TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums British Virgin Islands NOBLE SHADOW 1

BVI - July 26 - August 5, 2025


Long overdue! Our daughter described it best when she said "you know...1/4 of my life has passed since we sailed down here! I was thinking...a little bit older, a little greyer and a little bit rusty with the twin screw!


Trip planning started in early June and we chose TMM once again for this July 26-August 5th bareboat charter. TMM has been and still is an exceptional charter company! The communication with them is so organized, pre trip paperwork was easy. They helped with everything, arrival/departure schedules including taxi, water sport equipment and sleep aboard etc


There were 4 of us on the crew manifest, me, Mrs BEERMAN, daughter and her fiancé'. We chose s/v Noble Shadow, 2022 Lagoon 40. This time of year TMM offered a 10 day for price of 7, always nice! Direct flights from Dulles to STT on United were then bought. Trip insurance through Generali (didn't need but a couple boat bucks for peace of mind!) Once the boat and flights were secured we created a provisioning account at Riteway and the crew individually started clicking away filling our cart. The cart was filled with everything we needed except for meats, eggs, bread and fish. Caribbean Cellars website ordering was down, but they allowed our order to be placed via email, we appreciated that!. Fishing licenses, trolling gear and a Sunchill float were ordered through BVISUPCO.


Now on with the show!! Interesting side topic, we needed puppy daycare and had a couple cancel on us, finally a third said she would like to meet our 12 year old English Springer, she lost hers not long ago, come to find out our puppy's were sisters, crazy!!! We arrived Dulles at 0600 for an 0800 flight to STT. With no glitches, at 1215 we exited the rear door of the plane and were greeted by the warm tropical air...ahhh! With carry on only we shuffled passed the crowded luggage carousel and quickly hopped in a $15pp taxi to the ferry terminal. Had plenty of time for a nice lunch and a cold Presidente at the Pump Room. We bought $75 tickets on the 1:50 Native Son Ferry, sat up top to breath in the fresh sea air! With the smell of coconut spf50 in the air and seeing St John off starboard we really started to get that "we are on vacation!" feeling.

















The Ferry wasn't packed, but clearing C&I in Road Town took about an hour to get through. We knew we could have taken forward seats inside to avoid the long wait, but we always enjoy riding up top. There was no paperwork and they did scan our saved BVI portal Q code. Worse part of clearing was the smell of sargassum decomposing around the dock. Road Town had the largest accumulation we saw during the trip. Sargassum is certainly everywhere, but many bays are free of it, and some areas with smaller amounts didn't have the odor. It was a little annoying while fishing in some areas, but not terrible.





Once we cleared C&I the taxi TMM scheduled was there waiting, Andrew is still driving! During the ferry ride I received a message that Riteway had processed our order (Credit Card) and would deliver 3-6pm. I emailed Caribbean Cellar and advised that we would be at the marina by 5pm. They said ok and we would pay that balance at the boat.


As we exited the taxi and grabbed our bags from Andrew over walks staffer Morgan to escort the crew to the boat while I checked in with Sandra. Check in was as easy as I remembered. I then climbed aboard Noble Shadow and Morgan briefed me on a few things and said he'd see us around 0830. It was 5pm and the staff mentioned they hadn't seen our provisions yet and said if they didn't arrive by 6pm it would probably come first thing in the morning, no biggie! BVISUPCO had already delivered our fishing gear and float, but said the frozen rigged ballyhoo would come in the morning. Joyce stopped by and gave us hugs and said she'd bring us fresh coffee and mangoes in the morning, sweet lady!!














Keeping an eye out for deliveries we opted not to go to a restaurant, some of the crew walked to the small Riteway just 50 yards from the boat to grab some items for the night since provisions were delayed. At 6:15 Caribbean Cellars arrived, yahoo!!! We had a bag of ice in the freezer so we started chilling a few beers! At 7pm in drives Riteway!! We were happy we didn't have to deal with inventory and organizing that stuff in the morning. Both delivery teams were great at bringing the provisions to our boat and handing it up to us. One gentleman said if our Riteway items or substitutions weren't what we preferred we could try swapping them at the small store first, we did swap 3 items, very convenient.





FYI, TMM gives 2 free taxi vouchers for the big Riteway, but the crew was satisfied with the selection in the smaller store, so we stocked everything from there! They did grab frozen chicken breasts, hamburger, veggie burgers, sausages etc. I had reservations about not bringing our soft sided cooler this trip, but honestly we were happy with what we found. I didn't take a hard look at prices, but not paying the additional checked baggage fee $50 each way for a cooler, duty fees, not having to wait at the carousel and not having to carry that thing made our choice feel right.






A couple observations after being away since 2017, there are still signs of the damage left behind from the storms, but in general we were really impressed with the recovery that we saw. I had memories of returning to St John after Hugo (1989) and then Marilyn (1995). There are vacant buildings and boats here and there that are abandoned, but they've come a long way!

I didn't want to bring up the past too much, I figured my questions have been asked a million times over the years, but some locals were very open about their personal experiences riding out or better yet surviving the storms. Jumping ahead to North Sound I told one woman, she's a little older than me, when our last visit was and I apologized for bringing up the same old subject, she said I would know when someone didn't want to discuss it further, but she said "today, I'll share some stories with you..." We sat there just listening for a long time. She described the obvious and unthinkable worst parts, but she also described the love and generosity of many people, some that we are familiar with, that helped them recover. Wonderful lady.

Near TMM at Road Reef marina there's a midsize ferry that is aground in the middle of the channel....I'll squeeze by that in the morning and we'll start adding more pics of this amazing tropical paradise.
Cheers!, more to come...........

You can take a soft side on as carryon for no fee.

Not when already carrying 2 bags a piece…,,just say’in

Great report. Can't believe Joyce is still around. She was no spring chicken when we started in 2002.

She really hasn't changed a bit. Still taking care of the chickens and boaters alike!

How cool, we remember Joice from when we chartered Jeannius with Bill Hartzman, (way back when). BEERMAN is right, she hasn't changed a bit, recognized her immediately in the photo.

Obviously didn’t realize you carry on that many.

Great report! We also have 2 12 y/o Springers.

I usually pack a medium size duffle bag with clothes etc. and a small dry backpack with electronics, toiletries and valuables. On more than a couple flights they have asked or told me to check my duffle at the aircraft door. I like having that dry bag with me at all times. Not preferred but it could fit under my seat. Flight down there was plenty of overhead, but flight home flight attendants had to get creative moving peoples bags around. It still amazes me that airlines let people bring two very large bags that barely squeeze into the overhead.