TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums British Virgin Islands Trip Report - Moonshadow - 1/21 - 1/29

First off, I would like to compliment Brent of Captains Compass. He gets some "negative press" due to his unique style; but we found him to be honest, straight forward and responsive. I would definitely charter from him again. Not for everyone for sure, but for us it worked perfectly.

Second, Moonshadow. I know a TTOL member owns it (and that is recently hit the market). Its in good shape. Quite seaworthy. Holds a LOT of water and fuel. For us, it was perfect. For some perhaps not.

1/20/22 - Emed test at home. Works great. Do it on your phone as practice for the return test. Chrome browser does not work. We used safari on our iphones. Make sure you have a backup test. One of our tests was faulty.

1/21/22 - ORD->SJU->EIS - No Problems really. Bring your vax card. They asked to see it 50 times. Never asked about insurance. Dinner at Gene's & Sleep Aboard. The Mini Mark at Manuel Reef Marina is a nice plus. Got a mini provision for the evening cocktail. Gene's is also a big plus. (PS-He has wifi, so when you get back to the base, you dont need to use LTE Data to do the testing)

1/22/22 - Small provision #1, Briefings and off to Cooper (Used BB to get a ball) - Cooper was great. Call early in the day, like before you leave the dock to make a dinner res. Especially if you want the late seating. We saw people get turned away....with no where else to eat dinner. Snorkel Cistern Point was disappointing. Lots of dead coral.

1/23/22 - North Sound - BEYC & SABA. No Boaty Ball available -> so went FCFS - No problem Mon. Departed cooper after the coffee shop opened. Got a ball at Fallen Jerusalem for a great snorkel and walk on the private beach. Arrived at BEYC @ 2pm. Hang out at BEYC for the day. market was well stocked. boutique not open yet. Sunset on Moonshadow, Dinner at Saba. Saba was a favorite for many in our group over the whole week. Really enjoyed the upstairs bar. Came back for coffee and ice in the morning, but they wont take trash.

1/24/22 - Trellis - One of our crew had some problems and needed to arrive a few days later. We spent the day at the dogs, then snorkeled diamond reef (behind Marina Cay) before heading to trellis where we did another mini provision. Sunset on vessel, dinner at Loose Mongoose. Dog snorkel was great, Diamond reef was also great, but we had some jerks on paddle boards over the reef messing with everyone. Bro, thats not how you snorkel. At least lay on the board so everyone isnt afraid you wont fall on them.

1/25/22 - Anegada - Easy sail, only 3 miles further than North Sound, left at 0700 and arrived at 1030. Car rented from ARH. Flash of Beauty snorkel & chill, Big Bamboo late lunch, ABC nap time, Cow Wreck until 530. Sunset on Boat. ARH for lobster. Perfect day. I wanted to be there two days, but our crew travel hiccup prevented it.

1/26/22 - Diamond Cay - Sailed from Anegada to Monkey Point, lunch snorkel (disappointing again-poor visibility), then off to Taboo and a hike to the Bubbly. Wow. Bubbly pool was jacked up by Irmaria. Still the same awesome pool. But, nothing else was familiar. Crazy. Anyway, filled a jug of painkillers at Taboo, sunset club onboard Moonshadow, dinner at BLine (awesome meal).

1/27/22 - Little Harbor - Woke up with the sunrise. While making coffee, ran dingy over to taboo and filled another thermos with pain killer for the afternoon, ditched trash and got ice. Everyone jumped in the dingy and off to sandy spit. We spent 3 hours on Sandy Spit alone with our coffee. Awesome morning. When the next visitor showed up we boogied back to the boat, ate a light snack and headed to Sandy Cay. Got lucky, open ball. Spent the next three hours on Sandy Spit. Brought the thermos full of painkillers (no ice), cups and ice in our cooler backpack. Hung out there until the PKs were gone. Then into Little Harbor. Strawberry called Claude and we got a ride to White Bay. SDB is a sad place these days. I hate what it has become. So we go to Gertrudes and One Love, or Ivans. Sunset and dinner at Gertrudes. Claude lives behind Gertrudes, knock on his door and he drives us back to Great Harbor where our first timers wanted to see Foxy's. I ran over to the market to get some water and butter. Foxys is just awful now. Both SDB and Foxys have totally sold their soul IMHO. They are actually getting so big its hurting all the other establishments. I wont go to them anymore. The music is awful. The vibe is cruise ship.

1/28/22 - Norman - Nice sail through the thatch cut and around STJ. Hit the Indians (bad visibility, but still awesome) before going into the Bight. Caves snorkel (just awesome). Sunset club on Moonshadow and Pirate's for dinner. Thumbs up to both. Make your reservation early. They take them over facebook page now. Willy T's (I have no idea why, left after my wife got hit on by some wasted guy in viking clothing)

1/29/22 - Back to Manuel Reef - Hit the Indians again for a morning snorkel. Just beautiful. All the corals were open feeding. Everything feels more alive firth thing in the morning. Easy sail over to Nanny Cay for fuel and back to the base. Emed tests on wifi at Genes. Off to EIS. EIS->SJU->ATL->ORD.

A comment on Boaty Ball. Dont count on it. I thought I had an ace in the hole. My Uncle is a ridiculously early riser and a sailor who has been to the BVI with me a few times. We texted him every night with our hope for the next day. He would log in at 650am BVI time and hit refresh until 7am; literally every single day sold out. I would venture to guess you could pay the $500 for advance reservations and still get locked out. The BBs were mostly taken by captained charters, so I think someone has figured out how to game the system. Dont want to debate this one again, but a word to the wise.

Best to everyone. Peace out.

I didn’t realize a TTOL member owned Moon Shadow. I have Moon Dance and she is with TMM. Many moons!

Chrome worked for us but we use laptops always for eMed testing not phones.

Nice report, thanks for posting!

Agreed--nice, concise report with useful info. Thanks.

Nice report - glad you had a good time

Awesome report - sounds like you had a great time! We will be leaving from DYC on Scrub Island but thinking about doing a similar Itinerary. I have so many questions but will add a new thread on the BVI forum to get maximum input and advice. Haven't been back since pre Irma - Summer of 2018!

Irma was Sept 2017...a time many of us would rather forget!

Yes, summer of 2017 was the last trip - forgot - 2018 was the Grenada trip - How the years tend to blend together especially after two years of COVID!