Stargazer Trip Report, 10/25/21-11/3/21
It was fantastic kicking off the new sailing season in the BVI. Our “just purchased” Leopard 45 had a great phase-out through The Moorings and is now in Captain Compass’s fleet in brand new condition. Between the very slow post-Irma sailing and the Covid closing of the BVI, Stargazer for all practical purposes is a brand new catamaran.
Prior to heading to the BVI we purchased BinaxNowCOVID-19 home tests with the Navica app. To try it out and get familiar with the test, we used it as the Covid test to get into St Thomas and the BVI. The test only takes about 20 minutes total and you get an email with results within 30 minutes. We used this test to travel back to the USVI from BVI. Much easier than trying to schedule and wait at a clinic in the BVI for the test. This is the second time in 9 weeks I traveled to the BVI. Both times Delta never asked if we filed out the USVI portal for St Thomas. Nine weeks ago I didn’t do the portal and it was no big deal. The US National Guard (who do the check in) just have you file out a paper version of the online portal. Total time at the airport was about 5 minutes. Using the portal, about the same amount of time. At the ferry, they do want to see your covid test results, proof of insurance and Covid vaccine card. When we arrived at the ferry dock in Road Town, all that was necessary was paying $50 and getting tested. Total time under 30 minutes (15 minutes was the wait time on the test). After that, we were free to move about as we wanted
Day 1, 10/25: We had Kevin pick us up at the airport in St Thomas and take us to the ferry. It’s always great to see Kevin. You can always count on him. One of my crew members arrived with me in Sea Cow Bay. We got there around 6pm. When we purchased the ferry tickets, they were still only providing a 4:30 ferry to Road Town (they had just added a 2:30 ferry which we could have taken had we known). Nice to know they have started increasing the number of ferries with anticipation of pent-up interest. We have always used George to pick us up at Road Town and take us the Sea Cow Bay. Be glad to share his info if anyone wants it. Once there, we did some unpacking, ate, talked to Brent about how his fleet is all in great shape and getting bookings for both this season and next and finally went to bed after a long travel day.
Day 2, 10/26: Spent the morning getting re-familiar with the Leopard 45. Our provisions arrived from Rightway by 11 AM. We raised the sails (which is really wonderful using the electric winches with all the rigging coming back to the helm and headed towards Norman Island. Once there, did some snorkeling, enjoyed a few beers and finally finished the day with dinner at Willy T’s. The food was great. There were 19 boats on moorings that night.
Day 3, 10/27: After a leisure breakfast, we headed over to Trellis Bay to pick up my wife and the rest of our crew. With lots of time on our hands, did some swimming to stay cool along with downing a few beers. Around 6:30 I picked up everyone at the dock and headed back to the boat. To properly christen our new boat we opened Champaign and enjoyed appetizers on the “front terrace” of Stargazer. For dinner that night we grilled salmon. There were a total of 3 boats mooring plus about 6 “resident” boats. Looking over to Marina Key I could see 3 boats spending the night there.
Day 4, 10/28: Another beautiful day of sun and not a drop of rain. It is so nice to enjoy a cup of coffee on the “front terrace”, watching the sun come up. Something I enjoyed every morning. We cooked scrambled eggs for breakfast before leaving Trellis. Had a wonderful sailing day with winds at around 8 knots giving us a smooth and slow sail to North Sound. A few weeks before we headed down, I emailed Saba Rock to confirm they were open and the Director of Food and Services booked reservations for dinner for us for the 28th. I was at Saba Rock many times before Irma and all I can saw about the “NEW” Saba Rock is WOW!!!!!!! They have done an incredible job of rebuilding. Two bars, (one on the first floor and a very large bar upstairs. Our food was more than delicious. Since lobster season didn’t start til 11/1, I had the best grouper ever tasted. They also have a retail store and hotel rooms. The day we were there, at least 6 rooms had been rented. For both lunch and dinner there were water taxis bringing in people for meals. Currently they have about a dozen mooring balls. Six are boatyballs, the rest are first come-first serve and you pay at either the dock or the retail store. Mooring fees are the same as everywhere else, $30. HOWEVER, that INCLUDES up to 250 gallons of water and a bag of ice. (something the “old Leverick Bay” use to do but no more. Saba Rock is now my preferred North Sound place to stay. It does put Leverick Bay to shame. The Bitterend looks as though it coming along but slowly. My understandings is first to open will be a restaurant, retail store and water toys. Once it’s up, the North Sound will have plenty of choices as to where to grap a mooring ball and eat.
Day 5 and 6, 10/29 & 10/30: With winds from 4 to 9 knots, we had a very relaxing sail to Anegada. Once there, we went ashore to reserve a jeep for the next day. Spent the afternoon doing my version of “being at the end of your rope”. Using a fifty foot line with an innertube tied to it, we all grabbed an innertube and enjoyed beer while floating in the most beautiful place on earth. That night we had grilled duck breasts with berry sauce on board. This was Friday and there were 6 boats on mooring balls that night. Next day (Saturday) we headed over to Cow Wreck for drinks and snorkeling. After that we ate lunch at a great little place called Flash of Beauty. It’s out of the way, but nice and with a self serve bar. They still had enough lobster from last season to make a wonderful lobster salad. Next we headed over to the Big Bamboo for more drinks and snorkeling. That evening we had dinner at Anegada Reef Hotel. Should have known better since lobster season was still 2 days away, but they said they had lobster so we ordered it. My guess is it was frozen because it was all mushy, not up to their usual standards. Since Anegada Reef has Wi-Fi, we all did our Covid tests for USVI while enjoying cocktails waiting for dinner. There is now a five day window to do this test regardless if you’re flying or taking the ferry from the BVI, so this was the perfect place and time to do the test. Must say it was an interesting way to do the test. That night there were 20 boats on mooring balls.
Day 7, Oct 31: Met Sherwin at 6:30 AM to go fishing. Always nice to see Sherwin, bad news was after 4 hours, only had a few bites and didn’t land anything. After lunch on Stargazer we set sail for Cane Garden Bay. Got there around 3/3:30 pm. Had a total of 17 boats that night. A large power-cat next to us had quite the Halloween party. Ended up with a least eight dingys tied to the back with at least 40 people on board including “The Skipper”, Gilligan, Mary Ann and many more. The cat was starting to look very top heavy.
Day 8, Nov 1: Did an easy motor over to Great Harbor and used our new dingy to motor to White Bay. Had the traditional Pain Killers at Soggy Dollar and had a very good lunch at Hendo’s Hideout. You can never go wrong with their food. As we ate lunch, we saw a fisherman delivering freshly caught lobster to the restaurants. When we returned to Great Harbor, we ran across the boat with the fresh lobsters and bought 3 lobsters from them for the wholesale cost of $30. Cooked them on the grill,,,, what a great, sweet tasting meal for dinner and lunch. That night there were 12 boats on mooring balls.
Day 9, Nov. 2: On our way back to Captain’s Compass at Sea Cow Bay, we stopped at the West End just to check it out. Still working on the downstairs bar at Pussers, other than that everything is pretty much open. Considering I have never thought of this being a place to spend the night , I found it odd the there are now a few boatyballs there. Just seemed out of place to me. After lunch it was time to head back to Sea Cow Bay and get ready to take the 7:30 AM ferry on the 3rd. back to St Thomas and then home. Since we love to use Kevin and he is no longer with the taxi group at the ferry, we had him meet us at the ferry, put out luggage in his van and headed uptown to eat and kill time until our flight. When we are ready, Kevin picked us up and got us to the airport as well as getting us a porter. Great service!
Want to just add that although I have enjoyed all our BVI sailing adventures, the Leopard 45 has made this my best experience sailing. Easy to sail, air conditioned, lots of glass that opens up the entire boat lots of room and storage and even a captain’s bunk if needed. It’s a great and wonderful catamaran to experience the BVI in. Captain’s Compass has Stargazer plus her twin sister ship, Smile Maker along with his “classic fleet”. We are extremely happy being in his fleet and glad to share our boat.