My name is Ken Wiseman. My wife Shannon and I bought a home in St Thomas, USVI in 2009. We have been coming down over the years, but in 2012 we shut down our very successful Real Estate Brokerage in Reno, NV to move into our home in St Thomas full time to live the dream in paradise! This is a blog about living in the Virgin Islands.
This past weekend we had our boat warming party as we just purchased our 2011 World Cat 320 CC, named the Louly III. We had 12 friends on board. We started out of the Compass Point Marina on St Thomas, stopped in St John to pick up some friends, checked into customs on the West End of Tortola and made our way over to Cane Garden Bay on Tortola.
Compass Point
A Little Champagne on the Bow!
Cane Garden Bay is a popular stop for cruise ship passengers when they visit Tortola. We were fortunate to visit on a non-cruise ship day. We were one of two boats and a handful of tourists that were staying near by.
We went to Myett's for lunch and sampled some of their homemade rum. Food there was typical Caribbean beach bar food. http://www.myettent.com/restaurant.htm
Followed by a walk down the beach!
Gather the troops and off for desert at Soggy Dollar Bar on Jost Van Dyke!
Sandy Cay
And then it is "Adios to Jost", that time of day.
It's weekend days like these that make you really appreciate how lucky we are to live here!
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.
As if the VI Beer Club sunset sail wasn't enough, last Sunday's trip over to Jost Van Dyke, BVI was another reason I live here. With a short 30 minute boat ride over to customs, check in and then over to White Bay!
Ivan's Bar was filled with large boats from Puerto Rico, so we headed over to Soggy Dollar Bar.
Lunch of Wahoo Quesadilla's at One Love.
A visit to see Mic at Soggy Dollar Bar for some painkillers and catch up on the gossip.
Float around....
And then it is time to say, "Adios to Jost".
I can see why Kenny Chesney wrote a song like When I See This Bar, there is nothing like Jost! Should I go again this Saturday?
Kenny Chesney has a new song on his new album Life on a Rock called When I See This Bar and many speculate that one of the bars referred to in the lyrics is one of his favorites, Ivan's Stress Free Bar. And why not, he filmed No Shoes, No Shirt at this bar and has become friends with Ivan. although in this video it appears to be Bomba's Shack on Tortola? Which bar do you think he is talking about?
Although Ivan is not around much any more due to him having Parkinson's Disease, Ivan's family is continuing on his tradition!
We took a day trip over from St Thomas on our boat with some friends last weekend to get our fix of Jost Van Dyke. On Sundays, the Soggy Dollar Bar becomes more like a spring break party anymore, with an influx of the younger crowd from St Thomas and St John, and along with that comes competing boat stereos with a mix of the day charters coming in all fighting for a spot on the beach. Not that I am that old, but having to constantly fend other boats off of your boat does not make for such a relaxing afternoon. Although we have walked over to Ivan's before, we thought we would spend the day there instead.
After we cleared customs we were able to pull right in, right in front of Ivan's and we were the only boat on the beach! There was a mix of several people, mostly couples enjoying the beach that were camping in tents or in Ivan's cabins. Yes, Ivan's is also a campground!
We had some beers and eventually made it up to the bar for some drinks and a lunch of cheeseburgers.
We had the bar to ourselves! After eating, we decided it was time for a walk to go visit Mic over at Soggy Dollar Bar for a Painkiller. You can walk from one side of White Bay over to the other. There is an old road that now has steps that goes up and over the rocks, but I would wear some sort of foot wear when you go over! There are some really great views on top of the path!
Now for an Original Pain Killer at Soggy and a quick hello to Mic!
Time to walk back to Ivan's
In the picture above is Ivan's and you can see our boat was the only one there at the beach!
It's that time of day
That we all knew would come To pay for all the rum And pull up anchor cause we're done It's that time of day I see a cotton candy sky So many colors in my eyes Proof again God's alive
This ain't a goodbye It's a "till I see you again" What a wonderful time We've all shared my friends Another day at sea Has come and gone away So adios to Jost Adios to Jost Adios to Jost
It's that time of day
Sometimes living here can be a real bitch at times, and many days you feel like that you sacrificed a lot to live in paradise, but a day at Jost and being able to go over there any day certainly makes up for it!
If you are ever down here and want a lower budget place to stay, and to escape it all then here is info for Ivan's, just click!
