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Trip Report - Sunsail Wickams Cay #220963
03/15/2020 02:47 PM
03/15/2020 02:47 PM
Joined: Feb 2020
Posts: 17
Oriental, NC
juice13 Offline OP
Traveler
juice13  Offline OP
Traveler
Joined: Feb 2020
Posts: 17
Oriental, NC
Just got back from a Sunsail charter out of Tortola March 7th through 12th. Quick trip for the four of us (boys are 6 and 8). Timing was lucky as we encountered no travel issue flying back to NC through STT, but are now semi-self-quarantined just to be safe. Really no corona virus affects on our travel.

Fifth time down to VIs, first time in 11 years. All monohulls from 32 to 52 feet. CYOA, Moorings, Footloose and now Sunsail.

Sunsail 38 two cabin (Jeanneau, with a wonky swim platform that our backs are still recovering from lowering and raising). This was likely the cheapest boat at Whickam’s Cay

Stayed in St. Thomas at Sapphire beach (Red Hook area) in an AirBNB for a couple of nights. Nice low key spot and the kids loved the short walk to the beach. Provisioned for land at Moe's (surprised how similar to a Fresh Market it was), ate at Sudi's the last night. Recommended for the pool access and the food.

Fast Ferry to Tortola from Charlotte Amalie. Just a note, lock your bags. Several of ours look like they’d been opened and poked through. Then a short cab ride to the base (we thought of walking, but splurged for $5 a person).

Base impressions:
Last time down was 2009 and the Moorings fancy section was just completed. Looks about like what we remember. The Sunsail (also used to be Footloose?) side still has pretty awful bath facilities so they actually told us at the front desk to use the Moorings ones.

Dinner was reasonable and pool was great. Boarded the boat a little earlier than 6. Kept walking back for free rum punch at the check in tent. smile

Captain’s briefing was brief and no mention of out-of-bounds zones. Pretty sure last time we had a cruising guide chart marked with exclusion zones. Didn’t see one this time (but maybe they were on the slides shown during the meeting?). Also ZERO mention of boaty ball. Based on chatter on this forum we were prepared.

Provisioning:
Sunsail pre-provisioning was okay, missed a few items. I just emailed about refunds. Local produce box was great! We really had fun identifying and cooking various local vegetables. Definitely recommend walking to Riteway for more options after inspecting your delivery. The store is much much nicer than last time we went! Craft beer options were very limited.

Boat impression: (Sunsail 38 “Fatal Attraction”. Worst name ever?)
Lowering swim platform is an awful design, especially when there are no longer the pneumatic struts to help lower it slowly. Sunsail reviews on the boat mention this on the 38 especially. Twin helms are nice and the cockpit is large. Not enough opening hatches in the stern berth. Lots of wet locker storage (only with the single stern berth) and a nice big head with electric flush heads (we are now converts).

Galley design just didn’t make sense as there was no counter top surface other than on the fridge lid and no spillover area for prep work.

Ran out of water on the last dish on the last morning. So anything more than 4 days is pushing it (we did take a few showers, but the kids did army showers on the swim platform).

With only the fridge and occasional water pump the batteries did not last 4 hours. Definitely needed newer/larger/more batteries and/or more solar.

Sunday - Baths then Cooper.
We motored to baths, waited 20 minutes for a mooring after arriving at 11am. Kids loved the swim in and the hike. This was the only must-do on the trip so mission accomplished. We had reserved a boaty ball at Cooper and based on the weather we thought all was good. Ha. We didn’t want to overload the first day, and if no boaty ball could be reserved, we would skip Cooper and head to Peter.

Cooper island beach club was fresh and new, good local (like made there) beer. Highly recommended FOR LUNCH STOP ONLY.

Story time!

We will be retelling the Cooper island night of terror for many years. Wind was not supposed to show up until 6AM, but around 10PM the boat was slamming on the mooring like we were beating upwind toward the perfect storm. I now know the harmonic frequency of the rigging of a Sunsail 38 resonates at 25 knots. It was like trying to sleep on a tuning fork in a washing machine. White caps crashing around the boat and some rain. Winds out of the NNE.

Kids slept through the whole thing! The bow was slamming for hours and they were in the forepeak dead to the world.

6AM the wind turned ENE and anchorage actually calmed down a bit. Mental note, NE wind is ENTIRELY different than an ENE wind at Cooper. Never again!

Monday - Norman Island (Full Moon)
Boogied down to Norman early and got a ball southeast side, but upwind from Willy Ts. Great snorkeling at the caves and playing at the beach at Pirate’s Bight.

Quiet night even with gusts up to 30 knots. I think everyone had same idea as the moorings in the bight were completely full at 3pm and late arriving boats anchored in every available spot. Maybe Norman was the backup for all the Full Moon Party harbors that were full?

Tuesday - Little harbor JVD
Swells were on the rise and we didn’t like the prospect of E winds at Little JVD, so Little harbor seemed the best to pick up a ball. (Swell buoy was up to 16 feet: https://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/show_plot.php?station=41043&meas=wvht )

Been there done that with White Bay and Great Harbor, so thought we’d give Little harbor a chance.

Picked up a mooring (paid Cynthia @ Harris’s place) and dinghied over to Foxy’s taboo on LJVD. Tied up, threw out a stern anchor (note to self: check previous charterer’s knot skills) and had a drink and excellent humus. Hiked to the top of the cliffs (turn right before the bubbly pool) and the huge North swells were making for an awesome show. Hiked down to the bottom with the actual bubbly pool and looked but didn’t swim.

Jumped in the dinghy, pulled up the anchor rode but no anchor. A few minutes of bad visibility snorkeling and pulled it up. I think the Foxy’s patrons were taking bets on whether I’d find it.

Had a drink at B-line on the way back to Little Harbor. Cold Beer! Cheap snacks!

Little Harbor was definitely the least varnished, less touristy spot we’ve been too. Ate at Sidney’s along with maybe 3 other groups. Harris’s might have had a few, but the harbor seemed very quiet.

Wednesday - back to Norman Island, Kelly’s cove

Buzzed Sandy Cay on the way out and the large North swells made any dinghy landing look perilous. So skipped it and set sails for Norman hoping for Kelly’s Cove.

Great spot to snorkel off of the boat. Definitely less coral than our last trip, but the kids had a great time. Lunch at Pirates’ Bight of an excellent roti and barbecue pork nachos. Kelly’s cove was definitely more quiet than the rest of the Bight (besides the 167 foot yacht anchored 100 yards away!). You do get all the wake of any boat coming and going though, so a bit more rocky.

Thursday back to base with plenty of time for a 10AM ferry to Charlotte Amalie. Lunch at Green house downtown (touristy), taxi, plane, plane home.

Things we are glad we took:
Handheld VHF for cockpit use and dinghy trips.
Microfiber towels - fast drying
Sailing gloves
Dry bag backpack- for the Baths but also the dinghy rides
Phone dry pouches
Packable backpacks for provisioning and hikes
Takeya water bottles (went through 7 gallons of water)

Next time will definitely be a longer, multi family trip on a catamaran!

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Re: Trip Report - Sunsail Wickams Cay [Re: juice13] #220965
03/15/2020 02:52 PM
03/15/2020 02:52 PM
Joined: Dec 2018
Posts: 1,345
Washington DC
B
bailau Offline
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bailau  Offline
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B
Joined: Dec 2018
Posts: 1,345
Washington DC
That is a really great report and refreshing to see...thanks for posting. Will note the knot check myself as we have never checked...

Re: Trip Report - Sunsail Wickams Cay [Re: juice13] #220968
03/15/2020 02:58 PM
03/15/2020 02:58 PM
Joined: Feb 2020
Posts: 29
C
cbf Offline
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cbf  Offline
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Joined: Feb 2020
Posts: 29
Enjoyed the report. Thanks for posting!

Re: Trip Report - Sunsail Wickams Cay [Re: juice13] #220970
03/15/2020 03:03 PM
03/15/2020 03:03 PM
Joined: Dec 2007
Posts: 2,040
Charlotte, NC
N
NCSailor Offline
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NCSailor  Offline
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Joined: Dec 2007
Posts: 2,040
Charlotte, NC
Great report. Many years ago we got caught at Coopers in a 35 knot blow. Your description is exactly what we experienced. My wife was sick the whole night. I have an iron stomach. When we got back to the Moorings base we found that 90% of the boat had gone back in early.

Re: Trip Report - Sunsail Wickams Cay [Re: juice13] #221038
03/16/2020 12:51 AM
03/16/2020 12:51 AM
Joined: Dec 2009
Posts: 97
South Central Texas
hocndoc Offline
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hocndoc  Offline
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Joined: Dec 2009
Posts: 97
South Central Texas
Great report! The winds & waves have been scary. Even on the beach.


I've got a mustard seed and I'm not afraid to use it.
Re: Trip Report - Sunsail Wickams Cay [Re: juice13] #221218
03/16/2020 12:52 PM
03/16/2020 12:52 PM
Joined: Jun 2011
Posts: 1,347
USVI
LocalSailor Offline
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LocalSailor  Offline
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Joined: Jun 2011
Posts: 1,347
USVI
Taking the kids sailing !! What could be more fun! Congrats and TY for report.

4 hours on batteries -- totally unacceptable and cause for concern.

Re: Trip Report - Sunsail Wickams Cay [Re: juice13] #222049
03/20/2020 11:19 AM
03/20/2020 11:19 AM
Joined: May 2018
Posts: 32
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pirate auntie Offline
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pirate auntie  Offline
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Joined: May 2018
Posts: 32
We finished our TMM charter on March 4. We saw the bad weather forecast for March 9. Glad you weathered it safely. I’ll be posting a trip report soon.


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