TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums British Virgin Islands White Bay swim area

https://www.facebook.com/groups/178954908878855/permalink/1069994366441567/?pnref=story

Looks like swim buoys are up at White Bay.

That initiative was long past due. Very glad the government finally got around to it. Excellent!

We avoid White Bay because of the dangerous boating situation. Maybe now it will resolve and be a fun place to visit again. The party boats from St John and Elswhere must be pissed,with this and the new entry regs their cash cow is drying up.

Where are the buoys located? Just looked at the Soggy cam and there are boats parked right close to shore and no signs of buoys there.

We always grab a mooring ball in Great Harbor and dingy over. Is there a tie off area or/and is there still access to the beach to drag and park in the sand?

According to the ongoing thread the buoys start west past One Love with breaks in the bouy chain for dinghy drop off. One would assume they would have a dinghy line somewhere but that is not clear.

just there last week -- no swim buoys; no mooring balls either on that side -- were mooring balls on east side in front of Ivans

Interesting reading the comments on the FB page from the day boat captains. They've never seen a problem. If you can't see the problem, maybe you are the problem? <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Yikes.gif" alt="" /> I doubt the bars will miss any traffic either. Can't count the number of times we have watched them come ashore with everything they need and swim back to grab another out of the cooler later on.

Wow, I just went to their webcam and it really looks weird without boats in front of Soggy Dollar. Did they actually remove all the mooring balls?

Is anchoring better than having mooring balls?

I know we will be spending the day there on a 4800 so we will be anchoring

I would not anchor there -- I would head over to GH and either dinghy or taxi over. Not worth risking the damage with all the boats crammed in there these days....it is just PACKED almost all of the time now. I have to say...it was one of the things we enjoyed about being land-based when we stayed on Jost last October -- we could enjoy the quiet in the morning before their arrival...and enjoy the quiet in the later afternoon after they were gone...it's still a beautiful place to be at the right time of day.

The mooring balls that were there lasted about 6 months, due to no maintenance, and getting run over.

Anchoring in White Bay it not easy and the conditions need to perfect. We once anchored for 3 days there with a few other TTOL peeps. The bottom is part sand and part rock, you really need to be experienced anchoring. If there is any swell whatsoever, I would not even moor there. As Bridget says, Great Harbour is more protected and there are some good anchoring spots as well.

When there is any swell with the shallow depth and short rode the moorings are simply abused. Well built moorings must be in deep enough water to add a good length of chain to absorb some of shock loads from swell, waves, or even wakes.

It'll be interesting to see how long the swim area lasts. I love Jost and White Bay, but the behavior I've witnessed by some of the visiting day boat captains leads me to believe that if it interferes with their business, the buoys may "disappear". I can't count the times that I've been standing in the water and have been forced to move to avoid being hit by a day boat coming in. If they don't care about a person in their way, I guarantee they don't care about a buoy - especially if the beach bars decide it's not good for business either.

Felix

This probably won't last. Though not my kind of beach experience, White Bay has become a drive up day boats destination..many from USVI but also BVI. Unlike Spring Bay where the same sort of buoy line keeps dinghys out, there is an economic consequence to this action. I am unsure of the length of White Bay that the buoy line goes ..if it simply moves the anchored day boats and keep from congregating in front of Soggy Dollar area, will work. If it's a small "safe area" will likely stay. If is restrictive for most of that side of white bay and keeps day boats and their passengers from the lines at Soggy Dollar, there will likely be some changes. When it's not about the $$, it will become so quickly.
During the day for a long time White Bay has become a place to watch the parade of people, not a pristine beach experience.

It's bad from noon to 3. Pretty good the rest of the time!
G

Thankfully I did it as a day-tripper from St John once for the true "soggy" experience. There's absolutely no way I'm bringing a boat that I chartered in there. I take a cab over from Great Harbor.

It will be interesting to see how it works out.

The day boat invasion seems to be increasing at Smugglers too. Last week two USVI boats pulled up in waiding distance in the middle of the bay and let off a couple dozen people and coolers then proceeded to provide "musical" intertainment by turning up their sterios full blast.

Looks like JVD is next...

A check of the Soggy Dollar webcam today shows the bouys are not directly in front of the bar and there currently is a day boat there.

I like the idea of forcing boaters to park off to the side, and not directly in front of Soggy. I don't like to look at tons of boats lined up, and certainly don't want to swim among them.

When we have been moored in White Bay on charter, we always pull our dinghy up away from the bars. It's just the polite thing to do.

This is FANTASTIC NEWS! It's about time. Years ago they did have a swim area and it worked very well! Love it!

look at the webcam today, nobody is there and it looks like the swim area has been reduced

Looks the same to me. There was a boat right where that CC with the 3 OB's is when I looked yesterday.

I believe that the swim area is farther over than you can see on the webcam and there is also supposed to be an area down near One Love as well.

Some of the bigger buoys are periodically behind the palms on the cam also.

There is an article about the swimming area on the government website here and larger photos here and here.

nice, about time

It will all be gone by Dec. They may or may not put them back.
G

There was an article on the BVI.news website....

http://bvinews.com/new/swim-area-marked-for-increased-safety-at-white-bay/