Sadly, this is our final full day on Souls Calling. But in many ways, we’ve saved the best for last!
White Bay, Jost Van Dyke, and the Soggy Dollar Bar
We woke up to the quiet and beauty of White Bay, with only a few other boats there. The first activity was for the kids to snorkel the bay looking for “soggy dollars” – a lot of people lose dollar bills when swimming to and from their boats, and it’s fun to try to find them. We collected $7, and saw a beautiful stingray swimming along the bottom, as well as many other fish.
We then took a walk down the beach to the eastern end, which is pristine and much quieter – a perfect walk to reflect on the past week at the BVI.
This beach is also home to “Ivans Stress Free Bar” – which has thousands of shells incorporated in its construction and is, well, stress free.
We continued our walk to the end of the beach and climbed the hill to get a good view of the magnificent White Bay panorama.
Back to the Boat, it was time to hit the Soggy Dollar Bar (and t-shirt shop). It was quiet in the early morning, which gave us the time to enjoy the hammocks and beautiful views of the boats.
We spent the entire day at the White Bay, including lunch and the requisite “painkiller” drink, which was created there, and watched the scene of dozens of boats arriving, partying, then leaving a few hours later.
It is clear why the Soggy Dollar Bar always makes the top 10 list of the world’s best beach bars.
Back to the Bight
In order to get to Road Town by noon tomorrow we wanted a short final sail, so we headed back to the Bight, Norman Island, in the late afternoon.
The route passes the West End of Tortola, with a nice view some of the villas and Soper’s Hole, then past St Johns to Norman Island.
We anchored in the Bight and Captain Alex saved his best surprise for last. He invented what he calls “Halyard Jumping”, where he attaches a water ski handle to the halyard, then another line to his dinghy. The jumper gets in the water next to the boat, grabs onto the water ski handle, and then Alex floors the dinghy away from the boat. Physics prevails, and you are vaulted out of the water approximately 50 feet in the air, for an exhilarating ride and view of all the boats in the Bight. You can choose to jump, or simply ease back into the water.
Alex keeps this for last, because it gets rid of the last day blues, and he knows that if he did it on the first day, that’s all the kids would want to do!
Halyard jumping was a fantastic treat for the last night, then a beautiful lasagne dinner prepared by Carla. The perfect final day in the BVI!
Tomorrow – the final sail back to Tortola, and reflections on an incredible week in the BVI.
