TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums British Virgin Islands PROVISIONING FOR TORTOLA CHARTER

We are chartering from MarineMax in early May and are soliciting provisioning vendor suggestions. Because of the expected size of our order, we must use a vendor or vendors that deliver to Nanny Cay. MarineMax recommends only Bobby’s. We used them last year. Their non-alcoholic beverages, supplies, and case goods were fine. But their fresh foods, especially produce and sliced meats, were only average and their selection of wines was very limited. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

I'm not a fan of Bobby's. I suggest Riteway for food; Tico or Caribbean Cellars for beverages. Steakation has terrific meat, but not cheap. We buy our seafood at Paradise Seafood in Pockwood Pond. The French Deli is phenomenal for cheese, deli meat, bread and French wine.

We have found OneMart to have some of the freshest produce from our experience. We usually split an order between them and Riteway. Caribbean Cellars has a large selection of alcohol. All will deliver to Nanny Cay.

Ahoy Captain,

Provisioning yourself will give You the Best Quality and Fastest Delivery.

I strongly recommend using Riteways as your primary/only source.
The more venders that you get involved – the more chances for delays and other issues.
Here is a short list of Food and Liquor Provisioning sources in the BVI –

https://www.riteway.vg/shop-groceries.html - Riteways Food & Liquor

https://www.frenchdelibvi.com/ - European Food & Wine
https://italianwinefoodcaribbean.com/ - Italian Food & Wine
https://relishgourmetfood.com/ - Specialty Food & Wine
https://grapeexpectation.revelup.com/weborder/?establishment=1#about – Specialty Food & Wine
https://www.steakationbutchers.com/ - Specialty Butcher
https://onemartsupermarket.com/provisioning/ - OneMart & Bobby’s Food & Liquor
https://caribbeancellars.com/ - Liquor
http://www.ticobvi.com/ - Liquor

I would suggest You drop your Galley Captain and Galley Crew at Riteways on the way in from the Airport or Ferry.
Then drop the remainder of the Crew at the Yacht.
Then send the same taxi back to pick up the Galley Captain and Crew.
Or
Everyone to the Yacht and then only the Galley Captain and Galley Crew do the Round Trip on the evening of your Arrival.
Or
The Galley Captain and Galley Crew do the Round Trip early the next morning while the Captain and First Mate do the Yacht Briefing.

Captain George recently discovered Complimentary Taxi service with Riteways - https://www.traveltalkonline.com/ubbthreads.php/topics/291365/new-provisioning-option.html

I Need More Quality Cats for Chartering !
Fair Winds, Brent
thecaptainscompass.com Yacht Charters and Management
heatseekerinternational.com 5% Comm and Sales-Tax-Free Yacht Brokerage

We are in often - we have found through trial and error that the following formula works well:
Main grocery items: Riteway. Order on line and deliver to boat (including water and soft drinks)
Produce and fruit: Good Moon Farm (organic). Order on line, delivered to boat
Alcohol: Caribbean Cellars. Order on line, deliver to boat
Steakation: their meat is $$ but excellent. Email or call to order. Deliver to boat.

Next month we are adding French Deli to the mix. They deliver with a $250 minimum order.

We only go into the store to pick up last minute items. We have also found it easy to pick up items at BEYC - lots of specialty items and fresh pastries in the morning.

Exactly this.

Thank you for this excellent summary!

Ahoy Captains,

2 Points to follow up.

1. Please triple check your Credit Card will accept Overseas Charges.
If the Charge gets Declined then all the Order will go back on the shelf and You will Not be Notified.
You will be sitting on the Dock mid afternoon with Less than Nothing.
2. The Wild Card.
If Time is Money, and You are chartering starting on a weekend with a Stat Holiday like Xmas, NY, MLK, etc., then consider having One Crewmember come down a day early, with a cheap hotel and a cheap rental car, to pre provision.
During Stat Holidays the Delivery service is easily overwhelmed as is the phone service for delays, issues with quality or quantity, and issues with payments, and some Vendors are closed on Stat Holidays and Sundays.

I Need More Quality Cats for Chartering !
Fair Winds, Brent
thecaptainscompass.com Yacht Charters and Management
heatseekerinternational.com 5% Comm and Sales-Tax-Free Yacht Brokerage

All great ideas. Thanks to everyone!

We always do a sleepaboard the night prior, so for us, it’s easier to rent a car for a day and do our provisioning. Gives us more flexibility and we are picking items ourselves. We arrange for the the car to be picked up at the Marina before we leave the dock.

We do a sleepaboard as well but hate wasting time shopping. By the time we finally get in and settled it is late afternoon and in the morning we are off the dock early (owners so no briefings).I have never had an issue with the items our vendors listed above select but then again we are working with high end vendors (except for good old standard Riteway for the basics). Steakation and French Deli delivering to our base are game changers.

We also bring a soft side cooler with us with meat, fish, etc.

Riteway have been great with us 2 time now. This trip they hadn’t delivered by the time we got to the boat, a call from the charter company and they were there in 15 mins. Caribbean Cellars were also good - couldn’t quite do what we wanted, but day before the guy called me up and gave me some options then delivered what we wanted there and then.

Also French Deli are great. They are actually open Sunday morning too. We spent about $1600 there alone - good stuff.