You know it has been a cold winter when you walk out the door to a day that is 37 degrees with some sun and winds under 10 knots and think, ‘what a nice day.’ Then two things hit you. First, that is the same as stepping into your refrigerator, closing the door, and keeping the light on. Second is that your boat is shrinkwrapped like so much leftover lasagna in that refrigerator.
Hopefully every one of you has found some good opportunity to escape the cold this winter. In late January, 48 Bay boaters from the Annapolis Yacht Club made their way to the island of Tortola in the British Virgin Islands (BVI) for a bareboat charter. It was a flight to boating heaven; a chance to escape the harsh winter back home and make their way south and east for a week-plus of sun and fun therapy.
Unfortunately, it was a round trip, and the cruisers faced the big end of the January snowstorm as they returned (is there still snow on the ground as you read this?). The smartest ones in the group noted the weather back home and decided to extend their stays in the islands a few days.
If you have never been to the BVI, I must ask, why not? There are just a few truly choice cruising grounds in the world. Our very own Chesapeake Bay is at the top of many lists. The BVI is also high on that list. The navigation is line of sight, and the hazards are few and well-marked. The distances between ports of call are short. The restaurants are plentiful. The water is clear and warm year-round, a special bonus to cold weather refugees.
For those of you who have been to the BVI, but not recently, things have changed. The devastation to so many favorite stops that was the result of Hurricane Irma in 2017 has finally and mostly been erased. Join me on a quick update tour.
BVI Updates
Marina Cay is back open! They preserved the outdoor showers (no longer requiring tokens). There is a smaller restaurant operating there now, not the Pussers of pre-Irma memory, but a welcome rebuilt stop on the Sir Francis Drake Channel circuit. Other fan favorites including the Bitter End Yacht Club, Saba Rock, and Cooper Island Beach Club have been reopened for a longer period, some still adding back features.
There have always been a ton of mooring balls available in the BVI. Anchoring is almost never required these days. Still, some locations can get full. The addition of advanced reservable mooring balls via BoatyBall is a real plus.
The charter fleet continues to grow and adapt to the desires of BVI-bound crews. Sailing monohulls are fewer and sailing cats have more and more taken their place. In addition, powercats are increasingly available in the various charter fleets.
Sail vs. Power
Those powercats are the “lap of luxury” as cruising goes. They come with generators, water makers, ice makers, refrigeration, and, of course, air conditioning. They also come with full flybridges, unlike most of their sailing brethren. The flybridge makes for a perfect sunset cocktail location and improves your sightlines when approaching a mooring. What’s not to like?
Let’s be honest, sailing in the BVI is… optional. The winds are reliable from a sailing perspective but, as often happens to sailors, not exactly what you were looking for.
The Sir Francis Drake Channel is created by an oblong grouping of BVI islands. The channel runs roughly east-west and the prevailing winds are out of the east. On a sailing cat that means a beat or a run from one stop to the next.
Sailing cats by their very nature long for some sort of a beam reach. Beating to windward or running downwind are not their strong suits. As a result, many a sailing cat charterer treats their boat more like a trawler, moving from port to port at say seven knots, without ever raising a sail. I know this by observation and from personal experience, many times. Getting the sails rolled out for a short and maybe marginal experience sailing just sort of messes with your “island karma.”
So, as you can see, the growth of powercat availability in the charter fleets has a mother and her name is logic. Some of that flock of Bay boaters understood that logic and selected a powercat. Some, with either a romantic or nostalgic bent, picked a sailboat. All of them had a great time.
A Bareboat Flotilla
The collected crews departed Road Town, the largest city on Tortola and home to several charter bases, on a blustery Saturday morning. Their first day destination was Cooper Island, just a few miles away. The benefit of a powercat became immediately evident. This leg was directly into the wind, maybe 25 knots, with seas at three to four feet. The sailors mostly endured this at barely six knots. The powercats making the same trip “slowed” to 16 knots to ease the pounding. They were secured to a mooring and enjoying their second painkiller as the sailing fleet arrived.
After Cooper Island, the Annapolis fleet made the “mandatory” day stop at the Baths. For those of you who don’t know it, imagine a mixture of house- and truck-sized boulders haphazardly cast about on a beach, creating a series of small beaches, tunnels, and isolated, protected wading pools. You may have been there before, but it is hard to bypass this pleasure, even if it is old hat.
The day ended for most in Gorda Sound on the east end of Virgin Gorda at the Bitter End Yacht Club (BEYC). That evening was highlighted by an outstanding private dinner for the entire flotilla. A lay day followed so the BEYC facilities and the adjacent Saba Rock restaurant could be fully explored.
On the lay day some of the fleet ventured to Anegada. With a greater distance to cover and wind on the beam, this was a sailor’s leg. Finally, a reason for the sailors to actually sail.
The bulk of the fleet stuck it out in Gorda Sound. The next day they made their way to Marina Cay, or the resort at Scrub Island. Scrub Island is an upscale stop with a hotel and genuine resort amenities. In the post Irma rebuilds, several of the storm-damaged stops moved it up a notch on the upscale meter.
From those stops, folks made their way to Jost Van Dyke. Jost is the smallest of the four main islands of the BVI. It is not small in terms of fun, however, with several different day and overnight anchorages and plenty of restaurant and bar choices.
One of the favorites on Jost is the Soggy Dollar Beach Bar. The bar is an old wooden structure in the sand. I suspect it too was wiped out in Irma but rebuilt in just days. Honestly, I have not applied proper journalistic diligence to that assumption but trust me, if you can wield a hammer and had a box of nails…
The entertainment at the Soggy Dollar is watching charterers land their dinghy in the breaking swell on the beach. There is a reason your dollars are soggy.
The final night for the group was at Norman Island. The large, protected bay known as the Bight hosts one reputable shoreside restaurant, where the Annapolis gang gathered one final time, and one less reputable faux pirate boat called the Willie T. Both are entertaining in their own way but suffice it to say you don’t want to bring your young kids to the latter.
Cruising in Company
There is a distinct advantage to cruising in company. The leaders of this cruise spent 13 months in planning, saving the crews on the nine Annapolis boats a lot of the same. The itinerary was laid out but flexible enough for individual crew choices. The combination gave great comfort to the members of our flotilla who had never had the pleasure of a BVI visit.
For one of our confirmed powerboater couples, it was their first experience under sail. No, they did not rush home and start looking for a sailboat. They did however note the value of moving more slowly when there are great vistas to enjoy along the way.
By Mike Pitchford, Margaret Davis, and Drew Davis