Monday 30 March to Thursday 2 April 2015

 

After a visit to the nearby ‘marina’ to pick up some fresh water we motored around the headland to White Bay.  The bay is protected by a long reef and there is room to anchor in the narrow space between the reef and the beach.  Or there was.  The proliferation of mooring buoys now has made anchoring nigh on impossible and for the first time we elected to take a mooring buoy.

 

On our 4 previous visits there were only two places ashore, the Soggy Dollar Bar in front of and part of The Sandcastle Hotel and Ivan’s Stress Free Bar at the other end of the bay.  Soggy Dollar was usually accessed by people swimming from their boats, hence its name and we had a very nice dinner at Sandcastle Hotel on one wedding anniversary.  The hotel and restaurant was modest but quiet and clean and served good food.  Perhaps it was a little too quiet to be successful and today it is a larger, brasher place catering to the many day trippers now ferried in from Tortola (not just at week ends) and cruise ship passengers.  On the other hand there was little life at the hotel and no sign that the restaurant had been serving, or was likely to serve food.  I was told it was still open in the evenings but it certainly didn’t look inspiring. 

 

 

Soggy Dollar Bar:-

 

 

 

 

Beach chairs have sprouted up:-

 

 

 

 

But it is still a good beach, even if it is not so ‘secret’ and inaccessible any longer:-

 

 

 

 

We did buy a couple of T shirts and then took the dinghy to the other end of the bay to Ivan’s.  This was much more peaceful and more like the idyllic bay we remember.  No longer a shack but a pleasant bar which still has the photograph on the wall of Keith Richards looking spaced out during an impromptu session on the guitar.  Then back to the boat for a swim in the turquoise sea and dinner on board.

 

The following day, after a ‘happy’ half hour in the water untangling the lines tied to the mooring buoy we motored east again to two small islands, Green Cay and Sandy Spit.  Green Cay is small and rocky and Sandy Spit lies almost immediately adjacent.  Sandy Spit is even smaller than Sandy Cay (Thursday Island) and it is possible to walk around its beach in a few minutes.

 

 

Sandy Spit:-

 

 

 

 

Our dinghy dragged up on the beach:-

 

 

 

 

 

The back of the island and one of the two palm trees:-

 

 

 

 

After a pleasant walk around the island and a quick swim off the beach it was back to the boat for dinner and a view of the sunset looking over Jost van Dyke:-

 

 

 

We had a rolly night at anchor so didn’t waste much time the next day before sailing 5 miles to the west end of Tortola to Soper’s Hole.  This bay is very deep and we again tied to a mooring buoy.  The water is very clear here and after a quick swim went ashore to check out the supermarket (best so far in the BVI’s) and shops.

 

 

The very colourful Soper’s Hole Marina:-

 

 

 

 

The dinghy park at the marina:-

 

 

 

 

The shops are very touristy and waves of cruise ship passengers arrived by taxi throughout the day.  There is a large Pusser’s Store here but we managed again to avoid the temptation to buy. 

 

 

In the evening we went over to the other side of the harbour to ‘Fish and Lime’ for dinner.  This turned out to be a very popular place with cruisers who seemed to have all rejected the rather artificial delights of Soper’s Hole Marina for the evening.  The meal was very good and there was really good live music from an English entertainer.  A very pleasant surprise and we had a lovely evening.

 

 

There is a very nice cafe called D’Best Cup which serves drinks and offers breakfast and then closes about 2pm.  We tried out their breakfast the following day and took advantage of their good internet, the subscription cards having not worked again.

 

The approach to D’Best Cup:-

 

 

 

Back at the boat we decided to stay another night as we were feeling a little lazy.  Unfortunately the motor boat moored ahead of us ran his noisy, smelly engine or generator all afternoon and evening until nearly 10.30pm.  It is normally accepted that you don’t do this after dark and I was not amused.  At least we had a peaceful night even though the wind had picked up a lot during the afternoon.