Good morning TTOL peeps! We are traveling down in June for our 2nd bareboat adventure (me and my wife with our 2 daughters - 11 and 13). We were on a 38 MarineMax cat last year and we are on a Moorings 433pc this year. I would appreciate any insight you have on the following questions...

1. We chose the sleep aboard for the 1st night. Since we have experience, what is your best guess as to when we will leave the dock the following day? We are heading to Kelly's cove in Norman Island and we hope to arrive early enough to have lunch at Pirates Bight.
2. Has anyone spent the night in White Bay, Guana? We really like spending the night in moorings with beautiful beaches.
3. We will have the boat for 11 nights, so we plan to visit St. John. We traveled to St. John for years before deciding to bareboat. We did this last year and the check out/in process wasn't that bad. However, for the BVI part of the process, I was the only one who went into the office. Did I read somewhere that the whole family will have to walk in this year?
4. We provisioned ourselves last year and we were pretty disappointed with the Riteway in Road Town. Is this the best there is for produce and meat? We land in Tortola at 4:15 pm (if all goes as planned), so we will have some time to hit another grocery if we need to. With this said, we are open to having them provision or flying down with a soft cooler.

I have other questions, but I will give you guys a break for a week or so before asking more. Thank you so much for your time!

Steve

1. You can expect to leave the Moorings dock around 11am. Don't wait for the boat briefer to show up. Ask at customer service who your briefer is and then go find him/her on the dock.
4. Riteway is by far the best quality grocery store.

1. I agree - 11am is reasonable. If you are ready to go and just need to do the boat briefing, you could probably leave earlier - just try to get the briefing scheduled for 7/7:30 (whatever the earliest they will do it is) and then in the morning, follow up at the desk as well.

2. Yes. It is a nice spot - very quiet when we stayed there. We swam in and took a walk along the beach.

3. In October, I went in with just 1 other crew member. They didn't seem to care, so I don't expect it to be a problem if you just go in alone. Worst case, you'd have to come back with everyone.

4. Since you are going with the Moorings, I'd just use their provisioning service - we've used riteway and bobbie's and none stood out from the other so much. We've been happy with Moorings since they started offering their a la carte service. For veggies/fruit, we've got a box from good moon - have to be a little creative with that though, but my wife is good with that.

Ask away on the other questions..

We provision the typical stuff like beer/water/canned goods, boxed goods, etc. For produce and meat/fish my wife takes a trip to the store to hand pick the items. We've never tried the cooler but many here seem too like that option.

With our young daughters on a long charter. We would send the girls off to do something on Tortola for lunch and the day. Tortola is a big place with much to do. Over the years we have learned in some cases the hard way to never be in a rush to leave the dock. When everything is checked out, when everyone in the boat is ready, EVERYONE, then the boat leaves the dock +/-3. With lunch ashore somewhere on Tortola and at least some of the crew straight from the grocery store with fresh everything. Dinner on the boat somewhere quiet is a great first night for a young family.

If everyone is ready and the boat is fully ready great! Then leave at that time. What is gained in the rush? What are you passing up and leaving behind on Tortola. Even if that is the young girls spending a couple of hours in a freshwater pool while Mom reads. Some of the most miserable and frustrated Dad's I have met on vacation have been those skippers trying to heard bees and cats on the dock to match some schedule that is meaningless at the end of the day.

Our vacation schedule would be have breakfast together. Send Mom and the girls off to the pool, lunch, and the grocery while Dad fully inspects the boat with a plan to leave by 3.

Steve, I sent you a PM about the Moorings boat checkout.
G

Thank you all! This is very helpful. Last year, I promised myself that I would not push my family too hard. However, without the experience of bare boating, I failed. On the 5th or 6th day, I found my wife crying in a chair at Bitter End looking out at the water. Of course, this is not good! This year, I have made every attempt to eliminate days with multiple stops and I will also make every attempt to avoid rough conditions. Another thing we did last year was put ourselves in situations where we were doing things in the afternoons instead of being in our spot and relaxing. If we do less each day, we will be able to get to the next mooring and just enjoy the area we are in. With all of this said, I am trying to get my head around our overnights. We will alter this and will go with the flow more this trip, but this is a rough agenda:

Sleep aboard
Kelly Cove, Norman
White Bay, Jost
St. John
St. John
Cane Garden Bay
North Sound
Anegada
Jost
Jost
Scrub (kids play in pool while we pack)

I am worried about the day we leave Cane Garden Bay and spend the night in the North Sound. We are considering eliminating a night on St. John and allowing ourselves to enjoy the north side of Tortola, which we have never done. If we did this, we could spend the night in White Bay, Guana or Marina Cay. We would like to spend some time around the Baths prior to heading up to the North Sound, so spending the night in the Marina Cay area would break this up. Without spending the night, we would have an action packed day of CGB to the Baths area and then up to North Sound in the afternoon. We have a power cat, but this seems like pushing it. I would appreciate any thoughts you have.

Thank you!
Steve

With young families the more days the boat does not move the better. The North Sound is a great place to park the boat and not move it for more than 24 hours. Anegada is certainly the place to park the boat and not move for more than 24 hours. If the hop is short and weather good. Consider moving the boat before breakfast and not moving that boat again until the next day.

"Gentlemen do not cruise to weather". Make your way uphill on the first settled day and then slowly make your way downhill from there.

You have 4 days between Jost and Cane Garden Bay. Why not put those days together? You could probably just spend 3 days in that area - or even 2. If you really want to keep the trip more relaxed, I'd spend 3 days in North Sound. 2 nights at Leverick, rent a car the day you arrive and go out to dinner, explore day 2 and then do dinner at Leverick (jumbies if you can make the visit on a Friday). Then for the 3rd night in north sound, make a short move to Saba or BEYC or any other spot.

It might also help to know - what had your wife in tears?

Too much work for her. My girls were not chipping in with their meals as much as they should have and we were moving around so much that she didn't get some time to just sit and enjoy. Again, lesson learned. Regarding the North Sound, we spent two full days on a ball at Bitter End last year and had our fill. We really like beautiful beaches, which is the reason we have so much time allocated to Jost, St. John and Cane Garden Bay. The two that stick out that we have not visited is White Bay, Guana and Deadmans on Peter. Any thoughts on these or others we have not considered? Thank you for your help so far!

If you want the boat hanging off a great beach you likely will have to make a call each day based on the weather. If you know how to anchor, are willing to anchor, and know how to determine each day if the weather is settled the options get much larger.

Anegada has great beaches. The great beaches are a long dinghy ride and truck.taxi ride away. We no longer do St. John and Anegada on the same trip. We have done it many times and that is just too much boat moving for many.

When the weather is right we will spend one night or more at Savannah Bay on Virgin Gorda.



Once we stop the boat. We no longer move again until everyone is ready to move someplace else.

SJ

Was the picture of the woman floating taken in Savanah Bay?

Yes, that is Seal, George and Great Dog you can see in the distance.

Here is another view of a beach most just sail by Savannah and Pond.