Virgin Islands

david_barradavid_barra NYCharter Member
edited January 2013 in General Discussion
There are a million possible swims in the USVI and BVI.... but there is one that has been on my mind for a few years.
St John is about 25 miles around. That distance is +/- depending on whether one swims “island side” or “ocean side” around a few of the cays of St John. At first glance, it would seem logical to swim the island point to point, and inside of the cays, but an exploratory swim last year from Maho Bay to Cruz Bay had Lennart Larsen and I facing some really strong currents between Hawksnest Point and Ramgoat Cay. If we had a support vessel, it would certainly have been better to have taken the wider route around Ramgoat and Henly Cays. Another factor in choosing a route is the prevailing wind direction... they don’t call them the trade winds for nothing. I could imagine conditions that might lead a swimmer to seek the lee inside of the many bays thus adding miles to the point to point google maps route.

On January 6th (weather permitting) I’ll be doing a 10ish mile swim covering most of the southern and eastern portions of St John. Ideally this will be a 3 point route.... Bovocoap Point to Ram Head to Privateer Point and all deep water; 65-90’.

I think this section will be the crux of a circumnavigation and with my familiarity of the northwest part of the island.... Waterlemon Cay to Cruz Bay, will leave what I think will be a couple of manageable sections to link together.

The plan is to attempt a counter clockwise loop sometime in March-April this year.

There are a few other Virgins that offer similar distances around:
Anegada +/- 24 miles
Virgin Gorda +/- 24 miles
Tortola +/- 28 miles
Jost Van Dyke +/- 12 miles
Peter Island +/- 9.5 miles
Norman Island +/- 7.5 miles
etc

...anything worth doing is worth overdoing.

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Comments

  • I can vouch for island currents! hmmm, seven swims ... will that week be in 2014 or 2015?
  • david_barradavid_barra NYCharter Member
    So on Jan 6th Willie, Clare and I met up with Captain Bazza and Buoy Boy at Maho Bay where we were staying and participating in a Total Immersion open water camp. It was a windy night... had been windy most of the week, so we weren’t expecting great conditions. I was fine with this since its always good to see what things might be like.
    We headed east toward and around Cruz Bay... Buoy Boy was taking a bashing with waves consistently breaking over the bow and drenching everything that wasn’t in the cabin. Bazza is giving me a rundown of where I should swim for the circumnavigation... suggesting that I cut close to Moravian Point (the western most part of St John) even though an escort boat would would have to stay about a quarter mile away due to shallow reefs. A few more miles, and we were at Bovocoap Point. The boat was rocking, so we pulled into the calm in Devers Bay to prep for our swim. The first leg would be into the wind... 20 knots to Ram Head, a 99 degree heading, then 47 degrees to Privateer Point.

    The +/- 6 miles took us 3.5 hours, and we were getting stopped by strong currents at Ram Head. We might have had better success if we deviated from the idea of point to point and diverted into the bay to duck out of the wind.... oh well, this was only a test. Willie and I decided to call it here. We headed to Skinny Legs in Cruz Bay for lunch and Bazza motored back to Maho to drop us off. The ride back was slow going, and the waves continued to hammer us. Its amazing how different the conditions were on the other side!

    Conclusion:
    More data needed to plan this circumnavigation.... but I’m closer.

    ...anything worth doing is worth overdoing.

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