Thanks Schwendy for taking the time to write.

I'm amazed at how different an experience you had to ours back in January...when I would have thought they would have been in a far worse position in terms of recovery.

We were Sunsail rather than Moorings (but its the same company!), sail rather than power and mono rather than cat. But still...

We had booked an older class of boat but were given an absolutely brand new vessel. We were the very first to charter it! A real treat. They had also strapped a bunch of SUPs and other toys onto the boat, free of charge.

Could it be that in Jan they hadn't had time to repair any hurricaned boats? So everyone got the new fleet...and that now in July they have had time to knock some of the damaged boats back into shape...badly?

As for the chart briefing...we attended the first time we chartered with them and never again. Totally useless. No local knowledge, no useful info. I just recall a generic 10 minute video on how to anchor and how to pick up a mooring ball. If you don't know these things already...you shouldn't be skipper! On the other hand the first year we had a great boat-briefer who did have useful local knowledge for us...every year since its been a useless 5 minute session of cutlery-counting. But...gets us off the dock quicker!

As for white bay by dinghy from Great Harbour. We've done it loads of times...but only when the weather is right and also only 2 of us in the boat. The only issue we ever had was pulling the boat up the beach one time when there was a big swell running...we got our timing wrong...the wave caught the boat, the boat rugby tackled my wife who ended up upside down in the dinghy as it surfed happily up to the top of the beach! All laughed off...until we realised that she had fallen on the fuel line (which was badly perished) and split it open! The kind chaps from Hendo's gave us some scotch tape which got us back to Great Harbour safely! Your account is a good reminder not to push that particular journey when the weather isn't right.

Like you we found people on Jost and Anegada incredibly friendly and happy to see us.