TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums British Virgin Islands Great Harbor $40 moorings

We were in Great Harbor last week and were charged $40 for a mooring. "Price increase two weeks ago."

We usually anchor there, but the swell was up and we got bounced around on anchor the night before. It was worth $40 to have a spot tucked in. Moorings were full by 10AM last week. Happy hour entertainment was watching newbies try to anchor for the first time. We tried for a mooring in Little Harbor, but it was blowing 30+ kts in there.

Sorry for not posting during our last few trips, but I haven't been able to post from IOS devices using any browser since before October.

Cheers, RickG

We should all Boycott the mooring balls one week, in protest. Not sure how to organize that, but it would be an interesting experiment... I think even $30 is steep... Except at Leverick Bay where you get water and Ice included!

33% increase... overnight? Ouch!

Once you leave the highly competitive Virgin Islands $30 per night for a transient mooring would be at the market or far below. $125 per night is getting more and more common. Enjoy the $30 and anchoring while you can. I expect those number to only go up and even way up. In my opinion I would add many more moorings and disperse them as part of a sustainability effort included in the cruising permits. The key is spreading the boats out and eliminating boats from some of the most sensitive spots.

Where would you disburse the boats to? All the safe anchorages now have moorings and they are showing up in places that are not really safe for overnights like White Bay on Guana.
G

StormJib - Where in the Caribbean are mooring balls more expensive than in the BVI? After the BVI the priciest I've found are in the Iles des Saintes and that is only 20Euro for a big boat and much less for smaller ones. Many well-kept mooring in the French islands and places such as Nevis are available at no extra charge.

Which Great Harbor? JVD or Peter

They mooring balls are free in the SVI.

Mustique has pretty expensive mooring balls - several years ago it was $85 for two days, two-day minimum. Probably higher now.

and most in complete disrepair, we only anchor in SVI.

Jost Van Dyke.

Cheers, RickG

St Barths, FREE, Bonaire $10 per night, SVI Free, Grenadines, $20 approx. Martinique and Guadeloupe, $20 Euro.

Increasing from $30 to $40 is quite a hike, Perhaps they should consider increasing $1 per year, for 10 years,,,

People are used to being screwed, but be gentle!

The more they increase the fees, the more boats will choose to anchor, hurting the ecology, and marine life.

Just a thought.

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Letsgosailing - Great Harbour on JVD is somewhat different from the other anchorages in the BVI as the holding there is very bad until you get very far out in depths of 40+ feet which is beyond the amount of chain that most charter boats carry. I thought it was a good thing when they started putting in mooring balls a couple of years back. But this price hike sets a precedent and perhaps the other lessees of Moor-Seacure mooring balls will follow suit; and that would indeed be a very bad thing.

Once one goes up they all seem to go up within a year.
G

I'm surprised none of them have added the customary BVI Service Charge of 10-15% too. <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Yikes.gif" alt="" />

We were on a ball at Great Harbor Wednesday 3/9/16 and were charged $30.....

I am pretty sure we paid something when using a ball at Esperanza, Vieques in December.

I believe the mooring balls in Esperanza are private, you might have paid the owner.

I also believe that those balls are private. We anchored when we were there.

Glenn Kranig (340-227-4288) has put in 6 private moorings off Esperanza and I think they are around $25 per night, if memory serves. We used one the last time we visited.


While I have not had difficulty finding holding, there is a lot of sea-grass off Esperanza and some people have had a hard time getting the hook to stay put. In addition to supplying a nice mooring, Glenn is a font of local knowledge and can direct you to some nice out-of-the-way anchorages.

National Parks is trying to increase the mooring ball fee from I believe $375 per year to a whopping $600 per year