Paddle Royal

Cruz Bay, St. John, American Virgin Islands - Let's be clear about this: Paddling for hours on end across a wind-whipped ocean in a kayak is never going to be the average Joe's idea of a relaxing tropical island getaway.

But for those with a sense of adventure and the idealistic notion of geting in shape on vacation, a sea-kayaking trip in the Virgin Islands fills the bill very nicely.

Sea-kayaking vacations are nothing new, of course. They have been a staple of Western outfitters for years, from whale-watching excursions off Baja California to dodging icebers in Alaskan bays.

Commercial kayakingtrips are excellent ways to tour out-of-the-way places as familiar as the San Juan Islands (not far from Seattle) and as strange as the Galapagos Islands (not close to anything).

Trunk BaySt. John's Trunk Bay, consistently rated one of the top 10 beaches in the world, is a short bus or taxi ride north from Cruz Bay. In the distance is Tortola, entry point to the British Virgin Islands.

It would be difficult, however, to find one more agreeable than Arawak Expeditions' five- and seven-day tours of he British Virgin Islands, sunny tropical isles in the balmy West Indies.

Operated in various formats over many years, Arawak attracted growing attention since it began multiday expeditions.

Part of the fun of these trips is getting water-level looks at lands rich in history.

The Arawak Indians plied these waters before the Europeans arrived, at least until they were reputedly eaten by the cannibalistic Carib tribe, which displaced them.

Christopher Columbus dropped anchor on the eastern end of St. John in 1493. The Spanish chased off the Caribs in the 1600s, but the islands were passed around by the English, French and even the Knights of Malta for much of the century. The Danes, late to get into colonialism, settled the islands, set up sugar plantations, brought in African slaves to work them and left many of the distinctive place names still in use today.

Pirates use these islands as a hiding place from which to raid Spanish galleons in the early 1700s.

Dotted with caves, Norman Island, one of the tour stops, was the inspiration for Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island. And, yes, the rumor persists today that treasure was not only buried on the island but was found earlier in the 20th century.

The United States bought the Danish-held islands after World War I for $25 million, and Britain stills holds the remainder. They have been idyllic tourist destinations since World War II, particularly St. John and St. Thomas, the latter crowded with luxurious resorts and vacation homes.

The kayak tours explore the less populated British-owned isles. To keep things simple and manageable, the outfitter's operators take groups of four to 11 in flotillas of sleek, 21-foot pedal-controlled, rudder-operated, two-seat fiberglass kayaks.

The kayaks cost about $2,000 each and weigh about 100 pounds. Fully loaded with drinking water and gear, the weigh upwards of 500 pounds, and it takes six people to lug them into and out of the surf.

Groups load up in this funky little town on the western end of St. John, the least developed of the American Virgins. St. John is mostly a national park thanks to the Rockefeller family, who bought most of the island and turned it over to the National Parks Service to preserve its beauty.

These muscle-powered outings attract a diverse lot of adventurers. My fellow kayakers included a young couple from Pittsburgh, a triathlete from Long Island and a rotund factory work from coastal Texas.

Kayaks, provisions and crew are ferried to Tortola, British port of entry, then dropped off at the northern shore of nearby Peter Island - seven-day outings usually go on to Virgin Gorda or even Anegada, easternmost of the British Virgins.

First order of business is learning how to load, launch, paddle, steer, bail, maintain and carry the kayaks, the single-most-vital link in these expeditions. Most important, paddlers learn how to get out of their kayaks in the unlikely event they tip over.

To keep water out of the low-slung boats, paddlers wear around their torsos nylon skirts, which stretch over the kayaks' cockpit openings. If the heavy kayak tips over, throwing its passengers upside down and underwater, crew members have to know how to release the skirt attaching them to the boat, wriggle out and surface with the aid of the mandatory life jacket.

Kayak trainingSea kayaking begins with training in shallow water on how to right boats should they tip over out on the ocean.

This is practiced in shallow water under the guides' instruction and watchful supervision, along with procedures for righting, draining and reboarding in open water.

The guides are seasoned pros, most having been leaders of kayak outings in other venues and locations. During tours, they generally follow the group in single-seat kayaks laden with emergency and first-aid gear, ready to help at the first sign of trouble.

This is important because kayak outfitters generally have no chase boats or other outside assistance. This shared reality gives the outings a heightened sense of adventure and self-reliance, despite the relative proximity of civilization on neighboring islands. Participants are subject to the vagaries of weather and unforeseen occurrences, although many safeguards are in place.

For the same reasons, the tour itineraries are subject to change.

"We vary it according to conditions," our group leader said, referring mainly to high winds and rough seas.

Weather in the Caribbean is generally sunny and warm, but rain squalls are common, usually lasting only a few minutes. The head guide explained this pattern holds true year-round, and the only noticeable change in conditions is heavier sea in the winter. He brings a portable radio and periodically monitors weather conditions.

The wind blows steadily from the east, which is why the kayaking tours work their way from east to west, or downwind. Outings entail brief stretches of upwind paddling, which makes paddlers glad to have the wind at their backs.

After lunch and snorkeling offshore, the group sets out, following the shore of Peter Island, a llush, mostly deserted tropical isle owned by Amway Corp. The two-person kayak teams get a feel for paddling, steering and working together.

Each kayak carries crew members' personal belongings - kept dry in rubberized dry bags - snorkeling equipment, a tent, inflatable sleeping pads and two five-gallon plastic water jugs. Food, kitchen equipment and other items used by the entire group are divided up among the kayak. Fully loaded, the kayaks are formidable objects to lug through surging surf.

After circling the island, the group beaches in a pebbly southern bay and makes camp.

"We went out and explored all the island and decided on the ones that we liked," our leader said, explaining that written permission to use campsites was needed in some circumstances.

On the first night out, there's plenty of great stuff to muse about next to a campfire beneath a sky full of stars as the surf laps nearby.

Just east of Peter Island, for instance, is a desolate spit of land called Dead Chest. Yes, this is the same island mentioned in the old sea chantey: "Fifteen men on a Deadman's Chest. Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum."

Legend has it that Blackbeard the pirate was intrigued by the cannibalistic tendencies of the Carib Indians and decided to see whether the trait was instinctive. He put the less-valued members of his motley crew ashore on Dead Chest with only a bottle of rum to see whether they would eat each other rather than starve to death.

Speaking of food, these kinds of outings entail the usual hardships involved with living outdoors and exposure to the elements - sunburn, bumps and bruises, insect bites, nettles, aches and pains from exertion and sleeping on the ground - so they live or die by their meals. Thise one succeeds admirably.

The guides are masters of whipping up an amazing variety of dishes in a compact field kitchen. Evening meals included roasted mahi-mahi, chicken roti with mango chutney, and sun-dried tomato pasta. New-potato-and-pepper frittatas were a typical breakfast. The guides even made Key lime pie for dessert one night in their propane-heated convection oven. Lunches usually consisted of sandwiches, chips, fruit and snacks.

And there was no shortage. Paddling for hours on end burns up calories in a hurry, so portions were always huge, and the guies encouraged everone to eat plenty. What a treat for those who struggle to watch their weight.

Most paddling is done early in the morning before the wind kicks up the waves and brings out the sailboats. On the second day, the group left early for Norman Island by way of a neighboring spit of land that turned out to have some of the best snorkeling to be found anywhere.

Of the western end of the little cay is a group of rock columns, called The Indians, jutting from the surf. They plunge in a jagged, coral-covered jumble to the slanting ocean floor, which tilts from about 40 feet below into an inky-blue nothingness well over 100 feet deep.

There is a lot of tidal surge swirling trhough these formations, making them a challenge to navigate by flipper, but the current also affords amazing underwater clarity.

Crossing over to the southwestern bay of Norman Island, the group got an unexpected treat: dining on a pirate ship. The William Thornton is a permanently moored replica of a wooden sailing ship that serves as an aquatic bar and restaurant for visiting yachts and any other watercraft in the area. Entertainment was provided by a school of remora, sharklike scavenger fish, that feed on table scraps thrown overboard.

Cruz BayResidents of the VIrgin Islands like to
decorate their cars with colorful and exotic painted scenes.

The third day was a test of endurance. After rising at daybreak, grabbing a quick breakfast, breaking camp and loading the kayaks, the group spent the morning crossing the Sir Francis Drake Channel, drividing line between the Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea. Making its way up a canal dividing two sections of Tortola, the group put in for lunch at the colorful town of West End and shopping at Soper's Hole marina while the guides restocked water and food.

The afternoon became another long paddling session, north from Tortola as majestic, tall-masted sailboats glided past. The destination was a delightful each on the southern shore of Jost Van Dyke, considered by many to be the prettiest of the Virgin Islands.

A campground awaited, operated by an enterprising islander who also runs a pineapple plantation and the Local Flavour bar, a favorite watering hole for those who know to look for it. It has a tabled and beach chairs, a rope hammock, flush toilets and even showers - regarded as luxuries after only two nights of sitting on rocks and swatting no-see-ums on a barren beach.

The fourth day featured a dash into the gaudy, ramshackle town of Little Harbor to clrea British customs in preparation forthe return to St. John, and an upwind push to a magnificent beach on Sandy Cay, off Jost Van Dyke's eastern tip.

On the fifth day, camp was broken after an early breakfast for the crossing back to Cruz Bay, interrupted only by a lunch on a rocky spit of St. John's western shore, opposite the genteel Caneel Bay Resort, once home to the Rockefellers.

Back in civilization, paddlers were left to admire their bronzed skins and a newly acquired set of finely toned upper-body muscles.

Copyright Gary Olson 2010 First published in the Arizona Republic