First Time Sailing BVI

Looking for suggestions. We have chartered a crewed Catamaran for 4 couples for June of this year. Will leave out of Red Hook St. Thomas. We've visited the USVI and BVI previously, but have never sailed around it. Would like to ask the following:

1) Any suggestions for travel backpacks large enough to hold a week's worth of stuff? The sailing company is suggesting soft-sided type duffel, but just carrying a heavy duffel bag through airports will be too difficult for this gal.

2) Any suggestions on routes? Having been to BVI before, we definitely want to revisit The Baths in Virgin Gorda, and I would absolutely LOVE to go to Anegada again, but understand there are time restraints that might not make that possible. And, of course, Soggy Dollar Bar is a must, although we had seen in before the hurricaine previously.

3) Preferred diving spots? My husband has gone diving in BVI just once previously. We have 5 out of 8 folks who are divers on this trip.

4) Any other tips on doing this sailing thing would be helpful. A few members feel nervous about being "seasick", including me. I have had trouble in the past with off-shore fishing trips out of St. Thomas. A week on a boat is a little overwhelming.

Thank you to any and all that give us some tips!

LL Bean rolling duffles are a good way to get a lot of luggage out of the way. You can also ask your charter company if they have somewhere to store luggage once you unpack on the boat. We've left luggage in a couple different charter offices as we've gone off sailing.

I don't know if you can get to Anegada on a week of sailing out of Red Hook because I think you have an extra day on each end just to get to/from BVI. We've always left out of Tortola. If you have a professional crew, maybe they are more comfortable sailing later in the day and could do it. In general, our route looks like this -

Bight (dive the Rhone)
Cooper (explore the Baths)
North Sound (dive the Dogs)
2 nights Anegada (first order dinner at Wonky Dog, then rent a Moke, snorkel Loblolly, then drink at Cow Wreck, dinner at Wonky Dog - bring bug spray.)
Great Harbor (Dive JVD, afternoon at Soggy Dollar)
Bight (Lobster dinner at Pirates is pricey, but good)

We are divers and would suggest diving on the Rhone (2 tanks - bow section and stern section,) the Dogs, and out near JVD. There are dive shops that can rendezvous with you at the Bight or Cooper for the Rhone, North Sound or Marina Cay/Trellis for the Dogs, and Great Harbor for JVD. If your divers are confident navigators, they can also load up gear and tanks onto your sailboat and lead their own dives (save a lot of time and money!)

If you're based in the USA, call your doctor and ask about Scopace. It's a prescription seasickness patch you wear behind your ear, so you're getting a constant low dose of medication. It has worked miracles for my husband and most doctors will prescribe it without a visit unless you have something that is contraindicated. Try it at home for a day so you aren't surprised by any side effects and also do not touch your eye without washing your hands after putting on the patch. (Edit: Husband reminded me that Scopace is the tablet form of the medication. Trans-Scop is the patch. The actual medication is called scopolomine.)

Excited for you ..this forum will be great for getting answers to your questions and helps you get excited with the planning.

With a crewed charter I am assuming your team will help with where to go when to help keep the ride smooth based on wind and swell ( should not be too much of an issue in June ) , as well providing great spots for you to enjoy in the anchorage and ashore.

Have a loose wish list of places you want to go as you have said and share that with your captain. Chartering our of STT will take some time to get into and out of BVI but not huge especially with a crewed charter that knows how to do this quickly I suspect.

Our newest adventure S/V Endurance , in an affiliated partnership with an owner group , lives at compass Point Marina STT , so we need to do this every time.

We return April 4th with a group of 8 chartering Scuba Doo in BVI and can not wait . We will spend another two weeks aboard Endurance just hubby and me relaxing in USVI combining land based stuff with some STT and St John sailing...no real plans which is in my opinion the best type of vacation . Then back again in May to celebrate a special year .

Have a wonderful few months of dreaming and planning ....it’s so much fun

Just to put you a bit at ease there is a big difference between a large cat and a sport fishing boat as far as sea sickness. I suspect you won’t have any issues on the cat. My wife gets seasick just looking at ocean pictures but does fine on a cat.
George

Another thing to do to get you in the mood is search this forum for old trip reports done by regular TTOLers over the years. I have met some wonderful friends on here. You will find some pictures and some videos.

I dug up an old one I did several years ago....makes me sad and lonely for Reef Song and pre Irma days ...but wounds heal and people move on .

https://youtu.be/7ZQfMzIMRCc

hello fosterfarm,
If you have not sailed from USVI to BVI there will be a little extra overhead. We head directly to Great Harbor, JVD and clear in and out of BVI. Bring around $1000 for this process
You will find a lot on this here and the USVI forum. Get the ROAM app on your phone to make things a little easier when returning to the US.

Once cleared into BVI grab a taxi over to Soggy Dollar and start the fun.

Heading down in June myself, what are your dates?

They allowed us to clear in and out at Jost last time but do they do this each time? We will likely be 10 days

What crewed charter company are you with? They should be able to provide a lot of help.

Some crewed charter boats offer diving and at least one crew member is a dive master or instructor. If so, they can help with dive sites. BVI has a lot of dive sites. Selection of dive sites is weather dependent.

There are a lot of choices of duffle bags with frames and wheels. You likely need a bag that does not take up a lot of storage space on board the boat.

Are the costs of clearing into the bvi included?

Wow! I remember how helpful this board was 8 years ago when planning our first trip to BVI, but you all have surpassed my greatest expectations! I re-read the Contract, and it looks like the fees are covered:

"The charter fee includes the services of a Captain and Crew, meals, standard ship's bar, cruising taxes and permits, air conditioning, fuel, mooring ball fees, all
expenses related to running of the vessel and use of on-board sports equipment. The charter fee does not include crew gratuities, excessive alcoholic consumption, and optional: premium beverage brands, fine wines, champagne, marina dockage, off yacht excursions, BVI individual fishing licenses, telephone, airport transfers, trip insurance or similar expense incurred by the CHARTERER."

We sail out of Red Hook 6/20. I just went back and read my trip report from 2011, and now I can't wait to get back. We had such an amazing time, and it looks like Anegada was my favorite place in the world at that time next to JVD and Soggy Dollar. So, I'm going to push for that if it's possible.

We will be on the Tabula-Rasa, my husband booked through Sailing Directions. There are 3 dives included, and dive master is onboard.

I will inquire about storage options, as we are planning on spending a few days on St. Thomas after we return. I've used duffel bags before, and am not smitten with soft sided luggage but understand the need for this. Was going to opt for a 55L backpack, as I thought the wheeled bags weren't and option on the boat. I will double check with the company we booked through. Rolling beats carrying any day.

Once again, thank you a million times over. I wish I was already there now,,,18 degrees in Colorado this morning, Yikes.

Where in Colorado are you from? We live outside of Vail. I recommend Patagonia Black Hole rolling duffle bags. They are made of a durable water resistant fabric. We have one of these for “boat stuff” that we check. I think it’s either 75 or 100 liters. Then my husband and kids all have the duffel that you can wear as a backpack for their stuff. This is a carry on. I have the rolling carry on because I had shoulder surgery years ago and couldn’t carry my bag on my shoulder. Love them all! We have even used the small duffles for rafting trips and they kept out the water.

Down here in little ole Canon City! Colder by Vail I believe. Thanks for the bag suggestion. I'm headed to REI today to see what I can try on and look at just to get started. I hate shopping for this stuff online until I know what I want. Glad to know rolling duffel bags aren't problem.

18 in Salida this morning! I use a large Adidas gym bag that folds down to almost nothing after unpacked. Have successfully done 2 to 4 week trips with just this one bag as a carry on.

We’ve never had a problem storing luggage on cats...drawers and cabinets under berths usually work fine. As you have four couples and a crew, presume there is a forward berth? If so, that is easy storage.

Remember, half the luggage, twice the money!

Impossible to know. It seems to be entirely up to the C&I agents. The rule is anything over three days you need to clear back out. But many times I've been cleared in/out on a 7 day trip. And frankly I think you're more likely to get checked in/out at JVD vs. West End.

Ok good to know ..we will cross our fingers and hope they are having a good day ..not a huge deal tho to be forced to go back to JVD on the way out . Will try our ROAM app again on the USVI return . Long wait last time and had to go in but will try it again .