Sandy Spit

Sandy Spit is an uninhabited islet in the British Virgin Islands, lying between Jost Van Dyke and Tortola in the passage boats take between them. It is a low mound of coral sand of perhaps a hundred and twenty metres, ringed by beach on every side, with a fringe of scrub and a small stand of palm at its centre.

It is known almost entirely through sailing. The BVI is the busiest bareboat chartering ground in the world, and Sandy Spit sits directly on the day-sail circuit between the White Bay anchorages and Tortola. It has appeared in enough rum advertising to be recognisable to people who could not place it on a chart.

The island is pure sand over a rock core, with reef on the eastern side and a sandy landing on the sheltered west. It changes shape: hurricanes in 2017 stripped much of the vegetation and reshaped the beach, and it has been rebuilding since. Snorkelling is good along the eastern rocks and the water is clear on all sides because there is nothing to cloud it.

There is nothing built and no facilities of any kind — no water, no shade beyond the palms, no bin. Visitors arrive by dinghy from anchored boats or on a day charter, stay an hour or two, and leave. The island is national parks land and anchoring is on moorings where they exist. Its neighbour Green Cay lies a few hundred metres east and is larger, rockier and almost never landed on; the pair are frequently confused in photographs. Sandy Spit is the one with beach on every side and no elevation to speak of.

An island the size of a tennis court with four palms on it, in the middle of one of the world's great sailing grounds. There is nothing there and that is the entire proposition. Ten minutes ashore from a chartered boat is the normal visit and is enough.