TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums British Virgin Islands Mooring ball availability

Bareboating around BVI on July 23-30. Concerned about access to mooring balls. Most likely doing Norman, Cooper, Scrub, Levericks Bay, Anegoda then Jost.
Was looking at boatyball to help. Do I need to be rushing to get to the mooring ball by lunch or can I enjoy my day on water?

July is dead season, so there is no reason to stress about mooring balls.

The Puerto Rican Navy that week can be an issue depending on where you go. They don’t however use Mooring balls much.

As George stated above, this is the "Christmas in July" cruise week for the PR Navy so they will be out and about partying - but they generally do a lot of anchoring and rafting up in power boats. You should be fine with mooring balls. The only places we found BoatyBall any sort of necessary are Great Harbour and Cooper. FCFS worked fine everyone else -- and, in retrospect, would have been fine at Cooper....

Guys, Thank you all for the peace of mind. We had no issues last trip but its been six years. Looking forward to a fantastic trip.

vinval1: The information that I read is that the "PR Navy" has a lot of activity on Virgin Gorda, especially in Savannah Bay. If you want to stay in North Sound, recommend making a reservation at Leverick's Marina. We stayed several years ago during the Christmas in July party and had a slips at Leverick and Scrub. We had reservations which is the only reason we had a chance to stay. There were beautiful PR powerboats and the people were fun. While the marinas were slammed, as noted above, there were few to no powerboats in the mooring fields at other locations.

I've been sailing in the BVI while the PR Navy came by and they certainly enjoy flocking/rafting together and have a merry time. The marinas get crowded, but the OP was asking about mooring balls; and these will remain relatively free. And not only is the mooring field outside of Leverick big, one can anchor in sand in 20 feet of water just outside of that field.... for free... and spend the money you've saved at the bar.

We have sailed the BVI during Christmas in July twice. If you like to party don't mind very loud Spanish music blasting all day and evening you can have a very good time with them. We found most of them to be very friendly and they are happy to include you in the party. My teenage son really liked the 'scenery'! Savanah Bay will be packed but that is red lined by most charter companies. White Bay JVD will also be packed. We didn't have any more problem getting balls in the other places than we do during other weeks we sail as most of them seem to prefer anchoring. So my advice is to adopt an if you can't beat em join em attitude and go have a great time!