TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums British Virgin Islands Moorings subject to winter swell

Starting to figure out where we might go and was wondering if the following locations are pretty calm or are they exposed to possible swells.

1.little harbor JVD
2. Diamond cay (daytime)
3. Leverick..I think this one is safe
4. Haul overs bay Cooper island
5. the Bight..

Just wondering if these might be ok for the.night. We will be there the first week of February..

All you mentioned should be OK.

Agreed. How about an opposite list. Ie moorings exposed to swell.

Starting to think I can't always predict so well so I have a secondary in mind with a third in reserve. I try to make sure I can hit the alternates before sunset.

9-10 ft swells today. We're avoiding Cooper, Dog, Cam and Lee Bays with Marina Cay a maybe. Hoping to reach North Sound, but will bail out at Trellis if today's high winds and swell make banging to wind annoying. We may bypass White Bay on Guana Island, but hope to stop for lunch and check conditions.

We never take a ball or anchor in White Bay JVD. We've spoken to too different crews that spent a night at White Bay earlier this week. They described dangerous conditions with the swell, and it was smaller then.

Cheers, RickG

White bay jvd is a day stop in adequate conditions only.

Rick, are you sure about the large swells? I don't see that on windguru. But your there and I'm looking out the window at snow.

Warren, here's my wind guru. Its a good predictor of conditions in 8 hours. We use windguru too, it's a consensus of a couple of models. Buoy 41043 is real time.

http://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/station_page.php?station=41043

Need more Bailey's in my coffee for today's sailing.

Cheers, RickG

I wondered the same thing. There is no swell forecast for the entire week. Looks a bit windy with the standard wind chop but all the anchorages should be fine.
George

Rick, I think you are getting The north swell confused with wind driven waves. They are very different issues. With the numbers I am seeing all the anchorages should be fine. Your buoy will show larger waves from the wind then you will actually see in most of the BVI. The waves will be from the direction of the wind not the N to NNE you get in a winter swell.
G

Here is the best site for a local forecast. If there was a swell they would add something like this to the end of each daily forecast. "Swell from N to NNE 2 to 3 meters". When you see that you know to stay clear of the places impacted by the N swell. With your current forecast of brisk wind many of those anchorages like Cane Garden Bay will be the best places to actually go. White Bay on Guana and Marina Key should be fine also. It will be windy at Marina Key.

http://weather.noaa.gov/cgi-bin/fmtbltn.pl?file=forecasts/marine/coastal/am/amz715.txt

The swell has dropped to about three feet today (this from Apple Bay)..boats were happily moored in CGB last night..

We need a swell cam in cane garden bay. That would be cool! And useful. All we need to see are our mono masts. The meter should say stay or stay away.

Here at Leverick, the wind is howling, has heen since last night. I ' m guessing 20- 25 knts. Lots of chop and white caps in Norh Sound. That always means heavier chop outside the sound. A treat day to sail down the chanell, But,not so much taking up SFD.

I think I will never understand how swell develops in the BVI and how experts can predict it. BTW: It is said that on JvD Great Harbor etc. is bad with north swell because the waves from north were reflected in the USVI and come back to JvD. It is hard to "believe"/imagine this :-)))

This site does give you a good perspective of 'how swell develops' and the predictions being used.
http://polar.ncep.noaa.gov/waves/viewer.shtml?-multi_1-latest-hs-US_puertorico-