Nature's little secrets, recto-verso

The British Virgin Islands pride themselves as being “nature’s little secrets” for the numerous untouched islands it is composed of.

Despite their name, this country has nothing British, except maybe their car plate! The currency is USD, no English yachtsmen, no British accent, no tea time... Only Richard Branson owning two private islands there might bring a drop of British lordship. Actually we were wondering whether he had called his empire Virgin because of the Virgin Islands? If you have the answer... welcome!

What we’ve discovered during our 3+ weeks there is indeed astonishing, but we’ve seen the two-sided version of nature’s little secrets: both nature’s divine jewelry and its evil destruction potential.

This is a satellite view of Virgin Gorda before and after the "storm" - as they call it.

See how green it used to be?!

A devastated nature

7 months after hurricane Irma hit the BVI on September 6th, 2017, the extent of the damages is still amazingly prominent. Any walk you take in town, on the beach, you just shiver thinking of what it must have been… Trees are uproot or left without leaves, houses are torn apart, boats are all over the place, even sometimes ending up in some houses! The sea-bed is also devastated, corals and seashells lie dead at the bottom.

In Trellis Bay, we went onshore to see those boats closer. It sometimes seemed that boats were inhabited. You imagine that these owners are just trying to safeguard their assets and avoid robbers and looters while waiting for a solution to put the boat back to the water. But apparently from what we heard, some boats are doomed to being chopped into pieces, so you can pick anything you want. We didn’t dare…

On Easter, we went to mass in St Ursula on Virgin Gorda. We climbed up the little hill on top of which we had seen this sacred building covered with tarps to keep it dry. The assembly was huddled around a new alter at the back of the nave, where a piece of roof was still in place. The Polish priest - who had survived the hurricane and who admitted having had faith doubts - made a very moving homily around the meaning of the word “resurrection” and how believing in His and our raising was the only way out. In this landscape, it all made so much sense...

The fun thing about our Easter day was that at the end of mass, the priest almost forced all of us to leave with a pack of 10kg of rice and baked beans that had arrived too late to be distributed as first aid food. There were piles and piles and he didn’t know what to do with it! So our Easter lunch was a delicious energizing meal, with this special rice with added proteins and soya “packed with love by volunteers” :)

We met Heidi and her two children after mass. They are from the US and have been living here for the past 4 years. We spent a really nice week together. Heidi welcomed us warmly at home where children prepared a home-made piñata, played until exhaustion and took a warm shower. And little Lili spent some time with us on the boat where she discovered Aurore's favorite chimpanzee game!

In the frame of the Virgin Gorda Easter Festival there was a mega egg hunt organised at the town park. The children enjoyed all the free sweets and the traditional Hat parade !

The bright side – a jewel in the Caribbean

To our greatest delight, this usually very touristic place, full of charter boats, was not considered the ideal holiday destination this year! We found so many stunning places where we were all alone in paradise anchorages. And I really believe this is the only year we could have enjoyed it.

The Baths – this place is one of the wonders of the BVI, an entanglement of big granite boulders – reminding us strongly of Bretagne’s north coast – in which you find natural pools of turquoise water. We went twice, it was probably Augustin’s favorite place in the whole trip! Children were running around, hopping from one rock to other like little goats, jumping into the water etc. We’ve read that it’s usually so packed with people that you have to queue up to get a mooring for your boat, and then to move along the various passages between the rocks. Well, we spent twice a whole day and night on site! Including one special night together with Pontus alone in front of Fallen Jerusalem. A memorable evening of drinks and dance with the family!

Peter Island – this private island used to host a 5 stars resort and still has a wonderful beach with clear water. We met there with our friends from Penn Gwen and spent a couple of days with the beach for ourselves!

Little Jost Van Dyke - After a few very rolly days in front of the well known Soggy Dollar Bar* with Pontus, we moved to a beautiful wild anchorage in front of Little Jost Van Dyke with Penn Gwen.

* This bar takes its name from the fact that you can easily swim from your boat to the bar, and then end up paying your drinks with "soggy" bank notes.

Norman Island – We had met earlier with our friends from Cocolo, who had told us about the incredible snorkeling site of the Indians. We avoided the reknown and packed bay of The Bight and found Benures Bay to anchor safely. We spent almost a week there, snorkel at the Indians, fires on the beach with melted marshmallows and songs, great walks in this desert island and... Xavier's first very own fish!

We left on April 12th, after fantastic holidays to get back to work on the boat and prepare our big crossing to the Açores in St Martin. It's terrible to say, but we somehow enjoyed the Virgin Islands very much thanks to Irma.