Fallen Jerusalem

Fallen Jerusalem, Virgin Gorda, British Virgin Islands.  June 15th, 2016.

View from under the boat

One of the take-home messages that we have realized about visiting the BVI is that the more remote, the less travelled, fewer boats and tourists, the better off you are.  This may not come as a surprise to many of you, but it was brought home to us today when we visited Fallen Jerusalem, an uninhabited island just to the west of The Baths on Virgin Gorda.

The whole island is just a collection of large boulders

Swim fin for scale

Fallen Jerusalem doesn't look like much from a distance, and we'd never bothered to go there since it didn't look all that inviting.  Just a pile of sun-bleached rocks.  Why bother?











Well, today, based on some comments from our friend Eric, and our desire to see some of the more remote, less visited areas of the BVI, we decided to make a lunch stop at Fallen Jerusalem.  If you're gonna go there, be aware that we only found 2 National Parks mooring balls, and that there's not really a good place to anchor.  Even the little bay where the National Parks balls are located is a little tight.  We were worried that we might end up bonking into the other boat tied up there.

More boulders

Yuuuggee Staghorn Coral

 I've snorkeled just about all the popular spots in the BVI, The Indians, Monkey Point, Anegada, etc. and Fallen Jerusalem has to be in the top 5 I've experienced.  The rock formations in the water provide shelter for all types of marine flora and fauna.  And, since it's off the beaten path, there are some impressively large coral formations to be seen.

Octopuses' garden

Trampoline special effects

We stayed at Fallen Jerusalem until late afternoon and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.  Ended up with a nice downwind sail to Cooper Island for the nice relaxing night.

Last week in the BVI

And now, for some pictures.  More sunsets, probably a barracuda and Captain Muchmore.

Barracuda

Lee Bay

Savannah Bay

Rocks outside Lee Bay

Brewers Bay, Tortola

The bay was amazing last night.  Only one other boat with us, lightning in the distance over the hill, and a sunset which is now my favorite one for the whole trip.  When I say that I had difficulty choosing which pictures to include in this post, you can see why.   The ones not included are just as spectacular.

And the houses overlooking the bay are amazing.  The blue and white one is an AirBnB.  https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/5059109

This one is my favorite though.

Today the bay is considerably more popular.  Six catamarans and a monohull enjoying the quiet waters.  Steve is thinking about snorkeling, if he can get up the energy.  It is quite gusty, even with the flat water.  

Diamond Cay, Jost Van Dyke

Tuesday, June 7th, Diamond Cay, Jost Van Dyke, British Virgin Islands

I'll be your guide today whether you like it or not!

Diamond Cay is home to Foxy's Taboo and the Bubbly pool.  After spending the night on a mooring ball in the harbor here, we decided to take a walk to one of the local attractions on Jost Van Dyke, the Bubbly Pool.




The Bubbly Pool is a naturally formed Jacuzzi-like formation of rocks on the north shore of Jost Van Dyke, and is a favorite hike for most boaters that make it over that way.   Once you figure out how you got lost following the several different ways to get to the site, it's a nice hike along some pretty scenic BVI panoramas.

Follow the blue arrows

The trail leads you past some of the largest Manchineel trees I've ever seen.   These trees are reported to be wildly toxic, including touching the tree, burning the wood and bark, and eating the small, apple-like fruit that they bear.  Needless to say, we avoided them, and made sure Iris didn't stop to taste their fruit.  We didn't take any pictures of them because we were afraid they would somehow poison us if we did!

Janet and Iris dare the Bubbly Pool

The hike to the pool is pretty easy, about a mile total from the beach bar at the trail head.  Janet and I fell for the same fake-out that I always seem to succumb to when we're going to the pool.  There's a fork in the trail that looks like you're going through a mangrove swamp, but in fact, it's the way to the trail.  Sigh.   Been fooled before.

Public Service Warning seems pretty scary.

If you make it past the valley of the death trees (just kidding) then you come onto the little beach that is the Bubbly Pool.  Very calm this day, since the north Atlantic swells weren't running very high.  Kinda just a little gassy pool instead of bubbly.  I'm being a bit silly though, since there has been at least one fatality at this beach in the last couple of years, and actually it looks like it could be pretty dangerous when the surf is high, like during the winter months.

Go ahead, make my day you bubbly mofo!

Janet was impressed that there were tons of little fish in the pool behind the rocks.  Since there was no way for the big fish to get them in the pool, we decided it was like a "gated community" for the little fish.

This cactus is like two stories tall.  I'm not kidding.

On the way back, we tried to get a picture of a "yuge" cactus.  Unfortunately, we weren't able to get Steve and Iris for scale....

Diamond Cay - Another Story

As Steve mentioned, Diamond Cay is a great place to grab a mooring ball and relax.  Yesterday, as we were just ready to leave, Steve glanced at the radar and said, “Whoa, let’s stay put for a bit.”  Here are a couple of pictures of why that was a very smart move.

After the rain let up, I fed some remora, those silly upside down swimming fish.  One of them had a difficult time deciding if it wanted the small piece of lemon rind I dropped to them.  Final decision, after trying it three times was “Ugh!”  

Sandy Spit Adventures

Today on one of her favorite beaches, Iris finally found the crab she had known was there.  If you look closely, you can just see it as she is following it up the beach. (Hint, its yellow.) 

I was able to stop her from getting too close.  Funny little creature buried itself farther and farther down the closer she got until pretty much only its eyes were showing. 

Later, Steve found it up under the bushes and was able to get some close ups. 

That night, during yet another gorgeous sunset time, Steve got some foredeck pictures of Iris and me.  It is amazing what the wind and humidity does to my hair. 

Iris has lost a tennis ball and a bone into the water in the last week.   She came close to losing this one that night too, but luckily it is just big enough to not go through the trampoline tie up spaces.  At least not that night.

Sandy Spit, Jost Van Dyke

Friday, June 3rd, Sandy Spit, Jost Van Dyke, British Virgin Islands

Sandy Spit is the classic "desert isle" with a single palm tree

Having spent a day or so getting our groove back on (groceries, ice, oil change, fresh water fill, etc.) at the charter base in Road Town, we decided we'd go back out to one of our favorite spots in the BVI.  We really have come to love the Sandy Spit/Green Cay area of Jost Van Dyke.  Nice anchorage with a good breeze, and a cute little beach to take Iris to for a walk.  

Hard to see in this picture, but this has got to be the loneliest
National Parks Mooring Ball in the BVI.

It's interesting to spend a day or two at anchor behind Sandy Spit.  During the day, it's a very popular spot for day trippers and small run-abouts to zoom in, drop anchor and have some fun in the sun and surf.  Once the sun goes down, even though it's a great anchor spot, most boats move into the mooring balls at either Diamond Cay or Little Harbor.

Iris doesn't care about mooring balls.  She's more interested in
her breakfast, which in her mind, is sorely overdue.

There is some really nice snorkeling between Green Cay and Little Jost Van Dyke.  The BVI National Parks system maintains what must be one of the most difficult to access, and therefore the least used, mooring ball just to the west of Green Cay.  On one of our trips into Sandy Spit to walk Iris, we went out to say hi to it.  Given the swell and general roughness of the seas in that area, I'm not sure I would ever go out there in OsoGato, especially in the winter.

Wrecking With The Cows

Cow Wreck Beach, Anegada, British Virgin Islands

Original Wrecked Cow

Having Iris along with us on this trip has led to a couple interesting experiences.  One of the surprising problems that we didn't anticipate was the reluctance on the part of the local taxis to take her along.  Since this potentially put a crimp in our site-seeing, we ended up looking for alternative methods to getting around.  On Anegada, one of the tried and true methods of local transportation has been Jeep rentals, where Jeep is a catch-all term for a small SUV. I think ours was a Mitsubishi.

Excitement for the day:  a new hammock!

So today, we decided that we would rent a Jeep and explore all that Anegada had to offer.  First stop The Settlement, to pick up an additional bottle of Chloramphenicol ear drops.  Not much to see there.

After getting resupply on the ear drops, we decided to check out Loblolly Bay, one of the two highly recommended beaches on the island.  The place was sorta deserted, but the beach was spectacular.  We thought about suiting up and going for a snorkel, but when we got closer to the beach, we realized the sea was a bit rough.   Hmmm...  back to the car.  We were also famished, so chickening out of snorkeling wasn't too hard a call.

A girl and her dog walks off into eternity on the endless beach.
Well, maybe not eternity, but for at least a half hour.

Back into the car with an eye out for the flamingos that inhabit the island.  Turns out that you kinda have to be a local to know which of the many small sand/dirt tracks will lead you to where you can get a glimpse of them.  We didn't see a one after an entire day of criss-crossing the island.  Bummer.

We found out later that the Anegada wildlife authorities are fiercely protective of the flamingoes, and don't want tourists to molest them in any way.  Apparently that includes looking at them and/or taking their pictures.

A girl and her dog returns from the endless beach.  Thirsty,
no doubt.

The other famous beach on Anegada is Cow Wreck, which apparently gets it's name from a ship full of cow bones that wrecked near the beach back in the late 1800's.  For many years after the wreck, cow bones would wash up on the beach, or so the story goes.  We saw no cow bones on our beach trek, but it is one of the most beautiful beaches in the BVI, and perhaps one of the most beautiful beaches in the world.  Stunning.

One nice thing about this trip was that Iris has really blossomed into the beach dog.  Wades into the surf, runs along beaches.  She's nicely adapted...

Anegada, Night and Day

Thursday, May 26th, 2016  Setting Point, Anegada, British Virgin Islands

Last night we ate out for the first time in several days, and we treated ourselves to a local delicacy, lobster.  After consulting with friends that had recently been here (thanks Eric and Carolyn) we made reservations at one of the local restaurants/hotels that line the beach here in Setting Point, Neptunes Treasure.  

I see this sign now and start to drool 

Anegadan lobster ain't no Maine Red Lobster that most of us know.  The lobster is the Caribbean lobster, Metanephrops binghami.  The lobster tends to be bigger than the Atlantic coast lobster found in the US, and it typically doesn't have large claws that have a bunch of sweet meat in them.  Most of the meat in the Caribbean lobster is found in the tail.  

Tonight's dinner in a cage

Lobster in the islands is served in many ways (curried lobster, creamed lobster, lobster in butter, lobster thermador, lobster salad, lobster roll, stuffed lobster, surf and turf, lobster tacos, lobster salad, lobster...  O.K. Forrest, we get it), but the most typical local way to prepare is to grill it.   The lobster is cut in half and placed on a nice hot grill and 5-10 minutes later, viola!, tasty lobster on your plate.

Lil' Lobster Launch

And there you have it.  Lobster dinner, a glass of wine and thou.
Dad and Omar Khayyam would be proud.

The lobster was delicious and really made for a nice night on land enjoying the sites etc.  Definitely a must if you're in Anegada.