 |
| White Bay, Jost Van Dyke |
White Bay, Jost Van DykeWe had a beautiful sail from Prospect Reef Marina, Tortola to White Bay, Jost Van Dyke. White Bay has the quintessential palm tree lined, white sand, Caribbean beach. It is truly beautiful, however looks can be deceiving. Due to its stunning beauty, the bay attracts crowds, and as we found out…lots of crowds! We nicknamed our two night stay in White Bay as “Boaters Behaving Badly”. White Bay is protected by 3 coral reefs and there are only 2 not so well marked entries into the bay, however, if you take time to read the chart it’s pretty easy. Bad boater #1: As we entered the bay outside the reef another sailboat motoring at 4-5 knots roughly 300 yards in front of us was straying off course when the keel of the struck the reef and the boat violently turned 90 degrees to port. Apparently, no one was injured and they quickly reset course and raced into the bay to claim one of the last few moorings. Once we were established on our mooring the kids jumped into the water and I cruised around in the dinghy to check out the sights. Bad boater #2: As I was leaving the beach in the dinghy apparently the captain of a 50 foot monohull with a six foot draft thought he was at the wheel of a catamaran with a 2 foot draft and ran aground dangerously close to where the surf broke at the beach. He was in a bit of a pickle. Another fellow with a dinghy and I pushed his hull under full throttle with our two 15 horsepower dinghy outboards while the captain gunned his engine and we were able to get his keel to break free. Bad boater #3: A little late night carousing on adjacent boats has to be tolerated to some extent at popular anchorages in the British Virgin Island. Just as things were getting quiet at 11:30 PM and REM sleep was about to set in the boat on the next mooring over starts his generator up! At this point I had had it with bad boaters….I quickly jumped through the forward hatch of the V-berth and bellowed to the neighboring boat, “Shut off the damn engine….you’ve got all day to do that!” I have no idea whether the boat next door heard me, but it sure felt good. I returned to my bunk satisfied with my outburst only to find Nancy-Jane laughing hysterically….
In spite of the bad boaters, White Bay will be one of the more memorable stops, especially for the kids. The kids were all in the midst of some schoolwork in the morning when a pod of bottlenose dolphins passed just outside the reef protecting White Bay. The kids quickly ditched the books and we hopped in the dinghy. Before we knew it we were right in the midst of the dolphins. They were swimming all around us and suddenly Peter “accidentally” fell into the water with his fins and mask on. Before you knew it Will “fell” in as well and were swimming with the dolphins…and it wasn’t in a pool. Caroline and I remained in the dinghy trying to take pictures of this extraordinary sight. We stayed with the dolphins for 20 minutes with the boys jumping in and out the water when the dolphins were close. The algebra and long division will have to wait for another day…
 |
| Dolphins or schoolwork.... |
 |
| Peter and Will are close behind! |
 |
| Dinghy Captain and Dinghy First Mate |
Dear Caroline and Family,
ReplyDeleteI love the pictures! It seems funny that Peter and Will "fell" in and were swimming with the dolphins. How's the home school going? There is so much snow here we can barely shovel our walkway. I can touch my basketball hoop from the snow pile. I miss you so so so so much! I wish I could go with you. Thanks for sending the post card - I love it!! Have a fun trip!
Love, Megan
Rich,
ReplyDeleteAmazing. What are the other boaters saying about you guys? Stay safe and keep having fun. I am sure you wish you were here for the balmy New England weather.
Sam,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comments. I definitely joined the ranks of bad boaters with my late night outburst. Most boaters are thrilled to hear about our adventures while a few are perplexed as to why we would do such a thing with kids. The boys AND Caroline will take you up on that cave dive.
Best,
R