We liveaboard cruisers benefit from the availability of the many yachting services these charter yachts bring, but in other ways our relationship to them is not so comfortable. The great majority of people are here on a short but already very expensive holiday, so do not worry about dropping extra bucks on moorings, marinas, restaurants etc. As a result the BVI is the dearest cruising ground in the Atlantic, perhaps the world. Charterers are not expected to be good at anchoring, and so many of the best anchorages have become totally choked with mooring buoys laid by entrepreneurial beach-bars and costing $25 per night. Attempts by live-aboards to be price-conscious, for example by anchoring in among the moorings, or asking the price of items on the beach-bar menu before ordering, are not appreciated by the locals, who regard us pretty much as the marine equivalent of trailer-trash.
As we found in the Grenadines, it can be difficult for a live-aboard couple to socialise easily with the charterers, who often bring their own friends with them. For that reason we were extremely pleased to bump into Dave and Hazel on Ros Ailither, who we'd met a year ago in Portugal and then again in Tenerife, now on their way south. We had a very jolly Christmas together, partying at Foxies’ beach bar on Jost Van Dyke, then seeing off our hangovers next day with a snorkling and further beach-bar expedition to the next bay along.
United States Virgin Islands
USVI and BVI may be geographically intermingled, at one point being less than one mile apart, yet to cross over is like passing through the Iron Curtain. While BVI is bustling with charter yachties from every country, the paranoid Americans will only allow Canadians and a very few favoured others who have managed to get visas, to enter USVI with a yacht. The result is that suddenly there are far fewer yachts. The charter yachts can’t cross over, and there are only small bareboat charter operations in USVI. The two marinas on St Thomas both aim strictly at the superyacht class “We have to charge for a minimum 80ft berth” the more modest-looking one told us. We declined. And we were surprised to see the once extensive moorings in the main harbour of Charlotte Amelie were much thinned out. USVI is the only country we have visited which actually seems to have fewer yachts now than nine years ago. |
The real business of USVI is to cater for cruise liners. When we arrived at Charlotte Amelie there were no fewer than six, including the “Queen Mary 2”. So there were more people from the cruise liners than actual residents. The town was thick with overweight, jostling passengers, nearly all American. What draws them is that Charlotte Amelie is a free port, a glitzier version of Philipsburg on Dutch St Maarten, where all the world’s consumer goods are available at a discount. Curiously though, the only thing actually for sale on the main street is jewellery: almost every shop is a jeweller – dozens of them. No prices are ever marked on the glittery items in the windows, only the discount. “Forty percent off” shouts a barker outside one shop. “Seventy-five percent off” counters another. And everywhere we are asked “Which ship are you off?” |
Touchdown in Charlotte Amelie harbour.
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If we named one, they would whisper confidentially “You're in luck, we have a special deal with your ship”, and we would be led like lambs to the slaughter. But when we say “None of them”, they turn away bored, in search of more promising material. Indeed the cruise passengers seem into flock to the shops, barely able to curb their enthusiasm. The jewellery looks tawdry, low quality bling, but then we never did have any taste.
To slate St Thomas does not do justice to other islands in the group. Most of St John is maintained as a national park and is a very attractive cruising ground – if you don’t fall foul of the multiplicity of rules. You are supposed to go to the “Visitor Center” first, to pick up the full list. After Charlotte Amelie we headed out to Water Island. Everyone in Honeymoon Bay had been kicked off their moorings because a scene for the new Johnny Depp pirate film was being shot there. “Just for a day”, they had been told, but it had been four days and evidently Mr Depp hadn’t yet shown up. So we moved on to Flamingo Bay with the other evacuees. Rebellion was brewing and an unscripted pirate sacking of the film set seemed in the offing. We spent a pleasantly drunken evening plotting with ringleader Bill (and dog Lupy) on his yacht Aberrant. |
