TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums British Virgin Islands First Trip - May 9-16

We are looking forward to our first trip to the BVI. We have 6 first timers and 2 old Vets. I have a couple of questions.
1. How easy is it to carry-on frozen meat on the plane. We are thinking about bringing some steaks, Chicken Fajitas, Pork Chops and Brats.
2. Which bars have the best happy hour prices on food/drinks and atmosphere.
3. We would like to go to Hog Heaven, Do you have to rent a car or will a Taxi take you there? Cost?

We are renting from Sunsail a 464 Catamaran. Does anyone have experience on this boat?

Thanks for any suggestions and guidance

We were just down last month.
1. We brought a Polar Bear cooler with frozen, vacuum sealed steaks, burgers, chicken. However we checked the bag instead of carrying on. At customs, they charged a 10% tax on the value of the meat. I guessed it was about $100 worth so we paid $10.
3. We rented a car at Leverick from Nick to go to Hog Heaven. We used the car/truck for the day to visit the Baths, Savannah Bay and ended at Hog Heaven. Definitely worth going - we loved the views and the food!

The Sunsail 464 is the same as the Moorings 4600. You will find more comments on the 4600 if you do a search. It's a nice boat and will be very comfortable for 8.
G

Best bars for best happy hours?

As long as the sun is shining or (starting to set) the best bar for me is what ever one I end up at that day!

In CGB.." Myett's" always has a good happy hour..we love Wed happy hour at " Quito"s"...Q plays on the deck from about 5.30 on..and BTW the food at Quito's is much improved..great roti there the other night..

You can take the Saba Rock ferry from Leverick over to Saba for a great happy hour there for sure!

The Sundial 464 is the Robertson & Caine Leopard 46. I've chartered it several times and liked it very much.

My preferred cabins in order would be port aft, stb aft, stb fwd, port fwd. Generator is located in front of the port fwd cabin which gets some drone and vibration if you run the generator/AC at night.

Be careful when lowering the swim platform as it's heavy - keep a line around the davit winch to control it.

I think all these Sunsail 464's have the gas line disconnected from the grill so you'll need charcoal.

If you're not running the generator at night for AC, then plan on running it or the engines at least 4-5 hours during the day to recharge the batteries so they don't drop below 50% charge by early morning. Inverter will alarm and shut down automativally on low voltage.

Make sure your crew runs plenty of water through the electric heads when flushing to prevent clogs. It's a long piping run to the holding tank.

Without being too miserly on water usage, the tankage lasted us about 4.5-5 days with a crew of 8.

You should be able to touch double-digit speed with wind in the high teens. You will be able to cover some distance pretty quickly if winds are in the sweet spot of 15-20 kts. We've often sailed from The Bight, Norman Island to Biras Creek, North Sound (about 26 nm with tacks) in under 3 hours.