TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums British Virgin Islands Trip Report 06/30/21 - 07/15/21 Part Final

By the time we got to Cane Garden Bay, I was getting a bit concerned about our remaining fuel. We’d been running the generator pretty much whenever we were on a ball (nights in the aft cabins would have been uncomfortable otherwise). We had 4 more non-slip nights left and were down to 35%. So we checked at the CGB fuel dock but there were boats on the T-dock and I wasn’t going to attempt to maneuver to the west side of the dock. We asked if the boats on the dock could be moved (were told no) and if the depth was sufficient for our 5’9” draft on the side (were told maybe at high tide). So we put aside that idea and planned for a later fuel stop.

We were planning an overnight stop at Scrub Island, and even though all the literature said no fuel, we were told by 2 different people when we called that they did have fuel. On our 3rd call we were told that no they did not, so a detour through Great Harbour JVD was planned before we headed to Little Harbour in a couple of nights.
Our two nights at CGB were spent enjoying the beach and visiting with our friends who were spending their next to last night there. We ate on board the first night and had takeout the second night from the Paradise Club which was good.

The last morning at CGB our fuel gauge registered in the reserves so we were in a bit of a panic about that. We called a Moorings mechanic who insisted that we had more than enough to make it to the end of our charter. I don’t believe his advice considered the burn of the generator so we shut it down and motored to Great Harbour JVD for fuel. We had no luck raising them on the phone or VHF but they did come out as we did a pass by the dock and asked for some assistance. They got us tied up, fueled and filled with water. It turns out we probably had less than 10 gallons remaining so would not have made it to the end of the charter running the generator at night.

After fueling we went to Little Harbour for the day with plans to do takeout at night. A couple of our crew took a taxi to White Bay to visit the Soggy Dollar. The cost of the taxi was quite reasonable and saved trying to fit the boat over there or a longish and wet dinghy ride from Great Harbour. We had 5 lobster dinners from Abe’s which were great. We were also the only boat that night in Little Harbour though Abe’s had a couple of land based folks come by for takeout.

From JVD we went to Scrub Island for a slip reserved for the night. The marina was pretty crowded but they did accommodate us on the end of a T-dock. The pool was great as was the takeout from Donovan’s.

Our final full day was spent heading down the channel to The Bight. It was a smooth broad reach which allowed helm time for the 3 members of the party who up to that point had been very patient passengers. We grabbed a ball near Pirates Bight, went ashore for drinks and snacks and spent the night in typical last night fashion, i.e. packing our bags and lamenting the fact that our vacation was soon to be over.

The final morning it was back to The Moorings where someone hopped on board to put us in our slip. I’m always embarrassed to see how easily they maneuver those boats compared to how I stress and struggle to get it done.

We had a great trip. The boat and sailing were both the best of our 14 BVI trips. We definitely “go to come back” but will wait until things settle down post-COVID.

Glad you had a great time my friend and thanks for the advice....