TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums British Virgin Islands Sailing in January?

Hello! We’ve chartered many times in the BVI’s - November, early December, and March. Have a crew that wants to go in January now. Thoughts?

Have a charter for mid-January. Should be able to avoid Christmas winds. Crowds have gone home after New Year's. Lower charter rates than December or February. A little less daylight and water temp is a degree or two less are the biggest negatives.

Outstanding time to go. I going part of January as well.

I've only gone in January and love it!

For folks that live above the 45th parallel, the seasonal change in daylight in the BVI really is negligible. What IS really significant, and bears remembering, is there is no twilight to speak of at 18 degrees latitude, so when that sun goes below the horizon, it is going to get dark VERY quickly. Here in the NorthEast there is generally an hour or more before the sky goes dark, and often significant afterglow from sunset. Un Uh in the BVI, dark as the inside of your pocket in about 10 minutes, and that is true year round.

That is crucial to plans for ashore, be they happy ARR or dinner. Bright flashlight or LED headlamp for the dinghy, and a way to easily recognize your charter boat in a mooring field. Charter companies seriously want their boats on the hook or a mooring by a certain time. That boat's actual OWNER doesn't want a call from his charter broker telling him his boat went on the reef at White Bay or North Sound, or trying to make Anegada at 7 PM.

Sounds like a great time to go - thanks for the input!
Breeze - who the heck leaves that late for Anegada???? We’ve always left early and we’re on a ball by Noon.

Lots of folks do stupid things while sailing. All of us who sail or have sailed have done stupid things.

That Company of the orange moorings wants folks to feel entitled/enabled
to sail to their hearts content, knowing they have a RESERVATION on a mooring.

My point is that no one has a reservation on daylight, and daylength in the BVI doesn't vary anywhere near as much as daylength in the higher latitudes.

December 22 has the shortest daylength in the northern hemisphere. It just grows longer from that point to the summer solstice.

Hand to HEAD emoji!

No question that daylight varies more in the northern latitudes than the BVI, but my crew this year was influenced in deciding to go in May rather than January because there are almost two more hours of daylight in mid-May than mid-January. Snorkelers really appreciate more daylight.