The BVIs – On the Surface

I can’t end the news about the BVIs without talking about pirates and the Willy T. There is considerable “Aye Billie” history in and around the islands. Every nook and cranny, small bay and wayward beach makes one ponder about pirates, mates, wenches and sailing ships, loot and booty! And so I’ll share two stories with you – a short one about Blackbeard and a slightly longer one about the Willy T.

As we made our way down the Sir Francis Drake Channel (locals call it “The Drake”) towards Norman Island, we passed a couple of small islands tight to the northeast end of Peter Island. The story goes that Blackbeard had a dispute with fifteen of his men and they cried “Mutiny!”. He ordered them off the ship and delivered them to one of these small islands. As he deposited them on the beach, he told them to work out their dispute and tossed them a bottle of rum!

At some point, the abandoned men tried to swim to the closest island – Peter Island. Unfortunately, all of them drowned. Hence, that particular bay is named Deadman’s Bay and the following words and tune were born, “Fifteen men on a deadman’s chest; Ho ho ho and a bottle of rum!” I’m guessing Disney pictures and Johnny Depp did their own research when they filmed “Pirates of the Caribbean: Deadman’s Chest”! Many twisted tales continue to emerge from these islands.

We then anchored at Pirate’s Bight on Norman Island. We stayed there last year too but this time, we anchored closer to the Willy T. So what exactly is the Willy T ? Well, the name is short for William Thornton in honour of a scholar who lived in the BVIs and, in fact, claimed his fame when he designed the US Capital Building in Washington. The current vessel is the second of the series after the first sank and was hauled away in 1995.

So the s/v William Thornton II is a 100’ steel schooner anchored permanently in the bay on Norman Island. The bow is the restaurant area and it’s full of picnic tables – it can probably serve about 60 people comfortably. The stern is the bar area and there is plenty of activity going on there – no tables needed as the space is for the dance floor and people sit on the gunnels. There are only a few stools at the bar and atop the bar is a large bridge deck. Up until recently, you could get a free Willy T t-shirt if you jumped off the aft deck naked but there was some kind of incident a few years ago that was supposed to stop that. From what I can tell, the only thing that stopped was getting the t-shirt ‘cause I understand there are still lots of people jumping naked!

Anyway… the Willy T is only accessible by boat so the place has a dinghy dock and multiple dinghies on one side and a series of rafted 30'-40’ centre-consoled boats on the other. Every yachtie, mariner, boater and sailor who anchors in that bay visits the Willy T for cocktails and/or dinner during their stay. The locals from Tortola, especially Roadtown, add to the excitement on Sundays. The dress code is bathing suits, t-shirts and shorts. Many visitors arrive and/or leave barefoot.

You can go there for grub (freshly caught mahi mahi) but most go there for grog (and party and party and party). There are no servers – you get your drinks from the bartenders at the bar. The music is loud and the bartender stays until there is no one left standing. There is no running bar tab – you just negotiate the bill when you leave. Most visitors go there out of curiosity, drink plenty of margs and grog and eventually leave there thinking they are pirates, mates and wenches. Amazing what never-ending bottles of grog can do to your behaviour!

The Willy T also has plenty of entertainment – no live band but know this – every visitor has the opportunity to become the entertainment! For example, the bartenders are happy to provide you with temporary tattoos depicting the Willy T or skulls and crossbones. I have concluded though that the bartenders only apply the tatts on the ‘wenches’ and there are only two choices for location – either on the boobs or on the buttocks!

To add to the entertainment, there is a short water ski that has been modified to hold 4 shot glasses – it’s called the “Shotski”! It is located right behind the bar and is easily accessible to one of the two bartenders. On request or suggestion, the bartender grabs the ski, fills each of the four holes with over-sized shot glasses and fills them with some kind of liquor – most often tequila. Then, four soon-to-be pirates and/or wenches stand abreast, lift the water ski, position their faces accordingly and simultaneously do the shooters – this group event is called “Synchronized Swilling”! Keep in mind the beam of the Willy T is only about 20' wide so when I say 'group event', I mean every person present is participating in some manner – mostly by cheering on the four ‘swillers’!

And n’er forget the entertainment opportunity for a wench to position herself on her back atop the bar, remove her bikini top, have whipped cream applied by the bartenders in precarious locations! This is followed immediately by one or more other wenches lining up to lick the whipped cream. (Their Mothers would be so proud!) All of this just encourages onlookers to be even more enthusiastic in their support! All the while there are pirates and wenches dancing wildly to the music which, I might add, increases in volume as the evening closes in.

Here is a picture of the Willy T in the daytime - I chose NOT to post any of the photos I took as the evening progresses:


Should you wish to learn more about the William Thornton II Floating Bar and Restaurant, just go to their website: www.williamthornton.com . There are plenty of photos there – keep in mind the photos are posted by visitors and not by the crew! When you Google the Willy T, you will see many links to You Tube, Travel and Trip Advisors, Yacht Guides and general travel mags. It’s just a place where things start off calmly and have a high risk of ending up outrageous! It was a great time!

So… now you know more about Blackbeard and the Willy T - all of which happened 'on' the surface - except I guess for Blackbeard's men who were good pirates but apparently not good swimmers.

Hope you have enjoyed this and the last three blog entries on our trip to the BVIs! But, as I said earlier, a lot has happened in January and I’m eager to share a few of those events with you. There was the ‘street party’ on New Year’s Eve, my participation in the 27th Annual Longest Causeway Run, Johnnie’s ‘Birthday Bash', flying in a small plane around South Padre Island and taking Spanish and Zumba lessons (not together). And, last but certainly not least, there are Johnnie’s fishing experiences.

More to come in the next few weeks. Stay tuned… m.

The BVIs – Above and Below the Surface

(Sorry I haven’t been back earlier but January has been much busier than we ever expected. It started with our New Year’s Eve ‘street’ party followed by a slew of fun events that have kept me away from the keyboard. Today and tomorrow, I plan to finish off the news about our BVI trip. I want to complete these two pieces so I can start to share some January ‘happenings’. So, here we go… )

For whatever reason, we are just naturally destined to spend our vaca time around the water. The sooner I am either on the water or in it, the happier I am. The single best-ever day for me is to get out of bed in the morning, put on my bathing suit, spend the whole day in the water then peel my bathing suit off at night to put on my nightie and finally climb back into bed. And this is what made a number of days so great for me on our BVI trip – both above and below the surface.

Now I’m not sure if you’ve ever heard of Stand Up Paddle (SUP) boards - I hadn’t heard of them either until Jimmy and Amanda introduced us to them on this trip. After years of kayaking and more recently kite-boarding, both Jimmy and Amanda took to the SUPs with no trouble. So this is a photo of a good SUP-er (Jimmy):


Despite all my swimming, water-skiing and boating over the years, I have zero experience with this kind of board activity. After several hours of trying, this is the best I could do – trust you recognize me:


Maybe the next time I try to SUP, I’ll be able to actually stand up! After all, they are not called Kneel Down Paddle boards!

On to snorkelling… it is one of my fav things to do – especially in salt water – so easy to float on the surface and just gaze on the marine world below. John likes it a whole lot too.

So Jimmy and Amanda took us the "Indians". This group of small islands is a close-knit set of rock formations jutting directly into the air 60 feet – like fingers reaching up out of the water. At any one time during the day, there are numerous catamarans and sailboats anchored or moored there. It’s a fav place for people to snorkel and dive. It is not a safe place to stay overnight so boaters and sailors tend to go there for the snorkelling experience and then move on to another location to overnight. The afternoon we went to the Indians in the tender, we were so lucky ‘cause there was no one else there – we had the place to ourselves. We hooked up to the mooring lines installed just for dinghies and dropped backwards over the sides of the zodiac into the water. We swam around the rock formations for about an hour gazing at the sea life below - it was incredible!

On our last afternoon in the BVIs, Amanda and I snorkelled right off the stern of the catamaran in Great Harbour on Peter Island. And, earlier in the week, we snorkelled at Money Bay on the other side of Norman Island. Here’s a photo of the bay from above (beautiful, don't you think?):


No matter how or where you enter the water, sea life abounds. Here’s a short list of what I saw on those three snorkelling trips:

• Sergeant Majors
• Midnight (purply blue) and Queen (yellowy green) Parrot fish
• Angelfish
• Barracuda (only one)
• French Angelfish (vertical stripes when they’re young)
• French Angelfish (stripes become spots as they become adults)
• Queen Conch shells (with their protective spiny coatings the size of your head)
• Sea Urchins
• Black Durgons
• Tarpon and plenty of coral – sea fans, brain coral et al.

What made my heart race wildly though was seeing a Southern Stingray – my first time in their world. And just when I thought that seeing one was the best thing EVER, I saw another one! Just watching them beneath me was too beautiful. They were following each other, waving the tips of their wings and gliding inches above the sand bottom. You know there are times your snorkelling buddy is right there beside you and sees the same thing as you at the exact same time. More often, there are moments that you just need to enjoy on your own – it was a truly personal experience interacting with such incredible sea creatures. I’d say I'm a pretty lucky girl.

Hope you enjoyed this piece about being 'above and below' the surface. A concluding piece on the BVIs follows tomorrow about being ‘on’ the surface with a story about Blackbeard and some observations about the infamous Willy T… m.