First timers BVI- advice needed

[KristinP2]

Thank you all in advance for your advice. My husband and I and 2 teen daughters have put a deposit down on a Marine Max 443 Catamaran for a week adventure in BVI first week of August this summer. It’s my husbands dream trip as he did this trip as a kid. We have had a 29ft boat for 2 summers on Long Island Sound. I am very nervous about the trip. I have many concerns. Is it reasonable for him to make the leap to a totally different much larger boat? We are not experienced boaters. I did think maybe we could hire a captain for thr first day to get the hang of it?Aside from of course the possibility of a hurricane.. is the weather fairly easy to navigate? Also, we are being give advice that it will be no problem for my 13 yr old who gets motion sick to sleep in the cabin at night?? We will be docking at night. I would love first impression thoughts.

[Hyenalaughing]

We're actually in a similar boat as you. In April we'll be going on our first charter to the BVI on a Lagoon 46, with my wife, 2 daughters (9 and 6) and parents. Very curious to hear what other folks have to say!

[KristinP2]

oh great! my husband is the… let’s jump in and see how things go and I’m the worrier so I need a LOT more info before we do this haha

[Hobiehobie]

You will be fine! Once you leave Nanny Cay you will be picking up mooring balls. You won’t be moving about at night. This might take some practice but messing up is no big deal. Just go around and try again. Make sure you know how to tie up to a mooring bouy with two lines. It can be windy in the BVI but there are plenty of sheltered mooring fields and Marine Max will probably give you a briefing and suggest a route before you leave the dock. And if you are nervous about leaving or entering the marina they will also probably send out a dinghy and a captain to help you in or out.

[KristinP2]

thank you very much for your input!

[Hobiehobie]

Sent you a private message

[Zanshin]

Docking each night isn't an optimal solution, because the BVI offers great anchorages with mooring balls and short dinghy trips ashore to bars and restaurants. There aren't that many marinas available for a full charter.

The BVI offer the easiest Caribbean sailing experience possible. No other destination comes close when it comes to ease of sailing, anchorages with easy mooring or anchoring, amenities ashore.

I would say that if you can get off the dock without smashing the boat, and can pick up a mooring then you are good to go. I think that yours is a power cat, so sailing experience isn't really relevant.

The conditions in summer are a lot lighter than in December/January, making this a lot easier.

There are so many possible itineraries to choose from, depending upon conditions. I can almost guarantee that you will love this experience.

I kept my boats in the BVI for over 15 years, until I relocated to St. Lucia recently.

[KristinP2]

Thank you very much for all
of this helpful info Joe!! I appreciate it!

[nibj]

As everyone has said, mooring is the name of the game in most places on the BVI. Checkout BoatyBall.com since some of the more popular harbors use this to reserve balls (e.g. Cooper and Great Harbor JVD). There are a few first-come-first-served balls but it might be less stressful to reserve.

Workout your bow crew hand signals for mooring and review how to use the lines to attach to a ball.

You will also need to use the dinghy but MM will show how. When we first chartered a cat, Moorings sent us out with a free skipper to evaluate our competence. He was really good. We went to Peter Island and practiced mooring and anchoring. He helped us to get team work going. All in all a great experience that did not take that much time.

I would not suggest to try Cooper Island on your first night. It's a great place and we always go there but it is crowded and sometimes (always?) the boat dances around at night and can hit the mooring ball. It's not been an issue for us, but might be alarming on the first night.

I would suggest Norman Island on the first night. It's a big harbor with lots of balls. There is a decent beach bar, you can snorkel right off the beach and see interesting things, the caves are well worth a snorkel for the number of fish, and there is the Willy T. It should offer a calm nights sleep to help everyone acclimatize to sleeping on a boat. Norman does not use BoatyBall.

[FabioC]

BVI is a very easy destination to sail, especially in the channel.
As other have said, picking up mooring balls is the best solution for overnight. They have an app that let you reserve mooring balls in many locations, it works very well and removes the anxiety of getting there and not finding a mooring ball available.
Most anchorage/mooring fields are very well protected, so rolling should not be a problem. Saba Rock can be rolly, especially if you want to moor very close to the restaurant, but you can avoid that by mooring elsewhere in the bay, there are plenty of balls, and then taking their free water taxi if you want to visit there.
Hiring a skipper for the first day may be a good idea if you are apprehensive about the unfamiliar place and unfamiliar boat. In the BVI, it is very easy to organize. For example, the first day you can go from Nanny Cay to Trellis Day, pick up a ball there, and then drop the skipper off at the dinghy dock (there are taxis there, because of the airport). You'll just have to pay for the taxi fare for the skipper to go back to Nanny Cay.

[leecea]

As the official worrier in my family, and not being that experienced, I did the following prior to our charter in the BVIs.

- I bought the cruising guide ahead of time to familiarize myself with the location of different places

- I updated the Navionics on my phone to include the BVIs

- We practiced a few times picking up mooring balls (lots of YouTube vids to help too)

- We ordered most provisions through a local store in Road Town who delivered to the boat - assuming you are chartering from there.

Probably none of this was necessary but it made me happy!

[FabioC]

+1 on having your own Navionics on the phone, or even better on an iPad, some device that you are familiar with, so you do not have to struggle with an unfamiliar chartplotter.

If you really want to be super prepared for absolutely any situations, one thing to consider is to bring your own boat hook (or buy an extra one there). The only problem you may run into when picking up a mooring ball is when the person at the helm is unable to stop the boat in the right position (this is more of an issue on a monohull, but I guess it can happen in a catamaran as well), or the person at the bow takes too long to hook the bridle, so the boat moves away from the ball and eventually you have to let it go. What can happen is that the person at the bow is not able to free the boat hook from the ring and has to let it go the hook as well. Not a big deal, either you have to swim to the ball or you have to get on the dinghy to retrieve the hook, both easy thing to do. However, if you have an extra boat hook aboard, you can just re-align and try again using the extra boat hook, avoiding any possible "complication". Once you are safely moored, you can go for a swim and get the boat hook back...

[DEAN2140]

I chartered a monohull in the BVI in the '70s with shamefully limited experience. I read a book on anchoring on the plane ride (now it's mooring). As we motored out from the dock, I asked one of my crew which sail goes up first. He guessed correctly. We even had the temerity to sail 40 nm to St. Croix without GPS (didn't exist), just a compass heading. The point of this narrative is that we didn't experience any problems and I am sure you won't either. Just relax and enjoy your vacation; you will survive.

[Love and Luck]

BVI is easy sailing. On our first bareboat charter, it had been 10+ years since we had done any sailing. We previously owned a 22’ in San Diego. We chartered a 40’ with another couple and the charter company required a captain for the first day - which was really only about 2 hours to show him we had some sense of what we were doing and weren’t going to wreck the boat!

We spent the week on mooring balls and didn’t dock again until we brought the boat back to the charter company.

[ohdrinkboy]

Sailing and navigating in the BVI is very straightforward. Pay close attention to your charter company's chart briefing. They will tell you where you can't go. Do not go where they tell you not to go....they have been doing this for decades. August can be dicey with weather. We have gone in July multiple times. Expect at least 1 tropical wave. Winds during a wave are usually in the 30's. Not a bad day to stay put. Have a great trip!