Just back from 2 wonderful weeks! 10 days on a Beneteau 40cc Grand Cru from Tradewind Yachts and 3 nights at the Lighthouse Villas in Cane Garden Bay. Had a lot of rain and high winds but mostly sunny beautiful days. It had been 10 years since our last trip to the BVI and we were pleasantly surprised that not too much had changed. Saba Rock was voted “most changed” (with Marina Cay a close second) and Trellis Bay was voted “most unchanged.” As it turned out our trip was during Easter, Spring Break, and a Swan Fest at the Bitter End, so we were not alone! We used Bobbi’s for our provisioning and were quite please. Here are the headlines and highlights of our trip.<br><br>Tradewind Yachts: had originally booked with them to get the 44cc, but due to a scheduling error, we ended up on Grand Cru. This is not the Moorings, but we thought overall our boat was in good shape and represented a $2,300 savings over the Moorings for the same yacht. The refrigeration did not work that well, the hatch over the bed in the forward cabin leaked a bit (but we did have an unusual amount of rain) and supplies were at a bare minimum, but overall we were happy with the boat and the Tradewind’s staff, Terrance and Willy in particular. <br><br>We had a very good dinner our first night at the Harbor View Restaurant at the Tradewinds base in Fat Hog Bay. <br><br>Cooper Island: Had our first conch fritters of the trip and a good dinner here as well - this is a great spot, beautiful beach, the best gift shop (wife thought) in the Islands and although we were unable to go to Cistern point for snorkeling due to the weather had pretty good snorkeling good right from the beach. <br><br>North Sound: still our favorite place. We did 2 nights at the Bitter End and 2 nights at Leverick Bay. We enjoyed the beaches, hot showers and catching up with the news at the Bitter End but ate at Saba Rock which was good, and you can get burgers, salads and light meals in their bar if you do not want to do the buffet. Also, if you tie up to one of their buoys you can get free ice and 250 gallons of water. <br><br>Leverick Bay: there are free hot showers and use of their pool if you moor here. They also have 2 for 1 pain killers during happy hour at the pool bar, laundry, grocery store and a Pusser’s store. We had what was later voted best dinner of the trip in the upstairs restaurant very good lobster, service, view and live music. They have a free dinner with purchase of a dinner in the “Drinking Man’s Guide to the BVI Book, It can be purchased online from Sunny Caribee before you go or at almost any shop Saba Rock, Pusser’s and Leverick Bay all had copies. Lots of two for one drinks, and a bottle of wine with dinner at Copper Is. and Myetts.<br><br>From Leverick we took a cab to the Baths ($5 person each way) and do take the route through the boulders to Devil’s Bay (but don’t tell anyone else!) As I mentioned earlier we were there during a busy time and cruise ships were in at both North Sound and Spanish Town, the main beach was standing room only but hardly anyone was at Devil’s Bay. We spent the day here and snorkeled our hearts out, then had lunch at the Top of the Baths, food was expense and only fair, but the view is spectacular and it’s nice to dip in the fresh water pool, they also had live music in the form of a one man reggae band. <br><br>We had fond memories of our last tour/cab ride from the baths on our prior trip and 10 years later Leon of L&S was still around, we had him pick us up and take us on a tour of the Island. He took us to the Copper Mine and we stopped at the Mine Shaft for pain killers and enjoyed their fabulous view, then toured around island for photo ops and back to Leverick Bay for, you guessed it, more pain killers. <br><br>At this point in our trip we had intended to go to Jost Van Dyke with one night at Marina Cay, but the weather was so bad, pouring rain, high winds and seas (someone at the bar said they saw 40+ winds), so we ended up at Marina Cay and later moved to Trellis Bay for a more protected moorage.<br><br>Marina Cay had also changed since our last visit, we enjoyed the Pusser’s restaurant, the baby back ribs and jerk chicken quesadillas were particularly good. We did miss the location on the pier of the old restaurant, but liked the addition of the Sunset bar in the original house a top the hill, and Michael Bean’s one man show was great fun. He plays Monday thru Friday at 5:30 get there early for a seat as the place fills up fast. Had also hoped to try Donavan’s Reef for dinner, since we had heard so many good reviews on this site, but was pouring rain the night we had intended to go ~ so we stayed on board.<br><br>Trellis Bay-ended up being there for the full moon “fireball” party at the Cyber Café. Luckily the rain stopped for this event (however, the mosquitoes did not!) They have a BBQ dinner with choice of fish, jerk or regular chicken, rice and beans, pasta and green salad for $11.75. It was OK, jerk chicken a little blackened, but Janet made up for this by bringing us some extra pieces. The party was great they had a live band “The Lover Boys” lit the fireball at 9:00 pm and there was dancing on the beach, they had performers on silts dancing about and juggling fire~it was a great night, not as wild as Bomba’s I’m sure, but family’s had their kids there and we all had a really good time. Our last day on the boat at Trellis, it never stopped raining and I mean pouring! We finally got cabin fever enough to brave the elements and made a dingy dash to DeLoose Mongoose. Had a really good tenderloin steak dinner and the best conch fritters they were light as a cloud. Between the four of us tried most of the drinks on their board~I think because we were so bored! <br><br>The next morning awoke to clear skies and made a dash back to the Tradewinds base, wasn’t raining but high winds and seas, had a rough reach (or should I say surf!) down Beef Island with just a reefed jib we were doing over 10 knots! We were glad to make it to the dock, and heard several small boats had been blown off their mooring at Fat Hog Bay yesterday as the wind was blowing directly into the Bay and offered no protection. At this point we were glad to be landlubbers and picked up our rental car and over the hill to Cane Garden Bay we went. <br><br>The Lighthouse Villas are a fabulous place, very well equipped, comfortable and they have the most spectacular view of Cane Garden Bay. We were so happy to arrive there and take long hot showers, sleep in a king bed and oh yeah catch up on the news on TV. Headed to Quito’s that night to catch the band it was Friday night and Quito and The Edge were suppose to be playing. Dinner was good but a little pricey. We asked our waiter what time the band started he said 9:30 or 10:00, what he didn’t tell us was that they weren’t playing tonight because it was Good Friday. Well more drinks anyway while we chatted it up with our new friends at the table next to us ~ then a monsoon started blowing into the restaurant, off to LHV, said good-bye to our new friends ~ have fun on your boat tonight!! I never was so glad to have an actual roof over my head. Another night of pouring rain, but no hatches to open and close! We all slept very well. <br><br>Next day headed over to Soper’s Hole in morning to do some shopping for gifts and had another good meal at Pussers. Then back to CGB to hit the beach and watch the “Puerto Rico Navy” which were out in full force for the holiday we counted 92 boats in the bay Friday night! We were glad we had our private perch on our decks at the LHV and had brought our binoculars to watch the show~ it was better then TV. The other nice thing about LHV is that they have beach chairs on the other side of the dingy dock, the “restaurant” side was a zoo! But we had our private beach “almost” to ourselves. Also ate at Myetts and the Big Banana, all had about the same fare and prices. On our last day we went to check out the North Shore Shell Museum, but no one was about the place, toured the museum and ended up at Sebastian’s for lunch. We liked Sebastian’s location and of course it was much less crowded then CGB, you could snorkeling right out in front and there was a break about a 100 yards down the beach where people were trying to surf. The location is also close to Palm Delight, Mrs. Scattfields (sp?) and the Sugar Mill all of which were highly recommended to us. <br><br>Had a challenging trip home with 2 cancelled flights out of Tortola, but unfortunately made it back home. Already suffering from pain killer withdrawal-they just don’t taste the same without sand between your toes! <br>
