Trip report

Overview – went on Hallucinations, a Bavaria Vision 46 from Horizon with 6 people (all mid-late 20s) for 7 days.

Day 1 –

We flew into STT on Delta, and arrived around 430 PM. We had 2 rooms booked at the BW Carib. We found our way (walking) to the hotel and checked in. To our delight, one of the rooms had been upgraded to a villa. Not a bad way to start the trip. Got access to a private pool and some amazing views of the sunset while enjoying Caribs from the bar (which was actually quite a hike from the villa section of the hotel).

We took the free shuttle over to the BW Emerald after the sunset (ran every 30 minutes and stopped around 9). Dinner was just okay, nothing special. No one really cared since we were all excited to be there. Back to the hotel for an early sleep so we could catch the early ferry.

Day 2 –

We all met outside the lobby of the Carib at 7am, and caught a taxi soon after that the hotel arranged from us. 10$ each for a 5 minute ride – what a racket! Bought tix for the 8:30 road town fast ferry, then checked our luggage, and walked upstairs for breakfast at the petite pump room. Food was pretty decent for the price and hit the spot.

The ferry left on time, and we were off to Road Town. Ride lasted a bit under an hour, and it took another 30 minutes once we got off to clear customs. It was kinda annoying that the customs agent cleared everyone that was a resident before admitting any of us non residents. Horizon had arranged us a taxi, and it was waiting outside when we walked out. This ride was 6$ per person.

We arrived at the Horizon base around 10:30am – crap – way ahead of schedule. Went to check in, fill out the paperwork, and the informed us the boat wont be ready until noon (as I expected) as it just returned from a charter the day before. They also informed us that the owner has requested everyone who charters the boat have a sail checkout even though my resume had been approved. Not really concerned about it, but I was slightly annoyed knowing it would eat into our trip.

Half of the crew (the women) went on to the grocery store, and the guys stayed behind and poked around the docks while we waited for the boat to be ready. We had provisioned all of the dry stuff and liquor ahead of time, so we waited for that too. Got boarded at noon, right when they said, and started on the list of things to check. Found everything quickly, and scheduled the boat brief. Jon was great – very thorough.

I can’t say enough about how well equipped Hallucinations is. I bet if you went down the option list it literally has it all. 2 plotters, electric heads, furling main, bown thruster, electric winches, leatherette seating, tons of accent lighting, and probably 50 more things I can’t remember right now. I was, however, pretty disappointed to learn the bow thruster was actually broken. There were also some other things that were broken, but they didn’t affect our charter.

We finish the brief, girls get back and give us the bad news – Rite Way in road town had no meat! Like none, no chicken, steak, hamburger, pork, etc. Bummer – looks like we’re going vegetarian for the meals cooked on the boat. Rite way and Caribbean cellars are also an hour late with our provisions. Horizon managed to get a hold of both and get them to hustle up – very pleased with the customer service at this charter company so far.

We finally got everything on board, and set off on our test sail. Holy **** was it extensive. Bow in docking, stern in docking, anchoring, mooring, putting up sails, tacking, jibing. The guy kept apologizing and saying that the owner requested it – I didn’t care though, and it was actually really nice to get a free guide to get a feel for a foreign boat (to me). To a CCC this will be your worst nightmare, for me it wasn’t so bad. The guy actually complimented me several times on my docking abilities, but I suspect it was out of surprise of my relatively young age to most people that charter.

2 hours later, we drop the guy off on the fuel dock, and set off for The Bight. It’s now 3:30, and I’m slightly annoyed that the checkout process took so long. There was not really enough wind to get a good feel for the boat the first day, but it was nice that we could settle / unpack and get our sea legs.

Had dinner on the boat and dinghy’d over to the Willy T. Like I said earlier we are in our late 20s, and we felt too old to be there. The Yacht Week was in full force, and we had not nearly had enough pain killers to enjoy ourselves. We only stayed 45 minutes at the most. This would be a good time to say how awesome the dingy of Hallucinations is – we got it to plane with 5 people! The one’s I’ve had through moorings would hardly plane with 1.

To be continued when I get some more motivation…