Wednesday, May 16, 2012

A Personal Experience of BVI Sailing Vacations



"A Personal Experience of BVI Sailing Vacations"," I was still blown away by the BVI.

The British Virgin Islands are a truly remarkable place.
 The snorkeling around the islands is equally amazing and diverse, and of course the sailing is remarkable.
 The islands make visible, line of site, destinations that even the most novice navigator could find.
 One of the most remarkable discoveries to me was that bareboat chartering is within the grasp of average middle class people.
 It's an incredible experience that anyone with even a little sense of wonder and adventure will love.
 Skippers are available, but keep in mind that it's very hard for one person to sail a boat of the size available, so be prepared to lend a hand.
 The bottom line is that if you are remotely physically capable and can put off redecorating the bathroom a little longer there is no reason you cannot be on a catamaran sailing in the BVI.
 Bareboat chartering provides you with a clean slate on which to build your vacation.


Provisioning proved to be the biggest pre-charter challenge to me.
 Armed with that information I opted to use the shopping list method of provisioning, which is pretty much just filling out a list of what you want and submitting it ahead of your arrival.
 I also penciled in some items that weren't on the standard list and all of those items were available; even in the brands I wanted.
 It was fun and not as hot as cooking in the galley.
 I hadn't thought about it until I was there, but too much charcoal lighter fluid on the grill can be terrifying on a boat.

Fresh water is something else you should be conscious of.
 Showers should consist of dousing, soaping and rinsing.

Packing is another obvious part of any trip and it's always a chore to decide what to take.
 You'll also need some sunscreen of the highest SPF rating you can get and some canvas deck shoes or sneakers.
 The Catamaran Company provides snorkel gear of high quality, so there's no need to worry about that.
 Be sure to use duffle bags since there is little storage space for suitcases on a boat.
 In fact the places we went to, which are mostly the popular charter destinations, were much better suited to snorkeling since the reefs were shallow.
 What is termed as "Rendezvous Diving" is to have a dive boat come and meet your charter boat and pick you up to take you to a dive site.
 The other option, of course, is to plan your charter around diving.
 If they aren't it could get pretty boring for them.
 Despite the girth of the hulls she is a fast boat and we had a lot of fun sailing her.
 The Catamaran Company has many yachts to choose from, and you should select the boat that best suits your needs.
The ride from the airport on Beef Island to Nanny Cay on Tortola was scenic and pleasant.
 She answered all of our questions and put us at ease.
 Although the Nanny Cay Hotel, which is right off of the docks, seems great, we opted for sleeping aboard.
 Public restrooms complete with showers are available, which is good since using boat heads at the marina docks is prohibited.
 Within walking distance are Peg Legs Restaurant and bar, Genaker Cafe, a Rite Way grocery store, Bluewater Divers dive shop and a few other businesses.
 We settled into the boat, unpacked and unwound.
 A note should be made here that you pay for your provisioning when it arrives and if you plan to use a credit card you should contact your credit card company ahead of time or they may block transactions made in the BVI.
 After stowing everything away it was 9:30 and our skipper arrived.
 We set out for Norman Island.
 It was a good introduction to sailing without too much stress, and I got my first chance to man the helm.
 And appropriately enough we moored in Privateer's Bay.
 We snorkeled, swam, kayaked and generally had a great time.
 We moored to a mooring ball, which became a good habit.
 Norman Island is uninhabited unless you count goats as population, but it does have two restaurants.
 We enjoyed the peace and tranquility of the Caribbean in the cockpit over a couple of cold beers and had our first meal aboard the boat.
 It was a great evening.
 The trip required several tacks and we found we swiftly improving at our sailing tasks.
 There's even a small bungalow on the beach that finishes off the image completely.
 The snorkeling was spectacular.
 Visibility was around 50 feet.
 There are also a boutique and dive shop as well as some cottages for rent.
There were about twenty other boats moored nearby, but once again they were very quiet and we had a peaceful evening.


Day 3:

We left Cooper Island early and after a brief diversion to Trellis Bay on Beef Island where we dropped off some garbage and picked up some ice and water, we set out for the famous Baths on Virgin Gorda.
 Despite The Baths being the most crowded place we went they were magnificent and a "must see".
 Visibility was good at over 50 feet and the coral and sea life were incredible.
 At this point we were all thinking, ""How does it just keep getting better every day".
 Saba Rock is a tiny little island just off of Virgin Gorda.
 Despite it's size it sports a nice restaurant and bar and a gift shop as well as a small resort.
 We cooked steaks that night and after dinner my father-in-law broke out his guitar and the skipper sang.
 We didn't sound too bad, but we had drunk a few Pain Killers.


Day 4:

The skipper had made the mistake the day before of promising me he would take me out on the runabout to photograph the sun rising over the boat, so at around 5:00am I knocked on his cabin door and although a little bleary eyed he got up and assisted me without complaint.


The $25 mooring fee at Saba Rock includes a fill of your boats fresh water tank and two bags of ice.
We sailed to Great Dog, which is one of five uninhabited islands called The Dogs.
 Visibility here was around 60 feet.


We had been keeping a close eye on a tropical storm called Bonnie and upon getting out of the water the skipper informed us that to err on the side of safety we would seek safe harbor for the night at Marina Cay.
Marina Cay turned out to be an interesting little island.
 There is also a small beach.
 I had the honor of meeting one of the cats.
 We went ashore and had a look around and had a drink, but spent most of the afternoon and evening doing very little, and it turned out to be a nice break, even in the BVI.
 They had a great time and the skipper and I enjoyed coffee from the bar.
 Since conditions were good the conversation inevitably turned to just how fast the Bahia 46 was.
7 knots, which the skipper assured us was a respectable speed.
 Jost, as the locals call it is about four miles long and has just fewer than two hundred permanent residents.
 We opted to skip all of the usual tourist stuff and go to a little place our skipper knew about in Little Harbor called "Sidney's Peace and Love".
 It had a great atmosphere, and the folks that run the place couldn't be friendlier.
 On some evenings Sidney fires up the grill and makes bar b q.
 Sidney's also features an honor bar, where you make your own drinks and mark down a record for the bill.
 It was another great day in the BVI.
 The colors playing across the water and the Caribbean style buildings on the shore made quite a picture.
 Sandy Cay is like something out of a post card, with picture perfect palm trees and a beautiful sandy beach.
 One of my friends found a trail and we followed it together.
 We found that Sandy Cay was far more complex than it appears upon first examination.
 It was a stark contrast to the tranquil looking beach area, and very beautiful in it's own right.
 Once again we took an unnecessarily circuitous route so we could have some fun sailing.


Cane Garden Bay is certainly populated with many restaurants, bars, hotels etc.
 It isn't overbuilt, and there are no tall ''', and no franchise stores.
 Pink and powder blue clapboard houses cling to lush hill's sides overlooking a beautiful harbor.
 Some of our group took a cab tour of the area, which they described as spectacular, while others of us visited a local dive shop and checked out the bars.


Day 7:

On our seventh day we sailed to Great Tobago.
 We snorkeled and were very impressed with the marine life.
 It has a dark and forbidding quality to it with dark cliffs plunging into the sea at skewed angles.
 The uninhabited island is hilly but covered only by grass and a few spars and twisted shrubs.
 All of this having been said, who can escape the appeal of an evil, haunted pirate island.


For the evening we put into Sopper's Hole.
 Sopper's Hole is a little commercialized for my tastes, but it certainly does have many conveniences, with many stores, a restaurant and bar, and showers available.
 We had dinner at Pusser's which was great and turned in for the night.
 There were many hard goodbyes that day Starting with my friends Ben and Shari whom we dropped off at the ferry dock at around 9:00am.
 After motoring back to Nanny Cay we had to rush my mother and father-in-law to a cab.
 We were fortunate to have enough time to have one last coffee with the skipper at the Genaker Cafe.


It was truly the vacation of a lifetime and we would like to thank everyone at The Catamaran Company for making our trip so wonderful and being so kind and considerate.


This is a vacation, a voyage and an adventure that is within your grasp.
catamarans.



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