MAR 20: Jost Van Dyke - 2nd Time

 

The vernal equinox was at 05:02, but when we got up this morning, there was no sense of Spring; it was just another warm, sunny day in the Caribbean.

Mid-morning, SIRENA took the Salt Island Passage to the Sir Francis Drake Channel. It was interesting to be so close to some of the islands on both sides of the ship.

Coming out of the north end of the channel, SIRENA passed over the top of Tortola, coming to anchor off Great Harbor in Jost Van Dyke.

Today, we went to White Beach, tendering ashore from the ship and then piling into a large open-air van.

Off we went, climbing steeply to a ridgeline, then descending equally steeply back down to the shore.

While settling in our chaises, we observed that the waves breaking on shore were sizeable. I went in to check the conditions and found them marginal. Once out past where the waves were breaking, it was easy to touch the bottom except when a large swell passed. There were some rocks on the bottom, making getting through the wave zone tricky. 

Going back ashore, I turned my head to determine the proximity of any big wave, only to have one tear off my sunglasses, even though they had a lanyard on them. I dove down to grab them, only coming up with a sand abrasion on one arm. Deciding the wave zone was too dangerous to risk a search, I went ashore. Wading in the water a while later, I caught a brief glimpse of them, but they were gone with the next wave. Since the sand and turbulence would have severely scratched the lenses within the first few minutes of losing them, recovering them would have been amusing but nothing more.

It was up and over the ridgeline again, then a tender ride back to the ship.

SIRENA hauled out her tenders and closed up the landing platform.

On the northern tip of Great Tobago Island, Watson Rock was receiving some good-sized swells that had traveled uninterrupted across the Atlantic.

Shot from a considerable distance with my cellphone.

SIRENA began to pitch and roll a bit. By dinner time, the elevators had depleted the supply of motion sickness bags. Pam & I had no trouble finding a lovely table on the back deck.