I have summarized my key takeaways from this trip below. This was our 4th post Irma charter (9th trip to the BVI) and there has been tremendous progress made since last June.. It was just my wife, two daughters (11 and 14) and me, and there is nothing we enjoy doing more together. My girls were awesome and had so much fun. Wife was the captain at the helm the entire time, the girls took care of moorings and dinghy most of the time, along with some galley duties. I just had to play around with the sheets and pretend I was improving things, plus make drinks.
Key takeaways:
* Flew through San Juan Friday evening and stayed at airport hotel which was perfectly fine for the brief 7 hours. Able to fly out Sat AM and get to base by 8:30, which enabled us to provision, chart briefing, boat briefing, our own boat inspection, and set sail by 1:30.
* Moorings base was booming and more efficient and on-time than the last trip. Everyone was very helpful. A little stressful bringing in the boat for docking as boats were floating around Dock A awaiting instructions. Gets kind of tight there. Again, they were busy.
* On a great boat, Moorings 4000 (Monashee). Funny coincidence as I had just skied the Monashee Mountains in BC a month prior. Was the perfect boat the four of us, sailed great, and we had an abundance of space.
* Had a blast meeting friends of ours who had their kids as well on their first trip to the BVI. We met at several anchorages and had dinners/drinks. Great way for families to meet up and hang out! Hope to encourage more of our friends to discover the BVI.
* Busy and more crowded everywhere, but everyone was having fun and smiling.
* All of the people and places were lovely and food was excellent. Places we drank and dined were:
- Pirates Bight – looks great again
- Cooper Island – beautiful and love the roti.
- Leverick – Michael Beans was a blast and everyone was enjoying it. Very good re-provisioning at store.
- Cow Wreck – looks amazing and great to see Ann as always.
- Potters – Great food and tons of fun dancing and Limbo with Sam. Closed it down that night.
- Scrub Island – Poolside restaurant was open and delicious. Resort looks to be 100% back.
- Marina Cay – drinks at the bar and a walk to the top to enjoy the sunset. Very quiet.
- Foxy’s Taboo – Great food and drinks and one of our favorite evening stops this trip.
- Bee line – Very cool vibe.
- Soggy Dollar – Always a blast. Too many painkillers, but can’t help it.
- Coco Loco – Drinks and wonderful pizza to take aboard for dinner
- Moorings Base – Enjoyed drinks and food by the pool before departing
- Trellis Bay Market – We always walk over there before departing for one last drink and view. The market was great, but still more work to do in the bay/beach as many have commented.
* Mooring Balls were mostly taken by 1ish (except Norman).
* Boaty Ball appeared to be effective, but everyone said you had to be quick to reserve on-line at 7 AM. We did not use it but will try on our next trip. Heard of one issue, but according to the folks who had it reserved, BoatyBall was responsive and helped resolve the situation (and blacklisted the perpetrators).
* Will plan on anchoring in Anegada in the future, as many others were. We were the 3rd boat in and only 2 “non-Boaty Ball” moorings available.
Can’t wait to be back in May!
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