November 26 - Jost van Dyke, British Virgin Islands

Have you ever had one of those days when you just feel tired and like doing absolutely nothing?  Well, that’s me today.  I slept well but I’m dragging.  I guess if it had to be at any one of our stops, this probably was the best for it to happen.  This is one of the British Virgin islands and it’s only a little over 3 square miles in area.  Like many of the neighboring islands it is volcanic in origin and mountainous; because of the latter there was not a lot of farming, specifically sugar plantations, done on Jost van Dyke.

The Dutch were early settlers and it’s possible it was used as a pirates’ hideout.  The British captured the BVI’s in the latter part of the 17th century, but this island was largely ignored until the middle of the next century.  We know that because on a map of the British Virgins drawn up in 1717,  Jost van Dyke isn’t even shown nor is the little island next door, Little Jost van Dyke (poor island – it didn’t even merit a unique name).

This island is mainly a sailor’s destination.  There are a few nice beaches and  bars and stores which cater to sailboats which come here. Some of my fellow shipmates went ashore to go to a beach, but I had enough sun and sand yesterday.  Maybe that’s why I’m bushed today.

In September 2017 Hurricane Irma, a category 5, came through here and destroyed the island.  Much of the vegetation was stripped.  The school, almost all the houses and the only health clinic were destroyed.  The island had about 300 residents and for the first week after the storm they received little help from Britain.  The people pooled their remaining resources at a place called Foxy’s Tamarind Bar and Restaurant because it had the only generator and refrigerator left on the island.  They cobbled together a chainsaw to work on clearing the roads to get to the more remote parts of the island.  Isn’t that what we see so often when a catastrophic event occurs and people pull together to get through it?

We had trivia late this afternoon and we broke our winning streak; we tied for third because two teams had been the only ones to get a correct answer on a couple of questions and they got double points. That gives you a big advantage.  Here are two trivia questions for you to ponder. 1) What singer was known as "The Golden Foghorn?" 2) Who said I've never had an accident worth talking about?  I'll tell you the answers tomorrow. No cheating.

Tonight we’ll have our second formal night.  I don’t know how I did it, but somehow I missed seeing that we were having the first one on our second day on the ship.  I just didn’t see it when I looked at the daily program.  Fortunately, people don’t get as dressed up as they did in the past, so I didn’t look too out of place.  I brought something glitzy so I’ll dress up tonight.

As we sailed away at 2 PM out by the pool they had another event I've seen on every Seabourn cruise, the classical sailaway party.  The ship's singers serenade us with a mixture of classical arias and show music. All four of the singers are leaving when we get to Miami since it's the end of their contract on this ship, so this was their farewell performance. I'll try my hand at attaching another video here of part of one song they always include (and one of my favorites).