zefender
Well-Known Member
After the ARC, the boat was left in Rodney Bay pending a decision from Peters and May as to whether the ship to take her back to the UK would pick up in Antigua or Tortola. Eventually, it was to be Tortola so we (that's Missus Zefender and I) arrived in St. Lucia on the evening of 20th May. The boat was, surprisingly in OK condition. I'd asked one of the dockmasters to look after her lines, fenders etc and wash/wet the teak every week. He'd given her a decent clean and the outside looked fine. The interior was OK though the mirrors in the heads had slipped as a result of the 'glue' melting a bit and the taps, doorhandles and stainless hatch surrounds were badly tarnished.
Friday morning, we put back all the deck gear and had a couple of divers go down to clean off the growth around the hull (not too bad, through the prop was a bit 'barnacled up'). We set off early Saturday morning. As there was just the two of us (and mrs Zef isn't big on long passages) I'd left it a bit open as to where we would go/stop off. I decided to go Northish as far as Guadeloupe (giving us the option of a few more stops than across to St. Kitts or direct to Tortola).
The first leg was fantastic sailing - we averaged 7.2 knots with one reef in the main and a few rolls in the genoa in Easterly winds about 22-25kts. . The swell in between the islands was about 2 metres on our starboard beam, but wasn't at all sloppy, only a few wet bits came over the top. We slowed a bit off Dominica due to the hills, despite being 5 miles or more off. In fact our progress was so fast that I got a bit concerned about making a landfall in north Guadeloupe in the dark, so we just pottered about until daylight at about 6am Sunday and anchored in Deshaies. Great sandy bay, lots of snorkelling. Very french orderly small town. Great restaurants and a friendly place. Customs were closed though (as they were on Monday morning too!) We set off Monday morning en route for Tortola. Again, great sailing and flat seas and we made good progress again for about 15 hours before the wind died completely (not seen zero sustained on the windex before). We motored/motorsailed most of the remainder. We began to wish that maybe we should spend less time in the BVIs and more time visiting St Kitts, St. Barts, St Martin etc though maybe the distances between them would make for some busy sailing.
We arrived in Road Harbour at Sunset on the monday - about 30 hours or so later. We should have checked in with customs before making a landfall (apparently BVIs are a bit strict on this) but found a marina and er checked in first thing next morning).
We armed ourselves with TCMs rather excellent guide to the BVIs, (written for this forum) and set about putting in place a second opinion. We spent the next week visiting some of the places he described.
My impression is that the islands really are fantastic sailing - maybe not quite enough wind every day though this may be the time of year. The advantage was that we had no problem finding mooring buoys or marinas.
The food is pretty terrible really - very fried, US style stuff and not exactly a haven for creole gastronomy. For what is is, it's expensive too. Other sailors seemed to be about 80% North American who tended to enter and leave harbours at an alarming rate of knots! Ch 16 was a constant cacophony of requests for help with docking and restaurant bookings. Not uncommon for the same call to be made 5 times within about 2 minutes until a response is received. Despite being a self-governing british colony, I did get the feeling that I was visiting a little bit of America (not a problem, just not quite what I expected).
It's all very green, lush pretty stuff with islands and bays just an hour or so away from each other. The places we visited (based on the TCM 'pilot') were:
Virgin Gourda Yacht Club (near Spanish Town)
Very nice modern marina. Had dinner in Rock Café/Sam's bar - OKish piano place - two courses and a bottle of wine for two cost about £90 all in. Berth cost about $US40
Next morning, visited 'The baths' on a day mooring - lumps of rock/caves in a bay. Nice view from bar/ restaurant 'Top of the Baths' - nice clean sandy bay.
Bitter End, Virgin Gourda.
Very pretty bay and the hotel/club complex tasteful. Food at the restaurant a bit like a Harvester only more expensive. Lovely place to watch the sunset.
Great Harbour - Jost van Dyke.
Went to Foxy's for their Buffet, music night on the beach. All good fun, safe anchorage. Turtles, pelicans, rum punches - memory a bit blurred ....
White bay - Jost van Dyke.
Picked up a mooring. Drink/lunch in laid back Ivans bar on the beach. Good snorkelling and postcard white sand (as you might expect!) palm trees etc. Fantastic.
Soper's hole - Tortola
Again, on a mooring buoy, dinner ashore al fresco. Multicoloured shoreside development a sort of carribean Port Solent but nice nevertheless.
The Caves - Norman Island
Day mooring - great snorkelling, spotting all sort of multicoloured fish around the coral.
Cooper Island resort.
Ooher - not much depth where the buoys are. But we took the deepest one and walked over the hill, through fab gardens to restaurant and had lunch on beach - steel drum band and turquoise waters on white sand and more palm trees etc. A bit 'chi-chi' for me but fairly spectacular anyway.
Nanny Cay - Tortola
Took a berth here and spent the next day stripping out the boat, getting customs papers sorted and arranging for a skipper to take the boat to the ship in about 10 days time. Quite a nice place with a casualish restaurant overlooking the sea (great lux shower block too), wi-fi connection, swimming pool etc.
Then, up at 0500 to catch two hopper planes to connect back with the Virgin flight back.
Summary - a fantastic place to spend a week cruising around in gentle waters and idyllic settings. Some careful navigation needed here and there. Recommended. Unless you have a local charter boat, able to connect to the 110V supply (or non compatible 240v), you'll need to run the engine a fair bit just to keep the beers cold. I was surprised how many 40ft ish Moorings boats seemed to have aircon on board (but this means you need to overnight in a marina to hook up). Good area for sailing with a cat too. Mossies a bit of a pain and very hot at night to sleep. Most people tended to go to bed early and rise very early too.
Looking forward to getting the boat back to a more accessible place though ...!
Friday morning, we put back all the deck gear and had a couple of divers go down to clean off the growth around the hull (not too bad, through the prop was a bit 'barnacled up'). We set off early Saturday morning. As there was just the two of us (and mrs Zef isn't big on long passages) I'd left it a bit open as to where we would go/stop off. I decided to go Northish as far as Guadeloupe (giving us the option of a few more stops than across to St. Kitts or direct to Tortola).
The first leg was fantastic sailing - we averaged 7.2 knots with one reef in the main and a few rolls in the genoa in Easterly winds about 22-25kts. . The swell in between the islands was about 2 metres on our starboard beam, but wasn't at all sloppy, only a few wet bits came over the top. We slowed a bit off Dominica due to the hills, despite being 5 miles or more off. In fact our progress was so fast that I got a bit concerned about making a landfall in north Guadeloupe in the dark, so we just pottered about until daylight at about 6am Sunday and anchored in Deshaies. Great sandy bay, lots of snorkelling. Very french orderly small town. Great restaurants and a friendly place. Customs were closed though (as they were on Monday morning too!) We set off Monday morning en route for Tortola. Again, great sailing and flat seas and we made good progress again for about 15 hours before the wind died completely (not seen zero sustained on the windex before). We motored/motorsailed most of the remainder. We began to wish that maybe we should spend less time in the BVIs and more time visiting St Kitts, St. Barts, St Martin etc though maybe the distances between them would make for some busy sailing.
We arrived in Road Harbour at Sunset on the monday - about 30 hours or so later. We should have checked in with customs before making a landfall (apparently BVIs are a bit strict on this) but found a marina and er checked in first thing next morning).
We armed ourselves with TCMs rather excellent guide to the BVIs, (written for this forum) and set about putting in place a second opinion. We spent the next week visiting some of the places he described.
My impression is that the islands really are fantastic sailing - maybe not quite enough wind every day though this may be the time of year. The advantage was that we had no problem finding mooring buoys or marinas.
The food is pretty terrible really - very fried, US style stuff and not exactly a haven for creole gastronomy. For what is is, it's expensive too. Other sailors seemed to be about 80% North American who tended to enter and leave harbours at an alarming rate of knots! Ch 16 was a constant cacophony of requests for help with docking and restaurant bookings. Not uncommon for the same call to be made 5 times within about 2 minutes until a response is received. Despite being a self-governing british colony, I did get the feeling that I was visiting a little bit of America (not a problem, just not quite what I expected).
It's all very green, lush pretty stuff with islands and bays just an hour or so away from each other. The places we visited (based on the TCM 'pilot') were:
Virgin Gourda Yacht Club (near Spanish Town)
Very nice modern marina. Had dinner in Rock Café/Sam's bar - OKish piano place - two courses and a bottle of wine for two cost about £90 all in. Berth cost about $US40
Next morning, visited 'The baths' on a day mooring - lumps of rock/caves in a bay. Nice view from bar/ restaurant 'Top of the Baths' - nice clean sandy bay.
Bitter End, Virgin Gourda.
Very pretty bay and the hotel/club complex tasteful. Food at the restaurant a bit like a Harvester only more expensive. Lovely place to watch the sunset.
Great Harbour - Jost van Dyke.
Went to Foxy's for their Buffet, music night on the beach. All good fun, safe anchorage. Turtles, pelicans, rum punches - memory a bit blurred ....
White bay - Jost van Dyke.
Picked up a mooring. Drink/lunch in laid back Ivans bar on the beach. Good snorkelling and postcard white sand (as you might expect!) palm trees etc. Fantastic.
Soper's hole - Tortola
Again, on a mooring buoy, dinner ashore al fresco. Multicoloured shoreside development a sort of carribean Port Solent but nice nevertheless.
The Caves - Norman Island
Day mooring - great snorkelling, spotting all sort of multicoloured fish around the coral.
Cooper Island resort.
Ooher - not much depth where the buoys are. But we took the deepest one and walked over the hill, through fab gardens to restaurant and had lunch on beach - steel drum band and turquoise waters on white sand and more palm trees etc. A bit 'chi-chi' for me but fairly spectacular anyway.
Nanny Cay - Tortola
Took a berth here and spent the next day stripping out the boat, getting customs papers sorted and arranging for a skipper to take the boat to the ship in about 10 days time. Quite a nice place with a casualish restaurant overlooking the sea (great lux shower block too), wi-fi connection, swimming pool etc.
Then, up at 0500 to catch two hopper planes to connect back with the Virgin flight back.
Summary - a fantastic place to spend a week cruising around in gentle waters and idyllic settings. Some careful navigation needed here and there. Recommended. Unless you have a local charter boat, able to connect to the 110V supply (or non compatible 240v), you'll need to run the engine a fair bit just to keep the beers cold. I was surprised how many 40ft ish Moorings boats seemed to have aircon on board (but this means you need to overnight in a marina to hook up). Good area for sailing with a cat too. Mossies a bit of a pain and very hot at night to sleep. Most people tended to go to bed early and rise very early too.
Looking forward to getting the boat back to a more accessible place though ...!
