Anchoring in the BVI's

We have decided that we really like St Croix after spending a few days here and to think that someone we had met not too long ago suggested that we give it a miss.  

The town of Christiansted is full of the old colonial buildings from the Danish era and in the town centre many are in excellent condition and as such are still used as administration buildings, offices, houses or shops.  The Danes built the houses using a lot of brick which they imported as ballast on the old sailing ships.  They are grand and extremely strong compared to the modern looking structures and the fact that they are still standing after numerous tropical storms and hurricanes is testament to their construction.  Some of them have solid stone lower ground floor walls and then wooden weatherboard second stories added on.  All have colourful wooden shutters over the windows which contrast sharply with the pastel colours of the walls.  On the larger buildings there are curving staircases leading up to oversize wooden doors.  Many of the buildings have interesting little plaques or signs on them hinting at the history of the place and the street signs have Danish names similar to Charlotte Amalie.  Around the streets old canons have been upended and planted at street corners and walkways.  

Christiansted Buildings

On the outskirts of town some of the buildings start to get a bit more neglected and run down until eventually the buildings are just ruins.  The more interesting ones of these are at a certain stage of decay and have tropical plants and trees growing through the house structure.  The contrast in colours between the vibrant plants and the decaying masonry is really striking.  Some of these amazingly have “for sale” signs up.

Ruins in Christiansted

We had a good look around the fort which while quite small is very well preserved as it was a functioning administration building for the island long after it ceased to be a fort.  We call these school excursions and the kids really enjoy getting off the boat and having a look around although trapsing around with their parents looking at buildings wears pretty thin after a while so we have to keep them going with the promise of ice cream by the waterfront at the end of the day.  The town is quite quiet as this is the end of the tourist season for about three months but that suits us.  At the end of the day we went ashore for a nice meal at a really cool restaurant called Savant.

Dulcinea moored under the guns of the first

More Beautiful Architecture

For our final day on the island we hired a car - well Nic hired a car as Scott has been banned from driving after his Puerto Rico experience - and had a mini road trip.  As the island is only about 18miles long you can easily cover most of it in a day.  We visited the rugged east end and then ended up at Fredericksted.  The countryside varies from gently sloping hills to more rugged terrain covered in thick tropical forests.  There are dramatic cliffs and beautiful beaches along the coasts.  All over the island are what look like holiday homes and also the ruins of many old windmill towers form earlier times.  Fredericksted is the other significant town on the island and is similar to Christiansted with its buildings but no where near as big.  It is situated on a large open bay surrounded by palm fringed sandy beaches and protected from the prevailing weather due to its position on the western coast.  The bay lacks any dangerous coral reefs and as such caters for the cruise liner traffic.  The day we visited there were no liners berthed and so everything was extremely quiet

Church sign

The next day (25th April - Anzac Day) we headed back north.  Scott had leared out from the US Virgin Islands with the Customs and Border Protection authorities in Christiansted and we were making for an island in the British Virgin Islands called Jost Van Dyke, named after a Dutch pirate.  The island is not as big as Tortola or Virgin Gorda (the other major island of the BVI’s) but still large enough to support a small population.  We had a great sail from St Croix close reaching the 30NM on calm seas up to the Sir Francis Drake Chanel and then between the west end of Tortola and the east side of St John into clear water for the final 4NM across to Great Harbour at Jost Van Dyke.  The views when sailing amongst the islands is spectacular - rugged high island with indented coats, the hills steep and covered in green vegetation and all around sparkling blue waters with white sails dotted everywhere.

We arrived late in the afternoon at Great Harbour and there were already many yachts either swinging on a mooring or on their anchor.  We found a spot not too close in with sufficient room around us, dropped the anchor and hoisted our yellow “Q” flag to alert the authorities that we had not yet cleared in which Scott would do the next day.

Nic in Fredericksted

Over the last few months people we have met have told us to beware whilst sailing around the BVI’s.  There are two main reasons: one is that it is a busy place and most of the anchorages will get full, secondly there are varying levels of expertise in command of the yachts and as a result some very dubious anchoring procedures.  We had only just arrived and dropped our anchor at the BVI’s when this became very apparent.  

There is a bit of a herding instinct amongst yachts.  You can be the first to arrive at a secluded wide open bay and anchor at one point and for some strange reason the next yacht to arrive will more than likely decide he should anchor within spitting distance of you even though there is a whole bay available.  For this reason we have adopted a policy of trying to stay away from tight crowded anchorages and if we have to we will anchor on the outer of the anchorage.

So back to Great Harbour.  Within minutes of us setting our anchor a catamaran dropped his anchor in front of us and started dragging towards another boat.  He reset and dropped his anchor further out but now directly in our path and once again started to drag.  He seemed oblivious until Pete gestured to him that the distance between him and us was slowly decreasing.  Finally he reset again further out but still too close for comfort if the wind had got up.  Next day a lot of the yachts departed and we were left with a comfortable amount of space around us however by mid afternoon everyone had begun arriving and once again we had a boat tight off our stern and one in front of us.  At around midnight a rain squall came through and sure enough the guy in front dragged to within a few feet of our bow.  Scott was up on the foredeck and called out.  Luckily the skipper realised he was dragging and had started his engine and moved away to a spot well out before he contacted us. 

Apart from the anchoring drama’s Great Harbour is a nice spot - kind of typical of what you would envisage a Caribbean anchorage to be like.  Scott went ashore first thing and cleared in with the officials and then it was time for some school while Pete and Claire went ashore for an explore.  The town is not much more than a few bars and restaurants lining a sandy road just off the beach.  There is a bar at one end called Foxy’s which is a bit of a local institution so we visited that and had a wander around town.