SwimVacation’s very first trip was in April of 2008, right here in the British Virgin Islands. I had a vague idea of what I wanted SwimVacation to be, but not much beyond that. I had chartered a crewed yacht, meaning it came with a Skipper, chef, deckhand, and all the food and beverage we could possibly consume in a week. The boat was the venerable trimaran Yacht Promenade. The Skipper was a Brit named Richie, his partner, the chef, Lisa. I am looking at them right now, here in 2021, more than 13 years and dozens of trips later. On that first trip, Richie immediately understood what I was trying to do, and helped me establish our swimming routes, most of which we still use to this day. Lisa set the standard for food and beverage, and it’s only gone up from there.

We’re back in our home waters of the British Virgin Islands this week, a tiny outpost in the Eastern Caribbean, renowned for its fantastic sailing and nicknamed God’s Swimming Pool, an accurate description. The BVIs are home to some very resilient people. Many are the descendants of slaves brought here mostly by the Dutch, then left to fend for themselves in the mid-1800s when slavery was abolished. A couple hundred years of British rule followed, though they were mostly ignored as a fairly worthless backwater of a territory until the 1970s, when sailors started to take interest. Hurricanes are a constant threat, and hurricane Irma, the strongest ever recorded in human history, devastated the islands in 2017. Recovery has been slow but steady, interrupted rudely by a global pandemic.

Our bareboat this week is named Tulkas, a 54-foot, one year old catamaran. It has 6 guest rooms and 2 crew rooms, all with their own bathroom. There are 2 refrigerators with freezers and ice makers and chilled water in the doors. A huge galley. There’s a LOT of deck space fore, aft, and up a level at the helm. It’s a lot of boat.

*TWO (2) TWO!! Full fridge freezers has Chef Lulu drunk with joy.*

We will not have our pro deckhand Zack this week. He may have been exposed to the CoronaVirus, and out of an abundance of caution, he will spend the week back in Maine. We will miss him greatly. Heather and I will try to pick up some of the slack, and we’ve been practicing our clove hitch and bowline knots all morning.

Getting our remaining crew to the Islands was a bit of a trick, with varying and rapidly changing testing requirements and with the airlines still trying to figure things out. There have been some delays but we’ve built in enough buffer to get everyone here on time.

One of the highlights of our arrival here was a little reunion with me, Heather, Richie, Lisa and Kerry, the former owner of Yacht Promenade. We swapped old stories and drank the local version of rum punch, just as strong as Grenada’s but built with a floater of rum rather than blended. Effective.

Richie and I headed to the Chicken Van, which is an assemblage of shacks and trucks that serve jerk chicken and ribs that are out of this world. Even better is the scene - islanders of all ages dancing to Caribbean rhythms, playing dominoes, drinking beer. I’d been looking forward to this night for a long time, and it didn’t disappoint.

Hopper really captured the scene with these Chicken Van photos!

At this point, we’re prepping the yacht for our guests: Lisa is peeling vegetables, Richie is getting the boat briefing from the marina guy, Heather is setting up gear, and I’m finishing this blog up for the day.

Guests at noon!

Hopper

The Chicken Van and God's Swimming Pool.

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