First Time Bareboat in Mid June.

Hello everyone. I found this forum several weeks ago and have been spending a lot of time on it planning my upcoming bareboat in mid June. You guys are a great community and have been very helpful in my planning. I’ve got the first several days of basic planning down, and I am looking for some suggestions for the last several days.

This will be my first time chartering, but I did two trips as a teen with the Action Quest summer sailing program in the BVI and have wanted to go back since. I have about 30 years of offshore fishing and boating experience so I won't have a problem handling the boat.

This will be my Honeymoon trip. I’m surprising my Fiancé on where we are going, and that her best friend and her friend’s husband from college will be joining us.

I went with a Moorings PC 393 and am planning a counter clockwise trip. Here is what I have planned so far.
We are flying into STT on a Wednesday night and spending the night at Emerald Beach. We’ll catch the ferry over in the early afternoon, check in with the Moorings, and get provisioning. I’m planning on spending the night on the boat and getting an evening chart briefing so we can get going at first light.

Day 1- Head over to the Indians, and caves to snorkel. Spend the night at the Bight and hit Willie T’s up.

Day 2 – Go to the Rhone and Salt Island, anchor in Manchineel Bay and have dinner at Cooper Island Restaurant.

Day 3- Visit the Baths in the morning, then motor up to Levereck’s Bay Marinia to spend a night in a slip. Rent a Jeep and go to lunch at Hogs Heaven and explore Virgin Gorda.

Day 4- Snorkel in the North Sound somewhere and moor at Saba Rock.

Days 5-7 I don’t have planned yet, but I am leaning towards the North side of Tortola, CGB, Jost, Sandy Spit, etc.

I’ve considered Anegada, but I’m not sure if it is worth the trip up there for one night. Might have to save Anegada for another trip. Definitely want to spend a night somewhere around Jost though. Any suggestions on what to do for the Days 5-7 and where to anchor overnight?

Thanks for the help, can’t wait to go.

We enjoy Oceana restaurant on St. Thomas. Its close to your lodging, located in Frenchtown on the water. There are a lot of other options, but this keeps you out of the scrum of downtown Charlotte Amalie traffic. There are additional spots in Frenchtown if you want to do a bit of walking about.

For days 5-7, we love the Diamond Cay anchorage near Foxy's Taboo, B-Line Beach Bar, Sandy Spit and Sandy Cay. Lots of turtles and nicely protected.

Cheers, RickG

Just a suggestion for Day 3/4. Consider heading to the Dogs for a snorkel and then head to Leverick to stay two nights. Get a rental car and go out to dinner - Coca Maya is a favorite of my wife's. The next day, visit the baths, copper mine point, other sites as desired and stop at Hog Heaven on the way back. Have dinner at Leverick at the restaurant upstairs (or if you are lucky enough that this works out to be a Friday, enjoy the BBQ). You could also as you have time take the free ferry over to Saba for drinks.

Days 5-7 you could stop at Fallen Jerusalem (another favorite of my wifes - great snorkel spot with features like the Baths, but usually empty), Marina Cay, Monkey Point then Jost Van Dyke before heading back to the base..

I was also going to suggest a stop at Great Dog en route to North Sound. There isn't much snorkeling in North Sound... we've had OK conditions on the back of Colquhon reef.

Dinghy to the inside of the reef in Eustacia sound and look for a white BEYC buoy at the far end. There are a couple of sunk cannons that are not hard to find with 50 or 80 feet of the buoy.

Maytrix,

That's a good idea on doing the baths via rental car the next day along with the other sites. That would make a fun day trip around Virgin Gorda via rental car. I'm planning on being in Leverecks June 19th.

Yeah, that's the only way we do it now. It's very cool to see the island by car that way. And since the rental car is 24 hours, its great to get it the day before and do dinner. Being your honeymoon, that will be a great place to do it.

If the mooring balls are full when you get to the Indians, go ahead and grab a ball in the Bight and do the caves. We like to get up early the next morning and head straight to the Indians and get a ball & snorkel before everyone else shows up.

are you sure you want to bring her friends on your honeymoon? And risk surprising her with the news??

Definitely bring your NPS pass to the Baths with a rental car. as a side note, have a picnic lunch packed and go to Spring Bay. Occasionally the park po-po stop by and ask for NPS passes at Spring, SOMETIMES the "guard" at the path on the Baths are there, save a few ducketts.

Along those lines, what we've done that worked out well was moor at Saba/BEYC day three, snorkel around behind Saba, take in their happy hour, tarpon etc.

the next morning motor over to Leverick early, grab a slip and hook up with a rental car to explore VG for the day. That way you experience a little more of NS and have virtually the entire day to explore VG since the motor over from Saba takes no time at all.

Yep, very sure. They are both her best friends from college, I'm in my late 30's she's in her 40's, and we have been together for 6 1/2 years so this isn't a 20 year olds type of honeymoon where you don't leave the hotel room for most of the trip, lol. I asked both her friends that have know her for a long time and they said she would love it.

We did a romantic trip to last year to an all inclusive resort in the Dominican Republic after I got out of the Marines. That was right after we decided to get married so that was sort of a honeymoon trip.

This is a trip where we have a great time with each other, friends, and have some great experiences.

Just me personally I wouldn't discount Anegada even if all you have is one night. You're on a PC with a cruise speed somewhere around 8-10 knots. You are about 2 hours from the North Sound. Our last trip was

1 Norman
2 North Sound
3 North Sound (Rent a car and see the sights)
4 Anegada
6 Diamond Cay
7 Peter Island

We certainly were not rushed and had a great time. Just my two cents but you could wake up late in the NS and still be on a mooring in Anegada by noon and have the whole afternoon to take a romantic walk around the point at Cow Wreck.

Agree with jboothe ... Absolutely love Cow Wreck !!! We wish we had gone sooner -- now it is always on our list.

WE'll be dining at Oceana again tomorrow on our way back to Sonoma..great spot..great food and service. I would get a slip at Leverick in North Sound..get the TTOL deal..I would also try to include running over to Anegada from there..Beach day at Cow Wreck and dinner at Wonky Dog! Onto JVD/and or/CGB from there..

I've been taking everyone's advice into consideration. Most tell me to skip Anegada and/or CGB and Jost in lieu of more time at Leverick. At some point I'll make up my mind. Right now I'm still in the "tossing around ideas" planning stage. So, for simplified purposes, assuming I'm cruising at 10knts in a 43 pc, Leverick to Anegada is 12nm give or take, correct? So, 11/2 to 2 hrs? Then, Anegada to CGB approx 22nm? So, 21/2 hrs? Not sure what the governed speed is on the power cat but I'm sure it's capable of 15-17 burning much more fuel just in case I get a lot of "are we there yet" comments or some weather pops up or we run out of ice. I think a lot of the suggestions to skip those long routes are based on sail. Plus, for me half the fun of this trip will be the journey.

As my brother-in-law says (who's a mechanic and sells used cars), "There's an [censored] for every seat".

Everyone has different reasons for liking certain stops. For us, Anegada is nice, but we like to dive and you can't dive from the boat there. My recommendation for two nights at Leverick (aside from being a great way to spend time) was based on it being your honeymoon. Driving to the Baths and exploring other sites as well as having a nice meal out at Coco Maya or other spots is a great change from the typical dinghy trip you tend to always take.

I'd suggest looking at the suggestions, looking at the cruising guide and knowing what your fiance likes, base your itinerary on that. Just remember weather can change it all.

I've revised the planning thanks to the great suggestions from everyone on here.

Day 3- Go from Cooper Island to Leverick Bay stopping along the way to Fallen Jerusalem. I emailed Nick and he already has a slip and a car reserved for us. We will do a little exploring by car that afternoon and have drinks and dinner at Leverick Bay.

Day 4- Head to the Baths first thing in the AM, explore the south part of the Island, have lunch at Hogs Heaven, return to the boat and head over to Moor at Saba Rock.

Day 5- Head up to Anegada and explore the island with dinner at Cow Wreck. Or Stay in the North Sound and explore the area a little more depending on what the rest of the group wants to do.

Day 6- Head to CGB stopping along the way at Monkey Point for snorkeling.

Day 7- Head to White Bay stopping at Sandy Spit along the way. Have pain killers at soggy bar.

Day 8- Return boat to Moorings and catch the ferry over to St Thomas. We don't fly out till the next day so we don't have to rush and can take our time.

I know it's a lot to fit in, but since we have a Power Cat it will make transit times fast. Can't wait to go and thanks for all the help in the planning. I'm sure some of this will be subject to change when we get down there. I already have all my routes planned on Garmin Bluecharts on my Ipad so I have a pretty good idea of transit times. Thanks again for the help and feel free to give more suggestions as my planning will be refined over the next two months.

When you head to Anegada, stop at Cow Wreck for drinks, lunch, and beach but head to Wonky Dog for dinner...

Hey Maytrix not sure if you were responding to me or FLMarine. I didn't mean to hijack his thread. I just think we have some of the same interests in common so I'm benefiting from the advice to him as well!

Schwendy,

I didn't think you were hijacking my thread. We are both thinking along the same lines. I want to see as much of the BVI as possible and Levericks looks great, but I don't want to spend two nights in the same place. I have a night reserved in Levericks, but I plan to move on the next day.

Since this is my first time bareboating it is also a bit of a recon for where I will want to spend more of my time next time I go down. Thinking of it that way I'm leaning more towards going to Anegada for a day just to see what it is like. Plus it's only a 2 hour run max in a PC and I can have a cigar and drink, so it isn't a bad way to spend 2 hours. Plans are flexible and all the suggestions have been great so far.

DO make the run to Anegada. Even running 10 knots it's not a really long passage. Same with CGB on the return.

And it is SO cool to see it "rise" from the water! (As others have probably mentioned you will see trees first and DON'T steer for them).

BTW, it is SO much easier to pick up a ball on a PC, just because there is no rigging to dodge up front. And since you'll probably beat a lot of sailboats to Anegada, you should have your pick of mooring balls when you arrive.

Whatever you end up doing, you'll have a blast either way. I'll just say, I wouldn't think of Leverick as spending two days there. It's two nights, but much of your time isn't even spent there. We tend to arrive late afternoon, then are out the majority of the following day and then leave the following morning. It can actually be a refreshing break to not move two nights in a row and you don't see any less since you can explore Virgin Gorda from end to end.

Just my 2 cents.

In regards to Anegada - that might be a good decision to make after a couple of days to see how everyone is doing if no one has done a trip like this before and also see what conditions are like.

Just read your NEW itinerary and it sounds good. I think you'll enjoy Fallen Jerusalem - There's an interesting "Conch Graveyard" - that's what we call it. Here's a video I made about 5 years ago now - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vdmfYMBITRI

And you can probably fit time in at the Bubbling pool after Sandy Spit - well worth it if the swell is up. If its really calm, not as exciting.

How much does the Jeep rental at Leverick cost?

Can you also rent scooters?

Rented a car there recently... cheapest was about $50 per day, I think a jeep is about $85 per day.

I agree on Anegada.Took me a few trips to get there but once i did it is always in the itinerary. It is always one of the high points of our trip.
All the Best
Steve

if you have "youngin's" Anegada is really fun. the way out there can be a challenge, as it is pretty open water going out there. We took our little kiddies out on the flats that is at "the bridge" headed towards the settlement. There are ALOT of critters in the shallows off to the east. You can walk in ankle/knee deep water quite a way out. there are all sorts of critters in that water that had us having to be very persuasive to get them to leave.

No youngins this time, unless you count myself as a semi grown up kid. The open water run won't be a problem as I have about 30 years of Offshore fishing experience.

We are going to try and make it out to Anegada for sure this trip. Thanks for all the suggestions on going to it.

On another note where is the best place to pick up someone by boat that fly's into Beef Island (EIS)? The other couple that is joining us won't be able to make it until Saturday morning and we start our boat on a Friday Morning. I was thinking Trellis Bay.

Trellis Bay is perfect spot. Airport is right there, can walk over from airport.

Perfect!! Thank you

It's really a great way to arrive - nothing like exiting the airport, taking a walk to a beach and a dinghy ride to the boat Many trips we've picked others up there and dropped some off as well.

Final word of advice for all newlywed grooms. Never wear your wedding band while swimming or snorkling! Don't ask how I know. <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Grin.gif" alt="" />

Was that yours I found? <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Grin.gif" alt="" />

I know how you know .... for the same reason I know. <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/duh.gif" alt="" />

It might have been Doug's. <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Grin.gif" alt="" />

For newlyweds that came out sailing with me I always made them put a Band-aid in front of their new rings IF they wouldn't take them off for snorkeling.

I worry that the salt water will shrink my fingers and my ring will slip off

I stopped wearing mine after I read that barracuda like shiny objects.

FL Marine definitely make the trip to Anegada. For years I didn't include Anegada, thinking too far for just one night. Last 3 trips have included Anegada and it is now a must. Not sure about dinner at Cow Wreck in June. We've always had lobster at ARH but based on posts here we're having dinner at Wonky Dog this year. Renting a car, drive over to Loblolly for some snorkling and drinks, then to Cow Wreck for limin all afternon, back to Setting Point for dinner works well for us. What dates in June will you be on the water?

We are planning on making the trip up there, thanks for the tips on Anegada. My dates are the 17-24 of June.

I like more time on the sandy beaches and at the beach bars, so my preferred trip includes at least 2 full days around Jost. Having Sandy Spit or Sandy Cay all to myself is HEAVEN.

Monkey Point was not good snorkeling last Nov, but the Caves were awesome. I guess things are always changing with conditions. I really enjoyed the SUP around Saba. You didn't mention evening entertainment needs, but our trips are always planned around whatever live music may be available on certain dates, as well.

Hope you guys enjoy your trip! It's certainly addictive.

Looks like our dates are same as yours. I sent you a PM with more details - hope to meet up with you and your crew for a cocktail. Have a great trip!