Sandy Cay has always been one of my  favorite destinations in the BVI. It’s this picture-perfect icon of the deserted Caribbean Island. The white sand beach, the palm trees, the view – it’s no wonder that Sandy Cay has been featured in so many commercials and photo shoots.

The above photo is me in one of those photo shoots. A team of photographers were shooting in the Virgin Islands and had hired me to take them to Sandy Cay for a shoot. At the time, I needed some photos for my brochure for my boat charter business, so we traded services.

The male model didn’t show up. The shoot was for a  “mature” couple on the beach. Now “mature” means “old” and old in that world means over 35. The qualification for the male model was simple – over 35 and “no paunch.” Luckily I fit the bill and I was asked to fill in for the absent model.

It wasn’t as easy as I thought. I looked nervous, I was nervous, I was walking funny. The “mature” female model helped me out and eventually, I kind of got the hang of it. Let me tell you though, I had a lot of fun!

About Sandy Cay
Sandy Cay is a six-acre island located just east of Jost Van Dyke. At one time the island was owned by  Laurance S. Rockefeller, who kept it as a sort of private botanical garden. For many years, Nippy from Jost Van Dyke had the enviable job as caretaker of the island. Shortly before his death, Rockefeller donated Sandy Cay to the BVI and the island is now a nature preserve.

There is a nature trail that encircles the island from which you can enjoy dramatic views. The trail is relatively easy and the walk arount the entire island can be completed in about 20 minutes.

The Bubbly Pool is a small cove located on the north east of Jost Van Dyke. Because of its orientation to the north and west, it normally would be completely exposed to the large breaking waves, we call ground seas, generated from storms and low pressure systems that come from the North Atlantic in the winter. It would be exposed if it weren’t for a line of large rocks that block the entrance to the inner cove such that when a large waves comes rolling in, it steepens as the cove entrance narrows and then breaks over the line of tall rocks. The full power of the wave is broken and a rush of bubbling white water from the wave top enters the pool filling it with white, foaming, swirling jets of sea water, a natural Jacuzzi , so to speak.

I fondly remember the very first time that I went to the Bubbly Pool. I was operating a small boat charter business taking out small groups on “off the beaten track” boating adventures.  On this day I had a special group of clients I really wanted to impress, Tisha Campbell, Thomas Mikal Ford and Tichina Arnold costars of the then popular TV comedy series, “Martin.”

The day of the charter, was cloudy and cool and the ground sea was particularly strong, which wasn’t favorable for snorkeling or exploring remote beaches. I could see that my guests were not too happy about the weather and I decided that perhaps I could take them to Jost Van Dyke and spend some time with Ivan at his campground on White Bay, so off we went.

Maybe that wasn’t such a good idea after all, I thought, upon discovering that White Bay was just about deserted and the bay was all churned up and the skies were cloudy and threatening. Ivan was there, however, and he suggested a trip to the Bubbly Pool as the conditions for that experience were almost perfect. He gave me detailed instructions on how to get there and off we went.

Meanwhile my charterers were getting grumpy and even talking about calling it a day. There we were on the trail to the pool, which was overgrown with scratchy moran bush and I could see that my guests were getting more and more doubtful about the day and about me.

Then we got to the Bubbly Pool. It was wonderful! The waves were very big, but not so big as to be dangerous. This was a new experience for me as well as for them and we all got totally into the spirit of children at play.

The rest of the day went well also. We had a delicious lunch at Abe’s – Lobsters and conch, and then went to Great Harbor and hung out with Foxy.

Some weeks later I got a package in the mail from my new friends – a complete set of “home-boy” outfits from California along with a nice letter thanking me for what trned out to be their best day spent visiting the Virgin Islands.

In those days, the Bubbly Pool was really a secret as you would rarely, if ever find other people there, but now the Bubbly Pool is a British Virgin Islands  National Park and although touted as one of Natures Little Secrets, is not quite so secret anymore.

To get to the Bubbly Pool, go to Foxy’s Taboo at Diamond Cay on the East End of Jost Van Dyke. From there walk along the water’s edge until you reach the mangroves where the trail to the Bubbly Pool begins. It leads you through the mangroves and then up a small rock face to a field of maran bush.  If the pool is bubbling that day, that is if the ground sea is up, you will hear the roar of the waves entering the pool from the trail as you approach the pool.

Enjoy!

The above is a scan of a post card featuring Foxy’s Model Boat Race,” which came before the prime event, Foxy’s Wooden Boat Race,” a happening so popular and well known that it was featured on an official British Virgin Islands stamp

The young man with the beard is Ivan Chinnery, now proprietor of the Stress Free Bar and Local Flavour Campground on White Bay, Jost Van Dyke.

There’s nothing formal about Ivan’s establishment, but it’s oozing with charm and local flavor. Ivan, who I’m proud to call a close long-time friend, is one of the nicest guys, you’ll ever have the pleasure to meet. The bar and campground is frequented by in-the -know-sailors, natives, weekenders from St. John and campers from just about anywhere.

Ivan sings and plays the guitar and on many nights there are impromptu jam sessions, which every once and a while may include such celebrities as Kenny Chesney and Keith Richards.

Once upon a time I was planning on writing an Off the Beaten Track type book about Jost Van Dyke. For some reason or another the project never got off the ground – maybe some day – but going over my notes I discovered some interviews with Ivan dealing with his life and the backtime culture of the island.

For those of you who might be interested I now present this unedited collection of notes:

Interview with Ivan Chinnery 10/1/94

My name is Ivan Chinnery and I was born here March 27, 1943.

I have three brothers Joseph, Albert and Rudy. I have two sisters Evelyn and Ivy, Evelyn Sherman and Ivy Moses. My mother is Sarah Matilda Graham Chinnery. She farmed all her life.

This was the way of life for me that came to be around 1950. In those days the school population was 95 students. The Methodist Church in Great Harbour was used weekdays as a school. The highest grade was seven standard. There was no high school. That was it, you got a certificate, a graduation certificate, from seven standard and that was it.

Population of the island was around 600. There were two teachers. One of the teachers was my Godmother. She was from Batson Bay, above Sidney in Little Harbor. She liked to ring my ear, and she’d pinch you anywhere.

In those days our industries were farming and fishing.

Farming
Four or five men would get together and work one man’s cultivation. They would leave about 6:30 A.M. The wives would prepare the breakfast. Some of the wives who could bring it would bring it. Other than that the man who the work belonged to would go back to the house and bring the breakfast right on the job. And we would put in a good hardy days work. So when we finish cutting the pasture, the woods, we have what we call instant cultivation. And if you’re going to plant, when your turn come back again, then we would terrace. Then all the man would have to do is put his seeds, his seedlings, slips and all that in and instant garden going! That’s self help and cooperation that we had in those days. It was an extension of the way life used to be, because that is the way the people before us survived.

There were as many as eight hundred cows here. Princess Alexandrine Sewer owned over 100 head. Christian Callwood, Foxy’s father, owned about 100 head.

There was a trade in agriculture between the Islands. Agents from Tortola and Jost Van Dyke would buy pigs, cows, goats, potatoes, tomatoes, yams, pineapples, mangos, maubi bark, charcoal – you name it. They would load up their Tortola sloops and sail for St. Thomas, which had a booming economy in those days.

And we are talking about main culture men. Farmers, fisherman, Ezikiel Chinnery, Herman Chinnery, Christian Callwood, Ben Sewer and Abraham Millener, Princess Alexandrine Sewer’s husband.

Fishing
In those days there was no rope. whist, guard whist like that which grows in St. John. You would collect them for days on the dark moon. Twist three till you get to the end of one strand and then tie a knot. Then tie another and keep weaving till you have maybe 35 fathoms. The fish pots were made of whist. We would sometimes mix the whist with birch sticks. The traps would be weighted down with two stones. We didn’t have fish trap buoys then. When someone would go to St. Thomas, and they had a friend with WAPA, they would get old telephone poles and cut them and then quarter them and carve a neck to tie up to. They would last about six months and then they would get heavy. Then you would rotate them and put the old one in the sun to dry, and it would get light again.

In those days when we would catch lobster. We would break their backs with a stick and put them in the pots for bait. The butterfish, hind, oldwife and grouper that they attracted to the lobster were much more desirable then. Later when there was a good market for lobster, we would catch lobsters. When I was young there was no diving, as there was no diving glasses. We would hunt lobsters at night in the shallows. We used a coconut stalk and burn it, and have one ready when that one went out. It was very bight, and the lobsters would be attracted to it. We used a forked stick to pin the lobsters, and then someone would put them in a crocus sack.

Some of the men were farmers, and they would never go out in boats, but they would fish from the land. They would chum with soldier crabs pounded up with sand. The lobsters would come up and eat the chum and they would be able to catch them on hook and line. You had to pull them in fast as the lobster could file the hook and you would lose it.

A Hunting Story
It was winter, and the ground sea was so strong that you could hear it pound the cliffs on the north side. Enrique George was out on the north shore hunting goats with his two dogs. He didn’t return.

The next day we organized a search party and radioed Tortola for help. The police from Tortola found his shoes on Mutton rock. He probably took off his shoes for better footing when he went down with his dog after the goat. One of the dogs was also missing. A great wave from the ground sea must have washed him into the sea from the cliffs high above the north shore.

Walk to Mill Round with Ivan Chinnery 10/6/94

We meet Ivan at seven AM by Foxy’s. It’s quiet and people are sweeping up and starting their day. Sand flies; Skin so Soft works against them! Ceddy is there. Ivan’s daughter comes down the hill to go to school. The trail starts at the western end of Great Harbor west of Rudy’s Place. A lady is calling her goats and they come. Everyone is friendly.

This trail has been here since the days of slavery. It has been called Plantation Road. This is the Plantation Road that leads us over to Mill Round, one of the old mills where they used to process the sugar cane into sugar. So that’s where we’re headed now.

We pass an overlook. There we see a Maubi tree which has been totally stripped of its bark for the making of Maubi. This, (Ivan tells us) is the wrong way to get the bark. This will kill the tree. If the tree was cut back and the bark removed from the cut back pieces, the tree would live. It would be even more prolific in the production of new branches, and there would be even more bark for the Maubi.

Nearby is a Turpentine tree with a hollowed out area. There is a active beehive in the hollow. Ivan see’s some whist vine.

Remember I was talking to you about how line for fish pots was made. We take three of them together, and then we start twisting or lapping them over each other. Firstly we got to put a stop. These are straight veined. We twist this one to prevent breaking and tie a knot as a stop. After we make that we start to twist. When we get to the end of the shortest one we do when we make another stop for a rejoining. The stop also helps you to pull up the trap by giving you a good hold, that’s extra. We knot the new one and start again. And we will continue with that process until we get to about 210 feet or 35 fathoms. That was the average amount of line needed to set the fish traps.

To make the trap itself we split the whist down the middle. We usually get a big piece of sail canvas and put it on our knee. Then we get a good sharp knife and spilt the whist, and take the bark off the other side. Now we can commence to start weaving the fish trap. I don’t make them, but this will give you an idea about how it’s done. One of my brother makes them. As you can see there is mesh number one. This type of fish trap will catch more fish then the modern kind made of rebar and tying wire. Number one, it’s natural. Number two it sends off a natural fragrance which attracts them.

That rock we call it Sarah Rock. That entire mountain, we call it Hatchet Hill. Sarah rock up on top Hatchet Hill. Sarah is my mother’s name. See here where you see this piece of fence. She used to raise lots of goats. She is retired now and she’s ill. My mother farmed all her life. She was a farmer, one of the strongest farmers on this island, you know, and being a woman! She farmed all her life. She farmed from cows to goats… Come over here I’ll show you. Her last farming area was on the mountain, on the left ridge, up there. (He points to the ridge top way up on the mountain about 800 feet high.)

Look way up there in the valley to the right. That’s my farm you’re looking at up there. You see the huge trees up in the middle with the trail to the left. I scooped that out of the forest and made my farm. Those are avocados and mangos.

There used to be about 100 head of cows on the island. Now there’s only a few. Modern technology wiped everything out. The Pueblo the Grand Union the poli – tricks and the hypocrites. Now they can bring their frozen cows in from Miami. Little Jost Van Dyke and little Tortola are threats to their marketing thing. The cows got to go to the veterinarian now because they claim they got the fever. We’ve been eating them for centuries and all of a sudden the modern business come in and something is wrong.

(We come to Mill Round)
That structure you see is part of the old sugar mill. Welcome to Mill Round. We are going inside and we’ll do a little exploring. All this stuff was brought in by sea. The mortar was made from sand, coral rock water and molasses. You notice these bricks they come from England. There are three types, red, white and these with charcoal in them.

From here we can get a good look at the Atlantic out there. That island is Tobago and that there is North Side Bay.

Let me tell you about the church. The original church was made out of wood. It was blown down by the hurricane of 1924. Part of the roof was blown to St. John on the north shore. After that they built a new church in 1925. The year is engraved right there on the face of the church.

And that’s where I got my schooling, in that church. It was Methodist. John Wesley he move in. Methodism took over. That is our dominant religion. So that was a church and a school since 1925, until about the early 1970′s when the government built us a school.

After slavery the landowners gave the land to the people and went back to England. People survived by farming and fishing. All these hills were cultivated either for the grazing of animals or the raising of crops. In those days a lot of rain used to fall.

A lot of charcoal was made up here. You had to carry down charcoal on your back in crocus bags. Three or four five gallon pails will fit in one bag. They have what they call a cahtah. You know what a cahtah is? You get a towel and you twist it around like a wreath and then you use it for a padding. You put it on your shoulder and your head and then you put the charcoal bag on that. If you have a donkey, the donkey will carry two crocus bags at a time.

1975 I start my farm. You won’t believe the huge avocado and mango trees that are up there. Some grafted some from seed. My biggest mango weighed four pounds. There ain’t no way you could eat one. If you eat one, you don’t want no more, and you rest man! When I carry one of those size home, it shares for my family my wife and two girls. Four pounds, four people. It’s a hybrid from Puerto Rico. I got it from my good friend, John Gibney.

I have this one tree. She’s a Vietnamese mango. It’s from John. When they come and when I take them by Foxy’s, Foxy bar will buy any amount. It makes a great mango drink. Because there’s no hairs no fuzz, and the blender just melts them up. Oh man, you add a little rum, a little touch of the coconut, um! Nothing’ sweeter, nothing’ more delicious!”

(We walk by the well in Great Harbor. It’s surrounded by black rock and looks very old.) As you can see this is one of our original wells. This been here for 100s of years. It’s still intact. And that is spring water. Fresh water. Nice tasting water. If I had a bucket I’d drink some right now. It has all of the minerals.

(About the campground in White Bay) Actually I started clearing the grounds for this project in November 1991 and it took me about a year of landscaping, cutting and digging roots and burning. You had to use a pick ax for all these roots. After that year it took me another year to actually construct the buildings. I opened in February 1993.

So far people have been liking us, man. People like the idea of a campground here in White Bay on the beach. To me, my whole idea, my picture, was just seeing a nice place that everybody can come and enjoy right here. White Bay is the perfect place for all, all the people, nothing private. Everybody could come here. I’m the proprietor, and we’re going to make sure maintain it and we’re going to keep it nice for everybody to come and really enjoy the best of it. Ain’t no it’s my place, and you can’t swim here and you can’t swim there. It don’t matter. So here I am, and so far everybody loves this place. When I started out, I started out with two little huts and two tents and now I have six cabins and one tent. If you want to come and bring your own tent, we have a bare sight for you. Then we have toilets, showers; we have a kitchen where you can prepare your own food.

I spend nine and a half years in the service. Part of my military experience was being able to be stationed in Hawaii. When I went over there, I took a look at the pineapple fields and it really inspired me. I said, hey man this place is warm and look how much pineapples are growing here. It just really give me a spark. I can be successful at growing pineapples at home. When I go home, I can open up my pineapple farm. That is where I really get my whole insight from; just looking at the Dole pineapple farms over there. It was really inspiring to me. So after I came back in 1975, then I started to open up some lands that my family owned. It was about eight of us all together. Each of us had our own individual plots. From Foxy to Aisha to Junie or Herman to Ali Baba, myself, Raffy and maybe a couple of others. I can’t leave out Mr. Etien, Etien Chinnery, I really look up to him, he’s been farming over fifty, sixty years he’s still farming. So far twenty years now I’m in the business of farming. I’ve grown about 3000 pineapples as well as banana, avocados, guavaberry, guava, mangos, grapefruit, limes, soursop, sugar apples I got quite a variety of different fruits. After all of these things start coming, and it was more than I could eat, and I started selling them in the street. Then I found out a way that I could have my own place. I leased the land for Nature Basket from the government. My wife runs it, and I keep it supplied. So far it’s been working

This year 1994 is the most serious drought I’ve seen since I’ve been born. It was dry for almost eight months, no rain. Now in September we had quite a bit of rain, but its hold off now.

Royal Visit
Jost Van Dyke was a stop on Princess Alexandria of England’s State visit to the Caribbean. When she arrived on Jost Van Dyke with her secret service and retinue, there was a large banner over the dock at Great Harbour welcoming her. As she was walking west down the beach road toward Rudy, she stopped all of a sudden around the location of the Methodist Church. It was as if a spirit had hit her; the relaxed and comfortable, at home, feeling of Jost Van Dyke. She stopped and she took off her shoes. They were golden shoes. She continued on her way barefoot. At the end of Great Harbour the well organized plan was for her to turn around and go back to the dock and continue on her way. The princess bolted from her secret service people and bodyguards. She explained that she was not ready to leave. She wanted to buy some local pastry. She went to Miss Christine’s bakery, which was down by Rudy in those days, and she went inside and got some coconut cake, and when she was ready she bid a warm and genuine goodbye to the people of Jost Van Dyke. In the years following her visit she has written several letters thanking the citizens of Jost Van Dyke for there hospitality. The princess has said that her visit to the small island of Jost Van Dyke was the absolute highlight of her Caribbean visit.

by Gerald Singer www.seeStJohn.com
Last year Habiba and I met the Van Cliefs at Sapphire Bay on St. Thomas. We became close friends with a lot in common, not the least of which is the friendship between their son, Kai and our son, Jacob. They seem more like brothers than friends, which is how I feel about Ron and I.

Taking it one step further, I’d say the same about Habiba and Simina, being like sisters.

We’ve been talking about taking a trip together for some time and we finally settled on traveling locally.

We opted for a nice quiet getaway at a resort called Mango Bay on Virgin Gorda in the British Virgin Islands.

Ron Van Clief appeared in numerous Hong Kong Kung Fu movies in the 1970s. His character’s name, the Black Dragon, was given to him by Bruce Lee and Ron became the first African American martial arts superstar.

Among his many achievements, the one that impresses me the most, was his fight in the Ultimate Fighting Championship IV, full contact, no rules, at the age of 51.

Simina was a professional basketball player in her native Romania. She was a personal trainer when she came to America and now teaches physical education at Antilles school on St. Thomas

Habiba, Jacob and I made the journey from St. John in the US Virgin Islands all the way to Virgin Gorda in the BVI in our 15-foot Carib hard-bottom inflatable.

It was a beautiful ride!

We checked in with BVI customs and immigration at Sopers Hole (West End) on Tortola.

From West End, we continued around the north side of Tortola, past Apple, Carrot and Cane Garden Bays. After Cane Garden Bay, there is noticeably less development and the scenery is more natural.

We then past Brewers Bay and Shark Bay, now a BVI National Park preserve.

After Shark Bay we rounded the dramatic sheer cliffs of Rough Point, so named, I’m sure, for the unstable sea conditions produced by confused winds, currents and tides that cause steep tricky waves that seem to come from every which way.

The cliff walls are pockmarked by numerous small holes with openings about one square foot, which are populated by boobies and other seabirds who perch inside and use this inaccessible location to lay and hatch their eggs.

From Rough Point we continue down the channel between Guana Island and Tortola, passing by two of the most magnificent beaches in all the Virgin Islands, Trunk Bay and Rogue Bay, better known as Lava Flows for the sharp black lava-like rock field on the southern end of the beach.Past Josiah Bay, famous for its winter surf and then through the narrow passage at Monkey Point after which you can see the airport on Beef Island. On past Marina Cay, made famous in the book and the movie starring Sidney Pottier called My Virgin Island and past Great Camino Island where they are making a development that makes Sirenusa look like a low impact eco-resort in comparison.

Finally across the channel to Virgin Gorda, leaving the Baths and Spanish Town on the starboard and on to our destination the resort at Mango Bay.

The Van Cliefs arrived by ferry. We all reached Mango Bay within ten minutes of each other.

 

Our two-bedroom cottage was fully equipped, two bathrooms, full kitchen, air conditioning, satellite TV, beach chairs, floats and kayaks. The manager, Gino was friendly and helpful.

The white coral sand of the beach extended into the water for about 10 yards until the beginning of an extensive reef that stretched the whole length of the beach. Unfortunately, almost all the coral, mostly elkhorns and brain coral, had died and all that was left was their calcified skeletons colonized in parts with fire coral and algae. This must have been a coral wonderland when the reef was alive. Nonetheless, this is the state of affairs throughout the Caribbean with some reefs better off than others.

Well, we kayaked and swam and snorkeled and just laid around relaxing. We visited the Baths and had lunch at the Fat Virgin, our favorite restaurant on the island.

The highlight of the trip for me was when our three-year old son, Jacob, kayaked for the first time. He actually handled the paddles.

The downwind trip home was easy and comfortable.
It was a nice, easy getaway – and we plan to do it again sometime soon.

See a slide show of our Virgin Gorda trip photos

by Gerald Singer www.SeeStJohn.com

Yesterday Habiba, Jacob, my friend, Mario and his family left St. John in the US Virgin Islands and motored over to Jost Van Dyke one of the British Virgin Islands.

Arriving in Great Harbor, We checked into BVI Customs and then walked down the beach to Foxy’s.

I immediately saw my good friend, Foxy Callwood, lying in a hammock under the palm trees.

First thing, Foxy took me to see the Jost Van Dyke Preservation Society’s project, the building of a traditional island sloop. This educational and cultural project has been funded by private interests, including a $50,000 donation from country singer, Kenny Chesney.

Here are some links and photos of the partially completed sloop as well as some photos of the different woods used.

http://sloopnews.org
http://jvdps.org/sloop.htm

wood used for building