This trip was April 20-27, 2012. Yes I know this is a little late, just takes a little time.

So a little back ground. (Will try to keep this short) The wife was on a business trip with work a little more than 5 years ago to St Thomas, stayed at Frenchman’s Reef. This was pre-tarp days when banks could still have trips. Anyway we stay over a few days after for our own time and I found a day sail guy running out of Pleasant Point to the St. John beaches. Was a 38’ mono and it was just us and another couple with their son and Capt. Ron. It was a great day and we started talking to Capt. about sailing the US/BVIs, we were hooked and decided that we would do this on our own someday.

Long story short, we went home (Ohio) and took some sailing lessons, bought a 19’ day sailor, sailed that for couple years, upgraded to a 26’ pocket cruiser sailed that for another couple years. All the while taking the ASA 101,103 and various other courses. Did a ton of research on the BVIs and chartering (thanks a bunch to this board, sailonline, BVIPirate et al..) There is a ton of info out there if you just look.

So the culmination of this was to schedule a flotilla with Sunsail last April. As much as I felt confident on my own, having other boats, a captain, and a mechanic around was a good security blanket and took a lot of the pressure off. Made the wife way more comfortable and confident (happy wife, happy life). We booked through owner’s time and that worked out well. We were on a Oceanas 323. There were a total of 7 boats plus the lead boat, all but one was couples on mono’s ranging from 32-39. The family with 2 kids had a 38’ cat. The flotilla experience was pretty good. We were pretty much on our own. They did pick the itinerary and we had “briefing” meetings every evening about 6pm to go over where we were headed the next day. They gave a bunch of advice on everything from sailing conditions, best time to get there to get a ball, restaurants bars, snorkel and dive stops. They would make reservations for you if you wanted. Not sure I would do it again but it was good for first timers. The biggest gripe I had was the Fri to Fri time and you cannot get on the boat before 6pm the first Friday so you kind of lose a half day. And you can not extend to Saturday at the end. Although I think this is a normal Sunsail thing.

So we fly into STT, no problems with flight at all, took the advice here and went straight to the ferry dock and caught a ferry in 5 minutes. Something did not seem right on the way over, you kind of wonder when the locals start looking out the window. When we got to the west end they said everybody off, mechanical problems. First they were going to taxi those that wanted on to Road Town, then another ferry showed up and I guess it was not full so back on the other ferry. We finally get to the Sunsail base about 5pm, we left STT at 1:30pm. Settle onto the boat, food from Bobby’s and liquor from Ticos were both a bit late but got there. Had some drinks on the boat, met fellow flotilla ppl, all is good.

Next morning (Saturday) we did check out and briefing, no problems. Our first sail is to the Bight at Norman. Pretty easy sailing with some screwdrivers. Grab a ball on the 1st try and we are set. Tied off a floaty to the back of the boat and enjoy drinks and music and watch another couple try to grab a ball with no penant. I little amusing till she broke the boat hook trying to left the entire ball on to the boat. Our flotilla mechanic went and saved them. Happy hour drinks at Willy and then dinner at Pirates. Wanted to head back to Willy T but the wife said I had way too much already. We did find our boat though.

Day 2, (Sunday) sail around west end to Great Harbor, Jost, screwdriver in hand. (We did clockwise around, wind was from the E to SE all week). Grab a ball and again enjoys drinks on the boat for a bit. Took the dink around the point to White Bay and did the bar crawl, beach thing. Back to the boat, more cocktails, then to Corsairs for dinner, ended up dancing the night away at Foxy’s.

Day 3, ( Mon) the destination was Marina Cay. With the wind coming E-ESE it was a great tack up the north side of Tortola. Our flotilla guy advised us to go through the cut at Guana and Little Camanoe but with the wind as good as it was I fell off a bit and went around the north side of both Guana and Great C. Then came about for a tack right into Scrub Island/Great C. passage. Got a ball at Marina Cay, had drinks aboard, floated around a bit, more drinks at the hill top bar, then dinner and drinks at Pussers. This was the only organized flotilla dinner.

Day 4, wind again SE, tacked strait across the channel then came about to VGYH and got a slip for the eve. The flotilla hostess arranged a taxi to the baths. Back to the boat, drinks, and dinner somewhere, can’t remember, maybe Fishers, just south of the yacht harbor, right on the water.

Day 5, head to North Sound and target Saba but all the balls are taken there, grab a BEYC ball. Repeat of sorts, drinks relaxing on boat for a bit, hit Saba for a drink and watch the Tarpon feeding. Grab a couple of flotilla ppl and head to the Fat Virgin for dinner, then to the Crawl Pub for more drinks and ppl watching.

Day 6, head over to Leverick and grab a ball and go ashore, not much going on, kind of early and we were to be back at Sunsail base by 5. Head out and motor sail down the channel to Sunsail, light wind. Get into dock no problem. Start to pack up.

Last day, do the check out with no problem, get a shuttle, ferry to STT, then to airport. Had a minor issue with the plane, one engine would not start, so they de-boarded the plane. Since this was like the last flight of the day it was not looking so good, airport was shutting down and with Carnival going on the hotels in CA were pretty much booked. Well they got the engine started and we left with no further problems.

Now looking forward to the next trip. Thanks again to everybody on this board, as mentioned got lots of info from here so makes things a little easier.

Rick & Linda