TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums British Virgin Islands Post Irma Itinerary Suggestions

Hi TTOL Family!

I have scheduled my first trip back post Irma for Saturday July 20th for a week out of Road Town (BVIYC). Prior to the storm my typical itinerary would be:

Saturday : Sleep Aboard
Sunday: Cooper (alternate Norman)
Monday: North Sound, VG (Saba or BEYC) [obviously needs to be changed]
Tuesday: Leverick (rent car for the Baths and Hog Heaven)
Wednesday: Anegada (Cow Wreck, Loblolly, Wonkey Dog)
Thursday: Jost (usually Great Harbor w Dinghy/taxi/walk to White Bay)
Friday: Back to base a day early and taxy to Cane Garden Bay
Return the boat

Given the post Irma changes, how would you suggest I ammend this plan? I'm concerned about ball availability / Anchor room with all the capacity in North Sound causing jams in other anchorages.


As always I thank you for the knowleghe in the fourm.

Mark

My group is doing a trip May 4-11 and here’s what we are working on:

Saturday: Arrive at Scrub for sleep aboard

Sunday: Boat brief and head out to Baths (fingers crossed for ball availability by time we arrive late morning). After Baths, head to Leverick for the night

Monday: Sail to Anegada to spend day and evening

Tuesday: Sail to JVD with plan on spending two nights. Plenty of time to visit Sandy Cay, Sydney’s, Foxys and White Bay. Could also change it up and hit Sandy Spit, Foxys Taboo, Bee Line. Plenty of options to choose. Likely stay in Great Harbour JVD both nights

Thursday: Sail to Norman for snorkeling Caves or Indians. May try to stay at Great Harbour Peter Island for a night with Willy T as long as they are still there in May.

Friday: Baths early morning (if we are unsuccessful on Day 1), then Cooper for the remainder of day and night.
Saturday morning early ride back to Scrub to return the boat around 9am

We were down two weeks ago. Cooper and Anegada were very crowded. If you can’t get to Cooper before 2pm make sure you have an alternate plan. Pretty much the same for Anegada but at least you can anchor there.

I prefer anchoring in Anegada anyway having hit the bottom there twice. its a sandy bottom with good holding so really no reason to head through the mooring field given my track record!

I'm hoping that late July will be uncrowded being off-season. I trust we will have to put up with the Puerto Rican Navy doing Christmas in July towards the end of our trip.

Thanks SonOfTheSea. I'll likely follow the same plan.

Happy sailing!

Mark

Mark:

We just got back from our BVI trip a couple of weeks ago. Our observations:

First Monday afternoon we made a late trip to Norman, as Cooper was already clearly a WalMart parking lot.

Tuesday, we sailed to the Baths, spend considerable time there, then routed to Marina Cay. We had initially planned to head to the North Sound, but our lingering too long at the Baths would have forced us to motor most of the way from the Baths, so we ended up at Marina Cay in time to pick up a good mooring, Wednesday morning, we sailed through the Scrub Island cut and sailed to Anegada. Even arriving at Anegada around 11:00 that morning, we found the mooring field to be completely filled and ultimately anchored (there are worse places to anchor). I would suggest that hitting Loblolly and Cow Wreck in one afternoon doesn't give you much time either place. We also headed to our only "must stop" at Wonky for dinner and were not disappointed.

We spend one additional full day Thursday at Anegada, taking our time at Loblolly (we made Cow Wreck the previous afternoon) and enjoyed a leisurely dinner on the boat Thursday evening.

Friday morning, we had awesome weather and sailed downwind on flat seas to Foxy's on Jost. Dinghy ride to Soggy Dollar and Hendos that afternoon with only option BBQ at Foxy's that evening.

Saturday morning, we headed to Cane Garden Bay through lunch, then sailed to Norman.

Sunday, snorkled the Indians and the Caves, leisure sail up the Drake Channel to Cooper (without stopping), then back to the Moorings base for final night on the boat to allow for an early Monday morning departure to the ferry back to St Thomas for the flight home.

We regret missing the North Sound, as we would have loved to spend the evening at Leverick and view the impact on the Bitter End and Saba Rock. If you are willing to arrive Leverick area late that second day, you would be able to sail to Anegada from there as opposed to our route from Marina Cay. Roughly the same distance either way.

We have been paying attention to the BVI STRONG reports from other bare boaters.

Excellent help in planning our two week BVI sailing vacation. It appears to be a remarkable recovery after Irma.

1. LAX TO STT.
2. Ferry to Road Town

3. CONCH CHARTERS : Early Boarding, 4:30 pm, Jeanneau 36i at Conch Charters : Get provisions from Rite Way, stow them on aboard. Stow all personal gear. - Go thru vessel inventory, Go thru our own 2 hr pre sail inspecton
of all systems, rigging, sails. engine, fuel, water, electronics, etc

We want out of the docks the next day ASAP. We will be prepared for the chart brief ( BVI trip # 17 )....and prepared for the staff systems briefer. No delay and no group of 12 trying to learn the vessels systems,

4, Depart Road Harbor to GREAT HARBOR, PETER ISLAND, for the Willy T, and our traditional party time, grub and grog . Wash all that travel, and pre sailing check out procedure down with a pain killer or two.

5. Peter Island, to COOPER ISLAND. Drop of early to secure a mooring at Cooper Island Beach Club, plan is to snorkel Cistern Point, and the check out the new rum bar before dinner at the Beach Club.

Pass on the Baths this trip. Too crowded, and we have been to the baths many, many, previous trips. We also like stopping up at THE TOP O THE BATHS, lunch, swimming, amazing views, and cool down drinks.

6. Great winds in May, leave Cooper early and reefed down sail up to Leverick Bay. ( boat water) Pool time, tiki bar, showers ashore, . then next day the bbq, sit out by the pool, dance to the band and enjoy the Mocko Jumbies. Probably two days at
Leverick. We took a taxi from Leverick to the Baths. More like an Island Tour. But, we have had enough of the mobs. Just do not need it.

Have to pass on Anegada this trip, due to the draft of the monohull, but we were there last visit shortly before Irma, and we loved it. ( Depth sounder read zero ) No groundings. Erica says she had the best lobster in her life there. Snorkeled ..

7. Leverick to MARINA CAY. ( boat water ) Maybe go over to SCRUB. I am not sure that we can reserve a slip for a couple of days due to the Dream YACHT Charters base. , so , we plan on the dock banger ( ferry ) from marina cay,
to hike up that hill for those super views, and also do some snorkeling. Then a cool down drink or two at the resort swim up bar . If we cannot get a slip at sCRUB , we will moor at Marina Cay.

8...Early a.m, Motor thru the Camanoe Passage and stop for some very excellent snorkeling at MONKEY POINT. Guana Island. 1.5 hr NPS Mooring . Top fave for snorkeling along with the Indians and Pelican.

9. Sail from Monkey Point to JOST VAN DYKE. Anchorage can vary, Diamond Cay, and Foxys Taboo , same area, Little Jost and the B-line Tiki Bar. Hopefully mix and match those two.
Then depending on time and wind and swell direction, Little Harbor , or Great Harbor. We have to walk over to White Bay, due to our 6.5 foot draft. Use to clear the keel by about a foot at Ivan]s but post Irma, not taking the chance.

10. Cane Garden Bay, check out the Elm, and hope for he Elm Tones to be entertaining, Also, we like Myettes and see that it has now changed a bit. Looking forward to the new fun times..

11. Nanny Cay, for boat water and to top of the fuel. Only will use about 7 to 8 gals, but like to top it off for the Conch Crew.

12. We also want to snorkel the INDIANS AND PELICAN IS. Then spend the last night in the BIGHT on Norman. And sail down wind back to Conch.

Of course all this can vary, as we may stay longer at one place, skip another, usually due to wx, If we have SE winds and seas, making Jost an open roadstead, we pass on Jost. We can mix and match with other islands. .

I understand that you are on a one week charter, but all of the places above should be up and welcoming the bare boaters.

Have a marvelous BVI sailing vacation, BVI time is just over the horizon.

Denny and Erica

we will be there May4th-11th as well, Our Group is from West Texas
Leaving out of The Moorings, Road Town.

Sonofthesea and midlandgasman

Perhaps we will see you down there. We will be there from May 4-12, starting at Scrub with a sleep aboard on Saturday also.

Similar itinerary, though considering a clockwise loop instead.

Very cool! We will be a larger group on two separate FP Helia 44’s. Palilu is ours, look for about 15 people all showing up around 8pm lol

Lol. We'll keep an ear out for you. We get there earlier in the day... we'll be at the pool bar by the time you get there.