BVI AND USVI TRIP REPORT JULY 9 to AUG 3
We were very lucky to be able to charter for more than three weeks this summer. Normally we are only able to carve out a 10 day charter. But, we have been self-employed for several years and I kept promising myself that one of the perks of self-employment is that we should be able to take a nice long vacation. However, the other side of that is when you are self-employed and trying to keep a business going it is very difficult to leave for a long time.
I won’t bore you all with the details but I did want to share some specific things about our trip.
FERRIES – Geez, what the heck is going on???? We arrived into St Thomas and went straight to the ferry dock to find out that Road Town Fast Ferry was not running (being repaired) and only one company was running ferries that day. Their schedule didn’t seem to have anything to do with the posted schedules online. The 2pm ferry was ‘running late’ and when it finally arrived they disgorged passengers and then had to go around to Crown Bay to fuel up. That one finally left at 3:30pm. They had a special ferry running at 4:30pm that day.
We had one more crew member arriving later that day at 3:50pm, young 21 yr old with only a backpack, and I texted her that there was a special 4:30pm ferry running and she should rush over to get onto it at the main ferry dock. When she got off the plane and into a taxi the taxi driver argued with her and told her ‘I know the ferry schedule’ and would not take her to the main ferry dock. He drove her all the way to Red Hook and she had no idea what was going on. Then the 5pm Red Hook ferry did not leave until 6:30pm and she was really worried about whether she was ever going to get to Road Town. That ferry only went into West End because it was running so late. Unfortunately, when she got off the ferry she thought she was in Road Town and started walking to Marias by the Sea (thinking it was only a short walk to the right). Luckily she stopped at a laundromat and the lady informed her that she really needed a taxi and then the lady at the Laundromat waved down some guy for a ride. $40 dollars later she finally got to Marias by the Sea at 8:30 that night.
On our return it appeared that everything was back to normal, but how would anyone know for sure when they are trying to make airport connections? I sent a ‘comment’ to the BVI Tourist Board about this issue because it can be very serious.
OUR CHARTER BOAT – There were several serious issues with our charter catamaran that we just had to live with. The starboard engine started overheating about 5 days into the charter. Would not hold coolant, we had to shut it off within 10 minutes of operation. Then some belt broke (obviously I am not the engineer on board). When the charter company came out they were able to replace the belt but determined that the head gasket was blown. We went through 4 gallons of coolant and only turned it on when we absolutely needed it for a tight maneuver. Needless to say, our forward progress against strong current going upwind was 2.5 knots with the single engine. We had no choice but to sail and we adjusted our itinerary so that we could be on a beam reach or downwind as much as possible.
We discovered about 3 days into the charter that the port holding tank was restricted or clogged somehow. We believe that it had been that way before we left the dock. I won’t even go into the details of what we had to do from the exterior of the hull to get that thing to open up – and we had to do it numerous times !!!! It involved a short little plunger we found on board. Even with the holding tank levers open, it would not flow out. OK, we lived with that. Both of these things we could not have discovered during our detailed checkout.
But the one thing that drove me crazy was that the CD player did not work and 2 of the 4 speakers were blown. While doing the checkout we gave our teenage daughter several responsibilities on the list. She was in charge of checking the stereo system. She plugged in her Ipod, cranked up the speakers and determined it worked great!!! Well, of course Mom has all her music on CDs and she didn’t even bother to see if those worked  So, I got to spend 3 weeks on a boat listening to my teenager’s music (it wasn’t that bad, she had SOME decent music). Music in the cockpit is so important to my enjoyment and I was really bummed.
Well, between no engine, poop patrol every day and no music… We still had a great time. The men just went to town with the potty humor. Amazing how something like that would drive you crazy at home, but it was just all part of the adventure.
ANCHORAGES – Everywhere we went the restaurants, stores and staff explained that it was ‘Off Season’ and they were out of this… out of that… no live entertainment… closing soon…. Etc. But there were charters and boats everywhere. Especially the sailing camps, saw at least 8-10 catamarans and monohulls out with 12-14 kids on board. Where the heck do all those kids sleep?? And where do the poor captain and counselors sleep?
Massive Puerto Rican Navy in a lot of anchorages for about 8 days. The onshore establishments were telling us that the Puerto Ricans do not come ashore and spend any money – I didn’t see them eating in any restaurants when we were there. But I know that we were looking at about 13 million dollars in sport fishing boats lined up one night – with all their lights on of course.
For example, we were in the Bight on a Saturday or Sunday (cannot remember) and there was a huge Puerto Rican teenage birthday party going on (well, at least they looked like teenagers and were playing very loud music!). There were Photographer boats pulling up and a helicopter came up over Norman Island from the South (which was odd) and started filming everything from above. We were convinced someone famous must be involved with the party, but I think it was just a lot of parent money spent. By the way, the actual party was on a chartered Voyage catamaran that they had on a mooring away from all the sport fishers – very odd!! Guess the parents didn’t want those kids trashing their beautiful, pristine (they are all so clean and nice) sport fishers. Watch out Saildoggie, is was probably the Voyage 500 you have chartered soon 
Went into Pirates for dinner that night and I really didn’t see any Puerto Ricans at the restaurant, but of course they might eat a little later than us. Anyone in the world could eat later than us, we are always exhausted by 6pm!!
LEVERICK BAY – We actually pulled into Leverick twice during our trip because we had two different groups of guests and my daughter kept wanting to go to the Jumbies (more chance of meeting BOYS!!!). The first time we had a reservation and everything went great. Later in our trip she begged to go back, so I called on the boat cell phone and the lady kept saying ‘Full, No room’. Called 4 times during the week to keep checking. I couldn’t understand why they would be full at the end of July, but I believed them. That afternoon we pulled up to a mooring and sent Grandpa over to the dock to see if we could beg our way onto the dock because Grandma and Grandpa would enjoy themselves better at the BBQ if they knew they could just walk back to the boat at their convenience. No problem, come on in!! There were not more than 4 other boats in the marina that night. I never understood how they were fully booked on paper up in the office. The lady at the office called Nick for me and I got the rate – they saw my TTOL flag flying!
I’ll start another post if I remember anything else… too long already 
