Posted By: Alec Atteberry
Trip Report June 12-20 ELECTRIFIED - 06/21/2019 02:31 AM
Trip Report June 12-20, 2019
Let me get right into this. The trip was absolutely awesome. This was my ninth trip to the BVI and second one through Voyage. We were on the brand new Electrified 480 with a total of 8 people aboard (4 of which were college students, including myself). I’ll talk about the boat in more detail towards the end. We did quite a bit of sailing this trip and certainly put the boat through its paces but more on that later.
Day1: we arrived in ST. Thomas around 2pm and made it to Road Town at about 5. Soper’s Hole is still pretty banged up and the customs office and ferry dock there is still out of commission. We ended up getting on the boat around 6 and were immediately concerned by the fact that the boat wasn’t plugged into any shore power. We called the base and asked if we needed to plug in at all which got a little bit of a chuckle as they reminded us that we were on electrified; Fair enough. The boat isn’t entirely electric, but it’s diesel generator system is programmed to run and shut off depending on the battery level which made for a quite first night on the dock.
Day2: after finishing up our briefing around 9am the voyage team helped us out of the slip and we were off. As usual the entire staff there was very helpful and our briefing was incredibly thorough. We raised sails in the channel of Soper’s Hole and immediately headed towards Sandy Cay. At this point we had about 60% in the batteries and decided to turn on the sail drive regeneration mode. I had us doing about 9-10 knots in 18-20 knots of wind and by the time we reached Sandy Cay the battery had charged to 67% with the AC and water maker running. Sandy Cay was nice; the trail is still there but it is overgrown and far less shaded than it was a few years ago. As we were leaving an older lady got hurt on the beach while trying to drag their dinghy up which eventually led to us calling VISAR. After that we headed into Diamond Cay around 3pm, just in time to hike to the Bubbly Pool and back before dinner.
Day3: My friends and I got up around 5:20am so we could watch the sunrise from the deck. After that we utilized the relatively quiet electric engines on Electrified to get us underway. Like all of Voyage’s boats, Electrified was a breeze to sail and by 7:30 I had gotten us to the Caves at Norman. After that it was an easy motor to the Indians and a short sail to Great Harbour at Peter Island. The new Willy T is a great stop. The food is pretty good and relatively inexpensive, and the whole ship is in much better shape than the original.
Day4: from Peter it was about a 45 minute sail to the Baths and we go there around 10am. The whole trail was relatively uncrowded as I made sure to pick a day when there weren’t any cruise ships in St. Thomas or Road Town. We left the Baths around 1pm and instead of heading to Leverick like we usually would, we decided to head over to the Dogs. The snorkeling on the backside of Great Dog was pretty good but the current was somewhat strong and visibility wasn’t the best. The visibility off of kitchen point on George Dog was much better and overall a better spot. Since we had a BoatyBall reserved at Leverick we didn’t leave until 4:30 from the Dogs and we took our time getting there. We pulled into Leverick at 5:15pm got our ball and went in for dinner. Not much easier than that.
Day5: I slept in a little bit and got a BoatyBall at Anegada for the night; we set sail shortly after 7am. Th wind was blowing at a pretty constant 20 knots from the NW which made it a pretty quick sail from North Sound (about an hour and thirty minutes). We moored around 9am and immediately headed in to get a car. We spent most of the day at Loblolly and went to Cow Wreck for drinks afterwards. The snorkeling at Loblolly is still some of the best in the BVI in my opinion and it was easy to spend hours out there weaving in and out of the reef. That night we had an excellent dinner at Anegada Reef Hotel, which looks as good as it did before Irma.
Day6: I woke up early and got a BoatyBall at Cane Garden Bay for the night and we headed out of Anegada around 10am. From there we went back to the Dogs where my friends and I did a couple of quick dives and some bouldering on the rocks. We left the Dogs around 3pm and made it into CGB around 5:30pm. CGB is more or less back to its pre Irma state, and it was nice to spend some time there that night before all the cruise ship passengers started showing up the next morning.
Day 7: I got a BoatyBall at Cooper for the night but instead of heading straight there my crew (of college kids) wanted to visit Foxy’s and Soggy Dollar, both of which are back better than their Pre-Irma state. After talking with Foxy and a few painkillers at Soggy Dollar, we started the long sail down to Cooper. We made decent time, and pulled into the mooring field around 4:45pm. I didn’t eat dinner at Cooper (on account of being a college student) but my friends and I did spend several hours at the Rum Bar which is in my opinion, one of the highlights of the island.
Day8: For our last full day I decided to head over to the Rhone for a couple hours of diving and snorkeling before sailing over to Norman for the night. We moored south of the Caves in Privateers Bay, where one of my friends spent several hours trying to climb through the bush, determined to get to the top of Norman. After leaving there a little cut up and tired, we moored in the Bight only to realize that there is a trail that leads all the way to the top of the Island. Naturally we had to climb it, and after spending several hours hiking around the island in five booties and flip flops, we went to the Pirates Bight for dinner. The food was great but the service was pretty poor. I don’t know if it was the fact that we were college students or something else, but it took well over an hour to get our food and our waitress stopped by our table twice. That being said the food was really good and it wasn’t a bad way to spend the night.
Day9: pretty simple. We got up early, packed, cleaned the boat, raised the sails, and headed into Soper’s Hole.
The Boat:
Let me start by saying that the automatic generator on/off is probably the best feature of Electrified. Our power consumption bordered on the obscene as we ran the AC and water Maker every day, and the underwater and spreader lights at night. With the auto on/off function, and relatively quiet generator, power consumption was a non issue and made for one less thing to worry about.
The saildrives are another distinguishing feature on this boat. Let me start by saying that they’re not fast at all. At full speed I was able to get the boat up to about 7 knots with just the electric saildrives so it’s no speed boat. But what the engines lack in speed, they more than make up for in torque. Picking up moorings, motoring/ maneuvering into the Harbour, and controlling the boat was incredibly easy with the electric drives. The props have a unique folding system that adjusts the blade pitch/direction depending on the amount of power being applied which made handling a breeze. And while putting the props in regeneration mode did decrease the overall sailing speed by about a knot, they served as an easy way to charge up while underway.
The rest of the boat was what you could expect from Voyage. Impeccably cleaned and maintained, and loaded with features. All of their boats have underwater lights, spreader lights, mast speakers, water makers, ice makers, and a slew of appliances and extras that make their boats stand out from the rest. Besides the giant Electrified logo on the side, the spreader lights made the boat easily identifiable, and the loud mast speakers set the boat apart front the rest. Underway, the three electric winches and electric furler, as well as the line placement made the boat easy to sail shorthanded, and easy to sail fast.
Overall Summary:
Overall the trip was great. We spent the most time on the water and the most time sailing than we had on any previous trip which was great. The islands are looking a lot better than they were even 6 months ago, and it’s great to see that most of the big name bays have made a complete recovery. There’s still a lot of work to do, but at the rate things are moving down there I won’t be surprised if the BVI surpasses its pre-Irma state within the next couple of years. All in all, this was one of the best charters yet.
Let me get right into this. The trip was absolutely awesome. This was my ninth trip to the BVI and second one through Voyage. We were on the brand new Electrified 480 with a total of 8 people aboard (4 of which were college students, including myself). I’ll talk about the boat in more detail towards the end. We did quite a bit of sailing this trip and certainly put the boat through its paces but more on that later.
Day1: we arrived in ST. Thomas around 2pm and made it to Road Town at about 5. Soper’s Hole is still pretty banged up and the customs office and ferry dock there is still out of commission. We ended up getting on the boat around 6 and were immediately concerned by the fact that the boat wasn’t plugged into any shore power. We called the base and asked if we needed to plug in at all which got a little bit of a chuckle as they reminded us that we were on electrified; Fair enough. The boat isn’t entirely electric, but it’s diesel generator system is programmed to run and shut off depending on the battery level which made for a quite first night on the dock.
Day2: after finishing up our briefing around 9am the voyage team helped us out of the slip and we were off. As usual the entire staff there was very helpful and our briefing was incredibly thorough. We raised sails in the channel of Soper’s Hole and immediately headed towards Sandy Cay. At this point we had about 60% in the batteries and decided to turn on the sail drive regeneration mode. I had us doing about 9-10 knots in 18-20 knots of wind and by the time we reached Sandy Cay the battery had charged to 67% with the AC and water maker running. Sandy Cay was nice; the trail is still there but it is overgrown and far less shaded than it was a few years ago. As we were leaving an older lady got hurt on the beach while trying to drag their dinghy up which eventually led to us calling VISAR. After that we headed into Diamond Cay around 3pm, just in time to hike to the Bubbly Pool and back before dinner.
Day3: My friends and I got up around 5:20am so we could watch the sunrise from the deck. After that we utilized the relatively quiet electric engines on Electrified to get us underway. Like all of Voyage’s boats, Electrified was a breeze to sail and by 7:30 I had gotten us to the Caves at Norman. After that it was an easy motor to the Indians and a short sail to Great Harbour at Peter Island. The new Willy T is a great stop. The food is pretty good and relatively inexpensive, and the whole ship is in much better shape than the original.
Day4: from Peter it was about a 45 minute sail to the Baths and we go there around 10am. The whole trail was relatively uncrowded as I made sure to pick a day when there weren’t any cruise ships in St. Thomas or Road Town. We left the Baths around 1pm and instead of heading to Leverick like we usually would, we decided to head over to the Dogs. The snorkeling on the backside of Great Dog was pretty good but the current was somewhat strong and visibility wasn’t the best. The visibility off of kitchen point on George Dog was much better and overall a better spot. Since we had a BoatyBall reserved at Leverick we didn’t leave until 4:30 from the Dogs and we took our time getting there. We pulled into Leverick at 5:15pm got our ball and went in for dinner. Not much easier than that.
Day5: I slept in a little bit and got a BoatyBall at Anegada for the night; we set sail shortly after 7am. Th wind was blowing at a pretty constant 20 knots from the NW which made it a pretty quick sail from North Sound (about an hour and thirty minutes). We moored around 9am and immediately headed in to get a car. We spent most of the day at Loblolly and went to Cow Wreck for drinks afterwards. The snorkeling at Loblolly is still some of the best in the BVI in my opinion and it was easy to spend hours out there weaving in and out of the reef. That night we had an excellent dinner at Anegada Reef Hotel, which looks as good as it did before Irma.
Day6: I woke up early and got a BoatyBall at Cane Garden Bay for the night and we headed out of Anegada around 10am. From there we went back to the Dogs where my friends and I did a couple of quick dives and some bouldering on the rocks. We left the Dogs around 3pm and made it into CGB around 5:30pm. CGB is more or less back to its pre Irma state, and it was nice to spend some time there that night before all the cruise ship passengers started showing up the next morning.
Day 7: I got a BoatyBall at Cooper for the night but instead of heading straight there my crew (of college kids) wanted to visit Foxy’s and Soggy Dollar, both of which are back better than their Pre-Irma state. After talking with Foxy and a few painkillers at Soggy Dollar, we started the long sail down to Cooper. We made decent time, and pulled into the mooring field around 4:45pm. I didn’t eat dinner at Cooper (on account of being a college student) but my friends and I did spend several hours at the Rum Bar which is in my opinion, one of the highlights of the island.
Day8: For our last full day I decided to head over to the Rhone for a couple hours of diving and snorkeling before sailing over to Norman for the night. We moored south of the Caves in Privateers Bay, where one of my friends spent several hours trying to climb through the bush, determined to get to the top of Norman. After leaving there a little cut up and tired, we moored in the Bight only to realize that there is a trail that leads all the way to the top of the Island. Naturally we had to climb it, and after spending several hours hiking around the island in five booties and flip flops, we went to the Pirates Bight for dinner. The food was great but the service was pretty poor. I don’t know if it was the fact that we were college students or something else, but it took well over an hour to get our food and our waitress stopped by our table twice. That being said the food was really good and it wasn’t a bad way to spend the night.
Day9: pretty simple. We got up early, packed, cleaned the boat, raised the sails, and headed into Soper’s Hole.
The Boat:
Let me start by saying that the automatic generator on/off is probably the best feature of Electrified. Our power consumption bordered on the obscene as we ran the AC and water Maker every day, and the underwater and spreader lights at night. With the auto on/off function, and relatively quiet generator, power consumption was a non issue and made for one less thing to worry about.
The saildrives are another distinguishing feature on this boat. Let me start by saying that they’re not fast at all. At full speed I was able to get the boat up to about 7 knots with just the electric saildrives so it’s no speed boat. But what the engines lack in speed, they more than make up for in torque. Picking up moorings, motoring/ maneuvering into the Harbour, and controlling the boat was incredibly easy with the electric drives. The props have a unique folding system that adjusts the blade pitch/direction depending on the amount of power being applied which made handling a breeze. And while putting the props in regeneration mode did decrease the overall sailing speed by about a knot, they served as an easy way to charge up while underway.
The rest of the boat was what you could expect from Voyage. Impeccably cleaned and maintained, and loaded with features. All of their boats have underwater lights, spreader lights, mast speakers, water makers, ice makers, and a slew of appliances and extras that make their boats stand out from the rest. Besides the giant Electrified logo on the side, the spreader lights made the boat easily identifiable, and the loud mast speakers set the boat apart front the rest. Underway, the three electric winches and electric furler, as well as the line placement made the boat easy to sail shorthanded, and easy to sail fast.
Overall Summary:
Overall the trip was great. We spent the most time on the water and the most time sailing than we had on any previous trip which was great. The islands are looking a lot better than they were even 6 months ago, and it’s great to see that most of the big name bays have made a complete recovery. There’s still a lot of work to do, but at the rate things are moving down there I won’t be surprised if the BVI surpasses its pre-Irma state within the next couple of years. All in all, this was one of the best charters yet.