TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums British Virgin Islands Lost Tender

Apparently captain loser our Highfield dinghy last night a few hours from Scrub island while en route from Saba. If anoyine sees it floating around the ocean, let me know!!

It might help if you narrowed that down a bit. I assume you mean Saba Rock to Scrub Island. That’s only 60 to 90 minutes depending on route. Did they go offshore to sail a bit or did they go through Mosquito cut?

No, I mean between the country of Saba and Scrub island. I haven’t gotten details yet on where it was lost….

BVI is currently dead downwind and upstream from Saba so you could get lucky. Small target in a big ocean though.

Wind has been out of 120 recently. Draw a line and use about 2 MPH and I suspect you will be close. If you are posting on cruising sites I would add a description of the dinghy. It’s a big ocean however and sadly many will simply keep it if found.

Back in 2017, we found a loose dinghy in the Drake. No boats around, no markings on dinghy other than a number, We radioed to let any boats or bases listening that a dinghy was found. No word. We grabbed it and towed it to Norman island where we were able to find out that it belonged to one of the Moorings boats. Left it at the dock and eventually they picked up the dinghy. That could have been a costly trip for those cruisers. Make sure your secure you painter!

The same thing happend to us. Year before last we picked up a loose dinghy in the channel between Sopers and St John. Made an announcement on VHS and the radio lit up immediately. The guy got his dingy back and promised drinks that night were on him. Of course we never saw him again.

If this story sounds familiar you can make up for it next week!!

I watched a guy pull out of Cooper and leave his dinghy behind. Tried to hail him on the VHF but no reply. Called his charter company to tell them I had the dinghy. He came back almost two hours later irate I didn’t chase him down!

Boat charterers can be some of the most entitled people.

You don’t give up a good ball at Cooper to chase anyone!

I have started putting a GPS tracker on my dingy while chartering just in case.
Couple of different options, but I used a LandSeaAir tracker and it worked great.

While sitting at Cow Wreck I could see dingy sitting at the Anegada Reef dock.

Would an apple airtag work?

Yes and no. It must ping off of a phone... if adrift, not helpful...

If dinghy taken, it will show location from person's phone...until it alerts them that they have an AirTag following them (it still may indicate where they went with Dinghy.

I travel with AirTags in each bag and it has saved me from leaving airport after being told "all bags are off the plane"... I should see my missing bag was on the other side of the wall at STT (I don't think it was thievery, Just incompetence )... So if all you have is an AirTag, place it in the dinghy/ outboard (and retrieve before heading home).