Just returned from our first trip ever to BVI on a Crewed Catamaran. We were a party of 6 - 2 parents, and 4 young adult children ages 18-24. Spent many months gleaning information from TTOL - thanks everyone for all of the great insights and suggestions!
A few specific shout outs of thanks to Dorna at Royal concierge Services, Laura from Customsailingshirts.com, Lynne Campbell from Carefree Charters, and most of all our Captain and First Mate - Nathan and Penny on Alegria.
Ferry Experience - we arrived at STT on time aboard US Air at 3:30 PM. Dorna had arranged for us to be picked up and taken to RTFF(4:15) with contingency plans if we missed it. We waited for two checked bags, got in the van, and Dorna was on the phone to the driver assuring that she had already personally paid for our ferry tickets and our names were on the manifest, so we should have no worries. The ferry desk had our names and our tickets, took our luggage and we boarded. Dorna met us the next morning at our hotel to collect payment for everything she pre-paid and put us in our taxi to Nanny Cay. Highly recommend Dorna for transportation arrangements - [email]royal.concierge@yahoo.com.[/email]
We made our way to Nanny Cay where we were welcomed by Captain Nathan and First Mate Penelope with a rum punch. We dropped our bags, and made a beautiful sail to Norman Island. Terrific lunch, snorkeled the Caves, and moved over to The Bight. We all went to Willy T for happy hour - jumped off the back and had a lot of laughs with some crazy young brits. The younger set went back after dinner without mom and dad and had the true Willy T experience - all in all a great first day.
Itinerary from Norman included Cooper Island, The Baths, North Sound at BEYC, Brewer's Bay, Soggy Dollar/White Bay, Great Harbor, and Cane Garden Bay. Every day included terrific meals on the boat, the Captain's Drink of the Day, great swimming, snorkeling, and relaxing.
A Note on Seasickness Prevention - a couple of us are very prone to motion sickness (can't read in the car, can't ride backwards, or in back seats of vans etc.) We all wore the scapolomine patch and sea bands the whole week. One or two felt a little queasy at some point, but took a Zofran and felt much better within an hour and had no future issues. I would not let the fear of getting seasick scare you from this great vacation experience.
Tried to be brief with my report - if any other "non-bareboat newbies" out there would like more detail, don't hesitate to PM me.
Cheers!