Labor Day Weekend in the Virgin Islands

Well, the end of Summer is here marked by that holiday known as Labor Day. Not that it really matters as it is Summer here year round.

September has to be one of my favorite months here in the Virgin Islands. First off, it is the start of football season. But most importantly, it is the height of hurricane season, which means that no one will come and visit this time of year even though the weather is really nice (last major storm was Marilyn in 1995) and as I sit here, there is a 13 mph breeze, 85 degrees at 1 PM and mostly sunny. All the WAFI's (Moorings, SunSail and other charter companies) are not sailing this time of year. What does this mean to us? Well, you can have most of the mooring fields and beaches to yourself.

So what to do on Labor Day Weekend? Spend Saturday getting all your household chores done, swimming in the pool with the dogs and catching some college ball.

Then on Sunday you head over to the Capella Islands or Buck Island National Wildlife Preserve. Not to be confused with the Buck Island in St Croix. These little islands are the ones you can see from the Marriott Resort when you look to the East and if you have ever stayed at the Marriott and done one of their snorkel tours, this is where they bring you. There is an old lighthouse on the island.

Then watch the Colorado Buffaloes beat Colorado State with an old school buddy. 

And on Monday, Labor Day you head on over to Jost Van Dyke and the Soggy Dollar Bar for a little RnR. This time, it was just the wife and I for a quiet relaxing day. We were surprised at how many neighbors to West were here to visit (I will have a whole other post on this, more like a rant). Mic the bartender was off, he has Mondays and Tuesdays off.  It was really surprising to see no rental sailboats around and the overall day was really quiet there. You had two St Thomas Frat Party boats blaring their house music, Visitors from the West, the two o'clock Bad Kitty/Breakaway tourist stops and a couple of other private boats. You know it is September when you get your Roti in 5 minutes from when you ordered it?

The best part of the day was around 4PM, everyone left and we were there with 8 other people! That was amazing, not to mention the ride home, which always brings me to play Adios to Jost when we pull out of White Bay.

What To Do in the Virgin Islands - Cooper Island, BVI

Since today is a cloudy and grey day, I thought I would post about a trip we made two weeks ago.

We all heard the story of how great Cooper Island and the resort there, Cooper Island Beach Club was and was on our bucket list. We were waiting for a calm day of which there hasn't been too many this Summer, which is a mixed blessing, nice to have breezes to keep things cool, but for boating makes for a rough day. We also had a deadline for when Shannon started her real Monday through Friday job.

That day came on a Thursday before Shannon started work on that Monday! Seas were forecast to be 1-2 feet. We are going, Cooper Island or Bust!

Out of the Compass Point Marina was surprisingly calm, Pillsbury Sound between St Thomas and St John which is usually rough, was good and through the north side of St John was a like a lake, glass!

We pulled into Sopher's Hole, Tortola, BVI within 30 minutes of leaving. This is where we cleared customs.

Cleared customs without a hitch, now on Cooper Island!

Seas were pretty calm, 1-2 feet and 24 MPH was no problem. On our way there, I saw Salt Island and remembered there was a wreck there, the RMS Rhone. So we motored over there, hooked up to a mooring ball. We were surrounded by all these dive charters, apparently it is one of the most frequented dive spots in the Virgin Islands. A little back ground on the Rhone:

The RMS Rhone was a royal mail steam packet ship that transported cargo between England, Central and South America, and the Caribbean. She was one of the first iron hulled ships, powered by both sail and steam. It sank in a hurricane when it hit a rock in 1867, killing 123 passengers and crew, with 23 surviving. It is in about 25 - 60 feet of water.

We donned our snorkel gear and watched all the divers below us. The wreck is pretty cool, saw the large propeller.

Now off to Cooper Island, 10 minutes away. There is a large, single finger dock there, but it had day charter boats docked, so we took a mooring ball off the beach.

Time for a little snorkel around the boat. It was some of the clearest water I have seen this close to a resort.

We waited until about 1:30 when all the day charters left to swim in for some lunch!

We essentially had the place to ourselves. The staff was amazing, all from the British Empire, English, South African, New Zealand. It was a refreshing change! Jacques our waiter was from S. Africa.

I had the humus wrap and Shannon had the Tuna. It was most excellent!

I tend to judge the quality of the beach resorts by the cleanliness of their bathrooms, and I must say, this bathroom was nicer than the one in our own house!



Time to head back to the boat, but first a stop at the table in the water to finish my pain killer!

It is getting late in the day, so we shove off and head back to St Thomas, going past the North side of Peter Island and Norman Island and the south side of St John. Let's not forget to stop at Salt Pond on St John for happy hour?

Cooper Island does have bungalow rooms and serves three meals a day. You can visit their website at: www.cooperislandbeachclub.com