TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums US VI and Puerto Rico USVI Trip Report - Part 1

Day 1
Alarm goes off here in Bradenton, Florida at 4:30 a.m.
We are on the road by 6 a.m. for a target 9:30 a.m. arrival at the Marriott Miami Airport where we will be parking the car for a bargain $6/day.
No traffic at all, a stop for an Egg McMuffin (a VERY rare thing…), and we are on time.
We hook up with my friend Barbara in the airport – she landed from NY at 9:00 a.m. and we have a 12:20 departure on American for St. Thomas. Everyone in the airport is in masks and keeping a good amount of social distance. We sit at a table at TGI Friday’s near our gate and have a snack, since we know there will be no in-flight service to STT.
Everyone is cooperative and has masks on for the whole flight. We leave a little early and arrive a little early. All good.

We get off the plane in St. Thomas and they put us in two lines. There is only one other flight arriving at the same time. They ask you to stand together if you are traveling together in the line. They take our temperatures and we have our checked bags and are out of there in 20 minutes max. CYOA has sent a taxi that we share with another couple to the base – they are owners of a boat in the fleet and out heading out from that day (7/7) for 20 days….we are insanely jealous.

Arrival at the base is exactly as Jay describes in our briefing video – except that they actually do greet us on arrival – it was really great running into Rick and Christine from “Echoes” who were finishing up provisioning for their passage to Grenada. Only a quick hi and goodbye as they were quite busy but nice to see them and wish them fair winds.

We found Always Sunny, our Beneteau 38 for the week, on dock. Sealed from cleaning, we unlock the boat and stow our gear – turn on the AC for our last night of it since the rest of the week we will not have shore power. The boat is in great shape and we never had any problems with her the entire trip – everything was pristine and in perfect working order, including our dinghy.

We decided to keep it simple and hit just one store for provisioning. It’s only 3 of us on the boat and we will only be on for a week. We walk to Moe’s in town and run into Steve and Lou (same people we shared the taxi with) – we all decided to get our shopping done and we cab it back to base together about an hour later. We stow our provisions and head into Frenchtown for a bite to eat. Pie Whole had already done last call for pizza – which is kind of okay since we were planning on Pizza Pi in Christmas Cove the next night. We wander around and find Twisted Cork. The owner, Jason, is the only one working that night and doing a grand job of running the floor all by himself. We have a great meal and head back to the boat and crash. Tomorrow is our first big day and the weather is supposed to be frisky.

Day 2
I am always up super early and today is no exception. I wake up at 6 and manage to lie in bed and read until the reasonable hour of 7 – but then I want coffee.
Barbara and I go exploring for coffee and Brian starts puttering around the boat as usual. We hit up the Frenchtown Deli right by the base and get some great coffee and delicious breakfast sandwiches. Why have to clean dishes on the boat on the first day when there’s food nearby?
I should mention that we brought our own soft-sided Yeti cooler for the trip – something we have never done before. We packed it with some meat but the REAL reason for bringing it? ICE. It is NOT like the BVI, where ice is at the ready at most stops. There is Cruz Bay and Coral Bay and maybe Maho (we did not get there) and that’s pretty much IT, folks. So we needed the extra cooler and we were VERY glad we had it!
Justin from CYOA got us out of the slip – NOT your average slip – LOL – so they do not let you just pull on outta there! A chase boat came and grabbed him and we were on our way to Christmas Cove. It was “blowing like snot” (Justin’s words) and looking a bit squally, so we decided to just motor on out and see what we could see. Seas were very definitely up and it was a beat so – whatever – we’re on the boat and heading to Christmas Cove. Looking over at Little St James is a bit creepy (Epstein’s…..) but I had to snap a picture of the “temple” – just gives you an odd feeling. We grabbed a ball at Christmas Cove and settled in. Absolutely gorgeous. Two turtles who hung out quite a bit with us. We snorkeled, relaxed, and then dinghied over to place our order for one of the best pizzas I have ever had. SOOO good. Don’t miss it. We were all exhausted after our travel day and first day out and I’m pretty sure we were all crashed by 9.
More to come!

Looking forward to the rest of the story!

It was a fantastic time - one of our best trips ever.

Good for you! I wish to h*ll I could get out of Covid 19 central...

I have been looking forward to your report. We are 25 year visitors to STJ and started adding in BVI trips in 2009. Because of all the COVID restrictions and our son’s school schedule, we might head back to STJ in Feb 2021 after several February trips to VG.

I always thought the water/ice makers and genset on some CYOA boats were because of the SVI sailing option. Guess it a good ideal for USVI as well.

Nope...when we charter from CYOA again -- and we very likely will if we can't get our boat down there in the next year -- it will be on a CAT with A/C, watermaker, and icemaker.

Day 3
Well…today is the first “ice” excursion and we decide on Cruz Bay. We are up early and enjoy breakfast in paradise at Christmas Cove. This being our first time sailing in the USVI alone, we don’t have an exact idea on how long it will take from point A to point B.
The conditions during our trip were very “lively” for a small monohull so you will not hear tales of fabulous sailing from us, sadly – but that’s okay! We had a great time and still spent only about $30 on fuel! LOL. We studied our charts and the cruising guides daily before heading out. We are so used to knowing all the landmarks and anchorage entrances simply by sight in the BVI that this was a good time to get back to really paying attention and getting the lay of the land – particularly since the long-term plan is to get our own boat down here in a year or so!

We headed over to Lind Point, just outside of Cruz Bay. This is where it is recommended to grab a mooring ball – there are about three of them there, I believe – to dinghy in to Cruz Bay for shopping, restaurants…and a populated area – LOL. We had no problem grabbing a ball. Off we headed in the dinghy – there is a dinghy dock opposite the customs dock where it is easy to tie up. There is also a dinghy on the OTHER side of the customs dock – we ended up moving there. It is right on the beach in Cruz and the High Tide bar and restaurant is right there as well. Very easy to get to with your groceries and ice – much easier then lugging everything over to the other dock if you don’t have to! We walked around the shops and restaurants and settled on High Tide as they opened at 10 a.m. and we were early 😊
Painkillers were enjoyed by all – first of the trip. We then headed up the steepish hill, past Quiet Mon and Woody’s, up to Dolphin Market to get a few necessities and the all-important ICE. We had the Yeti with us to make this easier – and to allow us to enjoy one more painkiller before heading back to the boat. We headed past Caneel to Hawksnest Bay. The plan was to do a couple of spots on the North Side and then head around to Coral Bay. We changed our minds after a VERY rolly night. Hawksnest for the day was a BEAUTIFUL spot, however. We had a couple of rafts with us from home that we blew up and paddled to shore. Enjoyed a quiet beach day, ribeyes in paradise, and got up the next morning ready to head to Lameshur Bay.

Day 4

Down South we go! Off to Little Lameshur Bay for another day of a beautiful anchorage and snorkeling.
If I can say one thing about this trip…it’s that it was a welcome change from the whole “hey, where are we going to drink today?” that the BVI was starting to feel like. We could just meander around. There was no pressure of “we’ve GOT to get HERE today!” It really made this trip a relaxing, no pressure experience….well….except for the aforementioned…ICE. LOL. If we end up on a boat without an icemaker next time? We will bring down the $99 countertop icemaker from Home Depot! LOL. Hopefully next time means our own boat….but that’s a whole other Oprah. The other thing we have decided, after experiencing some decent-sized seas on this trip? Is that we will need a pro crew to help us bring our 38 Irwin from Florida to St. Thomas. There is no way we have the experience to do that alone.
The South Side is exactly what everyone promised – quiet, pristine, pretty snorkeling – though I have to say there is still plenty of bleached coral from Irma – the good thing is? You can SEE it coming back – that was very encouraging. Very pretty new growth going on. It will likely come back faster here due to no sewage heading out of charter boats. Holding tanks here, folks! Tonight we had cheeseburgers in paradise and it was wonderful.

Day 5

Breakfast/Lunch stop planned at Saltpond Bay on the way to Rick and Christine’s “driveway” in Coral Bay. We were determined to get to Lime Out and experience the floating taco bar.
Saltpond was absolutely STUNNING. Not a place to spend the night during the kind of weather we were having, but a great place for a quick stop. We managed to grab one of the five balls that are there and had a couple hours of snorkeling and just relaxing and taking in the atmosphere.
We were in the water with our gear on EVERY DAY. I cannot remember the last time I did that in the BVI.
We headed to Coral Bay and the much-anticipated Lime Out!
More to come!

Thanks, Winterstale! This is very helpful as we head down Sunday for a week charter. Definitely bringing my Yeti backpack and will stock up on as much ice as possible wherever available. Look forward to hearing the rest - specifically Lime Out. Assume you anchored there? And also provisioning in Coral Bay? We are keeping our fingers crossed that visitors will still be welcome next week. Also, looks like we have to start monitoring the tropics with a decent chance of a depression forming. 😒

Hey there, Rush! We were actually lucky enough to be able to use a friend's private mooring in Coral Bay - you can certainly anchor but you have to really hunt around for a spot as there are quite a number of boats.

I will cover the whole Coral Bay experience in the next installment

Day 5 – cont.
We were lucky enough to be able to use a private mooring ball in Coral Bay. There are only private moorings there so the other option is to anchor but you need to be very careful since there are quite a lot of boats in this area. We also saw plenty of day boats – mostly power, but the Lady Lindsey from the Ritz was there as well – she’s a big cat day boat. This is where the current Virgin Islands cruising guide was misleading. They have Lime Out listed as being in Round Bay – which is where they may have been when they first opened? But they are in Coral Bay now. As you enter the anchorage, they will be to starboard in the corner - -you cannot miss them. Lime green floating houseboat. We picked up our mooring and got in the dinghy to go check them out.
PACKED with day trippers at around 2 p.m. so not very appealing. We decided to head to the dinghy dock and check out Skinny Legs instead. Also packed. Got ourselves a “to go” drink each – even though they were social distancing? It was not appealing. We walked back down to the dinghy dock and ran into another couple who looked very salty so we asked where the best place would be to get – you guessed it – ICE! She said we could take our dinghy over across the anchorage to where Dolphin Market was located and do a wet landing and head up the stairs on the sea wall.

Easy peezy, right? LOL.

Yeah…not so much.

That said…the thought of walking all the way around from Skinny Legs to the market did not appeal so off we went. Barbara and I climbed out of the dinghy into VERY mucky, yucky water. I don’t even want to know what was in it. We trudged to shore, masks in place and went into the market. No ice. Ice truck was late. Naturally. LOL. Back into the dinghy we get – no easy feat since Brian could not bring it in very close due to the water being quite shallow and NOT a “sandy” bottom! We went back to the boat and cleaned up and decided that now it was time to give Lime Out another pass, since it was close to 4 and they were going to announce last call at 4:45 – we figured the day trippers would be gone and we were correct.
About Lime Out….the “bar” around the outside of the houseboat with the stools? Is NOT open. There are floating raft “couches” that are attached and that is where you sit. You need to be able to get out of your dinghy and over to these and hoist yourself up – otherwise? Don’t bother unless you’re getting things “to go”. We tied up the dinghy and hoisted ourselves. They are great about helping you tie up your dinghy but they do NOT want you anywhere on the boat, not even for the purpose of tying up. They “float” your drinks out to you on foam trays in yetis that they take a deposit on and take a credit card from you to run your tab. The drinks and food were SUPERB. Well worth the hoisting onto the floating “couches”. We went back over to the store, sloshed through the muck again, and YEAH! The ice truck came so we grabbed four bags and some more provisions at the market and headed back to the boat. Just snacks that night since we had enjoyed our tacos so late.
Coral Bay looks fun and funky on shore - the anchorage itself is not super pretty - you need to look past the abandoned boat. The really moving experience for me? Catatonic 1 was on a mooring just behind us. I had a little cry and hoisted one in her honor.

I wish we’d had more time to explore. My buddy Melody says it's VERY cool on shore. We were down to our last couple of nights on the boat so we really couldn’t stay one more day there. We were up and headed back to Christmas Cove the next morning.

Yeah, Coral Bay is not set up for “by water” provisioning. I posted links on another thread about potential marina development if you are looking for cocktail hour reading. If you think the Anchorage isn’t so pretty now, you should have seen it years back before the boats were cleared out. That area certainly does have its charms. Lime Inn did move. It’s a big saga but they were denied a mooring permit at the former location and had to move.

St John is the perfect snorkel paradise. I often do land based there and like you said, I am in the water every day even from the shore. I just booked 6 days in 2 weeks as it seems to be one of the only places we US based folks are allowed to go right now. Fingers crossed I don't get cancelled.
I need a break from 4 months of working on Zoom calls out of my basement!!🤣

I am afraid my July BVI trip rescheduled to November may not happen so I needed something NOW.... just saw they locked down JVD again for a week.

Fun time! Glad you got to see our favorite Virgin.

Cheers, RickG

Toast - lucky you! At least you live in a state that is allowed to travel there! I am now required to produce a negative COVID test for entry!

We have a November BVi charter booked too and I have serious doubts....we will likely try to get down to the USVI for something land-based - it will be a scouting trip for moving our own boat there next year.

Cant wait for the trip report for that trip!

A little pricey but you might check out one of the boat transport company's to get your 38 down to STT.

While staying at Mofolie a couple of times I have watched them loading and unloading in the harbor.

When you add up the time for open ocean boat prep and actually sailing down to STT might be worth considering.

Think Miami is one of the transport load ports.

Boat Transport link

Boat Transport link2

Thanks for another great update! The ice saga does sound like an ordeal. I may send the kids to deal with the mucky wet landing. If anchoring is tight in Coral Harbor, should we consider taking a day mooring over at Hurricane Hole and just dinghy over to Lime Out (doesn't look too far)? We are clearly on your schedule as we also have a November BVI trip booked. We may move over the to Spanish VI if the BVI are still on lockdown (and if you can still get into Puerto Rico then).

We have friends who are a delivery team — they spent years delivering boats from New England to the islands - they are doing it for fun and for the cost of their airfare, food, and booze.

I have heard the transport can be about $20k.....

Like I said... pricey!

Delivery friends, friends with Mooring in Coral Bay... I need friends like that!

You have to get one of those global tracking systems so we can watch the progress.

Oh we will do that! We have AIS. It won’t be until late next year - we are thinking Nov/Dec, depending on weather of course.

Day 6

Back to Christmas Cove! That’s one of the wonderful things about this trip….we didn’t mind revisiting this spot – it was beautiful. I can honestly say there is not one spot we wouldn’t want to go right back to! I wish we had had more time so we could have taken our time and done more (North side of St. John) but now we have something for the next trip!

We grabbed the exact same mooring ball we were on for our previous visit. We spent the day snorkeling and lounging, knowing our trip was winding down. Time to cook what we’ve got and start to pack things away….always a somewhat sad time. As tempting as Pizza Pi was? We made beef tenderloin on the grill.

Day 7

Pancakes and bacon for breakfast and then off to Water Island and we actually got in a sail…..but squalls rolled in just outside of Charlotte Amalie so we pulled everything in and motored the rest of the way. Jay was off that day and Debbie was able to take a break from work! We grabbed a free mooring ball right next to “Days Like This”, Jay and Debbie’s cat – lucky again to have buddies who know buddies who are off their mooring ball – lol. What a great day this was! Really our ONLY day hanging out at a beach bar! Jay and Debbie joined us and we had a great time eating and drinking at Dinghies Beach Bar for most of the day. We even grabbed Rick and Christine’s leftover Cruzan and swam it back from “Days”- LOL. We cooked an easy last meal on board – chicken Caesar salad and talked about how soon we could all get back…

Day 8

Last swim. Sadness abounds. Spent a little time on the swing on shore….swam back to the boat. This is just the worst day always……

We brought the boat over to the fuel dock at Crown Bay and got her ready to head back to CYOA. Make sure you radio ahead and let them know you are coming – another boat came in without contacting them first….they were less than pleased but still let them pull up and get fuel. We motored through Haulover Cut and picked up a ball so that CYOA could come out and do a sail check and bring us back in.

Check-out was very easy – the staff at CYOA is fantastic. We would charter with them again in a hot heartbeat – but it will be a cat with a watermaker and icemaker next time – LOL – luckily….Jay has quite a few VERY nice ones in the lineup!

We sent Barbara off tearfully in a taxi as her flight was earlier than ours. We wandered back down to Twisted Cork and had a DELICIOUS lunch. Booked a 2:30 taxi for our 5 pm flight and we were at the airport in plenty of time. Spent the money for a porter for our two checked bags and we were in the boarding lounge in 20 minutes. Masked flight home to reality…..

I have November charters booked in the BVI – one with friends who are getting married and celebrating down there….and one that has been rescheduled by us from May. I have to say….if there was a way to economically move them? I would. I would book again with CYOA and head straight back to St. John – and likely explore more of St. Thomas too.

We hope to move our own boat there next winter, post hurricane season….have a crew ready to go! So…for now? We have a land-based trip planned for January and will stay at Sapphire Beach and explore our relocation options. That should be an adventure too!

Thanks for listening, everybody! If you are considering a USVI charter because you can’t get to the BVI??? Do it!!! And go with CYOA!

Thanks for the report. Agree about chartering with CYOA. Also, St. John is a jewel that is often overlooked. Good luck in your future travels.

Thanks for the great report. We moved our CYOA charter from May to November and while we are hopeful the BVI will be allowing visitors we are beginning to plan an alternate USVI only itinerary. It's good to know about the lack of ice once you get going. Were you able to find places to dispose of trash? Any other tips?

We hung onto our trash and stored it until we got back to base — very easy as there were only 3 of us on the boat.

I know that you can dump trash in Coral Bay - it is up from the dinghy dock but I can’t remember the specifics. I imagine that there would be some spot in Cruz as well.

Thanks Winterstale, great write up and it got the charter planning juices going again. Always Sunny is a great boat. I think my crew and I were the 2nd or 3rd folks aboard her back in June 2018, just after she entered the CYOA fleet. Liked the boat so much we're taking a hard look at the Oceanis 40.1, if it can be had with 3 cabins and a generator...sometimes you just need AC away from the dock. Sorry, I digress. Anyway, we found trash dumpsters in Cruz Bay near the visitor center dinghy dock. If you walk clockwise around the ball field there are dumpsters in the parking lot next to the apartments.

Like others we moved our May trip to November and are planning a USVI only trip at this point. We'll have 2 skippers aboard so St. Croix should be an option depending on wx and sea state. Crossing fingers.

Cheers,

None of the 41’s I have seen have a gen - they usually start in the Oceanis 45.

And let me tell you....that 45 is a honey....

Thanks for the trip report, I'm taking notes. Didn't realize you'd changed plans for your boat next year but I guess it makes sense after the hurricane in the Bahamas.

At this point I don't know if we'll try to sail into Coral Bay. My just rent a car and drive over to check it out.

Starting in Red Hook on a Saturday and trying to set up an itinerary to pick up 2 crew in Cruz Bay on Monday afternoon. We may just tell them to cab it to whatever harbor we're in. The icemaker sounds tempting but still wondering how often it would need to be replaced in the salt air.

Anyway, glad you had a great time, we're really looking forward to getting there next week.

Pizza Pi in Christmas Cove is closed for season so that’s kind of a bummer as that was a highlight - not sure what Lime Out’s plans are.

If you are planning a rental car day, I would recommend planning to put yourself close to Cruz - not sure where else you would pick one up and return it. You could just plan that day to explore the island.

The ice maker is only about $99....honestly? Given the option? I would buy it and donate it to someone on the dock as opposed to having to organize a trip around where we could get ice next...penny wise....

Jay and Debbie have the same ice maker so maybe Jay will weigh in on it’s longevity

As for the Monday pickup, you could easily do a couple of North side anchorages on Saturday and Sunday - so easy to pick up a mooring on Monday at Lind point and just dinghy into Cruz. Remember that there are not handy dinghy docks all the anchorages as there are in BVI.

One of these new countertop top icemakers is the bomb! We had one on a Moorings 45 in Croatia last year and it was fantastic never having to look for shoreside ice or making unnecessary stops. I swore to never charter again without an icemaker. Kind of like the old days before GEN sets and AC, or Cat front porches. once you try it you’ll never go back!

I’ve bought a few portable ice makers that produce lesser and lesser ice every time you use it.
What brands do you recommend?

This was European volts, made a batch every seven minutes. Transfer periodically to freezer. I also freeze liter water bottles and put a couple in the deck cooler for caned drinks, beer, etc. 'course I’m known as the ice 👮 onboard!


I’ve seen them at Lowe’s, HDepot, Amazon +-$100 here in the states.