BVImusic.com introduced me to Quito Rymer. He is known as Tortola’s most famous musician. If you haven’t had a chance to visit Quito’s Gazebo and see Quito play you are missing out. Quito’s Ole Works Inn and Quito’s Gazebo Restaurant are located in Cane Garden Bay on the beautiful island of Tortola in the British Virgin Islands.

Growing up on Tortola, in the beautiful B.V.I. where he was born, Quito has always been in tune with his island and its rich culture. He first found expression for his natural, artistic talent through painting and drawing. His musical career began in the church halls of Cane Garden Bay. As a young man, through trial, error and observation, he taught himself to play the guitar. With considerable original music to his credit (he composes both lyrics and music) he continues to share his appreciation of “Natures Little Secrets” with the world. Along with his band, “The Edge”, he has opened for appearances by Third World, Freddie McGregor & Ziggy Marley and has appeared many times on US television. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, hear Quito Rymer play solo as guests enjoy their dinner and drinks overlooking beautiful Cane Garden Bay and on Fridays and Saturdays hear Quito Rymer and The Edge play for a crowd ready for dancing and singing at Quito’s Gazebo.

Cape Air leaving Beef Island with Quito Rymer singing “Caribbean Run”

To date Quito has released:
Quito Rymer – Reggae Express
Quito Rymer – Mix Up World
Quito Rymer – Searching
Quito Rymer & The Edge – Paradise
Quito Rymer – Caribbean Run
Quito Rymer & The Edge – Iron Strong
Quito Rymer – Quito unplugged
Quito Rymer—Cool Water

If you wish to purchase some of Quito Rymer’s music please visit his website here.

Enjoy the sound of the island Castaways,

Cheers,
RumShopRyan

Music Monday is upon us and Salt Life Sound brings you a little ditty about PainKillers, white sand beaches, Soggy Dollars and some guy named Ivan. I of course am talking about Jost Van Dyke in the British Virgin Islands. Looking for fantasy island? Jost just might be the closest thing.

Adam C. Dell, lead singer of Da Tree Men, wrote the music and lyrics of this song, “Jost Van Dyke.” It’s a great song that puts you in the mood for those lazy days swaying in the hammocks at the Soggy Dollar Bar sipping on famous PainKillers.  Da Tree Men are working on more great island songs and looking to put an album together soon.

If you’re looking for more great island music check out BVImusic.com.

Da Tree Men debuted the song at The Elm in Cane Garden Bay on Tortola July 4, 2010.

Let me know what you thought!

Cheers,

RumShopRyan

We finally get to one of my favorite islands in all the Caribbean, Jost Van Dyke.

No island in the British Virgin Island has a better handle on the beach bar culture than Jost Van Dyke. True, this island’s beach bars may seem like the stuff of fantasy, but they are as real as the water is blue. Ass in the sand, a cold drink in your hand, the low hum of calypso, and an abundance of islan cheer—that is the Jost Van Dyke beach bar.

It is never too early to go pub crawling, and if you arrive at a bar that seems closed, don’t fret. Just help yourself. Many bars on Jost employ the honor bar system, and nothing embodies the generous spirit of the island better than this. (Don’t forget to leave your payment on the way out.) Invariably, the afternoon hours, from 3 p.m. until sunset, are the best time to visit a beach bar. That is when you are sure to find a few new friends at the bar and some fitting calypso music in the background.

Did someone say Painkiller? This concoction of rum, pineapple juice, coconut, and nutmeg is the quintessential island cocktail and goes perfectly with Jost Van Dyke’s laid-back feel.

Bar Hopping on Jost

You will need a boat to navigate a course from bar to bar. A good starting point is Foxy’s Taboo. Taboo is actually a bit removed from the beach; it is built on a wooden platform overlooking Diamond Cay and Little Jost Van Dyke.

Next, set sail to Little Harbour and stop at Sidney’s Peace and Love and Harris’ Place, beach bars separated only by a narrow strip of white sand—ideal for children. These places are generally quiet and uncrowded. Bring your own entertainment.

The Famous Foxy

Great Harbour has the greatest number of beach bars, and you can explore them sans shoes. Sail into the harbor, pick up a mooring, and dinghy in to the shore. Foxy’s Tamarind Bar on the eastern end of the harbor is the biggest and best-known of these. T-shirts left (or lost) by previous visitors grace the walls, and you can study the business cards of casual pirates who succumbed to Foxy’s Painkillers and piña coladas. There is live entertainment on weekends, and Foxy sings calypso some afternoons. When you’re ready for a change of scenery, wander down the main drag at Great Harbour, and you will also find Ali Baba’s, Corsairs, and Rudy’s.

Ivan's Stress Free Bar

Save the best for last: Jost Van Dyke’s quintessential beach bars are at White Bay. Start at Ivan’s Stress Free Bar, next to the White Bay Campground. Mix your own cocktail at the honor bar, enjoy it out on the beach, and then head down to the Soggy Dollar Bar, the supposed originator of the Painkiller. Sip your drinks with you feet in the water or relax in the hammocks, either way you will never want to leave.  Soggy Dollar has a great webcam that lets day dreamers take sneak peeks into what they are missing.

Have you been to Jost Van Dyke? What is your favorite beach bar?

Cheers to fantasy island,
RumShopRyan

Happy Mother’s Day to all the wonderful mothers out there. I’d like to wish my mother a happy Mother’s Day, she deserves it for putting up with me for all these years.

Maybe you can take your mom to a tropical resort paradise like the one in this weeks Island Webcam series. I’m she would be most appreciative and would love for you to be her cabana attendant that never let’s her drink go dry.

The Leverick Bay Resort and Marina is located in Virgin Gorda, the third largest of the British Virgin Islands. Known as the newest seaside recreational complex, Leverick Bay Resort and Marina, is lapped by the pristine waters of a magnificent blue lagoon best known as “North Sound”.

Leverick Bay Webcam

Web cam view from above Leverick Bay looking North across the Leverick Bay Resort and Marina and North Sound to Anegada.

This web cam updates about every fifteen minutes during daylight on Atlantic Standard Time. Check the time stamp in the lower left hand corner of the picture to see if it is current.

If you revisit this site periodically, be sure to Refresh your browser to be sure to load the latest images.

Webcam is located in Leverick Bay, North Sound, Virgin Gorda, British Virgin Islands (BVI), Caribbean.

We’ve been focusing on the dreamland known as the British Virgin Islands for the past couple weeks. Each one has it’s own unique personality and terrain, which is a big reason people continue to visit year after year.  We have yet to dive into the party that is Jost Van Dyke which is my favorite BVI. Stay tuned!

My question to you is…which is your favorite? Leave a comment below and tell us why this island speaks to you.  Tell us what your favorite beach on this island is. Tell us your favorite place to eat is. Tell us a favorite memory you’ve had while on this island. Tell us why you love the British Virgin Islands.

We all look forward to hearing your BVI stories!

Over and out from somewhere south,
RumShopRyan

Cooper Island is a small island of the British Virgin Islands in the Caribbean. There are four privately owned properties on the island, plus a small beach club resort.

The webcam is located at the house at Quart-A-Nancy Point. It is one of only a few private homes on Cooper Island. It was built in the 1960s and 70s as an artist’s retreat.

The island lies adjacent to “wreck alley”, a popular wreck diving site in the British Virgin Islands where a number of vessels have been deliberately sunk as dive sites.

The Little Sisters is an informal name for a group of some of the smaller islands of the British Virgin Islands, south of Tortola and southwest of Virgin Gorda.

• Norman Island
• Pelican Island
• Peter Island
• Salt Island
• Cooper Island
• Ginger Island
• Carvel Rock
• Dead Chest Island

A boaters paradise.

Over and out from somewhere south,
RumShopRyan

Directly across the Sir Francis Drake Channel from Road Town, Peter Island is the home of the luxurious Peter Island Resort, a fine upscale, newly renovated resort. This island has a rich past of famous pirates, plantations and one man’s private paradise.

Once Spain claimed the region, outlaw privateers routinely attacked her ships, homeward bound with riches from the New World. The hilly Virgin Islands, with countless nooks and bays, proved ideal hiding grounds for buccaneers like Henry Morgan, Sir John Hawkins, and Sir Francis Drake, whose name claims the channel between Peter Island and Tortola.

Dead Chest Island

Dead Chest Island, the visual focal point of Peter Island’s Deadman’s Bay, is the storied site where Blackbeard marooned 15 mutinous men with only a sword and cask of rum — spawning the musical memoir “Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum.” The bay is named for the unlucky souls who washed up on its shores. Nearby Norman Island is thought to be Robert Louis Stevenson’s “Treasure Island,” and scavengers still scour its caves for buried treasure.

In the late 17th century, pirates gave way to planters when a group of slave traders from Brandenburg, a small German state containing Berlin, first settled Peter Island after plans to build a plantation on St. Thomas failed. Initially, the Brandenburgers intended to build a warehouse and start a large settlement. They built forts around the island to protect it from the Danes, who controlled St. Thomas and other Caribbean islands.

In the meantime, the Danes ordered Colonel Codrington, governor of the Leeward Islands, to prevent Germans from settling any of the Virgin Islands. He eventually drove the Brandenburgers out of Peter Island.

Although the sugarcane plantation boom at the turn of the 18th century passed over Peter Island because of its unsuitable soil, several Tortolan planters with slaves successfully introduced cotton. Soon after the first harvest, the plantations expanded and required more slaves. Little more was known about this period in Peter Island lore until historians recently discovered an old trunk in a dusty garret in London. The findings included a batch of letters chronicling a fascinating story of Peter Island in the 1770s.

Peter Island Resort

In the late ’60s, Norwegian millionaire Torolf Smedvig fell in love with Peter Island and purchased most of the land. He shipped a set of luxury A-frame chalets to the island from Norway, and assembled them on Sprat Bay along with a clubhouse and marina, which became Peter Island Resort. Smedvig operated the British Virgin Island resort until his death in the late 1970s, at which time two Michigan-based entrepreneurs purchased it. Peter Island is now privately owned by JVA Enterprises.

Peter Island Dead man's beach

Today, Peter Island draws guests to its romantic seclusion, its untouched beauty and world-class resort atmosphere. Named one of the “Best Places to Stay in the World” and “Top 20 Islands” in the world by Conde Nast Traveler, the private resort recently completed an extensive, multi-million dollar renovation to recapture the charisma and natural charm exclusive to the British Virgin Islands. (This information came from www.peterisland.com)

This weeks island webcam comes from the Tortola in the British Virgin Islands. Nanny Cay Resort, Marina and Boatyard is a sailors dream.

Set in one of the finest and most central locations in the BVI, Nanny Cay is located on the South side of Tortola, between the capital Road Town and West End. They strive to provide the very best marine services and facilities possible in what after all is one of the most popular sailing destinations in the world today. The island of Tortola itself is a tropical wonderland with many breath-taking sights and great places to visit. Nanny Cay has always been known as a well-protected marina, with beautiful surrounding hills and a relaxed feel about it.

Fuel Dock Cam

We continue our quest to explore the British Virgin Islands. Norman island is a fantastic little island to explore by sea and it has a rich pirate past.

Treasure Island? Yes indeed, the famous book written by Robert Louis Stevenson was actually modeled after this very Island. Legends of Pirates and Treasure Caves encompass the Island making it a popular stop with yachtsmen. In fact, pirate treasure was found in The Caves on Norman Island by locals many years ago, and the legends of the island are filled with tales of additional treasure still waiting to be discovered.

The Bight on Norman Island

The island is uninhabited and privately owned by Dr Henry Jarecki. Its area is about 600 acres, and is about 2.5 miles long. A large harbor known as “The Bight” offers one of the most protected anchorages in the area. It is considered to be one of the “Little Sisters,” along with Pelican Island, Peter Island, Salt Island, Dead Chest Island, and Ginger Island. This group of islands is smaller, lower, and more arid than other islands to the north and west. (Info from Wikipedia)

Norman Island is a well-known destination for cruisers and other tourists because of 3 water-level caves at the base of cliffs just outside the western edge of The Bight. The caves are ideal for snorkeling, and push deeply enough into the cliffs that darkness makes the experience like a night dive.

The Willy T, A Floating Party.

The island has no permanent inhabitants (other than wild goats), but there is a restaurant and bar named “Pirates” located in the Bight. There is also an old barge named the William Thornton (or “Willie T” to locals) which operates as a bar and restaurant.

That’s Norman Island. Where shall we sail to next in the beautiful BVI?

Over and out from somewhere south,
RumShopRyan