BVI – Page 3

The Anegada Smoothie

31 January, 2019

A wonderful thing, sitting on the Anegada Reef Hotel bar

The first time I tasted one of these things I was 22 and in love. It was May of 1990 and my soon-to-be-fiancee Kim and I were sailing here on her father Ron’s new boat Priority II. I was in love with her, in love with her family, and in love with the boat, which was the most amazing thing I think I had ever seen. So many things to fix!

So we sailed up here to Anegada and moored up, then dinghied ashore to the Anegada Reef Hotel. Since it was the afternoon, naturally we stopped for a smoothie, which turned into… many. I mean it’s basically a rum punch with some family secret ingredients (they won’t tell you what), but in such an amazing setting. Anyway I vaguely remember the dinghy ride back to the boat, but only vaguely…

Anegada from the northeast — the Reef Hotel is visible on the far right of the photo. Photo by Walker Mangum. Original uploader was Nwmangum at en.wikipedia – Originally from en.wikipedia; description page is/was here., Public Domain, Link

So here I am again at Anegada, almost 29 years later. The friendly guy pouring the smoothies back in 1990, Lowell Wheatley, is no longer with us — the harsh island life got him in the end. His children are now running the place and in general they seem to be doing well with it. They have been odd beneficiaries of Irma’s destruction of so many of the bars and restaurants in the main part of the BVI. Weirdly, the storm went just a bit south of them, so they had some damage but nothing awful, and as a result there are many more charter boats willing to make the long (for a week-long charterer) sail up here than there used to be… which means the lobster dinner at the hotel is much better attended than it used to be.

What I find remarkable is how much has changed around me since I had that first smoothie 29 years ago… marriage, business, career changes, grandparents and then parents dying. Yet I carry the funny illusion that I myself, like the smoothie, am no different. Heavier, grayer, wiser, sure… but coming back here reinforces the feeling that I and the smoothie are at the center of some kind of whirlwind of change that flows around us while we remain the same.

Of course, if Irma had gone just a few miles north, its 200-knot winds would have removed all signs of life from largely-unprotected Anegada, and then there would no longer be a Reef Hotel or anyone to make the smoothies. Are we all just as close to the brink of disaster? I suppose so… so I had better keep coming back here to make sure nothing happens to the smoothie. It’s as good an excuse as any.

It’s An Ill Wind That Blows No Good

30 January, 2019

Elsewhere in this blog I’ve written about avoiding the temptation to hold up disaster as having some kind of beneficial effect. It is much too easy to glibly throw around “Well you know now it can be rebuilt the right way” or “Well it’s nature’s broom.” Doing so trivializes the real human cost of disaster and the long term setbacks to progress it entails.

The former restaurant, in what is actually a pretty poor choice of location

Having said that, it really is remarkable what happens to people’s decisions and focus when you eliminate sunk cost as a concern, for instance by blowing everything that has already been built into the sea. The new restaurant at Marina Cay is only one of many examples I’ve seen on this trip. Although it doesn’t have the capacity of the old one, the location is actually better, and if they stick with that and put a much smaller structure — a little beach bar, say — in place of the old restaurant on the point, the net effect will be a major improvement.

I have no idea how to put the notion of ignoring sunk costs into practice in my life, and I’m not sure it makes any sense in the general case. If you spend all your time tearing down what you’ve already done and trying to build new, you never make any forward progress (c.f. all computer software, ever). I will admit though that a hurricane can be a handy thing for freeing decision-making… when applied judiciously.

More BVI Photos

29 January, 2019