I have over 4 weeks bareboating experience in BVIs during May.
For the most part mooring balls are no problem before 3:00pm After 3:00pm you "may" encounter a shortage. Always inspect your mooring ball for damage.
If you are doing the full moon festival at Trellis Bay you need to get there the day before by 1:00pm to get a mooring ball. We got over there ASAP at 1:00pm on the day of the full moon festival and could not find a mooring ball. Its shallow there so watch your
depth gauge. We unload 4 of the 6 passengers into a dingy to reduce the
draft while searching for a mooring ball. Unfortunately no luck so we moored up at Marina Cay and took the
ferry over to the Trellis Bay moon festival.
The must places to visit:
1) JVD Soggy Dollar bar for Lunch - Best white sand beach and Best burger and fries in the entire BVIs. This is a must
2) JVD Corsairs Restaurant for the BEST dinner. Go to Foxy's in the afternoon have a drink, walk down the road from Foxy's 5 min to Corsairs to make a diner reservation. Corsairs is number 1 on JVD and number 2 in BVIs. Owners Vinnie and sister Debbie have the best
chef hands down.
3) The Virgin Gorda Baths and the restaurant at top of the baths. Take a rental car or taxi to top of the baths. Awesome view up there. Have lunch by the pool and take a dip in the pool. Best prices for t-shirts and stuff at top of the BATHS. Then walk down to beach and take the challenging walk through the baths. Where good shoes with traction you don't mind getting wet. Walking to the other side of the baths is an awesome beach for snorkeling. if you can get to the baths early by boat they have red day mooring balls. But to get to shore you will need to either swim or be able to get in and out of the dingy from the
water. They do not allow dingy beach landings there.
4) Sandy Cay just east of JVD. pick up a red mooring ball for the a few hours and then beach your dingy. Ejoy your almost private beach and take the walk around this small island. This is a beautiful secluded beach that is very special. Bring bug spray and good walking shoes for the trail around the island.
5) We like mooring off Leverick Resort on Virgin Gorda. Its a nice quiet place, free swimming pool that my wife enjoys. Good place to wash clothes and get free
water and ice. Good
provisioning Good drinks and
food. You can spend a few days here and taxi or better yet get a rental car delivered from Spanish Town to explore Virgin Gorda and the Baths.
6) opposite side of the bay from Leverick Resort in the Bitter End yacht club and
Saba Rock. Definitely worth visiting.
The place with the most sea turtles and large sting rays that I have found is Deadman Bay off Peter Island. No mooring balls but excellent
anchoring in sand. Once anchored snorkel around to see the 3 or 4 sea turtles in the bay. Dingy or swim to the beach and walk over to the very very expensive Peter Island resort to the west in Sprat Bay. Very nice swimming pool if you ask about staying there they may let you swim in the pool. BTW very expensive to get the private mooring balls at SPrat Bay from Peter Island Resort.