TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums British Virgin Islands Nov.10th trip

That would be great SleepyChef...

Yes please - and I am not sure if this would apply to non-owners of charter boats....

He said his price is the best at $1050.00 if you need his contcat info.

+1 284-340-1228

Tendertoo@hotmail.com

$1050 one way?
or Roundtrip?

Includes government fees?

But also saves about $1000 on ferry fees and other savings.

I was only thinking that a charter boat in the BVI doesn't do much for anyone if it's tied to the company dock.

Couple that with a very happy lunchtime listening to some hilarious stories from a couple guys who deliver cars all over the northeast for profit. Buy the car online, it gets delivered to your driveway, just sign the paperwork and make sure the payment goes through.

Hmm, charter the boat online......

Breeze

I wish it was as simple as that.

Only a few companies have obtained permission from government to ferry boats in/out of the territory. Thus prices are not cheap. No "just a couple guys" enjoying the delivery.

Does anyone know if BVI Yacht Charters and Virgin Island Yacht Charters have some sort of partnership? VIYC is based in Compass Point...maybe if we are lucky.....we could get our charter boat moved to their St. Thomas partner base....she said....hopefully......LOL

Winterstale, I just looked at my charter contract for January 2021 from BVI Yacht Charters and it indicates you can take the boat out of stt. 600.00 each way. Could just be boilerplate, hope I don’t need to.
Doug

Thanks Capt Doug - that is really good news.

Capt. Doug - am sending you a PM....

Winterstale,

Virgin Islands Yacht Charters has formed a partnership with Dream Yacht, and from what I could tell, they are getting more supply than aniticipated. While they have their own fleet, they are also managing many Dream Yacht boats moved their from other locations (which makes sense given the USVI is the only open destination around).

They are very nice folks, but we all had an unfortunate week when we were there a couple of weeks ago. After a sleep aboard, we woke up at 6 am to a Bali, 3 boats down completely in flames. Fortunately, it was at the end of the dock and the wind was blowing off which may have saved other boats (inlcuding the one we were on). Most importantly, the family sleeping aboard made it off safely, but the boat was a total loss (sad sight).

This was Monday before Isaias and we were anticipating returning to the dock for a night mid-week. But 10 minutes into our boat briefing that AM, our briefer received a call that they were bringing all boats in for storm prep. No one could leave and best case, we get out by Friday. We changed our Delta flights to leave Tuesday evening, went to Magens Bay for the day and worked hard to consume what we could on our fully provisioned boat - left plenty for the folks at the base and our cab driver.

My wife and I plan to try it again (in the USVI) in October, and have a larger crew scheduled for BVI for Thanksgiving week (who knows). Maybe I am just trying to hard. On a side note, the flying experience (Delta from Atlanta) and the St. Thomas Airport was actually a delight, and no issues changing flights.

Rush--Wow, what an unfortunate trip. Hope your next one is better!!

Holy wow! I remember seeing video of that fire on my St Thomas FB page! Glad you guys are okay and hope both your October and November trips are a success!

I have reached out to BVIYC as they have offered some the option of a St Thomas departure with a fee that does not seem unreasonable - hopefully they will extend the same option to us since we have been with them for over 10 years.

I am still hoping we leave out of Tortola but I am having a heck of a time convincing everyone to fork over the balance due on 9/20 with no definite re-entry date in sight - they have all agreed to the St Thomas idea since we will likely have a tough time changing flights and will not have to pay for ferries, cruising tax, National Park Permits, etc if we just sail USVI.

I think by 9/20 we'll have a better idea of what's going on with tourist entry.

LOl Bridget, I hope things work out through BVIYC. Sometimes an idea grows wings.

Jason - I absolutely think you are correct!! I also hope it is good news - but the friends I am chartering with don’t seem to grasp the fact that they still have to pay for the contract, whether we know or not. We will be in breech otherwise and will have no move/change option if the BVI is closed to us in November...hence the idea of offering the St Thomas departure.

Breeze - it is a no-go for us for the St. Thomas option. Oh well - doesn’t hurt to try! Back to hoping for the best....

Is the $600 St. Thomas option just something that's offered in normal non-Covid times in case you want to start or end there? It's a pretty cool option!

They apparently used to offer it when they had a base there but do not any longer....

I spoke with Dream last week. They said all their cat charters in STT were "crewed only charters". Maybe just their bigger cats moved to STT.
This was in part due to the limited resupply options for H2O, ice, etc Winterstate has mentioned.
They were not doing "Bare Boat" in anticipation of returning all operations back to Scrub in September.
That was last week...

I am remaining hopeful :-)

Chuck,
That is strange. I was chartering (bareboat) through Dream Yacht in STT. We had a Lagoon 450, and as I indicated on my post, they had a lot of other boats at Compass Point Marina (unfortunately one less Bali now). Perhaps they were over burdening the base (and Virgin Island Yacht Charters), so now changed their strategy there.
Rush

the rest of their fleet are in the hurricane hole in the BVI waiting out there till next season.

Is that the same location that Irene made tossed boat salad out of?

if you mean Irma then yes

There were no locations safe from Irma nor will there ever be from that type of intensity. For your average hurricane it’s a great location.
G

For Hurricane Maria Cat 5 right after Irma in Puerto Del Rey Marina in Ceiba PR only about 6 boats sunk at the docks and about 4 fell on the hard with hurricane tie downs.
The marina has 1,000 wet slip about 80% full.

Maria hit PR with 155 MPH winds. Irma hit the BVI with 185 sustained. That’s almost 50% more energy. Nothing like IRMA has ever made landfall in the Caribbean. In addition it was a absolute direct hit on Tortola. Even 20 miles can make a huge difference in damage.

Regardless two terrible storms,

00001
Hurricane Irma
Aug 30, 2017 – Sep 12, 2017

Description
Hurricane Irma was an extremely powerful Cape Verde hurricane that caused widespread destruction across its path in September 2017. Irma was the first Category 5 hurricane to strike the Leeward Islands on record, followed by Maria two weeks later. Wikipedia
Total fatalities: 134
Highest wind speed: 177 mph
Date: August 30, 2017 – September 14, 2017


What category was Maria when it hit Puerto Rico?
Category 5

Maria made landfall at 21:15 AST that day (1:15 UTC, September 19) as a Category 5 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 165 mph (270 km/h).

Great Pic GeorgeC1!! The entire island of Virgin Gorda is in the eye!

OK, so what is your point?

Wind speed difference of 11 not 30 mph

I am not quite sure the point either but different sources have the speeds different. In addition the Marina he mentions as doing so well was not where the storm made landfall and probably saw winds in the 100 to 110 mph range. Vastly different than what the BVI saw. 20 miles can mean everything in storms like this. It made a huge difference with Maria when it passed through the Virgins.

After sweeping across the Virgin Islands as a Category 5 storm, Hurricane Maria on Wednesday morning plowed into Puerto Rico on the southeast shore as a barely diminished Category 4 storm, with winds of 155 miles per hour. The storm’s hurricane-force winds spanned the island, and all residents lost electricity.

On the good news side tropical depression 11 now looks to pass well north of the BVI!

Basically the point is there is a safe haven for a major storm

Tell that to Nick and Monica....and to everyone else who found it so easy to find a “safe haven” during Irma...

Another Wikipedia page shows "Early on September 6, Irma peaked with 1-minute sustained winds of 180 mph (285 km/h) and a minimum pressure of 914 hPa (27.0 inHg)." so I wouldn't put much faith in an online source that anyone can edit.

weather.gov lists Irma at 185
NOAA published an update on Sept. 05 11pm showing 185
NPR also showed 185

Regardless, it was bad and Tortola still shows lots of damage 2 years and 11 months later.

My first VI charter vacation was late April of 1990. Hurricane Hugo had chewed a murderous path through the VI's and right up the east coast of the US in September, previous. I know I'll never forget St. Thomas in that April, so tattered and broken: the telephone and electric service wires were strung up on forked branches barely head high, and the entirety of Charlotte Amalie residential neighborhoods were roofed over with blue tarps.

The entire week of the charter, I didn't see a tree or a bush that wasn't completely defoliated, between STT and North Sound VG, up the SFD channel and back down the north side. There were some brave Century Plants blooming in sulfur yellow on decimated hillsides, and some Flamboyants throwing fiery orange blossoms as if to spite their nakedness, but that was the extent of tropical vegetation. I knew it wasn't normal, but I had not ever seen " normal". It would be another couple years before I saw the full throated tropical beauty healing the scars.

Point being, there is no point in arguing the strength of a storm when the destruction in any one place is as total as can be inflicted. Heck, I live in far western Maine, maybe 8 miles from the NH border, and up here there is still trail, bridge, and road rehab happening in the National Forest and around the Appalachian Trail from Irene, August 2011, never more than a Cat 3 and not more than a TS by the time it got here. There was massive de-forestation, vicious flash flooding driving whole trees as battering rams, and the State of VT was nearly wiped off the map as far as roads in, out, around or about. Stories are legion about farmers, both alone and in loose bands of tractor mounted first responders, saving the National Guard and USACE weeks of work by restoring dirt and gravel ways for ( wet tire) vehicle passage and facilitating the movement of people and goods.

We are stronger together.

Very nicely put!