thornton, is from Jost Van Dyke. He received $500 and a building lot in the city of Washington for his composition. He was trained as a medical doctor in Great Britain and then moved to Washington where he continued to have influence on architecture there.

So, to no-one’s surprise, I booked another snorkelling adventure for this morning. This was a recent addition to the itinerary and involved both snorkelling and a beach day. We were transferred to a large, motor driven passenger catamaran at the tender pier, and we traversed practically all the way across the archipelago of the BVI I think. It was a rough ride in the open space between the islands, but the bay we came into on Norman Island was as flat as glass and the water was crystal clear.

Norman Island is a privately owned small island that used to have only a small shack selling drinks on the beautiful beach but after the hurricanes, a substantial beach restaurant and bar and facilities, called Pirates Bight, was built. Norman Island is apparently one of the islands that inspired Robert Louis Stevenson’s pirate novel Treasure Island.

(I have to admit that I have been hearing and reading about pirates all this past two weeks and I have kind of ignored the subject as not being significant. But then I remembered the Disney ride Pirates of the Caribbean and the movies with Johnny Depp and realized I probably need to do some research!).

In the bay there are dozens of buoys for anchoring, and a substantial pier where we docked. Newly planted palm trees, providing shade to the beach chairs are still relatively small, but it’s going to be a gold mine for it’s owners as it gets established. We grabbed some beach chairs and headed off to snorkel.

I checked one side of the bay and found a couple of large turtles in the sea grass but not much in the way of fish. The other side however was teaming with fish of every size shape and colour. The coral reef was destroyed in the hurricane, but there are signs that it’s coming back. Not too much colour yet, but lots of new growth of different types. I was in the water for 45 minutes or so, and then soaked up some sun to warm up, until we were ready to head back to the ship. Sadly that will be my last snorkelling adventure of this trip.

Tomorrow, our beach BBQ is planned, however, the Captain has started to signal that it might not be possible to do it as planned on Prickly Pear Island due to wave and swell conditions. If that’s the case, we’ll have a BBQ on the ship and stop at Spanish Town, on Virgin Gorda.