Day 1. Got up 3:00 AM for the 1.5-hour trip to Newark Airport for the 7:00 AM Delta flight to STT via Atlanta. Uneventful drive down except it started to rain as we pulled into the Hertz car return. A short walk to the Air Train and we are off to the terminal. Amazing how quiet an airport is early Saturday morning. Uneventful flight to Atlanta. Flight Attendant announces an arrival gate change to Terminal A from Terminal T. Look at my boarding pass for the flight to STT and it leaves from Terminal A. So far, so good. Connecting flight to STT is also uneventful.

This is where the fun begins. We catch a $15 taxi to our overnight stay on St. Thomas at the Best western Emerald Beach Resort (BWEB). When we get there we were told that they were overbooked and they would have to put us up in their "sister" property, Best Western Caribe (BWC). Having read less than glowing reviews of the BWC, I figured it can't be that bad for just one night. WRONG. After they shuttled us over there we had to sit another hour until they had a room for us. Seemed the maid service was being slow that day. After 5:00 PM they finally got us a room on the cliffs. If you looked past the rotting wood deck the view was nice. Room was old, rusty and beat up. No hot water. Key card would work intermittently, was a looooong walk to lobby and bar. Bar smelled like either old stinky rags or rotten trash. BWC has a pool barely larger than a tub and the beach was smaller than my living room with stairs leading to rocks in the water. I would not recommend staying at this place or at the BWEB either since the same people own them and treated us badly. Only thing really going for this dump is it is easy walking distance from airport. Seem most people staying there were people whose flights were delayed or cancelled. One lady was delayed there 2 days, another guy was not sure if he will be leaving within 4 days.

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Day 2. We go to the BWC included continental breakfast. Not very good presentation. Even though toaster was going around I would have had to put my English muffin in about 10 times just to get it a little crispy. Trying the darkness setting was futile. I was going to try the muffins but a guy sitting near us said when he came down birds were having a feast on the muffins. After breakfast we walked over to the BWEB and got even more upset. They have a nice beach, gift shop, decent looking restaurant, etc. Their continental breakfast looked more appetizing and had more items. While waiting for our other boat mate to arrive on a 2:00 PM flight so we could take the ferry over to BVI we go back to room to get our stuff. Insert key card and door will not open. Seems they shut off all key card access at Noon. We had to track down a maid to let us get our stuff. We head to smelly bar to have a few drinks until his plane arrives. We can see planes land from BWC so when I see his United flight land I head to airport to meet him while my wife calls a taxi.

Walk up hill from airport and hop in taxi for short ride to ferry dock. Sign up for the Road Town Fast Ferry 4:00 PM trip. From what I see there are similarly named ferry operators at STT. Tortola Fast Ferry, Virgin Islands Fast Ferry & Road Town Fast Ferry. Road Town is only one that goes directly to Road Town without stopping at West End. At least that is what I figured out.

Another uneventful trip over on ferry. Arrive about 5:00 PM and make our way through customs and then make out way to Village Cay Marina and our boat at the BVI Yacht Charters. Boat is a Hunter 460 called Fair Exchange. I will leave the Boat review for later. Bobby’s is waiting there on time as usual.

Since it is late, we decide to eat at Captain’s Table for dinner. Have a very good meal and some drinks and off to bed.

Day 3. After a sleep aboard and some repairs to the yacht we head off to Machioneel Bay, Cooper Island for the night. Since it is after 2:00 PM when we get our start we decide to motor over since the wind was not blowing much. After mooring, we fire up the grill and have some burgers & chips. This was not a good night for sleeping as it was hot & sticky and the boat was really being rolled. Not enough to roll you out of bed but just enough to keep you from a good night sleep.



Day 4. Get up and have a leisurely breakfast and prepare to head on up to Virgin Gorda. Undecided where we will spend the night, we check out the waters in front of Fat Virgin and Saba Rock. Decide on Saba Rock as the air looks pretty still over at Fat Virgin and there is a nice breeze at Saba Rock. I would highly recommend stopping at Saba Rock. The resort is really nice, bar is friendly and drinks are great. Even though we did not need water, we took advantage of the free bag of ice. Since we were going to get an early start the next morning for Anegada we had an early chicken on the grill dinner on the boat.



Day 5. Get an early start for Anegada ‘cause we don’t know what the mooring ball or anchoring situation will be. Nice long sail. Get in a little after noon and enjoy some lunch. Not many boats here. Lots of mooring balls available when we arrive and even more later in the day. This is the start of a pretty uncrowded week everywhere we went. After lunch we do a swim off the back of the boat then head over to Pomato Point to check out the beach. Very nice beach and water is fantastic. Only us and 2 other people visible. We make dinner reservations at Neptune’s Treasure for that evening by calling them on VHF. Kinda strange that they need everyone’s order when making reservations but when we show up for dinner we find out why. No wait for food to arrive. They just start bringing it out. Very good lobster. We like it a lot better than New England lobster. It is enjoyable even without butter. Neptune’s not very busy either. No one sitting inside just a few tables outside. Desert was a chocolate brownie. Also very good. Highly recommend Neptune’s.



Day 6. Head over to Cow Wreck Beach for the day. Get our ride from Tony the Taxi man. Love his taxi. Also doubles as his construction vehicle when he is not driving people around. Tell him to pick us up at 4:30. Absolutely loved Cow Wreck Beach. I have never snorkeled out so far before. I figured that if I got tired of snorkeling I could just stand and walk back to the beach!! Had Conch Fritters & burger for lunch at the Cow Wreck Beach Bar and play for a while with the kids at the bar. Go for a long walk down the beach and do not see a person the whole time. Paradise. 4:30 and Tony is on time and waiting. He must have been busy all day as the wood and glass was cleared out of his van. Gotta love his hula girl dancing on the dash. She really gets a workout on those roads! Wash up and head to shore to check out the bar at Anegada Reef Hotel. Nice bar and friendly people.



Day 7. Get an early start for Jost Van Dyke. Nice sail and we arrive early afternoon. After lunch we decide to head to shore and go check out the Bubble Pool. Seems there is not much swell and it is low tide so it is more like a Bubbly Trickle but we see how high the water could get and are impressed. After the short walk back we stop in Foxy’s Taboo and pay our mooring ball fee and since we did not have anymore cash with us we tell the woman in the gift shop we would be back later for some t-Shirts & drinks at the bar. About 5:00 PM we head in and find that everyone is closed up! Find some guy walking around and he explains that they closed up and went to Carnival in St. Thomas. Kind of disappointed that they did not mention that when we were there earlier and we said we would be back. Head back to boat for Hot Dog dinner instead. This night was one of the worst for sleeping. There was no wind at all and the water was like glass. I have never seen water that still in any of the anchorages in the BVI.



Day 8. Head over to White Bay. We grab a ball on the right of Black Point. There was a medium size cruise ship anchored off White Bay. They spent all day shuttling people in and out. Left side of Black Point was pretty crowded and so were the bars. Later in the afternoon they started to pack them up and shuttle all the passengers back to the boat for dinner. Bars get a little more laid back without all those people. Afternoon we dinghy oround to Great Harbor to have some drinks at the many bars. Have fish on the grill for dinner and head into shore to get my Drinking Man’s Guide signed. One Love has the best Bushwackers I ever had and Soggy Dollar has the best Painkillers (try the Mango Painkiller), or maybe it was just the setting that made them better?



Day 9. Head over to Norman for our last day on the boat. Dinghy over to the Caves for some snorkeling. Water was a little rough and not very clear that day but enjoyed it the same. Head back and decide to check out the snorkeling to the left of Pirates’. Grassy bottom and not much to see there. Head in to Pirates’ Bight for some drinks before dinner. Couple of “happy” women at the bar decided to do some body shots. Very interesting! Go back to the boat to get ready for spaghetti dinner aboard and to watch the antics on the Willy T. before dark. After dinner head to the Willy T. The crowd that night was not to our liking. People doing drugs on dark upper deck and a pretty rowdy crowd. Glad I locked the dinghy to the dock. We decided it was time to leave when I glanced at the dinghies and some guys were urinating in them. What a bunch of idiots. Head to Pirates’ for a more relaxed atmosphere.

Day 10. Get up and take a leisurely sail to Road Town to return the boat. Call in to get instructions and are told we had to put bumpers on the right side and which fuel dock to go to. Get there and dock at fuel dock and they tell us we have to move because there is another boat coming into that slip. We move but have bumpers on the wrong side for the other fuel dock so we have to back into slip. Since we had never backed into a slip before this was a stressful time but we did it. We then had to head over to the BVI Yacht Charters dock and of course had to change the bumpers! Took quite a while to finally return boat.

Highlights of the trip were Anegada and the beaches there. Pristine. Sunsets beautiful. The people of the BVI.



Best dinner, Lobster at Neptune’s.

Best drink, Bushwacker at One Love.

Low points. Foxy’s Taboo being closed. Having to dock 3 times to return the boat. Willy T.

Land portion to follow.