My wife Sue and I just returned from a 2.5 week vacation in the Caribbean BVI and St. Martin. From May 17th to May 25th we bareboated in the BVI, followed by a land based vacation in St. Martin from May 25th to June 2nd. “Bare” with me as I provide the highlights of our 3rd BVI Bareboat Adventure:

Travel details:
We used United freaky flier miles for our round trip air from Southern California (LAX) to/from San Juan (SJU), using US Air & United flights. Our inter island travel was booked though Expedia.com. using Caribbean Sun, LIAT & American.
5/16 PM & 5/17 AM & PM: US Air LAX -> PHL; US Air PHL-> SJU; Caribbean Sun SJU -> EIS. Arrived EIS 5/17 2:40 PM.
5/25 PM: LIAT EIS->SXM.
6/2 AM & PM: AA SXM->SJU; US Air SJU-> Boston; United Boston->LAX.
The flight arrangements were somewhat insane, but we had to work around the freaky flier miles and hey…it was still vacation time and it was better than being at work. From the time we made the flight arrangements to the time of travel (6 months) we were informed of several time and flight changes (check often to make sure your connections don’t break), and fortunately all the travel connections worked and were on time. We did not have to worry (much) about our luggage as we have learned to pack light for carry on only. Although we did have to “gate check” our larger carry ons on the inter island flights.

Our Boat:
We Bareboat Chartered a Moorings “Club 332”. The boat was a 2000 Beneteau 331. Everything about the boat was great, worked fine, it was clean and in excellent condition, and as typical for Moorings, it was extremely well equipped. As return Moorings BVI charterers we did not participate in the chart review. The boat overview provided by Mary Anne was very thorough. We developed a boat check out list based upon one we loaded from this forum (Bill Hartzman’s). Our list had a few enhancements based upon our previous experiences, and although the entire checkout took about 1.5 hours we found nothing that needed addressed, and it was well spent confidence building time. We arranged for the evening start (6:00 PM) so this gave us time to stow our stuff, check out the boat and have a relaxing albeit warm first evening on the boat before our early morning (well…9:00 AM) cast off on the 18th.

Provisions:
We used the Moorings Split Provisioning program and were quite satisfied with this program. Everything was delivered to our boat with no errors and they even stocked the refrigerator/freezer for us. We also ordered supplemental provisions (OK…booze, munchies, etc.) from Bobby’s, this was also a very pleasant experience.

Weather:
Well, this was the downside of the trip. Others on this forum have commented on the May BVI weather. One person we met had spent every May in the BVI for the past 15 years. He said there were more bad days this May, than in all his previous trips combined. Although most of the daylight hours were heavily overcast with squalls, and although we would have preferred more sun, the cruddy weather did not significantly impact our enjoyment or force us to make many changes to our loose itinerary. We managed to sail around most of the squalls (they have very strong lead winds!), and only got rained on during the daytime twice for a short period each time . The upside was that most of the evenings were clear, and we had enough wind to put the rail in the water even with reefed and eased main and partially furled jib (yee ha!!). There was a Small Craft advisory each day…but a 332 is not small…is it?

Our sail itinerary:
5/17: Evening start spent on boat at the Moorings Base.
5/18: Norman Bight. Snorkeled at the Caves, Dinner at Pirates.
5/19, 5/20: White Bay Jost Van Dyke. Brisk sail from Norman Island to JVD via a fast broad reach through the St/John/Tortola Narrows. One dinner at Foxy’s, one on the boat.
5/21: Marina Cay . A very invigorating sail from JVD on the outside of Tortola via two large tacks. Had about 7’ seas and 30 kt winds. Dinner at Marina Cay.
5/22: Bitter End. Lunch & snorkeling stop at George Dog.
5/23, 5/24: Cooper Island Beach Club. Several snorkeling visits to Cistern Point, one dinner at CIBC, one on the boat. Had sun about 50% these days.
5/25: Returned boat to the Moorings. Caught a 2:30 flight on LIAT from EIS to SXM.

Positive Highlights:
- The condition and performance of our Moorings 332 boat (Bug Bear) was excellent.. Considering we got the 35% 35th anniversary discount on the Club Boat it was also a good value.
- Provisions through the Moorings and Bobby’s were great.
- Check Out List and “Standard Operating Procedures” list that we used for casting off, setting sails, mooring, etc. …sorry I’m an engineer and like procedures that helped to prevent departing with the swim ladder down, no beer in the cooler, the dinghy motor down, the crew ashore, etc.
- Great Wind. I checked the Beaufort Scale and could not find a rating for the wind that blew Carib out of the can.
- Bushwackers at Foxy’s. After sitting at the bar and ordering our first round, the bartender (sorry, forgot his name…darn bushwackers) gave us the heels from each batch he made for other orders.
- Snorkeling at George Dog and Cistern Point
- People you meet at the Cooper Island Beach Club bar.
- The friendliness of almost all of the locals.
- Sitting at the Soggy Dollar Bar drinking pain killers and watching people flip out of the hammocks. I think the bar tender purposely tied them off balance.
- Doing a dinghy beach landing at JVD White Bay, in front of a group of day trippers, without doing a face plant.
- Didn’t get the dinghy painter wrapped in the prop this time…
- Conch Fritters at Soggy Dollar Bar, Marina Cay, and Saba Rock
- Rack of Lamb at Marina Cay
- Sailing across the lead edge of a squall or two…Yee Ha!!.
- Being passed by a Swan 80 in 7-8’ seas on a large tack on the back (North side) of Tortola in strong winds (see previous comment about the Beaufort scale). The Swan had fully deployed and tightly trimmed sails close hauled, with the lee rail and most of the lee deck under water and was submarining through the swells.
- Caribbean Sun Airlines. We chose this for our SJU to EIS leg as an alternative to AA and LIAT that screwed us up on previous trips. Caribbean Sun was very timely and professional. But…keep an eye on your carry on luggage if you gate check it, as they might forget to put it on the plane.
- Packing light for carry on only luggage.
- Most locations were not very busy.
- No sun rash this time. But, we had very little sun. Regardless, I think the preparation time spent in the tanning beds helped.
- 7 sunny days, after our BVI bareboat charter, spent in St. Martin (mostly on the beach…and drinking Rum Punch) to prepare for society re-entry.
- Moorings on JVD White Bay, so we did not have to walk from Foxy’s to Little Harbor this time. We prefer to sleep on moorings rather than anchor if we can. 11 total moorings…but see comments in the “Not so highlights section”.
- No mutiny by the crew (my wife) or keel hauling thereof or by..
- “Bobby the Barracuda”. We had about a 4’ barracuda (he’s much bigger in some versions of this story) under our boat the entire time we were moored at CIBC. He was waiting for table scraps and/or for me to slip off of the swim platform when getting out of the dinghy after having rum punches at the CIBC Bar.

Not so highlights:
- Weather. Nights were mostly clear except for one hellacious downpour at CIBC on the 24th about 10:00 PM. Sun rise was usually clear but by 9:00 AM the sky was cloud covered. Towards the end of our charter we got a few hours of sun each day. Otherwise we did not get much rain, just generally dreary weather.
- Condition of Moorings at JVD White Bay. Total of 11 moorings. Several were too close to shore for a monohull. Several had severely worn or fouled pendants. The anchor line (from mooring ball to anchor) was too long on at least one mooring for the depth of the water, and it had a fixed float on it. The mooring ball and mooring anchor line managed to get wrapped around our keel while we were busy having painkillers at the Soggy Dollar Bar. After much contemplation and snorkel diving we got it untangled and found another mooring in deeper water with a more appropriate configuration. And then we had to go get more painkillers!
- By the way, the green marker on the western reef channel at JVD White Bay is missing.
- Only 1 National Park Mooring now at George Dog. Post note: Read “Lats & Atts”, July ‘04 issue on their Spring ’04 BVI trip for some insight on what might be happening to the NP Mooring Balls. Not kewl!
- Snorkeling at the caves. It was crowded from several excursions. And “macho snorkelers” were diving deep and scared most of the fish away.
- A flotilla with full boats took all of the moorings at CIBC on the 24th by 11:00 AM!. We had already been there from the day before. But, with this crowd, the restaurant did not offer the dinner menu and only offered a buffet dinner. Also, we could not order Conch Fritters!!. CIBC was our favorite place to spend the last evening, and this was a disappointment.
- Soggy towels that never dried.
- My crew (wife) had trouble easing (blowing away) the jib in front of a fast moving squall at the north end of VG on the 22nd, as she could not find the sheet ‘cause the winch was under water!! Yee Ha!! She was not amused; but she hung in there (literally) and eased the jib enough for us to get the boat back on course.
- Mosquito bites at Foxy’s and CIBC.
- Where did all the water go? I topped off the tanks before we departed. But, after the 5th evening we put 71 gallons of water in the tanks at BEYC. We mostly used the plunge/lather/plunge/rinse “shower” technique. But, we did use running water to rinse dishes, as we like to avoid the ill effects of the soapy plunge rinse technique.
- Have to go back to work in a few days to make more money so we can go back again soon!

>Jeff