Traveltalkonline.com Forums


TTOL Sponsors
Forum Statistics
Forums39
Topics36,548
Posts291,519
Members26,350
Most Online2,218
Jan 21st, 2020
Top Posters(30 Days)
MIDiver 53
Kennys 51
Zanshin 48
RonDon 36
bdeeley 35
Member Spotlight
RonDon
RonDon
Rhode Island
Posts: 3,976
Joined: February 2007
Show All Member Profiles 
Today's Birthdays
Angelface, stretch, YCA_founder
Who's Online Now
33 registered members (GeorgeC1, Leagle49, leslieridler, nevar37, Ackman, pbd007, BillR, IWIWSE, cabokid, BenP, cvo, SXMBND, deputydog1157, Kevin_B, ChiTownHarry, CarolinaSailor, CLIFFTOPS, sxmpete, reddoglady, Jamie O, 13 invisible), 120 guests, and 92 spiders.
Key: Admin, Global Mod, Mod
Active Threads | Active Posts | Unanswered Today | Since Yesterday | This Week
British Virgin Islands
30 minutes ago
Just so everyone understands what happens in the BVI and other Caribbean islands regarding the swell. The North swell actually has nothing to do with wind. You can have a massive North Swell with dead calm winds. You will always have waves or what I call wind driven chop that form with the wind and move in the same direction. It’s usually short period waves which can make for an uncomfortable ride out on the water especially bashing into the wind. Swell on the other hand starts in the North Atlantic often off the NE US during nor’easters. That is why it’s predominantly a winter issue. Those storms create long period swells in the ocean that take a few days to move down to the BVI. This is why they can be accurately forecast. Out on the water they don’t cause any real issues. Just a gentle up and down motion on the boat and they are rounded and smooth unlike wind blown waves that are short and steep turn into whitecaps at about 15 knots.
Swells becomes an issue however when they reach shallow water. They carry large amounts of energy and when the hit shallows turn into breaking waves. This is why North facing anchorages can become nasty in a swell. The amount of water moving can also wrap around islands and impact anchorages not north facing if it’s a large swell. They can even reflect off one island back to another. You can see these effects in White Bay JVD in the winter. Sometimes in the winter you get my personal favorite. Christmas winds out of the east with a North swell. Now you can have 4 to 6 foot seas in 20 knots of wind crossing the swell at 90 degrees. Makes for a long week. Here are videos of North swell in CGB. Note there is no real wind.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZRXHUCc8t4o

https://www.facebook.com/BritishVirginIs/videos/2657169884335209/
6 370 Read More
British Virgin Islands
1 hour ago
GeorgeC1

You are absolutely correct. Excessive alcohol is often the leading factor in most of these accidents.
9 751 Read More
St. Maarten - St. Martin
7 hours ago
Congratulations Leslie and family!! What great news.
28 719 Read More
St. Maarten - St. Martin
7 hours ago
Please check your messages as I have sent you two and you have not seen them yet.
2 308 Read More
St. Maarten - St. Martin
7 hours ago
actually i normally bring a case or two of light beer down with me to "be prepared", but mainly to take on to St. Barth...finding bottled light beer in SXM is not hard, but cans (especially 12, not 10 oz cans) may not be found as readily...post covid, finding light beer on SBH has become more difficult toast
14 1,338 Read More
St. Maarten - St. Martin
9 hours ago
That tournament will be fun to watch.
8 626 Read More
British Virgin Islands
9 hours ago
Thank you for all the information, Sue! Looks like Bolongo doesn't usually take single night reservations. There are couple random sites selling them, but I haven't heard of any of those sites so probably won't risk that. If we do stay on STT we'd be coming in via Red Hook on the Tuesday afternoon JVD>STJ>Red Hook ferry, so any location from Red Hook to the airport area would work for us. Emerald certainly sounds like the convenient choice. I'm really struggling with those reviews though, several mentioned rates/mice in the rooms and one of the newest reviews had two tarantulas in their room. Every other review says no hot water. I just, no.
31 815 Read More
St. Maarten - St. Martin
Yesterday at 10:03 PM
Tim, don't think so. Not sure where I've seen him, but here and there - I recognized his picture. Very sad.
6 904 Read More
St. Maarten - St. Martin
Yesterday at 09:59 PM
Another recommendation for Taylor Made. Dougie knows how to find fish. We have tried three different boats over the years and Taylor Made was easily the best. Keep in mind that the significant seaweed/sargassum issues the island is dealing with can make fishing a bit more aggravating.
2 123 Read More
British Virgin Islands
Yesterday at 08:09 PM
I would go to BEYC and then take a land taxi to Baths...easier entry
3 285 Read More
St. Maarten - St. Martin
Yesterday at 05:09 PM
Originally Posted by RonDon
Jc some units you can walk out right onto beach but those that are set back have sand pilled high in front of unit so you can’t walk right out into water from the unit


Thanks Rosemary !! Have a great stay. I am enjoying your updates.
15 1,203 Read More
St. Maarten - St. Martin
Yesterday at 05:07 PM
The fact is that the sponsors help us pay the bills here, and make sure that this site continues to exist.

This one is done.
12 1,389 Read More
St. Maarten - St. Martin
Yesterday at 02:52 PM
Staying at Princess Heights. Very quiet for most part occasional construction noise from old Westin. We had an in room continental breakfast from hotel at $10a person. It includes 4 French pastries 🥐 2 yogurt, coffee, OJ butter jelly an tea. Not bad. Went to Orient beach at KKO. Karl the bartender whom we have know for many years was off duty that day as was Cedric the beach chair guy. We will see them tomorrow. Beach was great. A little sarragasum on beach none in water. A lot of sarragasum at Coco beach just down the way though. Nice stiff breeze at 17mph some overcast but a great beach day.
Ate at L’Oasis. My wife had a raw fish combo; I had the duck. The raw fish platter was a little tasteless according to my better half. My duck was very tough. Hoping for better dinner tonight at Le Bistronome in GC.
0 206 Read More
St. Maarten - St. Martin
Yesterday at 02:41 PM
I lived on a neighboring Caribbean island for 18 years. While Mother Nature can always throw you a curve I can tell you that weather on Anguilla and St. Martin during the latter part of June and into early July is usually very nice. Because Anguilla is a relatively flat and arid island it usually gets much less rain than the nearby mountainous island. Because St. Martin is somewhat hilly it will get slightly more rain. As one of the previous poster said, rain on both islands, if it does come, is usually in the form of very brief widely scatter showers lasting minutes rather than hours. It is not unusual for it to sprinkle in one area and be bright, sunny and dry 1/4 mile away. All day rains are rare. For what it is worth, I've seen it rain in my backyard and at the same time be sunny and dry in my front yard.

While it is technically Hurricane Season, the biggest threat of major storms is in the latter part of August through late October. The Caribbean covers a vast area so even if there is a Hurricane in the Caribbean during the time you are visiting the odds are small it will impact Anguilla. You can research the frequency of every hurricane that impacted Anguilla since 1850 at www.stormcarib.com - on the Home Page click on the "Climatology" link then select "Hits & Misses". On the new page select "Anguilla". If you review the data there you'll find in all that time there have only been 4 hurricanes that impacted Anguilla in July and 0 (zero) in June since 1852. The statistics are essentially the same for St. martin. Pretty good odds, I might say.

When visiting Anguilla or St. Martin at that time of year you can leave your umbrella at home and pack plenty of sunblock, you'll need it. If you do encounter some rain during your visit you have a couple of good options: 1) go swimming as you'll get wet anyway, 2) take shelter under a nearby palm tree until the rain passes or 3) go to the nearest bar and order a pina colada or other frozen cocktail but don't be surprised if the rain stops before the bartender finishes maxing your drink.
9 374 Read More
British Virgin Islands
Yesterday at 05:12 AM
I'm attempting the exact same thing four days after you (landing at 12:55pm) and have seen a few people asking this question. The general consensus seems to be that we don't need to buy in advance for the 2pm unless traveling on weekends or holidays. Hopefully, one of the regulars will chime in and confirm.
1 127 Read More
St. Maarten - St. Martin
03/23/2023 10:34 PM
Thanks 👏👏
4 643 Read More
St. Maarten - St. Martin
03/23/2023 10:31 PM
AMEN🙌👏❤️
17 1,051 Read More
St. Maarten - St. Martin
03/23/2023 07:24 PM
I agree with Linda. I drove down there last April and it is an easy drive, gradual, pleasant. When I went, the bar was not open, so I left .
4 485 Read More
St. Maarten - St. Martin
03/23/2023 06:17 PM
Winner winner chicken dinner.
43 2,205 Read More
British Virgin Islands
03/23/2023 04:40 PM
I feel like BEYC is best all around. But, you can't beat day drinking and strolling around BEYC as well as at Reef Sampler. Then if you need to at Saba for night dinner or drinks.
6 691 Read More
British Virgin Islands
03/23/2023 03:42 PM
What skipdastraw just said and I go back and forth at least three times a year.
14 981 Read More
St. Maarten - St. Martin
03/23/2023 02:49 PM
Flew United out of Newark. Because of the short time between this plane landing from Atlanta and take off ( 30 minutes) it was late taking off by 30 minutes but arrived on time (usually the flight arrives early ). Immigration was bad but not horrible about 45mins. A big Jet Blue had landed before us. Got the car at airport then off to Princess Heights for a few days. The old Westin is still not repaired though some work being done on island time. The timeshares at Westin are functioning. Oyster Pond area very quiet. Captain Oliver’s still not repaired but the lagoon seems cleaned up. Went BZH Creperie for a light dinner had gallettes. My wife had a salmon based one; I had ham based one. They were ok. It is not the same as the old owners preIrma. They are now more of a restaurant then a Creperie. It was crowded.
0 355 Read More
British Virgin Islands
03/23/2023 12:55 PM
Big Bamboo at Loblolly has wonderful cottages looking onto the beach and water. Really good snorkeling and the restaurant is good for lunch and cocktails. We were just there and have stayed several other days. Enjoy.
12 675 Read More
British Virgin Islands
03/22/2023 09:36 PM
We are taking a charter flight from SJU to EIS and back, so the only places that I could see us possibly being asked for the consent forms are entering the BVIs and returning to the US. Possibly the air charter but nothing from them yet hinting at that. Our airline flights are all domestic so I don't expect any issue in that regard. I guess I'll probably send each parent a form and ask them to get it notarized and see what response I get.

Thanks!
12 436 Read More
British Virgin Islands
03/22/2023 06:57 PM
Only 2 of us so water taxi seems a bit excessive. We booked our first night at Ali Babas so if our flight is really late we're only out $250, still cheaper than a water taxi. We'll just have to scramble to find a room on Tortola if we miss that last ferry to JVD. We'd of course prefer the Red Hook ferry at 2:30 so that we could hop on the 4:00 out of west end but I'm just concerned about traffic. Two cruise ships in port in STT that day leaving at 6pm. Back to my original question, which ferry do I have better odds of catching the 2:00 from CA or the 2:30 from Red Hook? Should we even bother going to Red Hook or just go straight to CA?
6 304 Read More
Page 1 of 8 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Powered by UBB.threads™ PHP Forum Software 7.6.1