TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums British Virgin Islands Trip Review: June 1-9 Moorings Mono

Just got back from our trip and I'd like to thank everyone for answering all my pre-trip questions and offering advice and counsel - we had a great trip.

I'll do a review in the hopes it will help or be of interest to others.

Preamble: Crew was my wife and I (who have chartered a number of times) and another couple who have not chartered. No kids. The forecast for the week was pretty bad. Overcast and rain from Sunday (start day) to Thursday.

Day 1: Arrival and sleep aboard day. Had to chill for a while waiting for the boat to be ready but got on around 5:00 and got settled in. Riteway delivered provisions but it was only about 2/3 of my order. They didn't charge me for the stuff they didn't deliver but just didn't give me all that I had on my order. They did forget a couple things that they charged me for and I found out the next day when we went to get the rest of what we needed it was because I said "no substitutions" that they didn't give me everything - which I then picked up myself when I went there :-) Oh well.

One thing that surprised me about the boat was that it had a self-tacking jib. I was conflicted on this because, while it would make tacking easier (obviously), it was much smaller than a regular genoa and I wasn't thrilled about the loss of power.

Day 2: Took the Rum Bus to Riteway - very convenient and a pleasant surprise as I wasn't sure how best to get there and back. Got away from the dock around 11:00 as I had to wait for fuel to be topped off - grrrr. First stop was Marina Cay. Had a nice sail despite the clouds and it actually turned into a nice sunny day later on. I gotta say, the self-tacking jib was really nice for tacking but man, it looked terrible shape-wise and didn't produce much power. I guess on balance, I liked it - but just barely. Had dinner onboard. The foredeck crew - my wife and the husband of the other couple - were absolutely fantastic. The whole trip they got every ball on the first try. We looked like pros - no shouting, just a couple of hand signals and bam, we were on. Every. Single. Time. I did have occasion to use a blip of the bow thruster once or twice but I probably didn't need to. I kinda just wanted to use it because I had it.

Day 3: Left early and motored directly upwind to The Baths. It pained me not to sail but I wanted to get there before the crowds and it's a good thing as there were only two balls left when we arrived. Took the dinghy to the tie-up and swam in. I didn't remember it being that long of a swim in!! I had heard there was a defined direction that you needed to go through the rocks but I thought it was just a suggestion. No, they made us take the trail up to the top - to pay the fee I now realize - and then come back the Devil's Bay side. I'll just say it; The Baths are cool but having seen them before, I could do without seeing them again. I'm glad I took our guests but I probably won't be stopping there again.

Unhooked and sailed up to Leverick. Had dinner upstairs and it was hot and buggy. I wanted to leave as soon as we sat down. Everyone but me really liked their meals. To be fair I was recovering from a cold from the week before so I wasn't feeling all that great but I think we all felt unimpressed by Leverick - which is surprising given the praise it gets here.

Day 4: The forecast was for clouds and rain so we made the decision to delay the sail to Anegada in hopes it would be clearer the next day so we moved over to Saba. We poked around BEYC and peeked at Biras Creek and then did some SUPing south of Saba. Went over for Tarpon feeding and drinks and then dinner back on the boat. Of course the weather was great - sunny and no rain.

Day 5: Set sail for Anegada despite it being worse weather than the day before. Not a ton of wind so it was a long sail but just before we got to the channel (actually my waypoint just West of the channel), all hell broke loose. Massive squall came through and reduced visibility to near zero. As it was approaching I got the sails down/in and then just rode it out orbiting my waypoint. I was seriously considering whether I would need to go back to Gorda because I didn't want to try and go through the channel and into the mooring field with all the rain and wind. Luckily, it cleared and the channel markers appeared and it was an easy trip in. In hindsight, I probably could have made it in but this was my first time going in in about 20 years all the warnings were going through my head. We had dinner at Potters and enjoyed it. When we got back on board, I fired up the generator to get some A/C on and it ran for a bit and then turned off. Hmm. The other husband and I are famous (to our wives anyway) for McGyvering our way out of all kinds of situations so we set about trying to figure out what was wrong. Opened up the engine room panel to find the control panel on the genny and its display said "High Heat". Hmm, not getting water. Found the filter basked and it had some weeds in it but it wasn't that bad. No water coming in when we tried to start the genny again. Hmm. Disconnected the intake hose and blew through it and also sucked water in so it didn't seem like there was blockage on the intake side. I figured it was probably the impeller and I wasn't confident on finding it and didn't have a spare anyway. Called the Moorings but, of course, they don't service at Anegada. It was a hot night. And I feel bad about saying that. I've never had A/C before and I always kind of looked down my nose at all the cats that were buttoned up running their generators while my wife and I dealt with the heat (and rain, and bugs) like real sailors. Yeah, nah, I'm over that. Give me A/C. Sorry Dad.

Day 6: We had planned to rent a jeep and go to the North beaches but the day dawned ugly and the forecast didn't look good. We figured it would be a lousy beach day and we might as well use the dreary weather to sail back to Jost.
We were just about to leave when guess what broke loose again? Hell, yes, hell broke loose again. Lightning, rain, wind. It was crazy. It lasted about an hour or maybe more but finally settled down enough for us to feel okay about heading out. It was a long, low wind reach/run to Jost so we motor-sailed most of the way. Almost the whole way there we watched as Tortola got pounded. I saw on another thread that there was flooding. Wow.

About the time we got to Jost, the skies cleared and the wind came up - just in time to drop everything and head into Little Harbor. We actually poked our nose into Great Harbor but everything was taken and I wasn't comfortable anchoring. I had called the Moorings on the way and they showed up about an hour after we got there. It was indeed the impeller that had come apart. They got it fixed and we were back in A/C business. We took a taxi over to Foxy's and had a great meal. As much as Foxy's is kind of almost too commercialized, I really enjoyed it.

Day 7: We actually won the Boatyball lottery and got a ball in Great Harbor. I was really hoping we could get one as I wanted the ability to noodle around Green Cay/Sandy Spit and Diamond Cay without having to worry about hurrying back to get a ball and I wanted to be able to dinghy around to White Bay. We got all four people going for a ball and managed to get one (after failing completely on a couple of earlier days (which ended up not mattering)). I cannot believe how fast they go. With the ball locked up, we motored over to Sandy Spit and had a great time there. We wanted to do the Bubbly Pool but I had a good anchor set so we just dinghied over to Foxy's Taboo. We started heading down the path but ran into a group coming back who said not to bother since it was just not flowing. So, we turned around and had drinks at Foxy's. Headed back to the boat and to our ball then dinghied over to White Bay and The Soggy Dollar. Really, really enjoyed that vibe. Dinner that night at Corsairs.

Day 8: Headed over to Norman and got a ball. Dinghied out to the Indians for snorkeling and then over to the Caves. Then it was over to the Willy T for drinks and debauchery which shall not be described further here (ahem). The shot ski is fun! I feel somewhat bad for all the parents of children who may have been permanently scared... Took a trip over to the Pirates Bight for souvenirs but had our last dinner onboard.

Day 9: Sail to the base, taxi to airport, home at 2 am the next day. Phew!

Thanks for coming to my Ted Talk

Great report...thanks for posting

I was curious about the bugs given the recent rains

enjoyed the Anegada part and fixing the boat

Awesome report. Thank you. It appears you had a great time in spite of the weather.

I will mention something everyone should consider. I note the generator type on any boat I am chartering and purchase a spare impeller and it’s in my charter go kit. If you have a generator failure 99% of the time it will be either a clogged strainer or a bad impeller. Some charter companies provide an impeller spare onboard but they are often missing. If unsure of type generator ask at the base if their is a spare onboard and if not can you get one.

Good to hear your pre-trip jitters were mostly unfounded! Glad you had a good time!
I’m headed out tomorrow for my own “first time with first-timers” trip, hoping for the same! (And as well with a pile of Laura’s custom shirts to grease the wheels!)

We were always told that we didn't have to pay the fee for the Baths, because it was covered by the National Parks fee that we paid to the charter company. It's been a while since our last trip, so maybe that has changed?

Dan

They have changed the rule. It’s a bit strange since you are purchasing a national park permit just not that national park!

On my Sunsail Greek charter last month I noticed a spare impeller in the drawer of the navigation desk. Sunsail 4500L
Fortunately we didn’t need it.

We did have to replace the fresh water pump in Poros though. It would stay on or off, so we started and stopped by banging on it with a hammer! High tech huh? Probably just a stuck selinoid. Moorings/Sunsail told us that a new pump would be sent on the early morning ferry from Athens base. But one was located locally and a local mechanic replaced in a couple of hours. We were off the dock before lunch. Boat was new, just entered service fall of 2023. We had to replace a generator water pump on a Moorings 4800 last year on Union Island in the Grenadines. Both times, timely serviced by Moorings/Sunsail.