BVI Trip Report – April 13-20, 474 Powercat from Moorings

Finally posting this report. 4 couples from VA, SC and NC. 3 out of the 8 of us had cruised BVI by powerboat 15 years ago. We spent 3 days at Long Bay Beach Resort on Tortola before picking up the boat from Moorings Power. (see my land-based report in another post). 2 of the guys had experience owning and driving large powerboats.

Day 1 on boat. Get to Moorings around 10:00 (guys did chart brief night before so only had to do the boat brief today). Tico order showed up perfectly. Riteway order showed up 11:30 and boat was ready shortly after. Riteway had great service, some brands/flavor substitutions but not a big deal. I had never provisioned like this and really liked the convenience. We over provisioned on some food and alcohol but not enough beer and water. Finally off the docks around 1:30 – off to Norman. Seas rough, wind up and the starboard engine alarm goes off - engine is overheating. Grab a ball in the Bight, swim, 1st snorkel for some of the crew, call Moorings for our 1st (but not last) service call. After a few hours of relaxing we go to Willy T’s to check it out. Shot skis, tattoos, dancing – fun! Two crew members on nearby mega-yacht did body shots on the bar. A few local men got a little too close to our crew on the dance floor and even after verbal warnings would not back off. We ended up leaving to have a dance party on our own boat. Missed dinner at Pirates. What a first night!



Day 2 – Norman/Indians/Caves with plan B overnight at Cooper. Lazy morning for crew. Over morning coffee I’m checking pictures from last night….what are these naked pictures on my camera?? It was not our crew but the body shots from last night (husband says: “they just laid down right in front of me!”). Generator problems started overnight and continue today. We rented a 24ft center console Contender from Island Time and they delivered it to us in the Bight, but my brother had to drive the guy right back to Nanny Cay. Rough seas across the channel made for a sporty ride! Finally off to late morning snorkel at Indians – great coral and fish. Off to the Caves for fun snorkel with underwater flashlights. It was getting late so we made reservation at Leverick dock so we didn’t have to worry about a late arrival in a mooring field. Pretty cruise past Peter Island, almost at Cooper and then ….starboard engine dies. It is 4pm at Cooper and I’m thinking we are out of luck. Boat leaves and we grab the last ball as a dolphin swims right next to our boat! Cancel Leverick and hope to make it there tomorrow. Call into Moorings service. I prepare for a rough night, husband pops dramamine, we clean up and crew heads into CIBC for dinner. Apps in the bar then a table (even with no reservations), great dinner besides husband falling asleep and drooling mid-dinner (damn Dramamine….he can drink a ton but give him Dramamine and he’s done).

Day 3 – Baths and overnight in Leverick. We wait for a couple hours in the morning for Moorings service to fix our broken engine, spotty generator, and a clogged head. We are later than we planned for the Baths but decide to go for it anyway, arriving around noon and it was crowded. We had to anchor north and dinghy in but the crew loved the Baths and climbed way out on the rocks past Devil’s Bay to jump off in open water. Hike to Top of the Baths for a late lunch and then back to the boat. Reservations at Leverick and we pull in right for the start of Happy Arrrr! It was packed on a Monday night! Shots at the bar, grab a table and hang for awhile. Hit the showers, lose my bikini in the women’s restroom (that’s in another post), and we had a great meal at the upstairs restaurant. Best ceviche, wonderful mussels special, and yummy Anegada lobster. One of our best meals of the trip.



Day 4 – North Sound, overnight in Bitter End. We hang around Leverick in the morning, do laundry, provision and the boys take the Contender to look for bait. Late morning we finally pull out and take the very short cruise to the Bitter End and grab a ball close to shore. Try out the SUP, floats and enjoy this paradise. Boys decide to take the Contender out fishing past Prickly Pear so drop the girls off at the Sandbox. Proceed to drink way too many, but delicious, Bushwackers. Several hours later guys return to their Bushwacked women and off to Saba before happy hour ends. Return to boat for a dance party with our LED lights on the flybridge. Missed dinner again but we’re having fun.





Day 5 – Cruise to Trellis, overnight at Scrub. Guys leave early to fish in the Contender as we return it today. They circled Virgin Gorda to hit the south drop but not a lot of luck and rough seas. Caught a jack and some barracuda. Rest of crew has lazy morning on boat and we eventually head to Bitter End for lunch and check out the resort. Beautiful grounds and I’m thinking I would like Virgin Gorda for a land-based trip. Early afternoon we head out for Trellis to return the Contender. Seas still a little rough and Trellis is nice and calm so at 3pm the mooring field is full. Head to Marina Cay and there are a couple balls but it is rocking so decide to go for the dock at Scrub. Beautiful resort and marina, although not the local feel so I can see why this gets mixed reviews. Drove the Contender back to Trellis to return and hung out at De Loose Mongoose and Aragon before catching ferry back to Scrub (very convenient!). Even though it was getting dark had to jump on the trampoline, hit the water slide and enjoy a soak in the hot tub, where the kind bartender took our order and delivered his special rum punch – nice! Showers there were very nice and private, although not sure why they play really loud dance party music. Dock lights were very cool to see the tarpon. Dinner on boat (note, no cooking on grills allowed here at Scrub dock), realizing we have a lot of food to eat.





Day 6 – Great Harbour, Jost Van Dyke. Head out fairly early, not enough time to appreciate Scrub but really want to get to Jost. As we passed Monkey Point thought we really need to stop here next time. Nice cruise past Tortola and pull into Great Harbour. Grab a ball close to shore, snorkel, floats. Wind still high so not great for SUP (was picturing me paddling but going backwards). Explore shore later in afternoon to see Foxy’s and shop. Dinner was burgers on boat. Heard band warming up but crew was too tired to rally so it was an early night.

Day 7 – White Bay, overnight in Soper’s. Dropped ball pretty early and headed to White Bay where there was an open ball right in front of Ivan’s. Made breakfast then enjoyed our full beach day. This is my favorite spot and 15 years ago I fell in love with Soggy Dollar. This time Ivan’s was more my speed and I enjoyed lounging on the beach all by myself. We ventured down to Soggy Dollar for shopping and painkillers. Back to the quieter side for me! End of the day had to decide to stay overnight with early cruise to return boat or head to Soper’s….some crew had earlier flight so we opted for Soper’s for them to catch early West End ferry. Crossing was rough! Soper’s was pretty but we were there the previous Friday. Pussers was a disaster with poor service, cold food and music not great. We made the best of it but wish I had urged crew to head somewhere else rather than go with the convenience of Pussers. Fish and Lime wasn't open yet. There are beautiful sunsets from Soper’s though.





Day 8 – return the boat. Up early to get one couple on early ferry. Rest of us head out to return to Roadtown. Seas were roughest yet and first cloudy day – made leaving a little easier. The waves were crashing over the bow, running up the windows and hitting us on the flybridge. Moorings was crazy but we pulled the boat in, rafted to another powercat – they park these monster boats close together! Unloading and check out was fairly easy, nice showers at Moorings and bought our RT Fast Ferry tickets for noon ferry. In hindsight we should have pushed it to catch the 10:00 or headed to the ferry terminal to catch another ferry earlier. Noon ferry was over an hour late and crowded. Finally in St Thomas clearing customs took forever. It’s now 2:45 and we have a 4:00 flight. Pull into Spirit counter at 3:05 and it is empty, uh oh. Apparently they shut down the gate 1 hour before the flight (even though they didn’t tell us this in the booking). Luckily some of our crew is law enforcement and customs agents at STT helped us out to get us on the flight. We rushed through security and onto plane with dirty looks from the Spirit gate agents, only to sit there for 45 minutes while they fueled the plane – oh, island time! Back to Fort Lauderdale where said goodbye to one couple, remaining 4 of us had delay to BWI. Finally arrive home after midnight, long day of traveling so can’t imagine how the west coasters do this trip.

Boat info - The boat was great for 4 couples. Private staterooms with bathrooms made it very fair to split the cost. There was a ton of room on the cat versus a monohull - flybridge, bow area and stern sitting area were all comfortable (and made for great dancing). We were disappointed in Moorings since they should have caught some of our boat issues before we left the dock; however their service guarantee and maintenance crew were very good.

What I’d do different next time –
- Book 10 days on the boat. 7 days felt rushed at times.
- Go in May, June or July – we are not sailors do don’t need the wind and the seas were much rougher than I remembered (had been only in summer previously).
- Spend more than 1 night in some spots (Bitter End/Saba, Jost)
- Get to Anegada!
- Provision less upfront and stock up along the way.
- Leave earlier in the day to get to next spot where then can relax and enjoy the day (due to mechanical problems we got off this schedule and found ourselves trying to get mooring balls late afternoon).
- Snorkle more - missed Monkey Point, Eustacia Sound and the Dogs on this trip.