Another first post from a thankful reader of the forum…

My wife and I are heading to BVI to spend two weeks in early March on a Moorings 382 monohull. This will be our first trip to the BVI and are really looking forward to it. We are just starting our tentative routing, and would love to hear some advice and other options. One concern we do have is that this time appears to coincide with US spring breaks, and wonder if things will be exceptionally mad/crowded.

We had planned on the classic anti-clockwise routing, but wonder if, in crowded circumstances, it might be better to go clockwise? All of our sailing is in the UK Solent, so beating into a bit of wind against tide is not something that bothers us - if the result is a quiet anchorage (or a choice mooring in a very lively one). Seems to me that you will meet more people this way. I note a few forum members are there the same time, so would be nice to meet up.

Going anti-clockwise, we thought two nights on Norman, one each on Peter and Cooper, Savannah Bay, three in North Sound, two in Anegada, Marina Cay, two on JVD, Cane Garden Bay and last night at our favourite place from the first week in Drake’s Channel. Clockwise route would be the reverse, with a first night in either Peter Island or Soper’s Hole. These both work out to have us in Leverick Bay for the Jumbies on Friday night. We used to live in Trinidad, and know they are not to be missed.

Items on our must do list are: Indians, Caves, Rhone, Cistern Point, Baths, Gumption’s tour, Loblolly, Cow Wreck, Monkey Point, Sandy Spit. Places to eat/drink are: Pirates Bay, Willie T, most of North Sound, Wonky Dog, pub crawl of JVD, Quitos.

Wow – it looks like a lot when I write it all down – luckily we will be on Island time, so if we never leave the first mooring it will still be good. Any fine tuning suggestions?

With thanks,

Hello and welcome to the forum. If you're used to the Solent, you'll have no problems in BVI. We have been sailing the islands for 12 years or so and generally do go anti clockwise, but you will discover that you can sail from end of the chain to the other relatively quickly and easily, if you want to slog it out. We often do a figure of eight.
Looking at your plans, I would prefer only one night at Norman to two, do not ignore Trellis Bay: often under rated and it is very sheltered in most adverse weather conditions. Savannah Bay is almost impossible to enter unless you have very clear conditions and watch the water and coral. Not advisable in reality. Be careful at Cooper in a mono. You need to be at the head of the mooring field and as far in as possible. The most uncomfortable night I have ever spent was at Cooper, literally rocking and rolling all night. If it looks likely to be choppy move over to Trellis or Marina Cay.
You obviously enjoy snorkelling or diving. Try some of the Dogs and also Mountain Point.
Be aware: despite the long journey from UK, BVI becomes addictive. We ended up buying a boat there. Feel free to PM me any specific questions.

If you want to spend some time at Savannah Bay, I'd rent a car from Leverick, go to the Baths early in the morning, make a snorkeling stop at Savannah & then end the day with a late lunch/drinks at Hog Heaven.

Make sure you contact Nick at Leverick Bay - do you know if your boat has shoreside A/C? You can get a slip at Leverick for the same price as a mooring ball (you will have to pay extra for electricity of course) and it includes ice and water. Nick and his lovely wife, Monica, are from the UK as well. You will love them both! nick@surfbvi.com

We'll be down the same time on our Beneteau 40 De Life and will follow the counter clockwise route once or twice, weather willing. We've been out in the past and have had strong winds and swell one week and almost no wind the following week. Sometimes you have to adapt your plan! We keep the cruising guide handy and check the weather before we head out.

The one anchorage that we've found we need to arrive early is Cooper Island. We do love the northernmost mooring right under the house with its webcam. It is somewhat protected there, but you will roll there if anywhere. We planned to stop there in November, but a big squall blew through as we approached and we just kept going to Trellis Bay.

If its blowing, Little Harbor at Peter Island is very calm and a nice swim/snorkel. Trellis Bay is calm as well, but there is not much room to anchor (we end up near the ferry wharf) and we won't swim there. We prefer to anchor at Marina Cay between the mooring field and the reef and use that as our jumping off point to North Sound via The Dogs - George Dog if its rough or Great Dog/The Chimney if its calmer.

Finding space to moor/anchor in North Sound is not a problem. We anchor along Prickly Pear Island and stay on the dock at Leverick Bay.

For Anegada we prefer to anchor off of Setting Point as the mooring field is shallow and any swell would have us pounding our keel. We used to be able to anchor between the mooring field and Setting Point, but its gotten shallow for our 6' 5" draft. In November there were a half dozen monohulls anchored east of the last red channel marker in 12'; many of them tried to anchor closer in and had to back off the sand.

Consider Diamond Cay on the east end of JVD for a wonderful anchorage with many turtles and access to Sandy Cay, Sandy Spit, B-Line, Foxy's Taboo and the Bubbly Pool. Little Harbor is another protected harbor with restaurant options.

Cheers, RickG

We sailed for a week last March - it is crowded. We found that most of the popular mooring spots filled up by about Noon. While the mooring fields were busy, we never really found overwhelming crowds (other than Soggy Dollar). But we ate dinners on board a lot during that trip.
Sounds like Leverick is definitely on your list - we loved it!
You'll get lots of advice from others here on anchorages and itineraries.
As for restaurants, we were just down last month and our two favorite meals were Wonky Dog on Anegada and Sugar Mill on Tortola. I think the Sugar Mill would be an easy taxi ride from Cane Garden Bay. If not the Sugar Mill, just south of Cane Garden Bay is Bananakeet - great food with a spectacular sunset view.
Have fun planning!

All,

Thanks for the very comprehensive and clear recommendations! I was a bit of two minds on Savannah Bay - most of the discussion on TTOL seems to be about driving over to it so think we will take Salica and Tradewind's counsel and add to a road trip around Virgin Gorda - and replace this with a night at Trellis Bay.

We will have shoreside A/C, Winterstale, so will look to contact Nick about a berth for our two nights planned at Leverick Bay. How soon is too soon to be speaking with him about that?

Salica's advice around Cooper Island mooring is well received also - will make it a weather dependent stop. Looks like it will busy in early March like I suspected, so early starts and early afternoon tie-ups. We had Diamond Cay marked as a likely overnight already, so glad to get confirmation from RickG on that.

We anchor regularly for lunch stops, and never (well, maybe not never) have any issues, but have not had the need/opportunity to anchor overnight. We do want to try some in the BVI clearly, to avoid some of the crowds. Where would you recommend as a best first overnight anchorage?

And thanks for the restaurant recommendations CottageGirl - we will be doing a mix of self-catering and eating out. We had just heard for the Sugar Mill and Bananakeet, so will give one of those a try, especially as I expect CGB will be one of our last stops.

Regards,

First overnight anchorage out of Road Harbour ? Easy one for me to say but you need to get there early because space is very limited.

Benures Bay, Norman Island. If it is already full, you still can make a mooring at either Cooper or the Bight.

If Benures is full, doubt you would get into Cooper. Certainly don't just have that as a second option.

I was thinking of heading to Benures or Soldiers bay ( I think that is the name, just west of Benures) with fallback of bight, so sounds like a good plan. Is soldiers bay a secure anchorage?

Also keep in mind that March is usually "Spring Break" time at US universities. Not that the BVI is exactly a "Girls Gone Wild" venue (yet), but there have been an increasing number of spring breakers chartering boats in the last few years. Middle of March seems to be the peak.

We've only ever stopped there once as a day time stop. My husband was not assured of being secure with the weather conditions. Please be aware that although anchoring seems like a good idea if you are competent (and I am certainly not questioning your ability at all given your background ) . The majority of 'mooring' fields are nowadays full of mooring bouys, with very little space left for anchoring even on the outside. One extremely good, sheltered anchoring area is just inside the reef at Mosquito island, North Sound - but then we always go to Leverick for a couple of nights. That must not be missed and a Friday included if at all possible,

Don't worry about questioning my competence - I certainly do from time to time. Glad to have your informed advice. I had sort of come to the conclusion that base plan should be for using moorings at night and day stop anchorages for most part. Worry will be the Spring Break crowd and not enough space.

We booked to avoid UK holidays, and did not even think about US - duh...

Interestingly, this months Yachting World has a letter to the editor complaining about a group called Yacht Week that came in and took over a bay in Med (can't recall where), and basically caused a minor bit of havoc for the writer. Of course - they might just have been a bit of a grump - two sides to every... I guess good thing about BVI is that there is usually another option nearby.

Our plan is definitely a slip at Leverick for a couple of nights including the Friday.

Arrive early and have a great time. Don't worry too much about it being busy.

Christmas is also busy and everyone manages. Those the arrive late have few options and lots of stress. Those that arrive early to an anchorage will be settled in and relaxed.

The formula is easy.