Trip Report BVI Charter June / July '08

[Saildoggie]

Captain: Saildoggie
Crew: Sailpuppy (Nicole)
Lynn(Happy Hooker) (The Admiral)
Haley (Lauraandrex)
Bill (Bipto)
Nina (Chef extraordinaire) (Den Mother)
Ariel
Cassie


June 27: The crew had a nice breakfast at Big Apple Villa and were picked up by The Voyage charters driver around 10:00 AM

It was hard to leave Big Apple, we all LOVED this place and Cheryl from purple pineapple took extra special care of us!!!



I returned the wonderful Pajero to Jerry’s and the dropped me at the Voyage base.



Spent a few minutes on paperwork in the Voyage office while the Girls shopped and snacked, and did what girls do.



Bill and I enjoyed a cold one over at Pussers West End and talked with my ‘ol buddy Capt. Jimmy for a while.



We met up with Bruce, our briefer around Noon and loaded some gear and got into the nitty-gritty, there really is no gritty on Voyage cats, clean as a whistle everywhere you look. We went through every single piece of hardware on the deck, under hatches, anchoring systems, breakers, etc. Bruce demonstrated the dinghy hoist system, talked about sailing quite a bit; they do feel you out for your knowledge at this point.

We then proceed t the nice AC inside and went over every single feature and detail of the yacht, right down to strainer cleaning, power systems, battery charging, genset and inverter operation, you name it.

The Voyage 440 is incredibly well thought out and has tons of really innovative features all over the boat, inside every compartment, hatch and access port were very neatly installed systems, very clean grey gel coat, ergonomics and incredible neatness.



I felt prepared to go on a chase call for a similar boat that may need some help at this point.



The briefing lasted close to 3 hours but I did not feel impatient or upset all, Bruce kept our attention and was absolutely fantastic with what he shared us, even tips on making her go fast and THAT she does well.



Nina stowed the Bobby’s order while we stuck tight with Bruce..



By around 3:30 in the afternoon we were cut loose. Bruce would have been proud of us, we spun to windward and had the main up just outside the channel markers, tough work, load the electric winch and push the button!!!



We motored up the channel just a bit because I am familiar with the wave action and sometimes flukey winds there and then unfurled the headsail on a starboard tack heading.



Dream Cat took off like a rocket, we trimmed up just like Bruce suggested and were pointing at just over 30 degrees and holding 8+ kts. of boat speed, time for a cold beer, this is great!!! We absolutely smoked another Voyage cat going to weather; they eventually turned downwind and were gone.



We made Great Harbor, Peter Island in short order, maybe an hour and a half.



Wow, the moorings looked to be completely full, then a Moorings power cat dropped their ball right inside, a perfect spot, we were on it like flies on, well, you know.

Happy Hooker picked up the pennant like she does it every day.

The whole crew was off the back for our first swim of the charter.

We made reservations at Oceans 7 and had a few boat drinks.



Service was pretty good at Oceans 7 until the food started arriving, everyone was served except The Admiral, we waited, waited, dive in. I shared a steak with Haley; it was absolutely awful, all fat and grizzle and tasted nasty. The potatoes were good and everyone else seemed pleased wit their meals, that except The Admiral, hers still did not arrive 20 minutes after we were served. Maybe an off night?



We headed out to our glow stick and called it a night, all slept very well with a very nice, cool breeze.



June 28 Day 2 aboard: We had some breakfast and then dropped the ball after watching a ship carrying motor yachts deposited a couple in the water.



We had a nice, relaxing sail downwind, I traveled the main out and kept it sheeted tight enough so the battens were not crushing into the stay and unrolled the headsail on the other side. We sailed DDW wing and wing while teaching the crew the finer points of steering this point of sail at the helm.

We made very good time and rounded the pass at Little Thatch in less than an hour, average speed 7.8 kts. which is great for DDW.

We could have flown the spinnaker but my ribs were asking for light duty.

We anchored very close in right in front of Soggy Dollar Bar at White Bay; the central channel markers were gone so we entered White Bay through the southern most set down by Ivan’s. We bid hello to BVI Dreamin and the crew aboard Hotel California on the way in..



It did not take long for hoards of day boats including Karalu to crowd in around us, some of the power boats anchoring too close, I asked a couple to back off.

The crew looked at me in disbelief that I was not launching the dink and we were swimming in, you want ice cream girls, swim for it!!



We had a wonderful reception at Soggy Dollar, net Jim (BVI Dreamin’) and crew and got a big smile from Mick and a birthday call from TriciaH and Tommy. We also had the Company of a couple and their grandson, TTOL’ers that were on a mono but for the life of me, shoulda wrote their name down as well as a couple that were celebrating their first tear of cruising!

Roger invited me up to the office for a chat and they bought me a nice new Soggy Dollar hat as well as a round of Painkillers for the entire crew!! There were many additional Painkillers on the board, thank you everyone, my ribs suddenly felt pretty darn good!!



We carefully pulled anchor mid afternoon, a large power day boat had to use his throttles a bit to move over and allow us to get the hook up. Short motor over to Great Harbor for the evening festivities we anchored up tight in the SE area in front of Foxys, right by Paulfox’s boat, took 3 tries but got hooked up good. Jeannius settled in just in front of us.



Some drunk dipsticks in a Cataco Lagoon 500 came screaming through the anchorage at full throttle and unfortunately anchored right by us! They darn near crashed into their buddies cat, a crewed one that will remain anon for now.

I have the boat name and more details, but that is for a later date.



Radioed in reservations and had Paulfox visit us on anchor for a bit. We later went ashore and met Susan with the JVDPS, gave her the check for the proceeds of the Ebay items I sold for the cause and bought some raffle tickets. Foxy was hanging out greeting everyone, really nice.

We checked out the sloop project and had a few cold ones with the TTOL group.





Somehow our group got scattered all over Foxy’s and there was a mix up in reservations with another boat (s), unfortunately it was the drunk dipsticks.



Drunk dipsticks showed at Foxy’s claiming we stole their dinner reservations, they were ready to fight about it!! The called out “crew of dream Cat come out we want to buy you a drink” old trick, I came out alone and explained there must have been a mistake and half our group already had food on their plates, maybe they otta try Corsairs.

This did not go over well, they were very ripped, one of them even wearing a lifejacket….to dinner????

Daughter Nicole finally got in their faces and screamed at them to go away!! i was kind of glad she not kick some of them in the nuts or rip their ears off, she is a coragous little 14 year olf dynamo!



We really could not hear the raffle going on, too far away, but our teen girls each won a bottle of Foxy’s Firewater rum signed by Foxy himself.



The BBQ was actually quite good, the fish was excellent.

We stayed and partied with the TTOL group for a while then a bunch of ‘em sang me “Happy Birthday” on the dock, very nice indeed!!



We had a nice breeze and slept well except for a visit by the drunk dipsticks, idiots, at zero dark thirty pounding on the hull and screaming “wake up Dream Cat”, woke the whole crew up, bad form for sure, but again, gonna leave that situation alone for now.





June 29, day 3 aboard: Blowing pretty hard and actually a great day for a well seasoned crew, but I did not have one of those, rather a great buddy that does extremely well and asks the right questions and 4 teenage girls, 2 of them not real comfy with the rough stuff.



Took the dink around and talked to the TTOL’ers CGB was gonna work for everyone.

BVI Dreamin’s crew made me up the meanest bloody mary I have ever had, thank You!!!



Walt (Twanger0 gave me a cool “Beatings will continue until the moral improves” flag which I immediately installed on the port stay with the others.



We simply motored to CGB and anchored in close by the swim buoys.

We eventually moved after spinning around more than I like and worried about light breeze and back winding at night.

We took a mooring and were joined by Jeannius, Hotel California (BVI Dreamin) and Twanger and crew aboard Moon Shadow.

Inflated the kayaks and the girls paddled around, great kayaks, super easy to set up!!!

Set up camp in front of Rhymers and started a tab, visited with the staff a bit, enjoyed all of the TTOL Company, Twanger’s floaty trick with the beer atop his storage facility was a riot!!

Drunk dipsticks again flew through the anchorage at full throttle, moored right next to us and continued to terrorize and harass the entire crew all day. Dipsticks and associates from the other crewed boats would even harrrass our women and children aboard alone, all about where’s your captain, got booze, we are coming aboard and taking them, etc. I may mention the local captain’s name, charterers name and boat names and actual names at a later time.



We planned on BBQ’ing burgers aboard but the drunk dipsticks continued taunting and yelling over to the boat. I went over alone to ask them to knock it off and get over it, we are on vacation and do not want to be bothered.



A serious incident then occurred, an assault on me me by myself in the dinghy with 8 guys helping, the local hired captain threw most of the nlows, the police were called but did not show up, I was very hesitant to leave the crew aboard, got he flare gun, emergency tiller, boat hook and winch handles all in a location where I could get at them easily, more details at a later date.



June 30: Breakfast aboard, a quick trip into Bobby’s for more TP, we have 4 teen girls aboard, remember??

Raise the main on the mooring, tough work, load the winch and push the button, then a brisk sail up to Monkey Point!!

We rounded Du Bois Point under full sail and went to weather like banshees, we sailed out into 5’+ seas with winds around 24 kts. We had full sails and close hauled, feathering up on gusts and pointing just over 30 degrees, did I mention the Voyage 440 plus points like a keelboat???

The kids were on the bow getting very wet and screaming like young girls do, GeorgeC1 called my cell phone, had to explain I kinda had my hands full right at the moment.



Nice sail to Monkey point!

We first anchored in some sand but were not real pleased with the proximity to other boats, a mooring opened up and we grabbed it immediately. The snorkeling was decent, pretty clear and lots of fun. We had some chili dogs aboard and visited with Walt (Twanger) for a bit and then Capt. Jerk and dipstick drunks showed up, we dropped the mooring and headed up to Leverick for the evening.



First time through the Anguilla Cut, piece of cake, never saw less than 6’ on the depth sounder and it was calibrated to read surface at the Voyage base before we started..



Nick himself answered our radio call and immediately assigned me the dinghy dock, told me it is 2’ deep all over, no problem Mon!!



We were then instructed to take slip 14, put fenders on port back in.



Smiling David was on the dock as we backed in, very smoothly I may add, looked like we actually knew what we were doing. No scratches george!

Got all secured and were then greeted by Nick himself, what a warm welcome indeed!!!!



This place is special because of the people, my crew was blown away with the hospitality, Nick made everyone feel very welcome and really seems to enjoy making people smile, it is a special trait both him and Monica have!!



The girls all got some laundry done and enjoyed shore showers at Leverick, they even made appointments for spa treatments for the next morning!!



Twanger took the slip right in front of us, we loaned him our power cords so he could have enough length to get plugged in, we had plenty of battery capacity and did not need to plug in.



We talked with Capt. Monk, Capt. Kris and some of the SeatrekBVI crew and were invited to join their party, lots of fun for sure!!



We dined on the incredible Kobe Beef burgers and the kids all enjoyed pizza at The Cove downstairs, wonderful dinner, just perfect!!!



July 1: Time for the Dinghy Poker run!!!!!

Started the morning a bloody mary from the Jumbies bar, nick had them open at 9:00 AM for this event. I assisted Nick a bit; he was building a plank to walk non-pirate gear dressed folks over the pool!!!



I donned my pirate gear and switched over to Red Stripes as everyone was registering, quite a gang was forming already!! I found a section of PVC pipe and rigged up a pirate flag on Dream Cat’s dink and distributed the water cannons that Scott from island Surf and sail had given me as well as the ones I brought from home.



The horn was honked and everyone loaded up into the dinghies!!

We assembled in front of the fuel dock, getting everyone staged up for the start and we were off!!!

The first few salvos from our water cannon were not very well received, we got the hairy eyeball the stink eye and utter disgust from some, then they all got in the spirit and splashed with whatever they had!!!



I am sure the guys from VISAR that motored along side were cringing with the weaving, bobbing, water attacks and well, a bit of ramming that was taking place, boating safety 101 was put aside for the moment but everyone knew how to be cool and keep it safe as possible.



First stop Sandbox, get another card and continue the internal lubrication that is a required part of this event. We continued to Fat Virgin, Bitter End and finally Saba Rock to collect cards.



We managed to ambush a few fully loaded dinks by furling he pirate flag and hiding out, my crew, Bill was laughing like a school girl while manning the water cannon!!!



We all finally made it back to Leverick for a wonderful evening with live band and fantastic buffet!!!! The awards were great fun, forget the winners but we won a best dressed couple award and a big magnum of bubbly we ended up re-gifting to our hosts!!!



What a great event, Nick and Monica went way out of their way to be sure everyone had a great time, stuff like this is NEVER forgotten!!!!

The Staff, the people, drinks, the band and especially the buffet were all awesome!



Another wonderful and restful evening at the Leverick Bay Slip and off to Anegada in the morning!!!



Hung out a bit with the crew of Claire, a Festiva boat with several couples aboard that also had a blast on the poker run. We introduced them to TTOL. Their Irish Captain is the one described in the Anegada race video thread here:



July 2: Anegada baby!!! We said our good byes to Nick and Monica as well as Tito and David on the dock, grabbed a couple of bags of ice and talked with our Irish Captain about the race to Anegada. They still had the pirate flag they stole from our dinghy attached to their boat, I left it as a curse and it truly was!!!

Link to Anegada race and video here:

http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=868103&an=0&page=1#Post8 68103



We anchored close in by Neptune’s Treasure and radioed in to Randy for a ride for 14 to cow Wreck and Flash of Beauty. We all made our dinner reservations and selections with randy before heading out.

Mal, Heather, Joe and Amymurphy joined us on the ride, dropped them at Cow Wreck and we continued to Flash of Beauty. The place was deserted, we snorkeled a bit, it was OK, a bit stirred up. We met Cappy, a local musician, he was keeping an eye on the place and just let us pour our own drinks, he tallied up our bill on a piece of cardboard and showed us his incredible collection of hermit crabs just outside the kitchen, the girls got a big kick out of this!!!



Bill ran the girls out to the boat and then enjoyed a few drinks at the bar with Randy and I and another couple. I had killed my lighter and asked Randy if he had any matches, he gave me one of those huge Bic firestick lighters, big in the pocket, but works great on the boat!!



About to head to the boat, Randy called me back, it was Nick from Leverick on the radio!!! Nick still had the special Magnum bottle of Champagne from Sir Dick’s special stock we won for best dressed couple, I had not claimed it, he asked me to stop by in the morning to get it.

I thought for about 2 seconds and suggested him and Monica enjoy it as a thank you for being such wonderful hosts, he gladly accepted, very cool!!



Dinner was wonderful, several of us had the fresh blackfin tuna that was caught that morning, really great!!



Twanger’s crew was well into dinner when we arrived and the Jeannius crew had a table right across from us outside, wonderful evening, kicked back, quiet group!!



Wonderful night aboard Dream Cat, the girls qued up a DVD and had a blast.



July 3:

Made coffee and then got the kite up behind the boat, sent the camera up and got some cool shots, some are in the photo link.

Breakfast aboard, the girls got pancakes then Nina experienced some sticking issues with the pan, the boys got Chili cheese pancakes, quite yummy, thanks Nina!

Took the dink in and talked to Randy, set up a ride to Cow Wreck.

Met up with Belle and Alex, started with a couple of beers and got the kite launched and then sent the camera rig up for some fun photos.



We headed back to Dream Cat and Nina made up some yummy sammies while readied the boat for sailing. We left the channel around 1:00 on a screaming reach to Trellis Bay.

Great sail with the knot meter staying right about 10 kts. all the way.



Caught a barracuda just before dropping the sails and heading into Trellis.



The moorings were packed full so went inshore in front of ‘De Loose Mongoose and dropped a hook. The derelict boats don’t leave much room, after snorkeling the set and seeing the depth, we spied a mooring about to open up and headed for it!!



Visited with Chris and Wife, Owners of Mongoose when they collected our mooring fee, great to see them again. Popped into the market for a few supplies for dinner and some ice, the girls went straight to Cyber Café for ice cream.

Nice quiet evening, the Irish Captain from Claire stopped by on the dink, actually a nice guy, and tried to get us to join them at Last Resort, we had other plans, movie night aboard again. A great sleep with wonderful breeze followed.



July 4: Another great breakfast, thanks Nina, this Lady can cook, make yummy stuff out of whatever is around, English muffins with egg, cheese, chili and sausage patties, can we say the ultimate hangover breakfast??

Every time I turned around Nina was whipping up something, what a treat to have a cooking angel aboard!!



We raised the main the dropped the mooring and headed for The Bight, Norman Island for our final night aboard.

After rounding The Bluff of Beef Island we set a course and hoisted the spinnaker in its sock. I had Bill head down a bit and then prepare to sheet her in as I raised the sock.



Now big credit to Bill for really helping me out the whole week with me nursing the ribs and all, he was a great first mate, he got an over ride on the winch. We managed to get the chute flying then did a downwind dip to collapse the chute and fix the over ride, dummy me did not thread the sheet thru the clutch before the winch.



We got her all trimmed up nice and zoomed along pretty nicely for a while. We had a twist at the tack, I already mentioned to George that a swivel shackle addition would be great.

We dipped again and I attempted to do a quick fix with the chute collapsed but she filed and ripped the tack outa my hands. Time to pull the sock down and call it a day on the chute!!!

Nice rest of sail, Nicole performed a couple of headsail gybes as we reached and switched to wing on wing, cold beers all around!!!



We saw the SeatrekBVI boats again as we entered The Bight and then took a mooring a few out from Pirates. Lunch aboard then the girls kayaked and we headed ashore for some R&R at Pirates. Girls shopped, boys drank, all waded and enjoyed the afternoon with a small wing of the PR Navy..



We saw Aistocat but were not sure who was aboard, we later met Tony and Melody and enjoyed a cold one with them.



Back to the boat for wonderful beans that Nina had doctored up in the morning and hot dogs for our traditional 4th. of July dinner.



Bill and I made a quick run over to Willy T, it was really dead, but uh oh, drunk dipsticks were back, all 3 cats were anchored and rafted deep in the anchorage behind WillyT.



Back to the boat for a great dinner and another movie night!!!



Slept like a rock, nice breeze and very quiet!!



July 5: Up early and get all my flags down, tidy up the boat for return to base.

Yummy breakfast aboard again and raise the main on the mooring about 7:30 AM, we sailed by Jeannius but there was not a stir aboard, nor on 2 of the remaining drunk dipstick boats, I gave those people a very special salute on the way by.

The other dipstick crewed charter cat was motoring toward Sopers, we passed them under sail and had a great last sail into Soper’s Hole.



We furled the headsail and dropped the main right at the channel markers and called Kimo from Voyage on the radio. We were instructed to pick up a mooring and get fenders and dock lines on the starboard side. Within a few minutes Kimo dinked out to Dream Cat and took her in to the fuel dock.

We did a really quick de-brief as he had an outgoing de-brief to perform.

Kimo fueled the boat, says we took on 19 gallons, not bad for 8 days, but I really think it was less, we were only down maybe 3” in the big tank and it tapers at the top.



We began unloading our mountain of luggage, remember 4 teenage girls and my toy bag?? The boat looked great, we zero problems and loved everything about Dream Cat.



I collected the boat bag and chart and settled up in the Voyage Office, quite painless and efficient actually.



We got loaded up by the Voyage driver for the short trip to the ferry terminal, off to St. John for 3 days of hanging at the Westin pool!!!



Smith’s ferry grabbed our luggage as it came off the truck , we purchased our tickets, paid the departure tax and headed to jolly Roger for a few cold ones and to watch the Firecracker 500 yacht race, really cool!!!



Westin St. John report to follow on the USVI section, we basically really enjoyed ourselves, just chilled at the pool for 3 days!!!
'Da pics here:
http://s6.photobucket.com/albums/y238/saildoggie/BVI08/BVI081/
Silence is Golden........Duct Tape is Silver

Little video of sailing:
http://www.onlinebvi.net/play.php?vid=271

[GordMay]

Thanks for the super-cool report. I'm envious!

[Therapy]

I was going back and found this.

Thanks for the post.

Sorry I could not join in the fun.

Great kite shots!!!

[Saildoggie]

We have another flotilla of charter boats forming for late June '09.
Send me a PM for details, we will be having a wonderful 2nd anual Dinghy Poker run also, what a blast then a race to Anegada the next day!!

I already have the fastest boat, so we will handicap accordingly at the start!!

Thanks for the kite shot comments, just a beginner actually, but it is really fun!!

Join the fun late June in the BVI's!