Fantastic Trip!!

We just got back last night from a great week. All the info on this site was invaluable and accurate. so i am going to try to take some time to give back.

We cabbed with Kevin in st Thomas and Arnold Smith in Tortola..rented from Dean Wheatly in anegada and Speedys in VG..all were prompt and reliable..highly recommend!!

we ate at the big bamboo..over priced for lunch..even by BVI standards..Cow wreck beach was beautiful and empty even tho this was one of the busiest weeks of the season..

Loved Saba rock..alot classier than i had expected..had lunch at Chez Bamboo..my favorite of all..loved the decor the music the food the drinks and the service! beautiful dinner at coco maya..dinner at cooper was ok but not as special..fun bartender tho..

had another way too expensive lunch at pirates bight and an awesome happy hour at willy Ts..and two pretty good dinners at charlies at the moorings on our first and last night.

as stated here you must see the view at hog heaven..they weren't even open yet and they let us on the deck to take pictures..offered to take pics of all of us and welcomed us to use there freshly cleaned bathrooms..didn't have time to eat there but they were so nice and accommodating i hope everyone tries to patronize them

i was devastated by the dead and dying reefs. big bamboo was totally dead..had been there 20 years ago and it was without exaggeration the most amazing site i had ever seen..one of the main reasons i went back to the BVI..i was told that we should have gone to Flash of Beauty..reef is in better shape there..but all of the reefs are dying or dead..some look like they are making a comeback but i am not optimistic..i am not knowledgable about this but it looked to me like there was some new coral growth in cooper and one side of the indians looked pretty healthy while the other side was dead..the caves were on the healthier side but a lot of the smaller coral had white tips..i think that is a sign of the algae that is killing it..not sure.

We chartered a 42.3 from the moorings..on march 14th..apparently the busiest day of the year..it was insane that day..most people didnt get provisions till late at night..but the moorings staff was incredible..they worked so hard..it was impossible to be upset with them..even tho everyone that had arrived that day was exhausted and travel weary. by morning things were coming together and we actually left the dock by 11:30. i know most on this forum are not fans of the moorings but i wanted to say i thought they excelled in customer service at the base..not so much when you call their main # but once there they could not have been better.

forgot to mention a great dinner at whistling pines in anegada.
and an incredible romp in the natural pool and hike around the boulders at Spring Bay just west of the baths..way easier to access from land than the baths and very empty

Hi. Thanks for the report!

I added some extra spacing in between paragraphs to make it easier to read. For whatever reason, when you copy and paste onto here, it loses some of the returns, etc.

I had the same reaction almost four years ago on my first trip back after more than twenty years. Forgetting all of the other issues the territory faces whether it be cruise ship pier, airport, ferries, etc. The number one thing, imho, that needs to be done to preserve the area for tourism and for the charter industry in particular, is to deal with what happens to poop. The charter industry should be handling this themselves on their end, banning and/or at least phasing out the practice of sending boats out without holding tanks or with holding tanks that are locked on bypass. Far more complicated and expensive is somehow coming up with better solutions for dealing with waste that is generated on land.

Thanks for the trip report, glad you had a great time!!

i dont know if poop is the problem..i thought it was the warming sea temperatures.
at the moorings they told us to keep the heads closed while in an anchorage and let it out at sea..i think most companies must do that..no anchorages seemed to be polluted at all...however the moorings also insist that you leave the heads open while at their base..we used the shore facilities but it was obvious from the occasional stench that not everyone did

Glad you had a great trip, we did too! Sorry we missed you though. I will write up a trip report later this week. Everything was perfect except Moorings- only problems we had were related to them. I know it was a busy week but shouldn't they have known that and been prepared? We ordered our provisions for Saturday afternoon- didn't get them until late Sunday morning after talking to the staff several times Saturday night and Sunday morning. They just kept saying we were next. Wouldn't have been as big a deal if we didn't have 6 kids with us, but not such a great experience having no food or water for them or booze for us the first night. Also didn't get lots of other stuff until a day later after lots of trips to the front desk to ask where everything was. We had one lady, Sassy, who tried to be helpful and kept calling people for us but it didn't get us anywhere and our check out guy Dale was great and very helpful. Rest of the staff was not very helpful and just kept telling is there was nothing they could do.

Luckily once we pulled put of the Moorings dock everything else went better than we could have imagined!

There are plenty of charter companies to choose from that get rave reviews..glad your trip got better!

Honestly most of the charter companies seem to do pretty good. http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/s...part=1&vc=1

Of course "stuff" happens and no one is going to be able to get it right 100% of the time.

soory to hear that..we had only adults and they did deliver our food by 8 or 9..we had gone out to eat by then..and ticos had our liquor there by 7 i think.
i looked for you too..glad you had a good time

You said the lunch at Pirates Bite on Norman was over priced. Can I ask how much for what? Overall would you eat dinner there or on the Willie T? I'm trying to think out my trip coming up in late May.

Did you provision via the Moorings or directly with the suppliers?

there is a big difference between willy t and pirates bight
pirates bight is a nice restaurant and the food was good..but nothing extraordinary and cost a lot..like an average ceasar salad for 16$ ..a burger and fries for i think 17. that was lunch..didnt see dinner menu
but willy t is a very very casual bar..very rowdy and very different vibe..didnt eat there so i cant tell if the food was good or not..the happy hour drinks were cheap and very good

The dead and dying reefs you saw had nothing to do with global warming and holding tanks.
They had to do with run off from heavy rains and the unprecedent amount of hurricanes we have had since the 90's
The reefs will come back as they always have unless they're burried by sand.

we provisioned through the moorings and thru riteway..both were so over extended that night ..they were swamped!..riteway actually didnt come till after 10 at night and that was after i spoke with numerous drivers and finally got them to find my order..now i have to try to get the 25$ delivery fee back..it was supposed to be free

from what i have been reading it is both the heavy rains and the sea temperature..apparently if they are not too damaged they do come back..but many do die

also while the moorings did do some substitutions, riteway did a lot..niether of them contacted me before hand to advise of the changes.

Many definitely die you can see that where part of the shore sand is above the dead coral, it's ongoing or when you walk into the water and stub your foot it's usually where there at one time had live coral.
The only thing we should worry about is a nuclear disaster.

I absolutely agree with "Only Medication". People are being ignorant if they think that the largest concentration of small boats (and big) in the world can continue dumping their tanks overboard without consequences to marine life. I have been all over the Caribbean since about 1975 and the reef life has continually been degrading compared to what they were then. To say "they will always come back" is ridiculous!
Carol,,,,,,,get ready for all the replies to this post!

Don't worry about this one Carol!

Gailgs, thanks for the wonderful trip report. I consider trip reports the life blood of TTOL along with the up to date accurate information of course!

Gailgs, glad you had a great trip! Thanks for saying "hi" as we were both leaving Road Town!!
I'm working on our trip report now, but will add that we had problems with our Caribbean Cellars order AND just finding groceries at the big Riteway. The shelves were bare Sat night.
Julie

Well you have your facts mixed up about the coral reefs.
The biggest threat to the coral is the run off from heavy rains, construction and hurricanes.
The coral reef otherwise keep rebuilding themselves.

Apparently it's all relative to ones experience/perspective.

I think you're being overly charitable when you put it that way. When it comes to the factors that affect the health of coral reefs, there is an objective reality, and there are people who spend their lives using scientific methodology to study that reality. I'm not one of those people, and I don't know the answers. But I do know that those who express strongly worded opinions on a subject like this, without quoting any facts or sources to back up their opinions, are not helping to shed any light on the matter.

Dan

Thanks for taking the time to share your observations.

We too enjoyed our one meal at Chez Bamboo and agree Hog Heaven is the bomb. Visited shortly after it had opened the first year and things have gotten bigger and better since. ...

Sad to hear the reefs seem less healthy and dying ...I have only been coming since 2010 so have little comparison...

Thanks for the trip report, I learn something new with everyone posted. I have not eaten at Chez Bamboo so it's now on the list for next time.

Tony

Yes the people you assume know, are the Al Gore's.

OK, guys, enough the the "global warming or not" stuff....

i forgot about Gladys Cafe on st Thomas..kevin cambell recommended it for lunch when we first got in..it was great food and the least expensive place we ate at all week