Our History

Once upon a time...

In the late 1970’s Jeremy Wright sailed through the BVI. It was then he decided that, one day, he wanted to live there. So, in 1981, he engineered a transfer from Hoods’ UK sail loft in Lymington to Tortola. His new boss Bill Bullimore found him a place to stay in the Waterfront Apartments in Road Town. During his spare time Jeremy used to get on his motorbike and head east to ‘hang out’ in Trellis Bay with David Ross, a Canadian windsurfer who owned Boardsailing BVI (formerly Freedom Ltd).

In 1983 Ross sold the company to John Phillips and a year later Jeremy moved to Trellis full-time to work for him teaching windsurfing. Then in 1988, with his father’s help, he bought the company. Jeremy was now part of the ‘Trellis Bay family’ along with Tony and Jackie Snell who ran the famous Last Resort, Chris and Mary Anne at The Beef Island Guest House, The Conch Shell Point restaurant and Anouk the jeweller whose shop was where The Local Arts Centre is today.

Jeremy recruited Ben Bamford from Cornwall to work in the board shaping workshop (where the current Bar is located) and established a satellite windsurf centre at Nanny Cay near Mulligans. Throughout this time he was visited on numerous occasions by his family who he introduced to the wonders of the BVI. His mother Virginia made some beautiful pottery items on her visits, some of which are still on display. His father Brian has sailed throughout the islands and stayed in Jan Dart’s Little Mountain villa on several occasions. Jeremy also organised an action packed BVI honeymoon for his brother Peter. Other family members who often stayed with Jeremy in Trellis Bay are his brother Alexander, sister Rowena, his other sister Kate and her son James and his cousin Robert Portal.

It is worth noting Jeremy’s passion for sailing – he was chief sail trimmer on John Wigg’s Nanny Cay based yacht Quetzal which used to win her class in Antigua Race week when he was aboard. Jeremy also supported local windsurfer Finian Maynard who went on to become a windsurf champion and set world speed records.

When the beachfront cottages were renovated by the Beef Island Estate, Jeremy set up the Cyber Cafe with a suite of iMacs to give visiting charter yachts a land base to check their emails.

From this the Trellis Kitchen was born, offering food and drinks to visitors. Due to the proximity of the airport, the Trellis Kitchen became the “unofficial departure lounge” where travellers could snatch an extra hour on the beach once they had checked their bags in. Jeremy invented the Famous Awesome Sandwich (which continues today) and it has been known for the rich and famous to order Awesome Sandwiches ‘to go’ to take on board their private jets. The water sports operation scaled back on lessons and offered specialist windsurfing equipment, kayaks and paddle board (SUP) rentals.

At this time, Jeremy and his neighbour Aragorn decided that there should be a family-friendly full moon party. The Trellis Kitchen created a Caribbean buffet with several bars on the beach and Aragorn made fire sculptures to light the night sky. This put Trellis Bay firmly on the map and the Full Moon Party continues today. Many of the charter boat companies adjust their cruising itinerary to include a stop in Trellis Bay for each full moon.

After Jeremy’s untimely passing in 2014 his family decided to continue his vision. Jeremy’s Kitchen was set up by his brother Alexander with the help of Sayula Everard, a friend of Jeremy’s who had arrived in the BVI as crew on Catariba, a huge windsurfing safari catamaran which Jeremy had conceived and helped to design.

Sayula assembled the original kitchen team and reopened in May 2016. This was a great success and everything was going well until...

Hurricane Irma

On 6th September the BVI scored a direct hit from Irma, a super-powerful Category 5 hurricane. Trellis Bay, along with other areas in the BVI, experienced the eye of the storm. At that time Jeremy’s Kitchen was closed for a summer break so we did not witness the terror reported by numerous people who were hostages in their own homes.

If you have a spare hour you can read The Irma Diaries by local Beef Island resident Chuck Krallman. It's an epic tale that will shock, amuse and astound you. Highly recommended.

Somehow we, along with two other buildings, avoided the worst of the winds. Our beach was littered with felled trees and yachts. Since then the BVI has bounced back and we have reopened and started a new chapter, now led by Emma and our faithful kitchen crew.

We welcome old friends and first timers who will hopefully become new friends.

Many people have helped with the creation of Jeremy’s Kitchen. Jeremy’s family would like to thank Sayula, Dr Orlando Smith, Raymond Hung, Smiths Gore BVI, Derek, Ed, Gilly and Laci, Tom, John Wigg, Jonathan and Philip, Laurence and Lucy, plus advice, time and help from Alastair, Neil, Davide, Robert C, Colin, John, Geli, Fin, Sam, Kel, Dawson, Ken and Sylvia, Vicky, Walter, Holly and Wilson.

We also appreciate the continued local support for this venture – Thank you.