Pleased to share my very first trip report! Our trip was last week, May 4-11. This was my second visit to the BVI, first time as skipper. Last time I went was with family in May 2016 and I got bit by the sailing bug, so I took ASA courses 101-114 and got certified in January 2018. This was my first bareboat skipper experience, so I had a lot of time between trips to learn sailing, educate myself through online resources like YouTube and TTOL (thanks everyone!), and did a sailing refresher day with a captain at the charter base where I took my courses in town. The refresher was very good for me, as I did it a month before our trip in order to practice some things I'd need to know for our big week.

Our group of 14 booked two boats with Dream Yacht Charters through LateSail. Some notes about the booking experience:

- LateSail worked out a great price for the two boats and offered many discounts. Their customer service was a generally positive experience, though a couple of my early emails went a few days before receiving replies. Fortunately they have an online chat on their website, so communication with them was generally pretty easy. Any questions I had were answered and I did not have to deal with DYC for anything directly until I arrived.

- Dream Yacht Charters customer experience was generally positive. The staff on site was friendly, the checkout and check in processes were smooth, the boats were in good condition, and Scrub Island is fantastic. The only issues we had were that whoever had the boat prior to my group made a big no-no and turned on the generator while the boat was hooked up to shore power (why?!?!). It fried one or two things and when we arrived for our sleep aboard we had to use the generator that evening. The staff was aware of the issue before we even got on the boat and they let us know they would have it fixed the next morning before checkout, which they did. They even took us over to Marina Cay to top off the fuel before we headed out. We were off the dock by 10:30am along with the other boat in our group.

Day 1
After topping our fuel at Marina Cay, we set out for Great Harbour, Peter Island. We learned last time that Willy T on the last day of the itinerary makes for a rough next day of travel home, so we decided to make it our first stop this time. Last time we were at Peter Island we anchored at Deadman's Beach and it was beautiful. We really wanted to see the beach this trip if it were possible, but we didn't want to anchor overnight or get to Great Harbour too late. So we headed straight for Great Harbour to snag mooring balls for the night. We cruised past Deadman's at a distance and there were a few boats anchored, the beach looked great and exceeded my expectations. Too bad we couldn't get over to it this time. We had considered a dinghy trip around from Great Harbour but it seemed a bit too much with our little 9.8hp motors. Played it safe for the night and just hit the Willy T for drinks. It's worth mentioning that while at Willy T, I met James from the Sailing Virgins YouTube channel. If you haven't seen their channel it's worth a look. They do some great educational videos that hit all the right points, and they are pretty fun and funny to watch! I had just watched several of their videos the week prior to the trip, so running into him there was quite a coincidence. I made sure to thank him for the great videos, he was a nice guy that appreciated my compliments. Rounding out our first night at Great Harbour we were greeted with one of those "things that go bump" in the night....Yep, a Sunsail cat dragged anchor at about 1am and collided with our boat right after we had fallen asleep. Being my first time bareboat skipper experience, I was jolted awake in a panic thinking I had messed something up! We all came up top to see the other boat slowly floating past us, and they still hadn't realized they were drifting. We yelled across to them to turn their motors on, but they seemed persistent in the idea that they were anchored still...fortunately no damage occurred to our boat.

Day 2
Headed out from Peter Island around 7:30am and made our way to the Baths. Some weather and rain were moving through that morning, so the swells from the SE kept us on a rollercoaster ride all the way there. When we arrived around 9/9:30am every mooring ball was taken along with several boats anchored in the bays nearby to the north. It was a bit frustrating, as I thought we'd surely be early enough to snag a ball. The other boat in our group was about an hour behind us, so we ended up just doing some sailing back and forth between the baths and Spanish Town. It gave my crew and I a good chance to practice some tacking a few times while we waited on our other boat to arrive and determine next steps. There were several boats waiting on a mooring ball to free up, so everyone was jockeying for position and hoping they'd be the lucky one closest to a boat that was pulling out. If the Baths is a stop next time we will make sure to get there as early as possible.
Our other boat somehow slipped in and grabbed a ball while we weren't looking, and after some boats finally started leaving we happened to be in the right spot at the right time and got the mooring ball furthest to the south by Devil's Bay around 12:30pm. Our destination for the evening was Leverick Bay, so I knew we needed to not waste any time at the Baths. It was a shame to not spend more time in Devil's Bay or get up to Top Of the Baths for lunch, but that would surely be the goal next time.
We set out for Leverick Bay around 1:45pm and pulled in around 3:30/4pm. Every ball was taken except one BoatyBall and a yellow ball marked "private" at the back of the field. Our other boat started hooking up to the BoatyBall, so I grabbed the yellow ball to sit tight for a minute while we discussed what to do. I called our other boat to advise they were taking a BoatyBall and that it was probably reserved, and that it may be a bit risky that late in the day if they have to unhook and find another place for the night. The last thing we wanted was them having to unhook at sunset and go somewhere else, so they ended up relocating to Biras Creek. There were several boats and many empty balls there, they stayed the night with no issues. My boat, on the other hand, stayed on the yellow private ball for the evening. We made sure to ask the dock master about it right away and he said Leverick Bay owns all the balls out there and it was fine for us to stay on it. No issues for the rest of the evening, just enjoyed dinner by the pool. I highly recommend the chicken roti if you eat there! The mango chutney sauce is awesome.

Day 3
Departed Leverick Bay at 7:15 am for Anegada. Tried to get a BoatyBall but they were all gone within 30 seconds at 7am. It was great sailing, we covered the 14 mile ride in 2.5 hours. I hadn't been to Anegada on my first trip, so I was really looking forward to seeing some of the great things I'd heard about. Upon arrival outside the channel we got our sails down and motored on in. Also heading in, we had another catamaran, "SQ" we'll call her, just off to the front of us with their main sail up, motors on and running full speed in the channel. We kept a cautious eye on them, all wondering when the heck they'd be taking their sail down now that they were in the channel. They also had a spinnaker line well off the side of the boat dragging in the water. We expected something interesting might happen, so we gave way just in case. They eventually dropped the main sail and we cruised on by and grabbed a mooring ball. Several balls available upon our 10:15am arrival at the mooring field. Our other boat also grabbed a ball easily (they actually got a BoatyBall that morning somehow). And wouldn't you know it, right as we were hooking up to our ball, old "SQ" comes flopping into the mooring field two boats in front of us, stern to the wind, spinnaker line obviously fouled up underneath the boat. They somehow avoided colliding with anyone else, somehow they still had steering. They barely squeezed past us and got to the back of the field, where we got to watch them undo the mess they'd created with their lines. For my first time skipper experience and having seen one boat careening off everyone at Willy T and now this boat at Anegada, I was beginning to feel a bit more confident that I might not be the weakest link out on the water after all.
Our day on Anegada was spent doing a snorkel tour with Kelly and dinner at Wonky Dog.

- Kelly's reef tour was really a fantastic experience. The tour was a half day that included snorkeling the reef on the eastern end of Anegada, snorkeling with Kelly as he hunted for lobster and conch (very neat to see him catch one!), a visit to the conch island where Kelly brought our conch to remove and clean for us to take and eat, and a trip to see the flamingos out on the reef. I got to throw the conch shell onto the island, very neat to be able to add to it! At the end of our tour Kelly took us around to our dinghy at Potters, where we had our lobster cut for us as we got out of the boat. Since we didn't have many lobsters captured on the tour, Kelly told us he'd bring several to us in the morning before we left.
Two negatives: Our group booked the tour for 12pm and when we arrived Kelly was still out with the previous group. His assistant Kevin was busy prepping another boat and said he would be taking us, but that Kelly had told him we were booked at 1pm. We waited around for right at an hour, when Kelly finally showed up and ended up taking us out. This ended up making it so we didn't have quite enough time to get back and take a taxi to Cow Wreck Beach to spend some time before dinner. Really bummed I didn't get to make it to the north side beaches, I had hoped to see them on this trip.
The other negative was that we told Kelly we were leaving Anegada at 7am the next morning, and he told us he'd have our lobster to us by that time. He finally brought them to us around 7:40, so again we were sitting around waiting on him. Regardless of the tardiness both days, I would still absolutely recommend Kelly's tour. He's a very nice guy, fun to be on a boat with, takes pride in his work, and gave us a trip we will always remember. Just make sure your plans are made without banking on anyone or anything happening on a strict timeline. I know, that's a general statement that can apply to sailing the BVI's. Get on island time!

- Wonky Dog dinner was fantastic. Several people in our group had eaten lobster dinners on their previous visit to Anegada and they complained that it was overcooked and not worth the money. I won't name the place but it wasn't Wonky Dog. I'd read many good things about Wonky Dog and it seems to appear at the top of more peoples' lists than any other restaurant when it comes to best lobster on Anegada. I told my group we should try it and see, and I am happy to report that everyone LOVED their lobster dinners. A couple of them had the red snapper and loved theirs as well. Wonky Dog was definitely a winner for our group from the very first bite.

Day 4
Departed Anegada around 7:45am and made the long broad reach sail to Little Jost Van Dyke. The wind was just right that we kept a straight line the entire way, mixing between a beam and broad reach. Sailed 6-7 knots the entire way, took right at 5 hours to pull into Diamond Cay. Nobody in our group had been to Diamond Cay yet but I knew Foxy's Taboo and B-Line were up and running. Arrived around 12:30pm and had a good selection of mooring balls. The view was beautiful, we immediately knew that this location would be a must stop on future trips. Some in our group said it was their favorite stop of the week! We took the dinghy over to Foxy's Taboo and made our way to the bubbly pool. None of us had never been there, but we saw other people walking ahead and we just followed the path they were on. It's not a difficult hike unless you have a bad knee or hip, which one in our group did. She made it okay but had to take her time in certain small spots. The hike took about 15 minutes or so, the bubbly pool was neat. Unfortunately the tide was out, so we didn't get the full experience. But everyone thought it was pretty cool regardless. After the bubbly pool we walked back to Foxy's Taboo for a drink, then took the dinghy across to B-Line for another drink. B-Line is a cool little spot to hang for a bit also, very pretty view.

Day 5
First stop was right across from B-Line to Sandy Cay. Unfortunately is was very cloudy with intermittent rain. We grabbed a mooring ball around 9:30am and went onshore when the rain stopped. We spend roughly 45-60 minutes on shore, built a rock statue, then hopped back on the boat. Had it been nicer weather we would've swam for a bit and enjoyed it a little longer. Pulled away from Sandy Cay around 10:45 and motored on over to Great Harbour, JVD, arriving around 11:30am. Not a lot of balls available, but we got one easily. Anyone arriving after 1-2pm likely didn't find a ball, as we saw people anchoring by that time. Had fun watching other boats struggle to grab a ball (how many people on the bow does it take?!?). Headed in to have a drink at Foxy's around 12:30pm and took a walk down the road to Corsairs to see how the rebuild looks. Corsairs looks great and is back in full swing. We talked to the owner Vinny later that night and he was warm and welcoming. Dave at the bar was friendly and it was nice chatting with both of them. Vinny humbly asked us to share the word that Corsairs is open and anxious to see everyone, so I'm sharing the word!
As for Foxy's, the bar looks great. You'd almost never know a storm hit them unless you knew what to look for. Foxy was upstairs playing guitar and entertaining those who went up to visit with him, and he played us a really nice song that we all enjoyed. One thing that did catch me as a tad odd was Foxy's apparent strong support of the current president of the US. It was very much on display, from stickers to t-shirts and hats that he was wearing. Foxy got into a little political discourse during our brief time visiting, it all just felt a bit strange. For such a polarizing figure in the US, it can be a bit off-putting to some folks who are just trying to get away from it all and enjoy a vacation. I am not as familiar with Foxy as many others are, so maybe he's always been a bit vocal in politics or government affairs. Personally, I just had a little different expectation that we'd visit Foxy to hear some funny stories, a silly joke, and a couple songs he'd play on his guitar. We did get those, but I still walked away at the end kinda scratching my head.
After Foxy's we headed over to White Bay on the dinghies. The beach and water were absolutely gorgeous. The other boat in our group grabbed lunch at Hendo's Hideout, everyone really enjoyed their food and to me it all looked very good! Our group went next door to Soggy Dollar for some painkillers and obligatory gift shop purchases. It was very busy but as the afternoon continued the crowd slowly thinned out. We ventured down the beach, observing how empty Gertrudes and One Love were. We stopped at One Love for drinks and felt a bit unwelcome, they may have been ready to close up for the day but not sure. Two of us decided we would save them the trouble and just go to another bar for drinks instead. Ended up back on the boats in Great Harbour by dark, then over to Foxy's after dinner for more drinks and music.

Day 6
Departed Great Harbour, JVD and stopped at Sidney's Peace & Love at 10am. We messaged Strawberry the day before to let her know we'd be there around that time and we wanted to get some drinks and buy some shirts. Strawberry was very sweet and happy to see us. She has an incredible story and shared some of it with us, she's a hard working woman! We were all very happy to see her and support her, as she's a must-stop location for every trip down.
After leaving Sidney's, we headed back east to Marina Cay, passing White Bay at Guana Island and Monkey Point along the way. Several boats were at White Bay, the beach looked great from what we could tell. There were also 4-5 boats at Monkey Point. We arrived at Marina Cay fuel dock around 3:30pm, topped off and radioed over to Scrub Island for our return to the dock. They sent someone over to us to bring the boat in from the fuel dock right away, and we were on the dock by 4pm or so. We were actually early enough that we went ahead and got both boats done with their debriefing and checkout, so that made the next morning even easier for getting off the boat and on the ferry back over to Trellis Bay for our flights. We took the dinghies over to Marina Cay for some painkillers and a walk around the island. The tent area of Marina Cay was pleasant, a musician was playing, and it felt like a relatively positive vibe. The walk around the island was a little heavy on the heart, as you can see the damage sustained to the villas as you walk through them. It's amazing what that hurricane did.

Final thoughts on the week:

- Scrub Island is pretty darn nice. Our first/travel day we all arrived late in the evening, so we didn't really get to experience a nice day at the pool or checkout the beach on the north side of the island. Next time we will make sure to either arrive earlier or just make it a stop on our itinerary. Scrub is worth a day in my opinion, plus you can get a hot shower and provisions. The Scrub provisioning market has a lot of stuff. A good selection of wine, a decent selection of liquor and beer, cleaning supplies, pharmacy items, and a decent option for food. The DYC office staff told me they are expanding the market even more in the future.

- Riteway didn't deliver several items to our boat and I was still charged the full amount of my order. I have to contact them, as we didn't rectify it with them at the beginning of our trip. We got shorted by probably at least $60 worth of items, probably more. They also didn't reply to any of my emails prior to our trip. They did answer the phone at least, but I'm generally not pleased with my experience with them.

- Caribbean Cellars was excellent with email communication. They followed up and returned emails within 24 hours. We even emailed them the night before our arrival with a change in the order and they had it taken care of with email response the very next morning. Considering they also have better options for several items, along with cheaper pricing on many things, Caribbean Cellars is a clear winner for alcohol provisioning.

- LateSail was a very good experience with booking our trip. They guarantee to beat any price and they did just that for us. We will look to them first on our next trip.

- There are a lot of people (aka credit card captains) that can make for a humorous day at the least, and a dangerous day at the worst. While I am aware that I myself fall into this category and am humble enough to know I have much to learn and experience, I found myself amazed at the lack of common sense on display every day. Some people clearly need to study up on some of the basic fundamentals of boat management. If you can execute the basics safely, the rest is just details. I learned my strengths and was able to identify some weaknesses, and I will study those and get better.

- It seemed like mooring fields tended to fill up earlier in the day on this trip than I remember on our 2016 trip. I'm sure part of it is due to less options available in north sound, so hopefully that will ease with time. Right now it seems that getting there by 12-1pm is key if it's a popular location. However, there are some great spots that seemed to be a bit easier to get a ball. Diamond Cay, Little Harbour JVD, Marina Cay...If you need a backup option for Leverick Bay, the Biras Creek moorings seem to be usable and available. Sounds like many other boats are using them, but obviously use at your own risk.

- Marina Cay mooring field, the Scrub Island ferry goes through there every hour all day. They slow down while passing through but they still cause some waves.

- The islands are still coming back. It's not as green as before but they're still beautiful. It will take time. Be sensitive to the people living and working there. Many of them lost everything they had, faced the trauma of possible death and not knowing if they'd survive what was one of the strongest hurricanes on record. Imagine how many times every day some tourist asks them to recount those moments for their own personal curiosity. They must surely be tired of having to divulge their traumatic story to every curious drunken stranger. Support them, buy drinks or a shirt. Recognize hard work and good service, throw a few extra bucks their way!

- BoatyBalls get taken within seconds. Good luck.


And if you've made it all the way to the end of my lengthy report, congrats. First painkiller is on me if we ever meet in the islands!