The KATS Kids

Kids And The Sea is a water sports program developed in 1987, on the Island of St. John, USVI. The program in the British Virgin Islands was started in 1990, mainly backed by the Rotary Club of Tortola. The KATS program has many types off classes offered to anyone that wants to participate. The program does have some parameters that must be met before a child can move on from one class to the next.

Number one is that the child must first take a swimming course, successfully pass, and then can move onto the rowing / boat handling course where knot tying is also taught. The next level is sailing courses, in which there are three levels. Level one is for the complete beginner who is given course books to read and is tested on, on the water sailing with either a volunteer instructor or a level two or three-student as their on board coach.

From there, a student moves to level two, which means that they are qualified to sail the boats on their own. They are taught to capsize the boat, re right the boat and continue on sailing, and having fun! The third level of students are kids that have started out in the program when they are eight years old and can continue on in the program until they reach their eighteenth birthday.

These are the very advanced kids that race our fleet of Lasers here in Tortola, and also compete all through the Caribbean. Another boat that the KATS program is very proud to own and race is the IC 24, which is a newly founded fleet of old J24's that have had major modifications made to the cockpit and down below bulkhead layouts. The company that does the conversions takes a J24 in nearly any condition and makes it into virtually a new yacht.

The grand finally of the KATS sailing season, which starts in January, is the coveted Chief Ministers Regatta, held here in the British Virgin Islands, and consists of up to ten teams from all over the Caribbean, for three days of really exciting sailboat racing. The regatta is also when all KATS sailors receive their certificates of achievement for the past year.

Enough cannot be said about the all volunteer instructors, The Rotary Club of Tortola and all of the donations, personal and corporate, that are made to the KATS program, to keep our kids safe on the water, have great fun and meet kids from other parts of the Caribbean for friendships that last a life time. Truly a program that keeps the community of the British Virgins Islands a shining star in the whole of the Caribbean.

Surfing Apple Bay

I've been surfing Tortola and the outer islands for past 15 years. So many really good days, intermingled with great swells, but with North winds which blows out most spots except Cane Garden Bay, which if you haven't been here before is a point / wrap around break, with generally an easy paddle out. Getting caught in the impact zone is less than fun though. From the inner harbour there is a low pier to jump from, then out to the line up. Depending on the swell direction, usually North, but if there's some West to it, it will section out, and pretty much split the point into 3-4 line up areas.

I've surfed the "bay" 8 to 10 feet sometimes barreling, for hundreds of yards. The inside can be radical at times, with the water sucking out from the line reefs close to the rock beach. I've seen guys eat it on the inside, not bailing out soon enough or just going for it, coming out of the water looking like minced meat.

The bay needs a good solid swell for it to go off, and the crowds, even these days are tollerable when it's happening.

I think it was '95 or '96 when we were hit by Hurricane's Luis and Mayilynn, with a week between them. I called a buddy of mine who was living in the hills of Cane Garden to see how he was hanging. The eye of the storm was just passing. He was on his cordless phone outside, screaming when he answered, I thought his roof might of blown off or something  really bad had happened. He could barely talk. He finally sputtered out the point! It was a perfect 20' plus, no one out of course, and he was all ready to load his sticks and go for it, until I reminded him that the party wasn't over yet as we still had the backside of the storm to deal with. He was pissed, but there's times when nature wins. He sat out side for a half hour calling out every set till It was time to hunker down for part 2 of the hurricane.

The problem with the storms that pass close to us, is that they don't generate swells for very long time, but we'll take what we can get.Most of the clean swells come off the U.S. during the winter when there's a nasty cold front coming off the east coast. During the summer if there is a Hurricane or large tropical depression, 2 to three hundreds of miles to the North of us we'll usually get a nice 3-6 foot swell out of them.

 I have another friend of mine , a transplant from California, that lived here for more than 23 years and has surfed the bay as big as 15' with 5 guys out, that swell lasted about 5 days. Anybody have photos of the bay going off? Stick em here, or stories about sessions anywhere else in the BVI's? How about Anegada, or the Sand Spit off Jost?

The best racing in the Caribbean takes place ay Nanny Cay in Tortola every Saturday afternoon whith the IC 24 one design racers. Boats can be leased through "racing in Paradise" or just show up at the fuel dock around four o'clock and there's always room for extra crew! Don't miss the action, come on down!

We are please to announce our new weblog section for the British Virgin Islands. Look for many new posts coming soon for "Natures Little Secrets".