When I Met Singer and BVI Cruiser, Jimmy Buffett
By Claudia Colli
Before Parrotheads, Margaritaville restaurants and multi-million dollar yachts, Jimmy Buffet was a lowkey sailor cruising The BVI aboard a 33 foot Cheoy Lee. Singing songs of the Caribbean, he lived the dream: the rum soaked, and flip flopped attired lifestyle that so many aspired to. One of his favorite haunts was the British Virgin Islands where he anchored in Cane Garden Bay and docked at Village Cay Marina.
Jimmy Buffet died on September 1st, but his memory will live on with his thousands of fans around the world – and with me, who in 1977 interviewed him aboard his sailboat, Euphoria at Village Cay Marina.
At the time, I worked for the Virgin Islander, a regional magazine covering the British and US Virgin Islands, and interviewing Jimmy Buffet was, to this young writer, quite a scoop.
I arrived at his boat, pad and pen in hand, a bit nervous at the thought of interviewing such a celebrity. No worries, though. Charming and laidback, Buffett greeted me with a welcoming smile which immediately put me at ease.
I wrote at the time: “If you saw Jimmy Buffet on the dock at Tortola’s Village Cay Marina, he would look like a great many other BVI boating people: faded tee shirt, long sun-bleached hair, large drooping moustache. And just like any other local yachtsman, he is here to soak up the plentiful sunshine and sail on those mellow Virgin Islands breezes.”
But, as I noted, this is where the similarities ended. Because Jimmy Buffet translated his sailing experiences into songs – songs which brought him fame, wealth and the continuation of a free and easy lifestyle that he liked best.
For Virgin Islanders his most memorable line comes in the song Mañana in which he sings of one of his favorite anchorages: Cane Garden Bay.
I hear it gets better, that’s what they say. As soon as we sail on to Cane Garden Bay.
Buffet goes onto sing:
While the lights of St. Thomas lie twenty miles west, I see General Electric’s still doing their best.
Then in a further stanza he gives a shout out to Cane Garden Bay’s Callwood Rum:
I’ve got to head this boat south pretty soon
New album’s old and I’m fresh out of tunes
But I know that I’ll get ’em, I know that they’ll come
Through the people and places and Caldwood’s Rum.
Buffett’s journey to the BVI took him from Key West, Florida, at the time one of his favorite haunts. He sailed to Turks and Caicos, the Dominican Republic and St. Croix, but he said, “throughout the trip his compass was pointing to the BVI,” because he had heard that the cruising grounds here “were unsurpassed.”
He told me that once he arrived, he wasn’t disappointed. “What I like about the sailing here is that there are no long hauls between anchorages, you don’t have to decide until the last minute where you want to go. All you have to do is sail to the mouth of the harbor, see which way the wind is heading. . . and go.”
He also found it a good place to relax and get away from all the hotel living and fast food chain eating that he was dependent upon when touring. Out of an average seven to ten-day stay here, Buffett claimed to need three days just to unwind from his heavy stateside schedule. And, once he had unwound, he would start writing.” At the time almost all of his songs were written when sailing, he said.
Euphoria might have been Buffett’s first boat, but it was far from his first sailing experience. Born in Mississippi and raised in Mobile, Alabama, along the US Gulf Coast, sailing was in his blood. His love for the sea was grounded in his grandfather, a sailing captain from Nova Scotia and his father, who was a naval architect.
While attending a Mississippi college in the mid-60s Buffet began to write folk ballads and peace songs, playing them in local clubs. After graduation he continued to play various clubs throughout the South, gradually building up a momentum that led to several recording contracts in Nashville.
Throughout this period, the lure of the sea beckoned. Whenever he could, he made his way to Key West, hopped on a boat and slowly evolved his new musical style, a blend of folk, country, R&B and, importantly, old fashioned sea shanties.
Buffet summarized his evolution to the top, with a line I had heard elsewhere: “I’m one of those typical overnight successes who took 12 years to get here.”
The album that put him on top was Changes in Attitude, Changes in Latitude; when his hit single Margaritaville, turned gold it further cemented his fame.
Buffet explained that his formula for success was simple. “Deep down, everyone wants to sail . . .live a romantic, come and go as you please existence, and if they can’t they dream about it.”
In his early career, Buffett based himself in Key West Florida, but its growing commercialization (partly brought on by his own growing fame) drew him to other ports of call. As the years went by Buffett made St. Barts his Caribbean base. But that too may have gotten too trendy and popular for him. Most recently he has kept homes in Palm Beach and Sag Harbor, New York. Sticking to the US may have suited his new entrepreneurial bent, which included the Margaritaville restaurant chain and Margaritaville Resort in Florida.
But sailing remained his passion. He has had numerous yachts including the 124-foot power yacht, Continental Drifter. He has continued to sail through the Caribbean, and notably, the British Virgin Islands. He especially seemed to enjoy the tranquility of Anegada.
In February 2009, he put on a memorable impromptu concert at the Anegada Reef Hotel before a crowd of delighted and rum soaked sailors. It was a group of sailors who enjoyed and appreciated the Buffet lifestyle, even if it was only on a one-week charter.
Buffett told me so many years ago, that sailing was a way of relieving tensions between tours. “Sailing is a great way to spend my time off. It gives me a chance to unwind and gives me a better perspective on life.”
It is a sentiment that most BVI sailors share.
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