TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums British Virgin Islands What's on your BVI "Wish List" ?

Most visitors come to the BVI for a short stay
Whether it's a week, 10 days, maybe even 2 weeks.... that's a short stay
The last thing I'd want to do, is lose a day or 2 chasing after stuff to make my visit "work"

So, along those lines.... What's on your "Wish List" ?
What do you wish you could get that you can't / services you wish you could use that don't exist...etc

This could actually become a fun community service posting
There may be some lurking entrepreneurial locals who may grasp on one of your ideas...
For that matter... there may be more than one or even ten bored expat residents that might have fun filling a need....

I haven't seen a posting like this on TTOL... so here it is....anything goes....(moderator permitting of course- lol)

Just bring American Eagle back. I haven't been back since they pulled the plug.

I'll second that!!!!!

PDF C&I forms

Internet/telephone C&I check-in/check-out and fishing license

Cheers, RickG

BVI and USVI C&I talking would be nice. Most of the Caribbean you can check in on phone or internet.

Riteway to take over Bobby's CGB

That's just crazy!!! Many of those cheerful C&I employees would be unemployed. A zillion trees would be saved and more USVI misfits would clear in every time if it was easy. Keep the paperwork confusing for first time visitors. Keep the C&I people busy stamping multi-page forms!! :and above all, keep adding fees and taxes for those of us that follow the rules!!! grin:

Kimber you're 100% correct...
The only reason I and millions of others go again and again to the BVI's is to see the smiles and gratitude of those fine C&I People--OOPS! sorry I meant Officials.

Clearing in with C&I in West End reminds me of the Soup Nazi episode on Seinfeld.

Reminds me of a song. " I was drunk the day my mom got ot of prison" ....

ohhhh... you are bringing back memories....
Good ones - let me share:

3, maybe 4, maybe 5 yrs back - I flew into Beef, late night - C&I forms were out of stock on the aircraft
They handed them to us as we walked into the terminal
Well... I didn't have my glasses
and, without them... especially after dark....good luck to us all when dealing with me
((keep that in mind when passing me on the road going home after Myetts happy hour))

"You gotta fill out the form" the woman official said
I know... but I cannot see...at all
"What's this line ?
"What's this line..and that...and....

She walked me thru...line by line...by line
...and "understood"

So... if and when you hear sarcasm from me... which can be often
It is the simple moments like the above... that keep bringing me back to this place

Now... back to the business at hand.....

A rogue submarine patrolling the cruise ship lanes

A great Thai restaurant and a great Indian restaurant (I know you can get some mediocre stuff occasionally but..) I would also love a good, honest mechanic with a well equipped shop so we dont have to work on my car in the road or in a scrap yard!The police in CGB being much more active..

Charter companies offering a pick up from STT on the boat you are chartering and the sail back to BVIs is your check out sail.

Decent flights from Antigua (the main European hub in this part of Caribbean) that run to time and with a reasonable wait time (ie not five hours ). OK , so VI Airlink are supposed to offer this twice a week, but finding their flights, even on the consolidator sites they recommend, is impossible. There are a lot of sailors in Europe too but the journey is long and arduous,not helped by the last stage being expensive and unreliable. Please do something to encourage us to come over too.

You can already get that. Hire a one day skipper with us and you can drop him in Soper's. You even get to drop the boat off ten minutes from the airport on your return.

Jay

Second pdf Customs and Immigration forms

You can already get that. Hire a one day skipper with us and you can drop him in Soper's. You even get to drop the boat off ten minutes from the airport on your return.

Jay [/quote]

OK, going to have to check out chartering from STT! Thanks Jay.

Jay,

What charter company do you work with?

Click on his name..

Ah, got it. Thanks.

Jay,

Does CYOA ever compromise on allowing their boats to go to White Bay? I see that you can fill out a form that allows you to go to Anegada but don't see anything about White Bay.

No the risk is to great and getting worse every year.

Jay

great company, very well maintained by Jay and his staff, and located in Frenchtown 5 minutes to the airport

No the risk is to great and getting worse every year.


Jay, you hit the nail on the head.
For the safety of the charterers they should eliminate it as an overnight anchorage.
As for Anegada, it has never been a dangerous trip but charterers were told to stay away because there was an hour or so without seeing land then when GPS came into the picture it became part of the circuit

Well said for a guy who sips rum with his pinky out from a rusted coffee can.
I have to agree, if I were to buy a boat for charter it would be with CYOA or Sail Caribe

Can someone explain to me why White Bay is so dangerous or maybe tell of a negative experience you have had? I did see the pictures of Mr. Bill on the beach but thinking that could happen anywhere if you had a faulty mooring. Sorry to sound stupid but my family and I have spent many overnights there starting back in the 70's/80's when we lived in the Caribbean to today and never had a problem. Nor have we heard of friends who have had problems. Just curious.

I really don't get it either except of course in a swell. Jay can correct me but I would assume on the side of caution and not having a lot of local experience, White Bay can be uncomfortable and possibly dangerous on anchor. The moorings are fairly new and probably safe but I have seen waves breaking over the reef. With all the new moorings on the Soggy Dollar side anchoring has become a real P.I.A.

Sorry that we have derailed the OP's thread.

There are several things combined that make White Bay high risk for damage.

First off it's a very shallow anchorage with very little room between the reef and the beach. It also has poor holding in a large portion. Hard bottom with a light layer of sand over it.

It also is poorly marked at the entrances. The reef is routinely run over in broad daylight. Spend the night there and have a problem with your set getting out will be even worse.

North swells, it is very susceptible to wrap around north swells. When this happens the surge pulls your boat forward on the waves changing the angle of the scope on your set. Or if your on one of the poorly installed moorings it causes the boat to go forward and pull straight up on the sand screw. This is what put Mr Bill on the beach. The single screw was still attached to the boat when it went up on the beach.

Overcrowded, you can be the best in the world at anchoring your vessel the people on either side of you won't be.

Park your boat in Great Harbor and dinghy over it's more fun if your not looking over your shoulder from the bar every five minutes to see who anchored on top of your set or to check to see if your dragging. Plus your a lot less likely to get hit by some one else trying to get in or out after happy hour.

Jay

Not much water ..if swell comes over reef in night..boat can and often has..bounce on bottom and put strain on deck hardware when bounces up from bottom..not to mention anyone anchored dragging into you..or the difficulty of trying to escape that in a squall with swell in dark of night. It has happened to many over the years...every anchorage is great on a fair weather night.

White Bay for me just didn't seem right. Too close to shore and to the reef. We did it once years ago but I had the feeling we'd never go back. The "what ifs" just made me very uncomfortable (swell, backwinding, night escape). Now Jay has put some numbers on that and I agree.

We've been back winded in Cam and Lee bay when we were too close to shore or the reef. We've been put in danger when someone else anchored too close for comfort and we've had out anchor come loose at night when the the holding was good and I backed down on the anchor and set adrift at night requiring us to reposition.

I've not used CYOA yet but hope to some day - not worried about the boats or the service, but usually there are just the two of us and their rules require a second captain and two experienced crew to go to SVIs or St Croix. My feeling has always been their boats, their rules even if I don't completely agree. But on White Bay overnight, I get it.