April charter

We did our first USVI only charter in November through CYOA. Had a blast! Just booked a 6 day charter for just my wife and I for April. Already dreaming of pain killers and ice cold Caribs.

We are doing our first USVI trip in April. After 23 BVI trips we are looking forward to a new adventure.

We are headed down next weekend - planning to spend all our time around STJ. Looking forward to escaping sub zero temps but not looking forward to the crowded moorings. Had a long chat with a friend who is a USVI based charter captain this week - he confirmed that it is indeed a zoo right now.

Leaving for St Thomas on Feb 14th. Hopefully there will be mooring balls available somewhere???

Relax and come and enjoy. I am at Francis bay right now and there are open mooring balls all around.

We are headed down in April as well. We have 9 nights on a 43 cat - 5 adults, 3 kids. We’ve sailed the BvIs a few times but this will be our first trip in the USVi. We love sailing and going in to shore for dinner. It appears that there aren’t as many places for dinner and some of the sails look to be short. We will likely just go out and sail for the day and then end up at a location vs sailing directly to the next stop. In any case we are really looking forward to it. The trip last year to Antigua was canceled due to Covid.

We saw free moorings at Salt Pond, Great Lameshur, and Little Lameshure yesterday. Plenty of room.

Cheers, RickG

Just received Scott's Virgin Islands Sailing Guide in Saturday mail. Read it once. Sad to skip the BVI section, but happy to explore the USVI as a new destination.

Good info on mooring sites and detail of number of balls. Looks like there are a few more eating (and drinking) establishments than I thought. Though mentions in threads above of “it’s a Zoo”, to “plenty of room” are raising the anxiety level.

Wondering about a planned itinerary. Discussions of Bow Tie, multiple East - West trips, or daily day sails (North-South, starting from the southern bays?) brings several options. Not real keen on two mile power runs from bay to bay. We hope to include St. Croix too, one of the reasons for a nine night charter. Appreciate the advice to do St Croix as mid-trip, not as early trip. We’re on a Lagoon 450-F and wanna get those big flappy things up in the air, and spend quality deck time on the expanded flybridge!

Anybody have a suggested itinerary that they have found to hit the obvious highlights?

We never had a problem grabbing a mooring when we were down in November. I think the only place that ever got full was Honeymoon Beach/Lind Point. When we were in Lameshur it was only us and one other boat. At Leinster Bay it was us an 3 boats. WE enjoyed dinner in Cruz Bay. Planning on spending 2 nights in that area this time for dinners since it's just my wife and I.

I think things have picked up since November, at least that is the on island/in area reports I am getting from people regularly sailing the area (a good friend runs a crewed cat charter our of STT) and on island. Honeymoon and Maho seem to be the big sticklers with moorings. Salt Pond and Lameshurs are a crap shoot. We don't like STT so I haven't asked for reports from areas there. We are heading down this Sunday, spending most of our time around STJ since Spanish Virgins are still a no-go and we are not St. Croix fans (to each their own I suppose). Had hoped to hit Lovango early in the trip but as it is pretty exposed,with the heavier winds and gusts forecasted, think we'll be skipping it.

JP - here is a good resource for moorings around STJ (National Park): https://www.nps.gov/viis/planyourvisit/virgin-islands-marine-visitor-use-information.htm You can see the location of each mooring.

If you are planning dinner in Cruz Bay make reservations EARLY. It is very busy on island. I made dinner reservations a month in advance for Morgan's Mango and got the last table for my preferred night outside on the porch on the rail. ZoZo's at Caneel takes reservations one month in advance.

We were on one of two boats at Salt Pond last night.

Cleo - ENJOY!! Please post your thoughts/experiences for those of us arriving soon!!!

The only place I have been able to find information that the SVIs are closed for bareboat yachts from the USVI is on this forum. Is there an official PR or SVI travel restrictions site saying this? I don't doubt the information, just want to know where to look for any future changes to this status.

We are going down on 2/26 for a week. When we booked last February, we intended a BVI cruise; luckily we chartered a USVI based Cat because at the time, it was an easier way to travel - soooo much more now.

Will do. We are on a crewed charter and it is absolutely fabulous, our first trip on a boat after 25 years of being land based.

It could become a habit. Next you'll be boat shopping!

Cheers, RickG

"It could become a habit. Next you'll be boat shopping!"

Rick's right Cleo - hoping to close on my new cat soon

Regarding SVI, it may depend on your charter company. Our previous company would not allow us to go to SVI at the time with the restrictions. We have a charter in May planned and I still do not think they have lifted the restrictions, though we are hoping to go back to SVI for sure.