Ewan Anderson

Ewan Anderson hails from Hamilton, a large burgh (town) in South Lanarkshire, south east of Glasgow, Scotland, and well known for the “Academicals” football team. In 1983, trained in hotel management, he answered an ad calling for a manager for the restaurant and bar on Cooper Island, BVI where he worked for some five years. Succeeding years saw him doing similar jobs at Casa Maria for a year, The Fish Trap (now Nexus) for a time in 1993, and Peg Legs on Nanny Cay – where he spent much of the twenty years from1989 (less three years when Nanny Cay was in receivership). In several of these positions he worked with his brother Alan, now better know for his “Sky” restaurant and related enterprises. In the early 1990s he also took on the famous “Willie T” - The William Thornton Floating Bar & Restaurant at Norman Island - in partnership with his father-in-law. He is still running it. His wife, a Belonger named Heather, whom he met in 1986, is an entrepreneur in her own right, operating BVI Wedding Planners & Consultants, and running “Caribbean Style Weddings” in the BVI (see http://bviweddingplanners.com/). They live at Shannon, overlooking Cane Garden Bay.

As explained in http://www.bareboatsbvi.com/norman_island_willy_t.html the Willie T was ”established in June, 1985 by Mick and Annie Gardner, this one-of-a-kind, "bistro on the briny" has remained in the family and is now operated by Mick and Annie's son-in-law, Ewan Anderson. The original (wooden) Willy T was a 1935, Baltic Trader. After a little more than 10 years of restaurant service, she sprang a leak in the middle of the night one evening. The bilge pumps weren't able to keep up with the volume of water and the William Thornton sank on June 11, 1995 on her mooring at Norman Island. She was subsequently raised, hauled out to sea and sunk again in the hopes of making a new BVI dive site. Unfortunately, sea and weather conditions quickly tore her apart and there is nothing left of the old William Thornton today. You can never keep a good man down, so Mick and Ewan jumped on a plane for Florida to find a replacement. The new (steel hulled) Willy T (previously known as the “Iron Lady” – ed.) was soon swinging on her mooring and open for business by January 6th, 1996! She is as popular today as her predecessor was 20 years ago!”

Nearly thirty years have led to dramatic changes in the Virgin Islands. For instance Ewan’s first ‘posting’, Cooper Island, is almost unrecognisable. Apart from the enormous increase in tourism, which is great for his restaurant business, Ewan has seen construction booms, great amounts of road-building, an enormous increase in the number of vehicles on the roads, as well as the ‘collateral damage’ such as increases in congestion and crime. Although his “kids and his age” have slowed him down a bit, Ewan who is now ‘work-permit exempt’, has found that experience has helped him survive – “the longer you are here the easier it gets”.

Not all change is popular, however, and Ewan thinks there may be too many boats and cars now in the Virgin Islands. The country is not really one of “Nature’s Little Secrets” any more. Parts of the market may be at least close to saturated. And developments such as the one at Scrub Island have not been done in ways that he really appreciates. But that is part of the nature of economic booms. A definite downside has been the increase in population, which even the infrastructural improvements don’t seem to be able to cope with. On the positive side, retailing has improved considerably (“look at the new Riteway”), meats and produce are much better in quantity and quality than in the past, and there is a lot of choice around in many areas of life – perhaps for the first time.

Ewan has had a very pleasant life here and wouldn’t change anything. Apart from the food industry he has been involved with the (RBVI) Yacht Club, windsurfing, sailing, diving and racing, over the years. He (with brother Alan) used to run the St. George’s barbecue for kids, and he has also been associated with C.A.T.S. swimming programme. Although the Willie T. does change with the times, it is likely to continue under Ewan’s stewardship into the foreseeable future. He can’t see a return to Lanarkshire being in the cards.
 

Draft of April 14th of interview of April 13th, 2011

Builders of Tortola Guide
Builders of Tortola Contents
Back to the Main Contents Page