TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums British Virgin Islands Boaty Ball questions/observations

I waited to join Boaty Ball this week and the site seems easy enough. It's nice to see the moorings mapped out. Does their mapping show only reservable and BB FCFS? or are the regular FCFS left off of their mapping? If we grab a BB FCFS do we pay online or does someone motor out to collect?

My BB map is showing no BB in Bight, Peter or Bitter End is that correct?

We are putting BB on all our phones to have 4 people trying to reserve a ball at 0700 on particular days.

We are chartering late in the season and from what I've seen on BB and various webcams we won't have a problem. But, the extra couple of bucks to pick some inner balls on some bays is probably worth it.

This time of year inner balls can be buggy and hot! Not an issue if the breeze is blowing but if night forecast is below 10 knots I would avoid. I don’t know how you do 4 accounts unless you use fake boat names.

Agree on breeze considerations. We have 2 phones set up now using boat name, if the next 2 phones have issues registering we'll simply put a number or something next to boat name (website doesn't mention # of accounts?). I like backups for what ifs, including important contact numbers, in the event a phone is lost/damaged.......forgetting to charge and who sleeps in past 7am!

Probably not necessary at this time of the year, but you can reserve a ball at BEYC by calling the marina.

Maybe I'm mistaken but I don't think BB has FCFS balls - isn't that an oxymoron of a sort?

BB doesn't show "normal" FCFS balls as far as I know.

We had four people with four phones all with the same boat name trying for balls on the days we wanted to reserve and didn't have a problem. Whomever gets it first, gets it. We just had different people trying for different balls. If more than one person gets a ball, you just decide which one you want to keep and cancel the others before confirming payment. And this is a good reminder to keep trying even if you don't get one at first because sometimes, initially reserved balls get put back into the pool a few minutes later.

Even with all four people hammering right at 700, there were times where we didn't get one but frankly, we never had a problem finding a ball of one sort or another (except GH on Jost where we had to take Little Harbor once). This was in May/June timeframe.

There are FCFS in the Boatyball system... example Marina Cay.

Also good to keep in mind that some unknown number of balls are already taken the day before by someone paying the upgrade fee and you may never have had a chance, no matter how quick you were.

BB chooses not to visually distinguish these pre-booked balls, though they easily could. The fact that they don't makes me suspicious and I wonder how many $572.00 (or whatever) they turn away because the supposed quota has been reached.

Just read through their site, they have solid orange reservable and white ball with orange BB sticker on their FCFS. On their map FCFS show up blue with "fc" on it. BB FCFS balls can be paid via your account once on the mooring, the cost can range $30-40 night.

Brings up another question...even though the reserved ball is shown on the BB field map, are the numbers easily seen as you approach?

They aren't hard to see, you might have to buzz around it once to confirm but no biggie.

We only needed BB once, in Great Harbour. I found it easy to use and would do it again if needed.

Thank you all! Depart in a couple days and feeling prepared with everyone's input. I'm sure I'll come up with some question though ;-)

FYI, I had a terrible time with a couple provisioning websites, Riteway was great and Caribbean Cellars acknowledged their issue and allowed me to order via email, really appreciated that! We ordered plenty if anyone is around until early August, Cheers!

The numbers can be hard to see. Keep a pair of binoculars at the helm.

Yep- all of the above.
I’ll add that the customer service is pretty good. I grabbed a reserved (orange) ball and felt it was too close to our neighboring ball/boat, so I dropped it, grabbed an available FCFS, and texted boatyball (number on website) about the discrepancy…they cancelled and refunded my unused reservation with no questions. Ended up only paying the lowere FCFS fee.
Very happy with my experience over a couple years of boaty ball use. Most times you’ll be ok going straight to a FCFS, but it takes a lot of stress out of going to the busy anchorages if you know you’ve got a spot, and you don’t have to rush…(cooper, great harbor JVD, etc…)

It seems for most to just transfer the stress to 7AM.

You will have no difficulty getting a BB this time of year. Just means you will pay $55 instead of $40 or FCFS. Does help to preserve cash.

Yeah they only show their own stuff. No regular FCFS on the BB map so don’t panic if it looks empty. If you grab a BB FCFS, just hop on the app and pay, no dinghy dude coming by. Also yeah, no BBs in Bight, Peter, or Bitter End right now so you’ll need to go OG there. And 4 phones at 7am? That’s the spirit lol

I have not dealt with BB in the past. It was always pick up an empty morning than pay cash to the morning person, who would usually drive around late afternoon, or maybe we paid at local restaurant or marina, is this scheme no longer available?

In the past we chartered in June and had no big issue with picking up a morning. We are going next June. Is that time a year still kind of open? Or is the reservation really needed?

Cooper and Great Harbor on Jost are the two places you need a reservation. If you get to Cooper by noon you can still get a FCFS.

I thought I saw on their web site that Anegada was only reservations. Is that correct?

There are plenty of FCFS moorings in Anegada.

Not only that but a blind one legged sailer could anchor there. Holding is exceptional!

IF you can get to the anchoring area behind the mooring balls. This is probably just a mono problem but I got stuck when I swung around behind the last row of balls - the beginning of the anchoring area behind them - and had to have help getting un-stuck.

Admittedly, I may not know the proper way in or if there are other, better anchoring areas so there's that but, yeah, it's nice and sandy but it's also very shallow.

The main anchorage especially for deep draft vessels is in front of the Mooring area.

Good to know - thanks!

Trip reports will include some info, but 4 phones didn't happen lol, but 2 did most mornings! Keeping in mind it was end of season, but on the morning we wanted a ball at Cooper my daughter and I chose 2 different balls to experiment, when the site hit 0700 we clicked, both of us got the ball. My daughter paid for her ball then I released my ball. A minute or so later we checked the field and most of the balls were reserved, including the one I released. I like that it identifies the boat names. I can imagine that it is stressful during the busy season, but we found the site very helpful at times.