CanadianGirrrl & CanadianBuoy’s April 2-11 Trip Report

Executive Summary and Observations –
• Bunker Hill Hotel – clean, small pool, 1 night bookings, good prices, 4 min walk to town for shops and dinner
• Greenhouse restaurant - great food/drinks, happy hour 4:30-7pm, 2-4-1 drinks and reduced priced appies
• CYOA – fabulous, professional, great product, attentive knowledgeable staff, will use them again
• lots of PRN over Easter weekend
• anchorages - GH JVD, Marina Cay, Prickly Pear, Leverick, VGYH, Peter, St James Island
• restaurants/drinks – Marina Cay, Fat Virgin, Bath & Turtle, Little Dix, ** Leverick **, M&M Bakery, JJ’s on STJ
• snorkelling – GH JVD, Marina Cay, Prickly Pear, Biras Creek, Drakes Anchorage/Colhoun reef, GH Peter, St James Island

Details –

Good Fri – stayed at Bunker Hill Hotel STT again (5th time) Angela and Bevin greet us by name and now we email our dates and they take care of everything else, dinner at Greenhouse during happy hour great as usual.

Sat – walked to CYOA with rolled carry-ons, awesome staff including Nancy, TTOL’s own Captain Jay, Sven and Kim, dropped luggage and walked to Pueblo for groceries, good selection all in one location, cabbed back, check out was fast and we were on our way just after lunch, chartered 39ft Mainship trawler, very nice, clean boat with many great features that made our week very comfortable for us and our 13 and 14 year olds, anchored at GH JVD after great boat ride despite reports of 5-8ft swells, clearing customs was easy, hung our original Canadian flag over the bar closest to the beach.

Sun – stopped at Sandy Cay for exploring then on to Marina Cay for snorkelling over the reef, lots of fish on the reef, many PRN coming through Marina Cay mooring field to access Scrub resort, enjoyed good conch fritters and a lazy afternoon with the kids in the water, opted not to stop at White Bay on Guana due to swells.

Mon – Marina Cay to Prickly Pear (opted not to stop at Dogs due to swells), snorkelled to shore at Prickly Pear seeing more rays and beachcombing, noticed more 100ft+ yachts this year than other years, enjoyed watching the SeaDream sheeples and once they filled the beach we took off in the dink to snorkel North Beach on Prickly Pear, good sea grass with lots of fish, tried finding the cannon but no luck, by the time we returned to our boat the PRN was plentiful in front of the mooring field at the Sandbox so we dinked over to dinner at Fat Virgin, awesome as usual and then saw our dream retirement boat, a 65ft Fleming and sat soaking up the boat for some time, met Bequia from SVG (I believe that’s his nickname and his real name is Glen) he’s a captain for Moorings and we chatted for some time about boating in the BVIs and SVG, next morning we snorkelled the shore between Fat Virgin and Biras dock and was surprised by the variety of fish and coral, pretty decent snorkelling for the kids, in the morning the Seaborne cruise ship was in, a good time to leave.

Tues – on the way to Leverick, anchored at Drakes Anchorage and snorkelled the Calhoun (sp?)reef, so many rays but no turtles yet, lots of construction activity going on ashore, then over to Leverick where we took our place on the dock and were warmly welcomed back by Nick and Monica, we lazed by the pool over drinks and pool and drinks and met the wonderful OrangeBurst (Colleen and her husband Don) very nice to meet them and we shared stories about threads on TTOL and about her son getting the graphic designer job in the BVIs, it was nice to meet you and all the best to your son, the swells were becoming tiresome at this point in the week so CanadianBuoy surprised us with accommodation on the hillside at Leverick for the night, we enjoyed the huge shower and beautiful views, dinner at Leverick – AWESOME, the kids and us indulged with lobster and scallops, mahi and fillet mignon, as if the food wasn’t enough, I’m sure we had the best table in the restaurant and were then offered a tour of the wine cellar, we were spoiled, honoured and very fortunate to have found such good and kind people as Nick and Monica, it was the best dinner we’ve had and the kids are still talking about the sweet potato ravioli, as if the hillside accommodations for the night and fabulous dinner weren’t enough, Leverick had a live band with great music, we got good and mellow and enjoyed our wonderful evening. Big goodbyes and thanks in the morning and then we pushed off for VGYH all rested and well fed.

Wed – Good ride to VGYH, passed yet another cruise ship, we enjoyed watching the sheeples’ antics for a while then picked up some groceries at Bucks, browsed the shops and loved the showers. As we were returning from the shops, we couldn’t believe that our beloved retirement boat had pulled into the marina so we loitered admiring here when the owner happened to pass us on the sidewalk so we complimented him on his boat and he ended up inviting us aboard for a tour, it was surreal, we saw over her from top to bottom and must have spent over an hour, the owner was and should be very proud and we truly appreciated his generosity and time, we joked about where our next ports of call were so he wouldn’t think we were stalking him. For dinner we found the all night bakery with whole cooked chickens, we chatted up some of the store staff ahead of time and discovered that the locals call the place the vampire bakery because it’s only open at night (we were cautioned not to tell the bakery in case it doesn’t go over well), the chicken was amazing, the bread very fresh and we also tried donuts and patties, all worth the effort to find the place which really was very straight forward. After dinner we opted not to go to the Rock as the Bath and Turtle now have live music on Wed nights dockside.

Thur – the morning at VGYH found another cruise ship starting to unload people so we went to Little Dix for a swim, drinks and snack and were back at the marina and underway by noon on our way to Peter, nice ride down the SFD to GH where we tucked in close to Conrad, probably the best snorkelling of the trip as we saw several large cuda and tarpon and my daughter swears she saw a small (1 ft) shark, as we were swimming to shore it seemed that the lights went out then we realized we were facing a solid wall of silversides which would explain the many pelicans, it was the most unusual and interesting snorkelling, late in the afternoon we thought the anchor was slipping as it had been pretty breezy through the cut, so we pulled up and tried to reposition not too far away, we tried four times and every time we didn’t grab, we scoped out a couple other places further from Conrad and then tried looking for a mooring ball and ended up anchoring in the dark not far from Oceans 7, we were up most of the night watching to ensure we didn’t move, not sure how we could have done better as we always snorkel the anchor to ensure it’s set, anyways it was a crappy night.

Fri – up early (or not yet to bed) and decided to take off for St John, we had cleared in and out of BVI customs when we entered so it made our exit very easy, the ride was great along the north shore of St John admiring the calm anchorages where we’re already talking about exploring on our next trip, as we were coming through the Durloe Cut, we were one of 2 boats going east and there was 1 boat coming west none under sail and a large yacht was coming up quickly behind us from the west (the Barula or similar), he passed between all of us to all of our dismay and shock, we quickly recovered and grabbed the closest mooring ball at Caneel next to Lind Point and dinghied into the dinghy dock near the ferry dock, walked over to USVI customs and were in and out in a fairly short time despite there being about 12-14 people ahead of us (all from the Barula), occasional comments about the difficulty with customs was the only reason we haven’t visited St John and now that we realize how easy it is, we’ll be visiting more often, after a bit of shopping at Mongoose Junction and a great lunch at JJ’s (the best mahi mahi sandwich), we left Caneel, it was really rolly and anchored at Christmas Cove on St James Island, this is a really nice place but stay tucked in close to the island as there is a fair amount of boat traffic including ferries, the snorkelling is really good here and again we saw many large tarpon, tons of sea urchins, rays and finally turtles!

Sat – up early to get underway and return out boat to CYOA and head back to Bunker Hill Hotel, the check out at CYOA was very thorough, they inventoried everything again, and had a diver check the dink as well as the boat hull, we felt great comfort in knowing that CYOA takes this much care with their boats as we certainly don’t want to be the next charterer of a boat with unnoticed bottom damage, CYOA is very professional and concerned with maintaining their boats to a very high standard, we’re already looking at their 43ft power cat as we feel a larger boat with a lower center of gravity will be better for us with the small but annoying swells.

Sun – our flights didn’t leave till late afternoon so we shopped and swam then walked with our bags down to the ferry dock for lunch at the Petit Pump Room but discovered that they’re closed on Sundays, so we walked the extra steps and ate at the Hook, Line and Sinker and had a very good Sunday brunch with generous servings for around $12 a plate, cabbed to the airport and had no problems getting through security, they seem to know what they’re doing and move people very quickly.

We had another great trip and credit not only the wonderful people that we’ve met on our travels who go out of their way to make our vacation better but also all of you kind TTOL members who so quickly respond to all our questions and freely share your special memories. Thank you.
Jon and Linda