TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums British Virgin Islands Trip report 07/06 - 07/16 Part 2

Before continuing on with the trip report, let me give a brief account of The Moorings base, at least as it exists right now. No doubt many issues we encountered will be resolved by the start of the fall season.

We booked for all 3 nights of our non-charter stay an ocean view suite. The first two nights were spent in Room 5 which only had power to half the wall plugs, had little or no hot water, and a toilet than ran incessantly (except when it didn’t run at all). The lighting to the room was pretty much non-existent. Construction was ongoing on the rooms in the adjacent building. Still it was comfortable, the A/C (with an assist from the ceiling fan) worked well. Our return night was spent in Room 2 which was much more functional, including hot water. But still given the ongoing recovery efforts, we had no complaints.

One of the docks is being dismantled, either because of Irma damage, or perhaps the need for more catamaran dock space, or both. There is a lot of boat repair work going on in what I guess is the Footloose section of the complex.

The bar and Mariner Inn closed early a couple of nights when we were there, but Charlie’s was always available as an alternative. It seemed like Ginny’s was always closed whenever we thought about going there. Still it was obvious the number of guests was way down so the closings weren’t surprising.

We ate at Pusser’s our second night which I know isn’t the best alternative in Road Town, but the food was fine as were the Painkillers. Every taxi driver we encountered on this trip had harrowing stories to tell about their survival and recovery from Irma.

Charter day 1:

I went to the Moorings desk first thing in the morning but still no paperwork. The lady checked her sheet and found our charter but there was a handwritten note that it was a SeaTrek (summer sailing camp) boat which was obviously wrong. I was never told how this delayed the process but I suspect that little, if anything had been done to prep our boat for its noon departure.

I was also surprised at the fact there really wasn’t any paperwork outside of the cruising and national park permits and an evaluation form. Our last charter was many years ago, but always had what I considered a very useful pack of Skipper’s notices. I would have also been happy if Moorings provisioning had included some basic instructions in how long to warm the lasagna in the oven, or how to light the bag of charcoal with dinky matches in a gale.

So at 10am, we’re basically sitting around as Moorings personnel scramble to ready and I assume provision the boat. At 1pm (1 hour after we should have been able to leave) we were finally scheduled to meet with out boat briefer. Given the lateness of the brief, I feel that the briefer rushed through the process and I know that the time pressure resulted in my not asking questions about certain items, something that came back to haunt us later in the trip.

At 2:30 the briefing was over but we still needed to stow food. I had thought Moorings provisioning would have stowed some of the bottles and non-perishable items, but in fact had only loaded up the refrigerator and freezer. So another hour was spent checking and stowing provisions.

One bright spot in all of this was Island Surf & Sail who had delivered and secured a kayak, snorkel vests, and dinghy ladder, all without our ever even seeing them on the dock. Their pickup at the end of the charter was equally smooth so I recommend them.

By the time we unpacked and checked everything it was 3:30. Since our first night typically would be at the Bight, where we would spend most of the time unpacking and stowing our bags, we decided to spend the night at The Moorings with the shore powered AC.

However the shore powered AC was also an issue since the power pedestal breaker kept tripping. Since I wasn’t interested in spending a night in a marina, pointed in the wrong direction, with no AC we hunted down an electrician who replaced the burned power cord plug but that didn’t resolve the issue. Finally he moved our cords to another pedestal and the problem was resolved.

While working on the boat we were constantly smelling diesel fumes. At first I thought it must have been a spill during fueling that would soon dissipate, but when it hadn’t by late afternoon, we let customer service know about it. A mechanic came out and discovered diesel in the bilges. By this time it was getting dark so he flushed the bilges with water and something to help with the smell and promised to be back first thing in the morning to check for the source of the leak.

As we spent the night on the boat smelling the fumes, it was obviously something more than a simple spill that had now been flushed. In the morning we tracked down another mechanic who discovered that a cracked fuel tank cap was the culprit. That was replaced and we were finally on our way, some 22 hours after the boat was supposed to be ready for departure.

All of these minor issues began to snowball a bit. Our original plan was night 1 at the Bight, heading to Cooper for night 2 and then getting to Leverick Bay for 3 & 4. Beryl was due in shortly so getting to the reserved slip at Leverick was a definite priority.

We spent night 1 at The Moorings so headed out for Cooper which was a bit more into the wind than would have been the case if our original plan hadn’t been thwarted by mechanical issues.

Coming out of Road Town we were having fits getting the main up. The seas were a bit boisterous but not that bad and I was keeping us pointed into the wind. However I couldn’t keep the main from getting hooked in the lazy jack lines. After fighting with it for some time, I decided to just raise it to a certain point get us sailing with the partial main and the jib. But I was fighting trying to get us to point up at all, so much so that our first tack towards Cooper was turning into more of a beam reach to Peter.

I brought in the jib and decided to address the main issue, but never could get it resolved. Since under the best of circumstance we were looking a several tacks to Cooper, I decided to drop it, fire up the engine and deal with it later. Two days later when finally at Leverick I discovered the culprit was the second reef line had been pulled in and never reset by the riggers at The Moorings. Additionally the boom vang and mainsheet were all in need of a good cranking down for upwind sailing.

Yes, this is something as captain I should have spotted, but I was still figuring out the various lines that lead back to the cockpit, dealing with the peculiarities of the traveler-less main and the electric halyard winch. I was mainly focused on the inability to keep the main battens out of the lazyjacks. I would have expected that the boat would have been turned over to us with everything set properly but it wasn’t.

So finally we made it to Cooper under power, grabbed a ball, and spent a pretty good night, albeit a bit rolly.

The next day Beryl was breaking apart but we were still due for some stiff winds and rain the next day. So I decided we’d motor up the coast to North Sound, tucked in close to Virgin Gorda to minimize the effect of the increasing seas and avoid the numerous tacks that would be required if we hadn’t motored.

The slip I’d reserved a month earlier at Leverick was available, and after a very slow approach, I was able to back into the slip, with lots of assistance (and not too much snickering) from the dock staff. Everyone at Leverick, from the dock staff, wait staff at both restaurants, clerks in the stores, and even the cat that would great us at the end of the dock were just great.

We spent most of the first day there hunkered down while it rained and caught up on our laundry. We decided to spend a 3rd night there so that we could go to the Baths and still get an early start to Anegada the following morning. We had enjoyable dinners at both of the Leverick restaurants.

The Baths were their usual spectacular self, but the real part of the trip was the taxi ride from Leverick where we got a close up look at the Irma damage and recovery efforts. Watching these people who had their homes destroyed figure out a way to survive and rebuild was inspirational. We talked to one person who was living in a tent on the slab of their former house, just trying to survive until they could get rebuilt.

You will find that all lines are always pulled in and neatly stored prior to departure. That is the Moorings and many other companies standard procedure. When you hoist the main all reef lines need to be open as well as the main sheets slacked to prevent sail damage. This is pretty standard on any large sailboat.
Dealing with the lazy jacks is a pain but if you watch as the first five or six battens go up you can time when to hoist. A easier alternative is to have someone keep the battens clear with the boat hook. Make sure however if you do that that you tighten the main sheets until you get past the problem battens and the boat hook person is back in the cockpit. Then slack the main sheets again. If your timing it keep the main sheets slacked the entire time as the boom pivoting will help keep the battens clear.
G

Edit: Just realized you were on a monohull. Boat hook idea will not work.

All the lines were neatly stored, but the 2nd reef was left in the main after it had been stacked at their dock (I assume) and I missed that. It wasn't until I looked at the reef 2 line bundle and said, hey that's an awful lot of line for a reef that shouldn't be in place. My experience with their boats (with 2 exceptions I admit over the years) is that they make sure all reefs are shaken out before they tie everything up. I had no issue with reef 1 but reef 2 had been left in place. I know I should have unlocked it or spotted the issue, but the battens and lazyjacks were what I was focused on at the time.

I watched the battens clear the first few lazyjack lines but then something (the reef 2 line I missed) pulled it off center and they got caught again.

Besides no traveler, the 45.3 also had a different reefing system that didn't involve hooking the ring on the luff to the mast. So during the hoist it wasn't as obvious when a reef had been left in place.

Another difference when taking it down was that the boom & sailpack themselves were so high off the cabin that my 6'6" son couldn't reach it to help pull it down. He either grabbed it with the boathook or climbed up the mast on the provided mast steps.

Louis, Sorry to hear about your issues with the Moorings. Our Sunsail sleep aboard began on July 4th and our boat was ready, with provisions stowed, at 5:00 pm, an hour before normal boarding time. We had a 7:00 am boat briefing the next day and despite a relatively brief wait for our SUPs, linens and a minor repair to a lazarette, were ready to shove off by 9:00, after loading up on French Deli goodies. I'll admit, service at the base was a little slow and they were engaged in major dock renovations, but we didn't experience any of the issues that you did. I can only attribute the differences to the random nature of these things.

I agree that hoisting with lazy jacks is a pain in the !#$&. One thing I do is hoist the top batten past the lazy jacks while I'm motoring, just to get it started. As George suggested, it helps to loosen the main sheets and the vang, then we try to synchronize hoisting with the subtle back and forth swings of the boom. Sometimes I'll gently steer the bow from side to side, trying to get the wind to push the battens off the jacks. That usually does the trick.

I learned from my last charter that the reefing lines aren't always fully shaken out, so we release the clutches, pull some line through and even head up to the mast (before we set out) and create even more slack. The single line reefing systems are convenient, but sometimes the block inside the boom sticks, so it helps to create as much slack as possible.

As you discovered, Beneteaus with a main sheet arch don't have travelers. I suppose they're trying to simplify things, but when one's accustomed to having a traveler it can make things more challenging. The idea with those is to adjust your angle of attack with the main sheet and then use the boom vang to control twist. So, instead of hauling the sheet in tight (reducing twist) and then easing the traveler to open the head of the sail, you ease the sheet to open the head and then haul down on the vang to reduce twist.

I echo your comments about Leverick. First of all, Rebecca, the new GM, is fabulous and treated us royally. We were there for the Friday night BBQ and it was spectacular. We rented a car and drove to the Baths on Saturday. You're right, the devastation was startling, but the people were amazing. We spoke with one person who claims to have hidden in a water tank while IRMA blew his house away. Let's just say we were happy to spend our money there in support of the economy.

Other great stops for us were two nights at Scrub (during the depleted Beryl), a great time at Jost (Soggy Dollar in the afternoon and then Corsairs for dinner). I will say that Vinnie and Kenny were working really hard at Corsairs. The new building is coming along nicely (definitely more "bomb proofed") and Pizza Dave was cranking out great pizza and wings. The Voodoo Juice was great, as always. Parenthetically, I've read some complaints from people about Vinnie raising his prices. Honestly, after what they've been through and what it's taken to get back on their feet, I wasn't bothered a bit. They certainly make up for it with caring and attentive service.

Our last night was in Great Harbor, Peter Island and the Willie T. They need to sink some more mooring balls, in my opinion, but overall, it's a nice anchorage. Although they don't have nice reefs, the variety of fish along the shoreline was actually quite beautiful, so I would definitely recommend snorkeling there. The Willie T is....well....the Willie T, just a bit larger than the original. The service was great and the crowd was typical. I'll leave it to others to decide whether it's their form of entertainment. One thing though, they don't have a dinghy dock. What they have done is tie up a small barge next to it. It's a bit challenging getting onto the Wille T, via the barge. In the daytime it's not too bad, but at night, when most of the patrons have had far too much to drink, I imagine it becomes downright dangerous. Hopefully, they'll get it worked out soon.

Anyway, already planning our next trip.

Cheers,

PJ

PJ,

Thanks for the response which unfortunately just activated my "I got to go back" gene!

Over the years we've run into lots of weird problems. Once we lost the dinghy coming out of Road Town because of a poorly tied knot at the dinghy end. For a few trips after that I checked that knot but haven't done that in a while. That same year we couldn't get the main to hoist so when we went back to The Moorings to get a dinghy, we asked the rigger to figure out the problem. He strained and groaned quite a bit before noticing that a too loose reef line as hooking the bimini. After that trip I made sure I checked the reefing lines, but obviously that lesson learned was forgotten this year.

Of all the issues we had with this charter, the one that bugs me the most is the delay of the skipper paperwork and the fact we had been tagged as a Sea Trek boat which I'm sure impacted the overall prep schedule for the boat. I believe that one factor sort of snowballed into problems created down the line. It put us in a rush state that no doubt increased the chances of my missing something before heading out.