We have just arrived home from 1 week in the BVI. We were 2 families with 4 teenagers total. Two 17 year olds, Walt and Rebecca, a 14 year old, Rachel and a 13 year old, Max. It was our 8th trip to the BVI and the Levy’s first trip. There is nothing like seeing the BVI through “virgin eyes”. Louis Levy has a bucket list and sailing the Caribbean has been on it for a while. We were fortunate to be the ones to help him cross this item off of his list.
We arrived at Soper’s Hole around 4:45 on Saturday, June 5. We did a little shopping and then checked in with Voyage and boarded our boat. We chartered Spellbound, a Voyage 500. She is a beautiful boat in excellent condition and we did not realize all of her wonderful features until we sailed her. Bobby’s arrived on time with our provisions and not one item was missing. So glad that we pre-ordered with them. We got the groceries put away and our gear unpacked in the cool air conditioning on Spellbound. We had a good supper at Pussers and headed back to the boat for a good nights sleep. The following morning, the teenagers and Walter had breakfast ashore. Kimo came aboard around 9:30 to do our boat briefing and we were underway before lunchtime. He did an excellent job on the boat briefing! We sailed over to Sandy Cay for a great swim and some beach time. We had 2 of our group arriving later that day so we decided to have them take a taxi to Cane Garden Bay. We picked them up around 5:00 from the dinghy dock there and had a wonderful beef tenderloin, salad and potato dinner. Nothing like 4 adults and 4 teenagers sitting down together for a meal in such a beautiful place. We loved that the 2 stools from the nav. station could be pulled out for extra seating at the outside table. We all retired to the front of the boat for some great conversation and chillin’ time. Walter and I woke early to a beautiful day and we were underway by 6:00 am. We had coffee on the way to meet Blue Water Divers for a rendezvous dive at The Bight, Norman Island. The teenagers had done all of their SCUBA work at home and were only lacking their check-out dives. We arrived by 8:00am at The Bight and had fresh croissants and omelets for breakfast. The teens headed out with Blue Water Divers around 9:30 am for 2 of their check-out dives. I think they dove Angelfish Reef and Pelican Island. The adults heading out and into Sir Francis Drake for a wonderful sail. We met them back in The Bight at 2:00pm. The teens were starving and we had a quick lunch before heading to Cooper Island. We dodged a pretty big thunderstorm on the way there. The kids went ashore at Cooper and we all swam and hung out on the boat. We had spaghetti and salad for supper and the teens went ashore for dessert. We rendezvoused again the following morning with Blue Water Divers for the 3rd and 4th check-out dives. We headed over to top off with water and let the Levy’s see Marina Cay. We met the divers back around 1:30. The teens loved the day’s dives and their leaders. They saw a nurse shark and large ray while diving. Not sure where they did their first dive bit their second was at Cistern Point. The teens came back excited and starving. Deliverance came by and we bought some fresh bread, pastries and Dove Bars. Laura especially loved the idea of shopping from the boat. We headed out from Cooper around 2:30 and headed to Lee Bay for the evening. We all swam and snorkeled there. The snorkeling was better than I thought it would be. It was a wonderful evening there and my favorite place to overnight on this trip. Another boat joined us around 8:00pm. We had teriyaki chicken, rice, grilled pineapple and a salad for dinner. The kids watched a movie or two on the DVD player after dinner. The following morning, we got underway early and headed for The Baths. The winds and seas were up some this day. The teens played around on the rocks in The Baths while we took the trail up to the Top of the Baths. We all had lunch there. The coconut chicken fingers were a favorite. The teens swam some in the pool. We had a wonderful sail with 17 knot breezes and 3-5 foot seas that afternoon. We sailed out past Virgin Gorda and found that Spellbound could move. Most of us had a great ride on the front of the boat getting splashed and soaked. This was by far the best sailing day! We took a ball for the evening at Saba Rock and once again topped off with water at the dock there. We went ashore at Bitter End and did a little provisioning and shopping. We were sad to see that they are now charging $10 pp for use of their pool. We had another great dinner aboard and movies to follow.
Walter lead the breakfast crew to Bitter End the following morning. I think that they might have come close to getting their money’s worth out of the breakfast buffet. Laura and I enjoyed some girl time on the boat. After breakfast, we rented two Hobie Getaways and sailed in Gorda Sound. The girls had never sailed on a Hobie before and they had a blast. Yacht shots got some awesome shots of both boats. Walt and Max went over while flying a hull and loved every minute of it. After a quick lunch, he headed to White Bay on Jost. All the day trippers were leaving and we found the perfect spot to anchor and swan in to The Soggy Dollar Bar for a Painkiller and some time on the beach. We had some good entertainment while there, a small Sunsail cat attempted to take the channel marker as a mooring ball. After several attempts, they left the area. Dinner onboard was awesome as Louis made something special from all our leftovers. The sky and stars was especially beautiful this evening and made for some great trampoline time. Louis and Rebecca had to leave on Friday and we took them into Soper’s to catch the ferry to STT. We headed back out for a sail to Diamond Cay and lunch at Foxy’s Taboo. We had wonderful pizzas and entertainment provided by Zack, the cat. We then headed to Sandy Spit for some more beach time. We returned to the Voyage Base around 4:30, did a little shopping and had dinner at The Jolly Roger. We were not impressed with our meal or service there. Took the 7:30am ferry to STT the following morning and arrived back in Georgia around 5:00 pm that day. Boy did it seem hot here!
Highlights were the family time, sailing, SCUBA and getting away from the stress of our daily lives. I always wish we had a few more days. It was a fast paced trip but so worth the trouble of getting to and from Tortola. Our 17 year old has turned into a wonderful sailor and is quiet good with the systems on the boat. Walter was so glad to have him on board.
I would highly recommend Voyage and Spellbound to anyone. We have chartered with many other companies in Tortola and Voyage was hands-down the best! The galley was well stocked with high-end cookware and other essentials like knives and cutting boards. Having three sinks made dishwashing easier. The refrigerator kept our groceries ice-cold. Some of our yogurts actually froze and we had smoothies. The two freezers worked great keeping our meats frozen as well as dove bars frozen. The ice-maker was great! We bagged up this ice daily and had plenty of ice for cold drinks. The generator kept us cool at night and the flat screen DVD player was a hit in the evenings for the kids. We loved having 2 swim ladders, being able to hoist the dinghy and the storage room on the boat was beyond expectations. Max slept in the 5th forward cabin and loved it. It even had an air conditioning vent and I guess that it was cooled with the recirculated air from the other 4 cabins. Being able to plug things in to keep them charged was nice.
