If you're going to use the grill on the stern you should first move the dink to the bow.

While I am a newbie to BVI chartering I am not a newbie to sailing. I think I started this with my post last night.

I can not understate how much I appreciated and enjoyed reading the foregoing posts. Sandsailsun, you have been around boats!

I loved "bring less clothes and more money!"

Mooring ball pick-up, just hilarious.

Somewhere around my tenth year, only a year or two into my sailing life, I was involved in sailing instruction that taught us how to pick up a mooring ball. I was in a Penguin - some of you may know this boat .... about 13 feet, a single main, no jib. The mast is stepped forward about a foot or two from the pointy bow. We were instructed to put the boat into the wind to approach the mooring ball, leaving the tiller (lashed amidships on a bungie) to proceed forward as the boat slowed, drop the main, and grab the line attached to the mooring ball as it passed to port or starboard. In my excitement to get that ball, I forgot to drop the main, the boat accelerated as it predictably fell off and my skinny self, not wanting to lose that line, got pulled right into the water as I watched my Penguin sail off into other moored boats! Fortunately, or not, it capsized nicely before doing any damage to the moored fleet. Fun times.

More fun times ...... "nothing goes into a head except what comes out of your body." The wisdom of this statement is beyond mere importance. There is nothing worse than a clogged head to ruin a voyage. Nothing.

It does no good to tell your crew to follow their father's advice, fold only 2 or three panels of toilet tissue, never wad it up, wipe once. They will inevitably wad it up - several times - and the net amount of tissue will equal a third of a roll each time!


Thanks everyone. There is a lot of good stuff here for someone like me, planning my first charter trip in the BVI.

https://docs.google.com/document/pub?id=1AfTmhz9wGZyxGm98-FVAOYqVO7OZa-6HEAeFyjVo6vU

Here is a crew safety list that is great if you have less experienced crew aboard.

No one drink what's left in the last bottle of Grey Goose unless you get permission from the Captain!

I don't reply much... But this one made me laugh! I'm already packing my bags for Cat Fight 2013 No high heels - but plenty of bikinis <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/dine.gif" alt="" />

It's always a trade off to bring "stuff" or go light. Everything we pack I try to think if we can make due without or if I can just as easily pick it up in the ilons.

Things we now bring that noone else has mentioned:

- a couple of large mesh laundry bags. Huh you say? We stick the swim fins/goggles/etc in the bags and throw them down in the aft storage locker. It's much easier to get a bag of stuff out vs. standing on your head in a six feet deep hole trying to snag that last swim fin. Or having all that junk loose in the cabin or cockpit and stepping all over it.

- A 12 volt light that I can plug in at the cockpit table and hang from the bimini top. It gets dark and it's nice to have some light. Some boats will have a light for you. Some will not. It's small and it's worth bringing just in case.

- Water tight storage box. Small made out of transparent plastic. To put your small camera plus wallet in when you pack your shore bag - just in case it goes for a swim...

- Spare pair of sun glasses and reading glasses. Just in case you break a pair.

- We make a bit of food on board. So we bring four or five steel wool pads to clean up with. A lot easier to clean up that frying pan vs. a sponge with soap! And yes - I'm sure we could find that in the ilons as well but seems like we forget and it's small and light weight so why not (we pack a couple of duffel bags with stuff for the five of us).

- always pack a good attitude. Things will happen that you don't expect. Sometimes that might even be stressful or make you angry or sad - like when I stuck my camera in the plastic zip lock baggy and then later stuck the boat keys into the same baggy. No problem you say? Well I had swam ashore with those keys and the "float" on the key chain was no float at all - it was full of water. So I marinated my camera in the water in the plastic bag. Smart one!

- This year I'm also bringing a hand held depth finder. This is probably over the top but.... It drives me nuts that I don't really know if the depth finder on the boat has been calibrated or if someone has decided that a one or two foot safety factor should be added. I think that's nonsense - the depth is the depth. So yes... it's over the top but I'm bringing my own hand held depth finder. Just because I can and it's my vacation so I'm bringing what I want. So there.

Reminds me of a few more things I like to bring....
mesh hammocks and green bags for fruits and veggies. A Sharpie for writing our name on our RED Solo Cups <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/toast.gif" alt="" />, Glow sticks, thin plastic decorative tablecloths (makes the party festive and you can clean up real easy!) plastic ties for hanging burgees, cold brew tea bags. (Just shove one or two in a gallon of water in the morning, and you have a gallon of iced tea in 3 minutes. They don't have the cold brew down there.

I know that there will be folks who don't agree with this, but I tie a line ( fairly thin strong cord like parachute cord) to the boat hook. This has saved the boat hook many times when we had newbies going for the mooring. I also bring a package of handi wipes--reusable, light and good for fast cleanups. A wrist loop on the flashlight that you take into dinner saves the risk of losing it in the dark. Also, don't shine the flash in the dingy drivers eyes!!! Seems like a "duh" thing, but I can tell you (and I am not a newbie) how many times I have swung around in the dink and blinded my husband!! We also refill small bottles from gallon jugs--sharpie perfect sense for crew ID. Can never bring too many clothes pins--do try to get the old fashioned wooden ones--the plastic ones crack too easily. Put more than you think you need when hanging clothes on life lines--the wind can quickly render them flying objects. Also, never set sail with anything hanging from the life lines, clothes, rags, bathing suits, etc.

My wife loves shelling and looking for sea-glass, so we bring small mesh bags to put her treasures in while she's searching for them.

I bring a waterproof resealable bag on a neck-lanyard to put my wallet, boat papers, etc. in for the dingy ride to shore.

We also bring a very large waterproof dive bag for carrying towels, coverups, cameras, etc. to the beach, and also for carrying goodies we bought ashore back to the boat.

Dingy rides can be wet - especially going back from White Bay, Jost to Great Harbor. Last trip the kids in the bow were wearing their snorkel masks on the ride back!

Ha! On our boat all of the guys have the waterproof bags. We call them "man purses"! They are great!

I'll second the sugestion about tying a line to the boathook.
It is a loooong way down to the water on a large cat and if you happen to drop the hook, it's gone!

I cannot figure out how I would practically use a handheld depth sounder from the helm of a boat?

I do take the time to figure out with both help from the guys on the dock and my own eyes and mask what the reading would be when we touch bottom. That is all you really need for BVI anchorages and navigation.

Just don't tie the other end of this line to yourself, or you AND the boathook may go for a swim.

Back in the 1970's I spent 6 weeks as a student aboard a 130-foot schooner. We got our wash-down water for the deck by using a bucket thrown into the sea. The bucket had a long line on it, and the professional crew was VERY careful to explain to tie the bucket to the railing, and not to yourself. We generally honked along at 8 knots or so, and that bucket would have pulled you right overboard if you weren't careful! <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/drown.gif" alt="" />

This may be the very best advice of all.

x2

We had to vote one of our crew "off the island" last year due to a pervasively bad attitude.

Funny. I wasn't planning on using the hand held for anything other than the initial calibration. I'll stick it in the water and compare it with the depth finder on the boat. And either recalibrate it or just note how far off it is. A line with a rock on the end and a measuring tape will do the same. But I have the hand held so why not bring it? I guess my point was, in answer to the newbie question was that you should not trust the depth finder on the boat. A couple of years ago we had a Sunsail boat. Didn't notice until we had left the dock that the depth finder was reading 100 feet. That's a pretty important (most important?) instrument and it needs to be useful.

I'll add a kids menu to this thread (or the start of one):

-- before you let them swim off the boat at a new location, go in yourself and assess the current/wind/drift
-- take them to Scrub Island for a night half way through and let them play in the pools and shower
-- fit them with snorkel masks at home before leaving
-- if conditions are relatively mild, take them to the Bubbly Pool for sure
-- take them to the Baths late in the day when it's not crowded and let them play hide and seek, etc. on the trail to Devil's
-- take them to Happy Hour at Saba Rock
-- bring some boxes of their favorite mac and cheese from home; the food part is generally very easy--you can provision for some stand-bys they eat at home, and most of the restaurants onshore are of the fries and burgers genre
-- don't let them apply their own sunscreen even when they get to the age of insisting they can do it themselves
-- bring long sleeve surf/water shirts for them and try to get them to swim with them on as much as possible
-- a teenager or prototeenager can be nicely encased in the v-berth and an entire day can get underway happily for the rest of the boat without needing to bother with getting them up and prying them out of there
-- bribe them with stops for t-shirts/dresses and virgin coladas if you happen to hit any low morale spots
-- (I know this will be a minority view!) don't allow soda as a regular beverage at home but have a rule that everyone gets cold Cokes whenever they want on the boat
-- have them bring the phone but cutoff data access; no texting while there but take lots of pictures with their phones and do the instagram thing, etc. with their friends on the way home
-- if you have girls, find a compromise system with the water that will allow you to let them wash their hair once a day in fresh water, however briefly; and a small amount of Joico K-Pak styling oil combed in after works great for dealing with the sun and salt to prevent development of a bird's nest and hair bad mood
-- everyone says see Pirate Show at Leverick too, though that is typically done for the season when we charter
-- Willy T is (usually) ok for them early evening on the lower deck on the kitchen side; the food is good and the funny restaurant boat you dinghy to is a fun thing for them
-- bottom line is this is better for them than anyone else regardless; BVI is a total water world and I don't know any kids who don't want that in their dreams

What I really want to know is what the sounder says just before or when the keel touches. You can find a soft clean sandy spot and check by braille.

Or you can do you own bottom safety check in shallow clear water to get an idea what the unit reads with say one foot under the keel. The bright sandy bottom will give you better light to look at the bottom anyway.

Usually the better talent on the dock can tell you what the sounder will say with no water under the boat.

This lying depth sounder thing is one of my pet peeves.

Like others, I want to know the depth as precisely as possible. This is an aid to navigation! Sometimes the charter company thinks they are being smart by making the sounder read 1-2 feet less than reality. All this does is confuse me in times when I REALLY need to know the exact reading NOW. For example, crossing the shallow-spot on the way into Anegada. It's about 7 feet or so, and if the depth sounder starts telling me OH NO! it's 5 feet or 4.5 feet, it makes me immediately wonder if I'm out of the channel!

So to all the charter companies out there: please don't get cute with the depth sounder - please make it read as accurately as possible. Don't dial in a foot or two for a "stupid charterer" factor. You're already trusting us with your $500,000 boat, so this type of gamery simply serves to tick us off.

Just download the manual for it and you can adjust their calibration

Good Luck with that?

"You can find a soft clean sandy spot and check by braille."

there is also a new thing out called a dive mask.

Not everyone puts their face in the water....

The fishing weight and knotted string approach at the dock works pretty well.

You should also ask if it is calibrated to water depth or depth under keel. Good thing to know.

Depth finders MEH....Did everyone know there is a little 25 cent battery in those suckers? Let's just say that it is not on the "Preventative Maintenance" schedule. My preferred way to deal with these suckers is to NOT enter an offset. drop a string and a weight overboard and note the REAL offset on a label. Why? you might ask....

We were in Anegada and the inverter was turned on for a reason that I do not want to be ridiculed in a public forum for, so lets just say we did not turn it off, my bad. The day had a pretty good beamy wind where we were not paying attention to anything important...like the battery gauge....

Pulling into CGB we clear the channel and set to starboard behind the mooring balls...thud...thud...fuque...whiskey tango foxtrot(!!) depth gauge says 6 feet? We get off and I dive the boat, no harm. OFFSET on depth gauge is cleared(?), house battery is at 11.3 volts.

string and rock

Second that.

There are many who use only a good set of current charts and a lead line or a well calibrated depth sounder to navigate one's way through tight spots.

As a newbi to BVI chartering, I'm perplexed that anyone with a brain who works for a charter company would do something like that. But, man, I appreciate the comments here that the depth sounder needs to be checked out thoroughly.... I liked the idea of asking the guy who owns the boat in the slip next to your charter boat what the depth there is. I have never been one to "add" a couple of feet to the sounder reading. It is what it is as long as you know its accurate.

Calibrate.

I have a little 4 oz lead fish weight with a string knotted every foot. All of $.70 cost. When I get to the boat at the charter base I drop it over the side just forward of the mast and count the wet knots. I use that to compare to the depth sounder. Usually I find it set about a foot or so below the keel.

The other thing I do is find the knot log and clean it. 9 times out of 10 it is fouled with barnacles or other crud.

Try the AICW behind Jekyll Island at low tide. Makes the BVI look like the Marianas Trench.

If you read the reviews at West Marine and others... Some claim the best us of the hand held depth sounders is as a weight to measure the water depth?

Pay attention to whether the air vent on the dinghy gas tank is open or closed. If you are unaware that it is closed, you might be surprised when the dinghy engine dies for seemingly no reason. If the dinghy is in the davits, and the air vent on the gas tank is open, you might be surprised when gasoline starts sloshing around underway -- and with no easy way to rectify the situation.

I think the most important tip any newb can receive is to pick the right crew. One person (and it only requires one) can sour an entire trip. Be very careful who you bring <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Cheers.gif" alt="" />

I've been enjoying these posts, love the details. One basic sailing item I haven't seen on this list yet:

Make certain that stopper knots are in all of the appropriate sheets and lines.

We didn't notice until our fifth day that we were missing a stopper knot on our outhaul for an in-mast furler. Basic, but I never want to try and fish an outhaul out of a boom!

We take our microfiber towels with use and ignore the terrycloth towels provided. They dry in five minutes. We also take insulated water bottles and refill from gallon jugs as needed.

A lesson learned, if you put a 6 gallon case of water in a deep aft locker you will be getting down there to pull it out! Someone else mentioned frozen gallon of water to keep the adult beverage cooler chilled - works great!

Cheers, RickG

+1 on the stopper knot. As a crew member last year on a moorings 4600 we didn't notice the lack of stopper knots either and had our starboard sheet blow completely overboard on a port tack. We still had control of the port sheet, so we were able to capture it even though it was whipping like crazy. But it left a nasty burn (and now scar) on my forearm that stung the rest of the week.

Bravo!! Stopper knots are one of the first things I check when I get on any charter boat. If none exist, they are tied w/in the first 10 minutes and well before we leave the dock!! <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Clapping.gif" alt="" />

Great information....your experience shows!!