I think we counted that this recent trip was our 9th trip to the BVI – 8th charter trip.

We were a crew of 6 – my husband and I, our daughter and her fiancé and our son and his girlfriend. All pre-trip covid testing and USVI portal entry was pretty seamless. Four of us tested at CVS (rapid antigen test) and 2 at Walgreens (rapid diagnostic ID Now test). We all had results within an hour and our green QR codes within ½ hour of submitting.
Everyone flew into STT and we used Island Time for private water taxi. Arrived after West End customs closed so we checked in at Roadtown. Again, pretty seamless process.
Chartered a 37’ power cat out of TMM – Stolen Booty. Love the TMM staff – they always welcome us back and they’re just really good people. The boat was a 2018 and had seen better days. Not the ideal boat setup and honestly with the swells we saw that week I’d have liked a bigger boat. But that has nothing to do with TMM and everything to do with the boat we chose. Will definitely charter with TMM again, just not this boat.

Day 1 - Friday: Norman Island. Stopped at the Indians to snorkel. Water was a bit rough so we stayed on the boat while the kids snorkeled. Motored to the Bight to catch a ball. Lots of balls available when we arrived at about 2:00 pm. Took the dinghy over to the caves and snorkeled for a bit. Back to the boat and off to the Willy T for drinks! Dinner on board that night.

Day 2 – Saturday: Up early and headed to the Baths. Got a mooring ball, dinghied to the dinghy line and we all swam in. We ended up on the Exit side of the Baths so we hiked up and around to the entrance, showed our national parks permit (TMM had me screenshot the permit) and off we went. Our son is big into climbing and bouldering – he was in heaven! We finished with lunch at Top of the Baths then back to the boat to continue onto Saba for the night. Arrived at Saba, got settled and went over for cocktails and to watch the tarpon feeding. The new building is beautiful! While we didn’t eat there this trip, we did last December and the food was great. They’ve done an awesome job with the rebuild.

Day 3 – Sunday: Up early again and over to the dock to fill with water (this boat only held about 93 gallons of water) and get ice. With a mooring ball reservation you get free water and a free bag of ice. Headed off to Anegada! The bad: lots of rain showers and poor visibility. The good: I’ve never seen so many rainbows in such a short period of time! We counted 8 in total. We’re getting near Anegada and the rain storms moving across made it such that we couldn’t see the island. We hung off a bit and waited for it to pass before trying to enter the channel. Got ourselves all settled on a ball and we’re off to meet Sherwin for his boat trip! We love this guy – so friendly, so knowledgeable and his trip is always one of the highlights. We visited the conch mounds and snorkeled around them. Saw the flamingos pretty well. Then he took us out to the reef where we snorkeled and we picked up a big conch. Back on board, he explained all about the conch and he cleaned it and made conch ceviche right there on board. The kids loved it! After that, it’s back to the boat for a quick change and we’re off in a taxi to see Ann at Tipsy. We’ve known Ann for years from multiple trips and it’s always like coming home when we see her. Her new bar is great and seeing her and Andrew’s smiling faces always warms the heart. After an afternoon of food & drinks there it’s back to the boat to shower and change. It’s superbowl Sunday so we head to the Lobster Trap for dinner. They had a few big screen TV’s set up and a big crowd for the game. It was fun to watch! Unfortunately dinner was so-so. The lobster was pretty dried out and the service was really slow. Back to Wonky Dog for us next time.

Day 4 – Monday: Leave Anegada and head for JVD! We were able to get a ball in White Bay and headed in to Soggy Dollar for painkillers and then next door to Hendo’s for lunch. The food at Hendo’s is always good and their lobster grilled cheese is to die for! Next up, motored over to Great Harbour and picked up our mooring ball. Hung out on the boat and ventured into Foxy’s for drinks and a few games of giant jenga and ring toss. Our son made the ring toss twice in a row – I bet him he couldn’t make it a third time. Guess who bought him a shot of tequila? 😊 Back to the boat for a late dinner.

Day 5 – Tuesday: Headed out of Great Harbour and over to Little Jost to hike the bubbly pool. Got a mooring ball and dinghied over to Foxy’s taboo and walked in from there. The swell was up so the pool was too. So much laughing and giggling – truly one of the best things we did! Hiked back and stopped at Foxy’s Taboo for a round of drinks before heading to the boat. Left Little Jost and headed to Cooper. Went ashore for happy hour – 2 for 1 drinks from 4-6. Visited the rum bar, bought some delicious little pastries there, and back to the boat for dinner. We rocked and rolled around all night bumping against the mooring ball. Not a super comfortable night.

Day 6 – Wednesday: We head over to TMM to drop off two kids for their trip home (after the Dolphin Water Taxi fiasco). They make the 11:30 am ferry and their 3:40 flight out of STT. Whew! We get to dispose of trash at TMM and fill up with water again. With four of us left, we head over Trellis Bay for the full moon party! Arrived at about 11:30 am and only two balls left. Kevin and G meet us coming in and escort us to a ball. These are two super nice people – they collect the mooring fees, take trash, and sell ice and ice cream bars. Ice cream bars for everyone it is! Spent the afternoon watching boats come in and out trying to find a ball. Feeling lucky we got one! NOTE: There is a sunken boat to the left of the mooring field. It’s marked with a red flag. However, lots of boats mistook that for a mooring ball until they were right up on it. Headed in to the market in search of a baguette (got the last one!) and over to Marche for sushi. Marche did not disappoint – it’s delicious!! The full moon party was fun. Lots of music and dancing. Great people watching for sure. Got back to the boat – small disaster. While we were gone, apparently a ferry or something that gave off a pretty good wake, rocked the boat so hard it knocked a few liquor bottles off the counter onto the floor. Broken glass & liquor everywhere. Witnessed the same lack of consideration the next morning with the wake as we were making coffee & breakfast. Granted, we were near the entrance to the channel and not protected further in, but man that boat could slow down just a bit.

Day 7 – Thursday: Leisurely morning with breakfast and coffee on board before heading over to Virgin Gorda Yacht Harbor for our slip for the night. This is a tricky one. You wind in around a rock break wall with the break wall to port and crashing surf size waves to the right. A bit nerve wracking. We were told to “hang out” in the marina and wait for the harbor master to meet us at our slip. They don’t answer the phone; you need to reach them on the VHF radio. This boat only had the VHF down below; not at the upper helm. We decided that was a definite design flaw in the boat! The slips are not numbered – you just follow her to the slip. But we got ourselves docked and made shrimp tartare for lunch on board. After lunch we walked up to the road and caught a cab to Spring Bay. This is a beautiful beach with big boulders like the Baths – even better because they’ve got spots worn away so they’re easy to climb. Again, our son & his girlfriend were in heaven. My husband and I found a bit of shade under a tree, laid out our towels and relaxed. If we come again, I’d try to bring some beach chairs and get there earlier to get a spot under the shade of the trees. There’s very little shade. The water was too kicked up to get in and snorkel, but the beach setting itself is beautiful. Caught the cab back, stopped for ice cream near the marina and back to the boat to shower. Dinner reservations at CocoMaya – this place has been on my list for years and we finally got there. The setting is magical and the food is delicious. We loved every minute of it!

Day 8 – Friday: Returned the boat this morning to TMM. Got to the gas dock at 8:30 am when they open and we were first in. We had arranged for a taxi for the 4 of us – two going to EIS to catch a Cape Air flight (after Dolphin fiasco and ferry tickets being sold out the day before) and 2 of us going to Trellis to catch the water taxi to Scrub. Andrew’s shared taxi was going to be fine until the other folks in the cab took up all the luggage space. Managed to squeeze the kids going to EIS into that cab and we waited for another. No big deal as we had plenty of time to get the Scrub shuttle. Settle into Trellis Bay with a drink to wait for the shuttle and here come the kids from EIS – hahaha! They checked in early and had a few hours to waste so they decided to walk over to Trellis. Long time no see kids! Shuttle arrives and we two are off to Scrub!

Days 8-9-10: Spent 3 wonderful days at Scrub Island. King room with ocean view in Building 17 was perfect. There’s nothing like a long shower and a king size bed with clean sheets after 7 days on a boat! The staff at Scrub was so incredibly friendly and courteous. Can’t say enough about them. We spent each day over on the north beach under an umbrella reading books and drinking rum cocktails. It was heaven! The massages at the spa were amazing as well. One night, we took the shuttle back to Trellis just so we could eat at Marche again.
Booked Cape Air tickets for us to travel back to St. Thomas since no shared water taxis were available. Binax Now tests done in our room and uploaded to the USVI travel portal. Again, all easy and seamless.

We took a polar bear cooler with cooked meats for eating on board most nights. Ate out a few nights, a few lunches, and always at least a round of drinks on each island. Provisioned through Riteway – unfortunately worst provisioning yet. They charged us for quite a few things that they didn’t deliver (including 22 gallons of water). TMM staff called them and they’re supposed to be issuing a credit for the things that weren’t delivered (haven’t seen it yet). However, the small Riteway next to TMM is very well stocked and if you don’t need meats, they really have almost everything you need. Caribbean Cellars was spot on with their order & delivery. We used Boaty Ball where we could so we wouldn’t have to rush to get a mooring ball anywhere. The only place it got crazy was, of course, Cooper. I was online every morning at 6:50 am and watched the countdown to 7:00 am. Most mornings there were lots of balls available. Cooper I tapped a ball at 7 am sharp – it was gone. Tapped the next ball & got it. But within 2 minutes 18 of the 20(?) balls available were gone.

It was a great trip and we got to spend a lot of time with our adult kids which is rare these days.
Already starting to plan a trip for next year!

Great trip report!

Thanks so much Julie for sharing your amazing trip . Great report and wonderful info. Agreed vacations with adult children are magical and sadly rare once they get on with their own lives . Treasure every minute .

Thanks Kim! We were talking about this trip and all the others we’ve taken. We’re always the tour guide and Andy the captain. Sometimes it seems like it’s go go go to get everywhere for newbies to see everything. I actually was looking longingly at a chartered cat anchored in white bay and wondered what it would be like to just be along for the ride for once. Someone else make sure the dinghy is secured, make the coffee, plan the trip.

At home when we boat it’s always so nice to get settled in one port for a few days. Not on the move every day. I think I’d like to do that type of trip in the BVI sometime.

Great report! It really helped with our planning and answered questions about return to STT! Thank you!

Totally understand what you mean , we are usually tour guide , captain , first mate , galley winch, bartender etc etc etc ! We have had a few awesome trips tho when guests and crew took a lot of these duties ( except captain of course ) .

We went on a crewed charter in Seychelles once and Ward really enjoyed his “ guest “ status , although he also really enjoyed taking the helm of the 62 cat on occasion too

Getting super excited for our return in a few weeks

Yes! Andy would have the same issue - giving up the Captain position is not in his wheelhouse ;-)

Enjoyed your report and how well you handled the COVID protocols. One question: Where did you get the Binax NOW? In the BVIs? And if so, where? Thanks.

not available in the BVI. You should order from emed.com and bring with you.

Del - exactly what Jason said. Order them from embed.com. We needed 6 for our crew. Brought 2 extra just in case