One thing to keep in mind. I often see lots of confusion between swell and wind driven wave action. They are very different animals. Swell can occur in any wind condition including dead calm winds. It is usually generated in the N Atlantic and the swells run down to the Caribbean. Even in large swells the sailing is just fine. They make for a nice smooth ride with a gentle up and down motion. The bad stuff happens when swell hits shallow water like CDB. That gentle swell starts to steepen and turns into a breaking wave. Essentially swell is a anchorage not a sailing problem. Swell in the Caribbean is almost always out of the NNW to NNE.
Wind driven waves on the other hand come from the direction of the prevailing wind and are generally short and steep waves with whitecaps starting around 15 knots of wind. Wind above 15 to 20 knots can make for miserable sailing with the boat pitching heavily sailing into the wind and cats giving lessons in slap. Anchorages on the other hand are usually fine because most are sheltered from the prevailing E wind in the BVI. CDB is a fantastic place to be when the wind is howling.
G