Had a great time bareboat cruising from St. Thomas to Virgin Gorda, with stops at Caneel & Francis Bays St. John, Great Harbor & White Bay on JVD, Marina Cay, The Baths, Spanishtown Marina VG, & The Bight @ Norman Island. We rented a Hunter 450CC from CYOA out of Frenchtown, ST.T. It was old, but in decent shape, and the air-conditioning and generator were wonderful. First time with A/C down there in the summer, and it will be hard to summer charter any other way from now on.
DIF has already got it's hooks in, and I can't wait to go back down!
We spent a very rolly night in Great Harbor JVD on the hook when a tropical wave came through. We left Francis Bay that morning thinking the worst was over. Ha! We had 2-3 footers in the Harbor with gale force winds and we're on the hook. I heard a quiet nock on the door at midnight, waking me from a deep sleep. The other couple we brought (sailing newbies) were kinda worried! But, the anchor held fine, and by 1am it was about all over & time to sleep again.
After all these years (22 years) of going down to the BVI we finally snorkeled at the Baths, and it was wonderful! Also the west end of White Bay had great snorkeling... huge 5-6 foot tarpon that looked as big as my 250lb snorkeling buddy!
One of my fondest memories of the trip is beating upwind into Francis Bay, almost all the way up to the mooring buoy. The weather was beautiful, the wind was consistent, and we were the only boat that was actually sailing in - every one else was motoring. Very satisfying.
Here's a link to some pics... please let me know if you can see 'em.
http://www.imagestation.com/album/index.html?id=2123202525 
