PICTURE-PERFECT ADVENTURE
The British Virgin Islands are back
With its copious dark rum mixed with cream of coconut, pineapple and orange juice topped with fresh grated Grenadian nutmeg, the painkiller is an apt name for a Caribbean cocktail.
It’s also fitting that more than a few have been downed at the tiny beach bar in the British Virgin Islands where it originated in the 1970s, especially after hurricane Irma blasted through last September, followed by Maria two weeks later.
The Soggy Dollar bar in picturesque White Bay on Jost Van Dyke was among the buildings significantly damaged when 290 km/h winds tore the roofs and, in some cases, the walls, off homes, bars, hotels and even churches. Foxy’s, a legendary watering hole in adjacent Great Harbour, was also devastated but within days the owners were imploring people to return.
“Please don’t forget us,” they posted online one day later. “The road ahead is going to be long and hard. But there is a hammock and a sandy beach at the end.”
That optimism is evident across the BVI, with the British Virgin Islands tourism authority encouraging travellers to return. Hotels and rental houses are once again accepting reservations, as are charter sailing companies.
“The response from the clientele is just amazing. They’re not just coming back on vacation but they ’re packing extra supplies and doing what they can to help,” said Ian Pederson, marketing manager for The Moorings, a premier charter service based in the BVI but with 22 locations worldwide.
“I thought people might be hesitant to return, but it’s been exactly the opposite. It’s why I keep going back so many times. It’s the people there. You become like a family.”
Before the hurricane, The Moorings and sister companies Sunsail and Footloose had about 400 boats in the British Virgin Islands. About 90 per cent of their fleets were damaged, but they were back in business by December.
Others are not so lucky. Damaged boats are still heaped haphazardly upon the shore on some islands, and homes and business are still being repaired, including on Tortola where Khalila (Kay) Bartley lives when she’s not working aboard the Prodigious, one of The Moorings’ catamarans.
“It was so scary. I thought the roof was going to cave in,” said Bartley. “When it was over, I went outside and saw the devastation. I cried.”
The Moorings offers personalized sailing itineraries that highlight the unique aspects of Tortola, Virgin Gorda, Anegada and Jost Van Dyke along with some of the smaller islands. Its largest boat is the 18-metre (58-foot) Prodigious, captained by Martin Street, alongside chef Katie Garrison and Bartley. With six well-appointed berths, inside and outside dining tables, a massive leather lounge area on the top deck and six bean bag chairs taking up residence on the front webbing, it feels more like a luxury apartment than a sailboat.
There’s plenty of room for a large group to spread out and soak up the brilliant sun. There are nooks and crannies aplenty, storing snorkels and fins, water-skis, noodles and floating mats. A kayak is strapped to the side of the boat as are two standup paddleboards. The boat even has Wi-Fi for those unwilling or unable to unplug for a few days.
A big part of any vacation is the food and even though the Prodigious’ kitchen is about the size of a bachelor bathroom, delicious concoctions flow out of there four times a day. Garrison is up before the crack of dawn, creating dishes from scratch, including homemade yogurt and granola, breads and other baking.
In a weeklong trip, meals could include teriyaki salmon fillets over a salad of orzo and stir-fried vegetables with zucchini kimchee pickles, locally caught mahi-mahi or sea bass. Steak, lobster cakes, lamb gyros and coconut pancakes are likely to be on the plate as the young chef endeavours to create interesting, fresh and healthy meals. She isn’t thrown by special requests either, accommodating vegan diets with thoughtful substitutions ( black bean patties and avocado).
For Garrison, it’s important to locally source as many ingredients as possible and she favours a Tortola garden farm for their flavour-bomb tomatoes, potatoes, beets and greens.
Bartley is just as particular about her areas of expertise: personalized table settings and the evening cocktails to accompany Garrison’s canapés. Gin coolers go well with charcuterie and cheese, while the creamy, milkshake-like bushwhackers pair with bruschetta. Bartley makes a painkiller to rival that of the Soggy Dollar — so named because you have to wade to the bar from your boat — and she’s renowned for her mojitos.
While the meals and drinks are eagerly anticipated each day, it’s the islands themselves that are the stars of a BVI sailing trip. A weeklong itinerary could include a stop on Virgin Gorda to see the Baths — rock pools and caves created by jumbled granite boulders that are not found anywhere else in the region.
At Norman Island, believed to be the inspiration for Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island, you can hike up to the top of Pirate’s Bight. There you’ll be rewarded with a 360-degree view of a brilliant turquoise bay and reefs on the windward side and the now recovering restaurant, beach bar and pier on the leeward side. Another can’t-miss is Anegada, the only coral — and flat — island in the BVI that is home to rare rock iguanas and reintroduced flamingos.
The proximity of the British Virgin Islands — you can manage several islands in a day — is one of the highlights of the region and the reason it draws so many sailors.
“The U.S.VI doesn’t have line-of-sight sailing like we do,” said Street, the English captain who has sailed much of the world over the past two decades. “There, it’s a lot of open-water sailing where you could go for several hours without seeing land. In the BVI you could island hop 45 minutes at a time.”
Street understands the draw of the area: clear blue skies, startlingly white sand beaches and a sea that rivals any painter’s palette — from the deepest navy, melding into azure, turquoise and the lightest aquamarine.
“I’ve been here seven years now. I was four years sailing around the world and I sailed into Jost, and I thought this is pretty nice.”