Rebuilding the BVIS
Beryl Chalmers, former manager of the Cruising Association, gives a candid update on the British Virgin Islands a year after Irma
It was almost 20 years ago that I first cruised in the British Virgin Islands, so when I returned, last October, I wasn’t sure what to expect. Just a year earlier, Hurricane Irma hit the BVIS, wrecking homes and businesses; 134 people died and hundreds of boats were lost. Over two weeks, the hurricane wreaked havoc from Florida down to the Caribbean with winds reaching 180mph. Would the seas be full of floating debris? Would the roads be impassable, and the shops still empty?
Whilst the destruction was still evident – from Road Town, the capital of Tortola, which is the biggest of the BVI, to Jost Van Dyke and Peter Island – the people had a sunny outlook. Having lost relatives, homes, income, businesses and of course boats, you would expect at least a little low ebb but there was none of it. In fact they loved to talk about it. ‘It was like a great American action move’, said one taxi driver who spent the night watching the world crash around him when Irma was doing her worst.
Sailing between the islands near to Tortola – Norman Island, Cooper Island and Salt Island – there were more boats out at the beginning of the season than we expected and all the charter companies were working hard to get up and running again.
I spoke to Coy Penn at the Dream Yacht Charter base, north of Road Town, the capital of Tortola. Despite the horrendous sight greeting him and his colleagues the morning after Irma hit, he was very upbeat.
‘Irma brought us some great Christmas presents,’ he said. Although 61 boats had been destroyed in September 2017, a few months later the fleet of catamarans and monohulls had been replaced with brand new boats.
Moorings and Sunsail also have a base on Tortola. As I walked towards the pool and bar, which were unscathed in the disaster, evidence of destruction was elsewhere. Heaps of aluminium extrusions were cut up, ready for shipping to the US, and there were piles of coiled rigging wire, cut free from toppled and submerged boats. Sunsail lost more than half of their 300+ boats, and were slowly rebuilding their fleet. Their offices and accommodation took a hit too.
Seeing the wrecked or partially submerged boats was sickening: bent and broken masts piled high, deck saloons of catamarans ripped off and lying askew on the deck, but everyone was working hard to return the islands to how they were. Whilst it will take time to remove the detritus from the hurricane – a lot to be shipped off and recycled – most of the wreckage has been collected neatly in a few areas. The bigger wrecks will take cutting equipment or cranes to remove.
On the water
The seas were the beautiful turquoise colour we had hoped for with just the odd piece of driftwood to watch out for. It was heartening to see so many people exploring what must be one of the world’s most beautiful cruising grounds, bringing income back to an area in dire need. And whilst you might expect the few reopened hotels and bars to take advantage of demand and supply, there was none of it. Supermarkets were fully stocked and prices as you would expect.
Our first day’s sail from the south of Tortola saw a fairly calm sea but with strengthening winds and a pretty high swell forecast from the north. We tucked into Marina Cay bay, south of Great Camanoe island. We managed to choose the only half hour with pouring rain and very big gusts to try to anchor, eventually picking up a buoy when we were not sure of the ground. At first we had been reticent to pick up any mooring buoy for fear of not knowing if the ground tackle had been checked post Irma. We were also one of only a couple of monohulls in a sea of catamarans so drew far more and swung at very different angles to the cats. Although our first night found us checking the buoy
and GPS alarm frequently, subsequent nights were far more at ease with all the buoys safe and secure.
With a north-westerly forecast, the next day we headed to Peter Island to the south west and found a perfect anchoring spot off the south of the island, nicely sheltered from what were at times strong winds. We enjoyed the perfect sail, broad-reaching in warm sunshine. I had been to Peter Island on my previous visit in the 1990s, enjoying a beautiful lunch at the only resort there when no less than B B King entertained us from a sand-floor, rush-roof hut on the beach!
This time, very sadly, the resort had been ravaged by Irma with hardly any sign of life. While great for a peaceful cruise, it really meant serious issues for those working at the resort, those running ferries from Tortola and obviously delivering supplies. We saw signs of a resort being built on the north shores and just hoped visitors would be returning very soon.
The rest of our week saw us visiting Soper’s Hole on the western end of Tortola. Here was another graveyard of once beautiful craft but workers were busy all day in the heat of the sun making things shipshape once more.
A fleet of brand new catamarans, shipped in from Cape Town, stood on the water’s edge ready to be put into commission. Here the famous Pusser’s Landing offered what was described as the best spicy chicken wings in the BVI, a good seafood menu and the wonderful Painkiller cocktail: $20 for one with a souvenir tin mug painted in Caribbean colours.
During our week we saw some great sea life – dolphins, turtles and an enormous ray, which became airborne at the bow of the boat, splashing back into the water at the stern. Good food, good service and great people made our trip one of the best cruising weeks yet and we can only hope tourism will return to the British Virgin Islands to give local people the income to re-build their lives.