Hi Best Friends!

We are back from our first family charter in the BVIs and it was a great one. The first of many for sure! Since you've provided such great information to me in the months I was planning this trip, I thought I'd try to return at least a few of the many favors with a quick trip report. Feel free to ask any questions!

Just so you know who we are-
Myself = Blake (30 y.o. living in the San Francisco Bay area)
Jason = my husband (31 y.o. living in the San Francisco Bay area)
Hannah = my sister (26 y.o. living in the San Francisco Bay area)
Tyler 2 (T2) = Hannah's boyfriend (32 y.o. living in the San Francisco Bay area)
Tyler 1 (T1)= my brother (22 y.o. living at UGA for graduate school)
Doug = the skipper & my dad (early 60's living in the New York City area)
Ellen = my mom (late 50's living in the New York City area)

The boat - Moorings 4600

DAY 1 - FRIDAY NIGHT/SATURDAY - HOME to MOORINGS

It was a LONG trip out - we left Friday evening from SFO and flew to Newark and then down to San Juan and over to Beef Island. We had concerns about the 1 hour 15 minute layover in San Juan, but there was no need. Our Cape Air flight was delayed 2.5 hours due to weather. At one point, we walked out to the plane, they started loading up the luggage, and were then told to go back into the airport. On the second try we took off and I got the co-pilot's seat! Our pilot, Glenn, provided a nice narrative of the islands we flew over and gave some suggestions for the trip. It turns out we were his last flight with Cape Air as he accepted an offer to fly private jets for a company based out of New York.



Cape Air Selfie - Myself, Dad, Jason, Mom

We landed Saturday at 5:30 instead of the planned 3:00, but it didn't have any long-term impact on the trip. We got into the taxi and made it to the Moorings base in time to walk our luggage to the boat and then head to the chart briefing. We finished off with dinner at one of the marina restaurants. If you're looking in from the docks, it's the one on the left. The service was quite slow, even for "island time." I wouldn't suggest eating here if you're in a hurry and the food was mediocre at best. I had a seafood pasta.

DAY 2 - SUNDAY - MOORINGS to TRELLIS

Sunday morning we woke up early and excited. We picked up the Moorings cell phone they tell you about at the chart briefing - it's free if you don't make any personal calls. We only used it to make one call to the base to confirm ferry times for the departure day (one couple in our group was traveling by ferry.)

Jason & I picked up the scuba tanks at the dive shop in the marina, Sail Caribbean Divers. Well, really we checked in and they had someone delivery the tanks, rack, and weight to our boat. Great service - we also dove with them for two tanks the following day.

Picked up a few extra things at the market - overpriced, but what do you expect?

Rented 2 noodles - We thought they'd come in handy and they did, but be prepared for the rate of $5 for the week. I think at home you can buy a noodle for $5!

We elected to have a "friendly skipper" for a few hours, which is a service included by Moorings, as this was my dad's first time skippering a catamaran. He boarded for the boat briefing at 9:00 and we were off the dock by 10:00. Was he a skipper? Yes. Was he friendly? Well… we managed to put up with him for a few hours. We tacked up the channel and did one practice anchoring and he directed the mooring ball pick-up process. We had to be in Trellis Bay that night to pick up my brother - he was landing at EIS at 6pm so we dinghyed the not-so-friendly skipper in with a decent tip. It would have been bigger if he hadn't complained about other charterers not tipping him earlier in the day.



Dad at the helm!

We swam behind the boat and later dinghyed to shore and walked through the little town of Trellis Bay. We bought a few things at Aragorn's Studio and the market. We lated returned and had dinner at De Loose Mongoose. My brother showed up right on time we enjoyed BBQ night - ribs, mahi-mahi, talapia, rice, mashed potatoes, mixed veggies, & cole slaw. Would return and eat here again!

DAY 2 - MONDAY - TRELLIS to LEVERICK

Monday morning we awoke early and were ready for an 8:30 pick up from Sail Caribbean Divers. Jason, Tyler 1, and myself are certified divers and since Tyler hadn't been in the water in 6 months, we thought a rendezvous was a good idea for the first dives of the trip.



Tyler, Blake, & Jason headed out from Trellis Bay

Overall it was a good trip with one small hiccup. We went to pick up the other divers that had reserved that morning, but they weren't at the Great Camanoe dock as they had been instructed. I understand people are late, but we wound up waiting for them for 40 minutes, making us late back to the rest of our group after our dives. I think 15 minutes is more than generous and even with all that additional time, they didn't show up and it was wasted. We learned later that they had lost power and their alarm clocks didn't go off. Hard to sympathize as we all use battery backed-up alarms (cell phones.)

The two dives were Coral Gardens (Plane Wreck) and Chimney. Overall good dives but nothing really special. We saw our only sea turtle of the trip. Dive masters IDed less than a dozen items over both dives and most I could have named myself (flame tongue snail, lionfish, ect)





We arrived back at the boat at around 2pm and motored to North Sound. We did a lot of motoring this trip because in the beginning of the week the winds were crazy and even after a few sails, my dad wasn't in love with the way the catamaran handled. Next time we will likely charter a big monohull instead (any thoughts on the 51.5 vs the 54.5?)

We took a ball at Leverick and had dinner in the Cove restaurant near the pool. It was nice, but wasn't a standout meal. Before dinner we had drinks at the beach bar and got bitten up by mosquitos. This was the night we started applying bug spray (wipes) before going ashore.

DAY 3 - TUESDAY - LEVERICK to BITTER END via BATHS

After breakfast we filled our water (thanks Leverick for the 100 gallons included in the mooring fee!) and started motoring toward the Baths. We sailed the 2nd half of the trip. We grabbed a ball and dinghyed to the mooring line. The group then swam in with one dry bag and one mesh bag of snorkel gear. We locked the shoes up in a locker and walked and climbed through the path to Devils Bay.



Jason, Blake, T2, Hannah, T2, Mom, & Dad at the Baths

We had a ton of fun and took some great pictures, but Tyler 2 wound up with a painful rash while wandering around one of the calmer pool-like areas. We initially thought it was an urchin, but maybe it was fire coral? It cleared up in a couple of days without treatment beyond some cortisone cream.

We then sailed back up to the north sound planning to have dinner at Bitter End, but no balls were to be found. We wound up anchoring off the south side of Prickly Pear Island and later read in the cruising guide that this is the suggested place to anchor. We had dinner at the Pub Crawl at Bitter End and the pizza was surprisingly good for the Caribbean - would recommend if you need a break from seafood.