TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums British Virgin Islands Just returned from 10 Days on a 50 Saba

Just finished 10 days in the BVI with 11 adults on a 50 ft Saba. We had stops at Cooper Island, (the restaurant was open and the food was delicious!), Spanish Town and the Baths, (CocoMaya Restaurant was amazing), Leverick Bay,(here we enjoyed: the pool, the spa, the Beach Party BBQ with the Moko Jumbie dancers, the restaurant upstairs, and the Chef’s Pantry for more provisions-all were awesome), then Anegada where we ate lobster and more at Anegada Reef Hotel, Wonky Dog, Anegada Beach Club, Cow Wreck Beach, and the Big Bamboo at Loblolly Beach, we saw Flamingoes, rented a car and scooters and motorcycles and had a wonderful time. Was so much fun exploring the island on scooters and motorcycles from one of three rental companies. ($50/day). "Sons of Anegada"! Hilariously fun. We finished up at Jost Van Dyke with visits to Foxys, Soggy Dollar, Hendos, and CocoLoco, where we had so much fun that we stayed an extra night. The trip also included diving at the Rhone, diving off of Jost and snorkeling many areas. Everything went smoothly, every place was beautiful. Yes, there are still signs of ruined boats and missing trees, but that did not deter from the wonderful trip.
The people everywhere were wonderful! They were all so grateful and everywhere we went we heard, thank you for coming. People are living in tents, living in homes with no power, and no roofs, but they don’t complain. Please go and spend your money there and leave big tips and help these people get back to where they should be, they are so deserving!

Great post.

So glad to hear you had a great trip! We are planning on heading to many of the same places so it is great to find out that they are doing well for the most part. Our trip starts in 8 days, also a 10 day tour on a Saba 50. We will be sure to leave good tips and do our part to help the economy each day! What can you say about the boat? Was it what you expected? Did the systems work well? Ours is Katrina from Horizon, is that the one you were on? Sorry for bombarding you with so many questions, the excitement is killing me.

We were on a 2017 50ft Saba, "Liberty" from BVIYC. Overall, this is a fantastic cat. Beautiful, sails fast, very efficient 75HP diesels, a great generator that sipped a little over 1/2 gal per hour loaded up pretty heavy. There were 11 adults on the boat and honestly, everyone was very happy. Lots of room to spread out.

All of systems on the boat worked very well except for the very quirky system of attaching the hook at the head of the sail to a headboard car on the mast. This turned into a major PITA. The system never did work correctly. I was up in the stack pack several times trying to connect or disconnect. Hopefully the system on Katrina is working properly.

This is taken off of page 15 of a Saba 50 owners manual that I found online at:
http://sailingforever.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Owners_manual_SABA-50.pdf

Hoisting the mainsail
1) Hoist the mainsail almost to the 1st spreaders’ level. The mainsail head comes close to the mast
2
2) Using the green handle, bring the stainless steel hookinto contact with the headboard car
Pull sharply the handle in order to hook the mainsail head onto the headboard car
3) Store properly the 2 handles ( red and green) into the pocket , that avoids the hook lines getting trapped into the standing rigging or the lazy jacks.
4
4) Hoist the main sail
Lowering the mainsail
1) Bring the mainsail down to until you can reach the hook handle pocket and bring out the red handle
2) Pull sharply onto the red handle to unhook the mainsail
3) Lower the rest of the mainsail, the head batten will stack properly along
the mainsail

Thanks for your tips and the owners manual info. I also was in contact with Cuvee's owner and he alerted us to the hook at the head of the mainsail as well. Fingers crossed Katrina's sail works better than what you experienced on Liberty. We have 8 people and hearing that 11 adults had lots of space makes me feel better already.

Your post brought tears to my eyes to hear about the people.....

quote=Prospector]So glad to hear you had a great trip! We are planning on heading to many of the same places so it is great to find out that they are doing well for the most part. Our trip starts in 8 days, also a 10 day tour on a Saba 50. We will be sure to leave good tips and do our part to help the economy each day! What can you say about the boat? Was it what you expected? Did the systems work well? Ours is Katrina from Horizon, is that the one you were on? Sorry for bombarding you with so many questions, the excitement is killing me. [/quote]


hi Kim, we arrive on Saturday and leave May 12. Moatly hanging at Leverick. look us up if you make it to North Sound. would love to meet you

Hi Kim, We will be at Leverick at the dock on May 4th and 5th. We will be late afternoon arriving on the 4th but will be there until Sunday morning. I would love to meet up with you too! I just read the sad news about Reef Song. I am so sorry about that.

We will hope to meet you on Saturday then

Sounds great. Have a good trip down.