For those of you who have sailed the BVI both before and after the hurricanes, how would you assess crowd levels at this point in the aftermath? We are headed down in February.

For the sake of all those down there who depend on tourism for their livelihood, I certainly hope for a speedy and full recovery. But the selfish part of me wishes for a trip like the old days ...when, for instance, you could go
to the Baths without the crush of all humanity!

The crowds at the Baths are generally not sailors but rather cruise ship passengers and day trippers. The cruise ships are back. My impression is that there are less charter boats out but the number of overnight spots have been reduced (Saba, BEYC, Sopers,) so the available anchorages are pretty full.

Agree,

The curise shippers, that come in the thousands have full on discovered the BVI, Road Town, Canegarden Bay, and the Baths.

There are cruise ship schedules, and we do our best to come at a time, when the cruise ship visits are fewer and none.

The day trippers at White Bay, make beach landings en mass, and anchor just of the Soggy Dollar. Plus, the larger Bare Boat and skippered catamarans have 8 to 12 people on each of those. A whole lot more bodies, than just Erica and I on a 36 ft mono hull. Last visit # 16, pre irma, the SOGGY was slammed. We just went to another of the bars, This next trip, we will give hendos a go. Also, plan to moor a day or two at Diamond Cay, or Little Jost for the B line, and the Taboo.. We hope to moor also at Great Harbor and walk over to White Bay., and back at great harbor check out Corsairs and Foxys.... As to mooring at white bay, usually in front of Ivans, we draw 6.5 feet, and not sure of the bottom depth after Irma, and do not want to ground the vessel or plow thru white bay sand. So, e compromise and walk over from great harbor.
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I believe ti was two years ago, when we visited the Baths. The cruise ship passengers mobbed the baths. We could not even get thru to begin the tour. It was Disneyland on steroids. However, we have experienced the Baths for 34 years or so, and we had to compromise. We kissed of the interior of the baths, and walking thru to Devils Bay. New plan, we tossed our shirts up on a tree limb, we had our snorkel gear with us, since the original plan was to snorkel back outside the boulders to return the Baths Beach.

Devils Bay is very, very nice, and went to plan B. We left our t shirts up in a tree, and instead of fighting the masses of boat people at the Baths entry, we snorkeled outside the boulders to Devils Bay, Relaxed a bit there, and snorkeled back out side the boulders, Beautiful clear water, with some marine life.

We swam / snorkeled back to the baths beach, retrieved our T shirts and ordered a couple of Red Stripes. At this time, we say hello to everyone, we met one of the tour guides from one of the cruise ships. She was keeping an eye on her passengers, must have been hundreds of them, who had certain colored wrist bands. Yep, that was to make sure the tourists from the different cruise ships wound up back on the proper ship. So, the lesson for us was, STAY CLEAR OF THE BATHS WHEN THE CRUISE SHIPS ARE IN.

Happily, Our day was not done. Again life is a compromise, and we intend on having the best time that we can. Up the hill we went to a place we had not been to previously. THE TOP O THE BATHS. We liked it up there, even tho there were some people there, we swam in their view top pool, and ordered a pain killer or two at the outside pool bar and enjoyed the great view of the islands. All good.
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Another compromise that we managed to turn into a positive.

When we had sailed up the Sir Francis Drake Channel, from Cooper Island, and that is great SAILING, not motoring, when we reached the Baths, narry a mooring was available. OK, no grousing, sheet em in, lads and lasses, we continued sailing up to Leverick Bay, VG. Spent a couple of days there, and we added in something else that we had not done before. We took a taxi to the Baths, and the driver made it an island tour, even stopping at special sites to take our photos, At hat time, we had no clue about the Cruise Ship infestation. We certainly found out .

When we walked out from the Top of the Baths, the taxi driver was waiting for us, and we had a good fun time with him, on the drive back to Leverick. That evening we had reservations for the BBQ, band , dancing, and mocko jumbies.

We had a marvelous time with new experiences and did a fair job of partying down.
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Canegarden Bay, same trip.

When we sailed into Canegarden, we picked up a mooring and went into MYETTS, the bartender told us, we had timed it perfectly, as we just missed the cruise shippers by a day or so. an we would not have liked to have been there.
When the cruise shippers bus in, Canegarden was was absolutely inundated, no seats at the bar, long waits for any table, and the beach was totally packed. Not our Canegarden Bay. We were happy to have missed all of that. Now, in our planning, we can look up cruise ship days, and work around the multitudes. Most time we are places that they cannot or do not invade.
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This next BVI sailing vacation, we are aware of less anchorages and moorings available due to Irma's wrath. But, we leave a mooring field and island early in the morning, hoist the reefed main, and roll out the jib, and plan to get into our next destination early. Some places this next trip we will , be experiencing things that we have not done before. instead of a mooring, we will call and reserve a slip . Keeping life easy, and the fun meter pegged.

Life is a lot of compromise, and we can work around most anything. to maintain a grand and wonderful BVI sailing vacation.

Just our thoughts on how we handle the lumps and slight bumps .

Denny and Erica

We went to baths in May and October '18 and many pre Irma. It will be a great day when we bring people out that have already seen them so we can skip...:). I would say they redid the path and they look better than they did pre IRMA.

Came out of Spanish town (VGYC) both times at 800 am and had pick of moorings. Baths pretty empty until around 1100 and then it got crowded (by land mostly) and by then we were leaving. Mooring field filled both times by 1100 with boats circling.

Plan to do same routine in Feb '19...trying to set flight plan around Full Moon Party as well

My favorite time in BVI is still that Oct 1st week before Interline Regatta time...

Moorings told us in Oct that 75% of fleet was running.