We chartered a brand new lagoon 52 Amanda through Navigare January 6-13. There were 14 of us and never once did it feel crowded or uncomfortable on the boat because I was worried it would happen but I was pleasantly surprised with all the space on the boat. This was only the second time she has been chartered. One flaw is that all the cuppboards and drawers everyone on the boat had the push buttons kept falling off. I’m not sure if it is a design flaw but constantly popping off and we were worried they would get lost. We all figured the screw wasn’t long enough. Everyone’s favorite spot was the big covered lounge area on the raised helm station. Once on a mooring ball we would raise the table up there and it was awesome. So much room to spread out.

Everyone had to be in Tortola at the base by noon on that Sunday. Six of us spent two days in Puerto Rico prior and loved it! Four stayed in St Thomas before and four stayed on Tortola. I’m the planner of the trip so we had all meals planned out and brought a polar bear cooler full of steaks, taco meat, meat sauce, ground sausage, and shredded chicken down. Our cook loved all the prep and it made meals really easy. I also made a chart showing who was on dish duty, as with 14 people I like everyone to do their part. 

I was a little disappointed that the boat walk through took so long and that our water tanks were being filled at 3:00pm. Our captain wasn’t comfortable leaving so late so we spent the night on the dock. No one complained and it was a great time regardless, we were in the BVI!

Three of us went shopping and went to One Mart since we had a rental car for 24 hours. We got 90% of the things we needed there and then stopped at Riteway. One Mart had the best prices for what we needed with the exception to the extra rum we needed to get. Riteway had better prices for that. Our cook also walked to Bobby’s from our boat dock and she said One Mart as the whole still had better prices. We all pack a few things in our bags to bring down as well. It helps on costs. A few of us save all year to be able to come down so to make things a little more cost effective is a good thing for us.

We got an early start because we had a car rental waiting for us at Leverick Bay. Had a nice sail and got to Leverick around 12:45pm. Last year I worked through Leverick Bay for the car rental and I will do that again next time. This year I worked directly through Speedys. There were no cars to be found and Speedy’s would not answer any of the phone numbers. The nice women at Leverick tried calling and email them as well. Finally, after Speedy’s being over and hour and a half late, we were going to take some taxis. It was more money than the rental cars but we did not want to waste our day. As we got in the taxis, Speedys came by. It made for a very uncomfortable exchange with everyone, but we got the rental cars and headed off to The Baths. Since it was late afternoon there was no one around. We had fun exploring both bays then climbing and exploring through the trails. The beach bar was closed but we enjoyed a little snorkeling before heading up to join the rest of our group at The Top of The Baths. Love the drinks and the views from up there!

We then decided to drive to Hog Heaven and eat dinner. That was a big mistake! We will just to Hog Heaven for drinks next time. We waited over two hours for our meal and we needed to sit in the new covered room to accommodate our group, and how cold it was. Lots of large and loud groups in there where the sound echoed. There was only one waitress and they kept running out of things including ice to make drinks. She did the best she could under the situation but we will just stop by for drinks next time.

Next day we sailed to Anegada and believe it or not we lost our prop again this year! This happened last year as well. I hope it doesn’t become a regular occurance. The company wouldn’t come out to Anegada so we had to wait until the next day when we got back around Tortola. Dean was there ready for our two cars I had reserved in advance and we had a great day visiting the island and exploring the three beautiful beaches. We ate dinner at Wonky Dog and it did not disappoint. They always take such great care of us and their food is fabulous. They said the rooftop area should be ready to go by February and will be neat to eat up there next time.

The next day we got some of our group in the dingy to help steer us out of the anchorage. We went around and told a couple boats we were near as well just to be safe. I love how friendly and helpful everyone is down there. Lots of offers to help and ideas. We made it safely out and started sailing to Guana Island. Once we got to Guana the company was there to get us a new propeller. We had a lot of fun here on paddleboards, exploring the beautiful beach, jumping off the top of the catamaran, and snorkeling. We were a little late to the snorkeling at Monkey point so didn’t get much light but still enjoyable.

We set sail for Great Harbor on Jost to fill up on water and diesel. We were told we would need to fill up every other day with our group size but I am happy to report we only needed to fill up on water once! A good group who is cautious of water! We filled up with diesel and it was a lot compared to what we were used to. It was because the generators were running all the time. I put a stop to that immediately and only ran them in the evening. This day was everyone’s favorite day of the trip! We took taxis over to White Bay for $10.00 a person round trip. Only four of our group had been there before and it was a blast!!! Such a fun environment. We loved the bars, the people, the painkillers, and the beautiful beach. We lived it up playing volleyball and corn hole. Everyone was overserved and it was quite the experience getting back in the taxi to Great Harbor. Ten of our group decided to bar hop and then go to Foxy’s for dinner. The other four came back and had a nice meal on board.

We had a fisherman with us and he had great success throughout the trip. We had some great fish tacos and some shark as well. I’m glad he had such a great time fishing as well.

Next day we went over to Cane Garden Bay and enjoyed a couple hours of beach time and then headed over to Norman Island. A few of us took the dinghy over to the caves and I forgot how neat they really are. I haven’t been for a long time. Next time we will bring an underwater flashlight. It was a little creepy trying to swim through one of them not being able to see and with the sea weed in there.

Last day we decided to sail up and down through the channel for a few hours and then head into Great Harbor on Peter Island. We swam a bit, went over to what we call shell beach and looked at different coral and shells that have been washed up, and then headed over to the new Willy T. We had a GREAT time! It was late afternoon/early evening and there was a great crowd there and a fun environment. Lots of jumping and diving off the top. We talked to the owner and a cook and they both said as of now they will be staying where they are. We are going to come here the first night of the trip next time.

Overall, we had a great time. We lucked out and had the perfect group of 14 people. This was my 8th trip down and there has always been a person or two that we wouldn’t go down with again, but this time was just perfect personality wise. It rained a bit more than we were used to, but never for long periods of time. Every place we went was recovering quite well from the hurricane. Spanish Town looks completely different from when we were there last year. Still lots to do but not hundreds of boats piled on top of each other. I walked down to Trellis when waiting for my flight from the airport and it looks the most damaged still. Boats on shore and docks not fixed. We can’t wait to go back next year!