Lengthy trip report - here we go

Just completed a seven day charter with Captains Compass on Brent's Athena 38.

I've done over 30 charters in the BVI's, both as a working captain and as a bareboat customer. Moorings, Sunsail, CYOA, Conch etc. This trip was pure vacation (child free!). I saw an Brent's banner ad on this site back in July. $2800.00 for the offseason week, including fuel! We decided to roll the dice and use the savings to spoil ourselves on the rest of the vacation.

The boat - an older Athena 38.
As noted, most people consider these boats floating campers at best. Cramped cabins, tight bathrooms and wierd french designing. On the bright side, Athena's are easy boats to handle and sail. You can spin them on a dime and easily slide into almost any fuel dock.

Brent has done a FANTASTIC job of bringing this ole girl back to life. The boat was spotlessly clean and outfitted with plenty of linens, towels, windscoops for every cabin, plenty of extra dock lines, clothes pins etc. Most of the extra things that get thrown into my gear bag were already on the boat and supplied by Brent.

Upon arrival at the dock I found the boat outfitted and 100% ready to sail. In use my own checklist to verify a boats readiness, on only three occasisions has a charter boat ever scored 100%, Brent's did. Everything from water tanks being filled to the drain plugs being present in the sinks. We did a sleep aboard the first night and Brent was on the dock promptly at 8:30am. He gave a great chart briefing, excellent review of the boats nuances and a nice sail check. We were off and sailing by 10am. We will use Brent again and I can't reccomend his company strong enough.

Highlights -
Scrub Island. Incredible marina with five star amenities. Call the 800 reservations number and ask for the TTOL rate. We paid 38.00 for the slip and then promptly dropped 500.00 on drinks and dinner. As said before, we took advantage of Brent's prices to spoil ourselves on other aspects of the vacation. Scrubs food prices are high but the quality was pretty darn good.

Indians - Coral was in great shape, especially on the back side. Lot's of fish and marine life. Glad to see it doing well.

St. John,

Moored up on the first afternoon at Lind Point, went in and cleared customs. Girls went shopping and we settled into our evening at Beach Bar. Got back to the boat around midnight and I went forward to check the mooring one last time before night night. Caught a glimpse of something under the boat with the flashlight, to my surprise it was a submerged mast tip less than two feet under our keel! I envisioned the nightmare scenario of bad ferry swell and that mast hitting our keel, so we decided to break the rules and move our boat up to the next mooring. Two guys on the bow with flashlights and a spotter on the stern we safely moved the boat 50 yards to the next ball. The next day I tried to call the park service, no one answered. Next call was to CYOA, I figured they would be greatly concerned as this was a popular mooring spot for thier charterers. First call didn't even get a "thank you". Next call was to the USCG who took the report. After a few minutes I called CYOA back and asked to speak with Nancy, wanting to be sure that this reached the checkout capts and I posted it on TTOL.

We started our VI love affair by renting a villa on St. John back in 1992. It still feels like home to our group and it's impossible for us to visit the islands without spending most of our time roaming about STJ. Beach Bar, our favorite watering hole in the entire carribean. Incredible food at great prices. Woody's, used to loved this place. Not anymore, customer service has dropped and it has lost its charm. New guys across the street at Iguana Cafe are going to do well! Great service and excellent decor.

We rented jeeps one day and headed over to Coral Bay. Skinny Legs still ranks pretty high on our "best" cheeseburger in the world list. Love the Coral Bay liveaboard crowd, its impossible to sit at the bar without getting a few good stories. Island Blues was closed and rumoured to be for sale, 180k. Might just have to look into that!

Hawksnest bay, incredible place to moor up for the day. Snorkeling on the NE side of the cove is getting better every year. Fanastic array of marine life living amongst the coral clusters. Octopuss, lobsters, turtles, big snapper etc. Palm lined beaches of Hawknest and Oppy are some of the best in the islands.

Norman Island - Willy T by night, Pirates Bight by day. Just busy enough to keep it interesting without getting to crazy. Be sure to tip the bartenders well. Willy T guys work four days on, four days off and do everything from catching the daily fish to doing the nightly dishes.

The Baths - I'm done with em. Beautiful spot but its not worth dealing with the mooring ball circus. Every year numerous collisions occur here and it is easy to see why. All discipline, concern and consideration gets tossed aside by CC capts and professional capts alike as they race for an open ball. It's not worth it anymore. IMHO either taxi in from Spanish or cross it off the list.

Great week of vacation. Now its time to decompress, recover and go back to work for a week before I head back down. (Doing a boat delivery next week)