A Jimmy Buffett Day

So…on this Friday, March 3…we left the US waters and headed back to the British side.  Normally, when we make entry to the BVI, we enter at the West End of Tortola, Soper’s Hole.  The challenge, increasingly, is to get through Customs and Immigration without some hassle.  It’s always crowded, and the pace inside the office is frenetic, and you live between quietly waiting your turn to be recognized and gently coughing to get an officer’s attention.  What makes it especially difficult is that there are small charter boats (maybe 6-8 customers) who bring US folks into the BVI – for one day!  And pay $200-300 to go snorkel on one of the nearby islands!

Five miles from here is another entry point – on Jost van Dyke.  That makes it ten miles out of the way, but it is a small office, with few customers.  And the home of Foxy’s Tamarind beach bar and restaurant.    On Jost, a few US folks will check in and check out – for one night of entertainment.  Earlier this season, I heard one fellow say,  “Yep…I’m here to get drunk and go back to St. Thomas in the morning.”

Foxy Callwood is the Jimmy Buffet of the Virgin Islands.  He sings, has owned his bar since the late 1960’s, sells T-shirts, and has expanded to other entrepenueral ventures through the years.  Most nights, he’ll show up at the restaurant, guitar in hand, and sing for (and with) the guests – including some Buffet songs, I’m sure.  The New Year’s Eve parties Foxy hosts gathers thousands and the boats are so packed that they say you can walk to the beach, stepping from one boat to the next. 

Foxy's Bar - they do sell T-shirts - for anyone interested 

And Great Harbor on Jost van Dyke is the place where you never know what the “cocktail hour entertainment” will be  (think: the last boater of the evening to arrive, looking for a mooring ball or anchoring spot, and scurrying around the harbor, hopefully not bumping into any other vessels). We were once the entertainment about 25 years ago – couldn’t get the anchor to set, I was in the water trying to see what the problem was,  Marney was at the bow, no one at the helm and the boat was slowing moving forward!  Oops.  We’re still here and that night ended well enough, thanks to two New York City firemen on their annual sailing vacation!

OK…back to customs and immigration.  We motored to Jost and made it through in 15 minutes!  Everything’s good and we have a pass now until we depart mid-April.  So, we quickly left for the West End for the next part of our day. 

Marney was to do the grocery shopping and I was to buy a 70 foot piece of line to replace the frayed second reef line at the boom.  The reef lines (first and second) are ways to make the main sail smaller in stormy conditions.  We usually sail on the first reef.  The second one doesn’t get used and sits in the sun deteriorating.   I had removed the old one and coiled it up to carry with me to the rigging shop, about six miles away.

Marney was using the dinghy to go to the grocery store.  I would be hitching rides.

Got it done in 90 minutes.  And four rides.  My first ride came from a man who has lived on the island his entire life, but now works on St. Thomas on one of the ferry lines.  He comes home every weekend.  That ride took me about halfway to my destination.  Nice visit with him.  The second ride came from a couple who took pity on me.  We didn’t talk much but it was nice riding in a new Jeep with air conditioning. 

I’ve learned that if you stand by one of the many speed bumps on the roads here, people have to slow down and there’s a better chance they’ll stop.    Not everyone stops…some look the other way…some go over the bumps at maximum speed…some wag a finger or shake a head.  Some stop and then tell you they’re not going as far as you need.  It took a while to figure out the speed bump idea.

So, on my way back, the first of the final two rides was a man who, seeing that I was carrying two coils of rope (one new and one old), stopped and said, “I’m a boater, too.”  Turns out he’s from Montserrat!  I’ve never met anyone from this island.  When the volcano blew in the 1990’s and the island was evacuated, I figured those folks were assimilated into the other islands.  And that was the end of that.  No… He said, I was just back there in November and again in December!  I was shocked.  I thought everyone had to leave.  He replied that the US Government saw it that way.  The Brits did not.  So, there’s a population of about 5,000 folks living on Montserrat, saying a prayer each day that the old volcano doesn’t blow!

“I don’t know…I don’t know…I don’t know where I’m gonna go when the volcano blows.  Ground she’s moving under me…Tiger waves out on the sea…(Thank you, Jimmy).

Souffriere Volcano last erupted in 1997

(I checked the Cruising Guide and read that after the volanco eruptions of 1995 and 1997, two thirds of the water around the island became a “maritime exclusion zone”.  There’s only one bay, at the very northwest tip of the island and this Emerald Isle (The Irish arrived in two immigration waves - 1630 and 1649 – and most returned home when the small farms were taken over by the sugar plantations.)

My last ride was from a couple from Minneapolis in a rental car, on their way for a day at…Jost van Dyke!  Taking the ferry, so I had a ride all the way back to my starting place – on shore, looking for Marney and the dinghy and a ride back to Azure Wind.

The kicker was when I stepped out of the Jeep at the rigging shop, I blew out my flip flop.  I looked for a pop top on the ground, but didn’t see one.  And I walked with a drag on my left foot for the rest of the outing…  I immediately thought…

“I blew out my flip flop…stepped on a pop top....cut my heel had to cruise on back home.  But there’s booze in the blender…and soon it will render…that frozen concoction that helps me hang on…. (Thank you, Jimmy).

So, we’re taking it easy for the rest of the day…put groceries away, put up the new reefing line…made water in this deep harbor…cleaned a bit…hosting a new boater from California for sundowners – he’s owned his boat all of three weeks.  Looking forward to hearing his story.

And will probably play a few Jimmy Buffet tunes…and maybe have a margarita!  (or a painkiller – Jost van Dyke is home to the Soggy Dollar Bar where the painkiller was first concocted).

I suppose I should feel a bit guilty for not following the latest US political news or impending weather storms or some sports drama or crisis in the church…but I don’t.  At least not tonight!

Fair Winds and Calm Seas