So glad I found this forum - great info here! I have a question for those of you who may be experienced in crewed charters. We have a group of 6 looking to book a crewed charter (our first) the 1st week of July 2013. One of our first issues is to decide whether to start in Red Hook or Tortola. It seems a lot easier to get to St Thomas from the midwest especially since American Airlines seems to be cutting flights to EIS. I am wondering if we would miss out on great things by sailing out of Red Hook during a 7 night charter. Has anyone done both? Which would be better for first timers. Also any suggestions on Catamarans for 6 of us in our 30s-40s? There seems to be so many great choices

Try Catatonic: http://www.yachtcatatonic.com/Yacht_Cataotnic/Welcome.html

They're a sponsor here & if I'm not mistaken, I think they'll start your crewed charter in either location. Great people with a reputation for terrific service & superb equipment.

Our very good friends and excellent crew, Bob and Maggie, operate Silver Moon out of the USVI... http://www.silvermoonsailing.com/ Couldn't think of a better crew for you.

I haven't done both but having done two charters that start in the BVIs I don't think you'd be missing out on anything great starting from St. Thomas. Your first seven night charter will be wonderful. However, there is no way you will see everything great you will hear about. Even with a longer charter you wouldn't hit everything so just be prepared to go again, to revisit your favorites and see a few new things. And then again, and again, and again.....

Yes, Catatonic is moored in Red Hook

Thanks for the advice. Looks like Catatonic and silvermoon are both unavailable during the week we can go. Darn the luck! I feel better now about leaving out of St. Thomas. I hope we can find a great boat <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Grin.gif" alt="" />

try Jim on Blue Moon

Actually Nik we faced the same decision many years ago. I hadn’t sailed in a while and most experience was on the Great Lakes. Chose Red Hook and couldn’t have been happier. Relaxing late start, a beautiful night at Waterlemon St. John and then on the second day the BVI’s. The capt., crew and I became very good friends and that continues to this day even though we bareboat now and I’m taking some yacht deliveries that he might have had. Thanks Jer. If you are looking for an up scale 56’ cat PM me and I’ll send you contact info.

We booked Safari , 44' catamaran. Looking forward to a great vacation!

Have a great time, Safari looks like a nice boat. I've been on smaller Lagoons and liked them a lot. Take a look at http://www.angelinacat.com/ for some good resources about the BVI and cruising guides, etc.

When are you sailing on Safari? Looking at a Safari vacation as well! Can you post back how you like it?

We aren't going on our trip until the first week of July, but I will definitely post about our adventure. We wanted to book pretty early so we would be all set for a great trip with the most selection of boats. There were several similar boats to Safari that we liked, but they were already booked. Because this is our first trip of this type, we really don't have anything to compare it to.
We are very excited!