Mooring fields you can be later"er" getting to ?

My wife and I are heading down alone in a few weeks, and we're looking forward to a pretty loose itinerary that involves sailing until we're tired and then stopping for the night. Given March is so busy, and I know from experience that several areas fill up very early, I wanted to know which anchorages you think we can get to at 4pm and still have a good chance of snagging a ball?

Thanks for the help.

A couple I can think of is Normal Island and Little Harbor, Jost Van Dyke

There is a big mooring field at Trellis. It does fill up, but that's usually when there's a full-moon party afoot.

Pirates Bight of course had a gynormous mooring field.

Anything close to Roadtown is more likely to fill up.

There's usually a lot of room at the Anegada anchorage if you have a shallow enough draft to drop the hook in front of Neptunes at the inner anchorage. The outer anchorage can fill up quickly.

If you call ahead at Scrub or Leverick to reserve a slip, you can be pretty late, but you won't have much dock-staff around to help you with 'parking' after about 4:30pm.

Thank you both. That's great information. What do you think of the fields at Leverick or Bitter End? I've been to Leverick and I recall it being fairly large. I believe between Leverick, Bitter End and Saba there have to be close to 100 balls? It sounds like there should be a home in the North Sound somewhere.

if you're going to Leverick, grab a slip, same price as the ball, free bag of ice and top of your water for free, rent a car and see beautiful Virgin Gorda

Seems like mooring or anchoring off Prickly Pear near the Sandbox is a pretty safe proposition.

I believe there are 133 moorings in North Sound (between Leverick Bay, Prickly Pear, Saba Rock & BEYC) ... this Anchorage Chart lists the locations of overnight moorings ... # of balls at each location is expressed parenthetically in the list lower on the page. Also, there are 12 moorings in Trellis Bay managed by The Island Last Resort that can be reserved ahead of time with a credit card ... the deposit is then applied to your dinner tab ... check here

Have a great trip! - Mark

I prefer Leverick because of their TTOL special!
Plus, I like Nick and Monica! <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Clapping.gif" alt="" /> <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Grin.gif" alt="" />

However, there are lots of moorings at both places.

Plenty of balls between BEYC and Saba Rock. Leverick also.

That is a nice chart and listing. But I wonder about its accuracy (up to date?) It says there are 10 balls at Anegada Setting point. I was up there a week ago and I quickly counted aprox 40+ balls.

I have seen the bight at Norman island and anegada full,( i.e. No moorings available) on many occasions.

If you plan to arrive late, have a plan B and plenty of daylight.

Are there days when certain spots are more/less busy?

rigirly

The less busy days are "change days". We went to Anegada on a Friday and the mooring field had maybe 10 boats total. Same for Saturday. The rest of the week everything is taken very early in the day.

The Bitter End, Saba Rock and Leverick are dead during the same time frame (Tapers off on Thursday and dead on Friday and Saturday) because the new charter groups haven't arrived from Road Town that soon Anchorages close to Road Town and West End are normally always very crowded and busy nearly all days of the week.

Avoid Cooper after about 2-3 PM. The lunch crowd leaves then but after that it fills up pretty quickly. Holding ground there is poor and unless you know just where to go and are pretty skilled at anchoring, get there early!

And, it is illegal to set your hook in the grass.

#1. Call Nick at Leverick or email to RESERVE a slip.
#2. Little Harbor JVD. Dinghy to Sydney's then lobster dinner at Abe's. I've eaten lobster there maybe 20 different cruises and in MHO is the best lobster dinner in the BVI.