TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums British Virgin Islands Trip Report Part Three

Continuing on our trip in early July

NIGHT 4 – We sailed and tacked from Brewer’s Bay to Marina Cay for the evening. We went ashore for the advertised Happy Hour. The Happy Hour does have discounted drinks, but there isn’t a food menu for Happy Hour. Enjoyed appetizers and drinks in the new setup. There are no facilities for trash or ice, you have to dinghy over to Scrub Island but I don’t know how you prove you paid for a mooring, maybe with the paper receipt. We didn’t bother.

DAY 5 – We stopped at the Dogs and all of the park moorings were available. But, after diving in to enjoy some snorkeling we had to give up because there were a lot of jellyfish in the water. Made our way to Eustacia Sound on the back of Prickly Pear for some snorkeling but we didn’t really find a good snorkeling spot. After our stop we motored around into North Sound. At first we tried to pick up a mooring at Saba Rock but the wind was really strong and uncomfortable so we turned around and dropped anchor off the Sandbox on Prickly Pear. Much calmer. Luckily we swam our anchor and it was sideways on a metal post sticking up out of the sea bed. So, we carefully pulled up the anchor and moved further left from the Sandbox. The post is about 50 ft off the beach and about 40 feet to the left of the fence on shore.

DAY 6 (a Thursday night) – Off to Anegada and we picked up one of the First Come First Serve moorings. We used the shuttle at Lobster Trap to go over to the Anegada Beach Club. That was an adventure! About 1 mile down the road the shuttle van broke down. Driver made a call and we didn’t have to wait long for a replacement bench seat truck to show up. As soon as we all loaded onto the bench seats in the truck bed there was a huge downpour for the rest of the trip. Lunch at Anegada Beach Club was very delicious and then we lounged on the beach. It was very windy so several of the ladies went into the small spa for facials.

Dinner was reserved at Potter’s. I made the reservation for our large group via WhatsApp about a month out, with confirmation. I believe I was corresponding with Sam. Noone came out to the boat to get our meal selections (usually Potter’s is the first out to the boats to drum up reservations). So a couple of the crew dinghied into Potter’s with our list and of course, they didn’t even know we were coming! It was very slow on Thursday night, there were only 3 tables eating. Food was great, lobster was good. But, they didn’t have any music, no limbo contest, nothing. We went over to the dance floor and turned on the music for ourselves. I’m guessing Thursday nights off season are very slow. Sam was in the back playing dominos and it was very reduced staff.

DAY 7 – This is the day that the remnants of Hurricane Beryl hit Anegada. Heavy winds and rain for 5 hours. We did some cleaning and hung in the anchorage until it cleared. Then sailed off to Leverick Bay for a dock reservation. For some reason we were placed out on the fuel dock and it was very tight with boats coming in/out to use fuel dock. We used the new laundry facilities but only 2 washers and 2 dryers were working out of 4 each. Lots of people jockeying for the machines. We had to sit guard waiting for a dryer to become available and quickly transfer our loads. Pussers store was having a sale 60% off on pants so I bought a couple of pairs of pants while waiting for laundry. Some of the crew used the new shower facilities but they didn’t look any better than the old facilities. We were able to fully re-provision from the grocery store, good enough selection. I wanted to try Blunder Bay Marina and the North Sound Bistro, but we needed the grocery store, laundry and shower facilities.

Enjoyed the Friday night Jumbie BBQ. It was fully packed with people. We had made an early reservation for the tables up in the ‘castles’ which was really nice compared to the picnic table seating down on the sand. Having a dock berth was perfect so that our young couples could stay out as late as they wanted dancing with the DJ after the Jumbie show.

DAY 8 – We had a nice sail out of North Sound down the coast of Virgin Gorda to the Baths. Scored one of the few mooring balls available mid day. I don’t need to go through the Baths anymore, but we had newbies onboard so they tied off to dinghy line, swam in, hiked up to pay fee and hiked back through the Baths. There was a band playing (not very good) at Poor Man’s bar area, looked like there was a group tour or something. It took them at least 3 hours for the roundtrip through the Baths. I’m not sure how anyone can keep to the 90 min limit on the park moorings??? We dropped the mooring and moved over to Valley Trunk Bay for a beautiful anchorage. At first it was a little crowded with 5 boats anchored, but two crewed boats left at the end of the day. I was trying to figure out where they would go at 4 or 5pm for the night? Virgin Gorda Yacht Harbor???

DAY 9 – Spent a long morning in our beautiful anchorage. Dropped off from the dinghy for snorkeling off the Baths and then snorkel / walk / swim through Spring Bay, Little Trunk Bay and back to Valley Trunk. It was a fun adventure. Another group did yoga under the trees on the beach. Picked up the anchor and headed to Cooper Island. I didn’t really want to stay at Cooper Island but it was the next logical stop making our way back towards base. Luckily there were plenty of first come balls when we arrived. I spent the rest of the afternoon watching the Cooper Island boat go through the anchorage stopping for payment, but the guy never stopped at our boat. I looked very carefully at the mooring and there was no ‘number’ on it so I knew I couldn’t pay via Boatyball. Never paid for the mooring, don’t know if we were supposed to go into the bar or something. Did not have serious backwinding / crowding issues this visit.

Just outside Cooper anchorage there was a huge megayacht Broadway. It had been anchored off for over 2 weeks and the staff were complaining about it. The tender (an absolutely gorgeous Italian wood boat) was zipping back and forth dropping guests on the beach. They kept coming back with fresh towels and drinks. The crew would go down the beach with trays of drinks and snacks for their guests – the guests never bought a drink from the bar. Then helicopters took two trips off the yacht towards Beef Island airport. It was kind of noisy and annoying in the anchorage.

DAY 10 – Sailed over to the Rhone for a short snorkel over the wreck. Then back to The Bight for our final night. We stopped at the Caves and enjoyed fabulous snorkeling because it was not crowded. Then into the Bight to pick up a mooring. We decided we were all too tired to cook and clean another night so we dressed up and went into the Pirate Bight restaurant. Food was expensive but very good.

Left the Bight early and tried to get into the Nanny Cay Outer Harbor fuel dock by 7:30am. But two Marine Max power cats beat us into the dock so we were hovering off the entrance. Luckily a Navigare staff came out and took our Lagoon 450 into the Inner Harbor fuel dock for us, and brought us back around for docking after we fueled. It was very nice service. Very quick checkout, some nice showers at the Nanny Cay Hotel shower facilities and off to the Beef Island Airport. We flew in/out directly this time through Miami and I loved it. Did not have to deal with waiting for ferry, customs/immigration at the ferry terminals, etc. I definitely recommend it over going through St Thomas.

Glad you had a good time and nice report.

Thanks for "scoping" it out for us .....

Really nice report - thanks so much!

Thanks for the report! Looking forward to returning in October!

Does everyone need to walk up the hill at the Baths to pay, or can just one go up?

The Baths trail is now One Way only. You have to enter the rock trail from the Devil’s bay side and exit at the Park side. So, if only one person went up to get tickets, you would have to leave everyone waiting on the Devil’s Bay beach and walk to the top going against the flow of people. Probably doable if no heavy crowds. But the part that’s hard is your dinghy is probably on the float line off Devil’s Bay and how do you get back around to the dinghy?

The new one way caters solely for land based visits. If you are coming in from a boat on a mooring, the only way to do it is put dinghy on the exit side, everyone swims in, walks up to top and back down to Devil’s bay trail entrance. Or, someone has to drop off the one person, they swim in and go up to get tickets. Then you dinghy the rest of the group over to Devil’s Bay and they swim in and wait for tickets on the beach. Then wait for the group to appear at other end and pick them up at dinghy line