When traveling abroad, especially to a place like the British Virgin Islands (BVI), they say you should always figure out how much cash you will think you need and then add to it. And it’s true—cash purchases will quickly add up. Taxis, first-come/first-serve mooring balls, ice, a diver (for when you accidentally drop your phone into the Gorda Sound)…
Last month when we left off, we had just spent an adventurous day hiking and snorkeling a shipwreck off Salt Island, followed by a peaceful night in the mooring field at Peter Island’s Great Harbour aboard our Moorings 464 PC.
A Bustling Evening in Spanish Town
Upon departing the Little Sisters in the southern half of the BVI, we made our way to Virgin Gorda to grab a slip for the night and fill up our freshwater tanks. We pointed our bow for Virgin Gorda Yacht Harbour in Spanish Town. This is a bustling port with tons of options for souvenir shopping, reprovisioning, or grabbing a bite to eat.
There’s a lovely little bar on the roof of the marina complex, Botella, that I highly recommend if you want a chill place to unwind and catch the sunset. There’s also a taxi stand just off the docks. During our chart briefing at The Moorings base we learned a handy tip—if you secure a slip on Virgin Gorda and grab a taxi to The Baths National Park, quite easily one of the biggest tourist destinations in the entire BVI, you don’t have to worry about the time restrictions that come with the National Park mooring balls.
After having done it both ways, I can certainly see the appeal of opting for a taxi. Sure, you have to pay for a slip, so those fees must be taken into account. But because we already had a place secured for the night, we could head over to The Baths at our leisure and stay until close. Tip: try to visit in the late afternoon—we practically had the entire place to ourselves and only saw a few scattered people on the trails.
When taking the trail down to the Baths, be sure to veer off at Devil’s Bay for a swim (I thought it was even prettier than the “main” beach). Once you’ve had your fill, you can continue down the trail to the otherworldly granite boulder field where you’ll climb up and down stairs, hunch through tiny passageways, and wade through, at times, waist-deep water while sunlight streams in through the gaps in the boulders above. It’s touristy for sure, but very much worth the visit.
If you find yourself in Spanish Town, another fun side trip is Copper Mine National Park. This was only a short ride from our marina, and because it’s a small site, you don’t need to spend much time there to fully appreciate it. It’s also a bit remote, so I recommend asking your taxi driver if they’ll wait for you (we only stayed about 15 minutes). The 19th century ruins stand along the cliffs on the southeastern tip of Virgin Gorda, and a short trail will allow you to see the entirety of the site in short order. If you can, head over at sunset for amazing views of the ruins illuminated by the setting sun.
Post exploring, there are nearly endless dining options. We chose CocoMaya and enjoyed delicious cocktails and sushi—just be sure to make a reservation if you can because this place can get busy. Funnily enough, the reason we chose that restaurant was because earlier in the night my brother had met the chef at Botella. So, you never know where the day will take you—strike up conversations with strangers, ask for recommendations, and always be open for the next spontaneous adventure.
Don’t Skip the Dogs
In this day and age, it’s practically unheard of to visit a place and have it entirely to yourself, but it’s still possible on some of the uninhabited islands in the BVI. The Dog Islands, a group of five small islands on the east side of Virgin Gorda, are one of my favorites. It is thought that the name came from early sailors who heard barking noises from the shore (they assumed it was dogs when in fact it was Caribbean monk seals, now extinct).
We grabbed a mooring ball off Great Dog and snorkeled into shore with the rock walls of the island towering above us. And when I say rocky, I mean it. Even the beach is covered in stones, and because of the cliffs, you probably won’t do too much on-land exploring, but this place is still worth a stop for the snorkeling alone. A short distance off the mooring balls you can swim amongst underwater boulders and coral formations while colorful fish dart all around you, and maybe even the odd jellyfish or two.
To Anegada… or Not?
The beauty of a powercat is that you can wake up in Spanish Town, snorkel The Dog Islands before noon, and then be on the beach at Prickly Pear Island or sipping a cocktail at Saba Rock by the evening. Because so many of these destinations are relatively close to each other, the possibilities are endless.
The only significant haul is the cruise out to Anegada. We decided to bypass it on our last trip because there were so many other places we wanted to see, but almost immediately regretted it after talking to people back on Tortola. On the last night of our trip, pretty much everyone asked, “Did you make it to Anegada?” It’s clearly a BVI rite of passage, and there seems to be a mindset that only the “best cruisers” make it out there.
That may or may not be true, but we weren’t worried about perceptions. We were concerned with wind speed and wave height. During our chart briefing we were told that if the waves were above a certain point, Anegada was a no-go. During our entire trip, the wind and whitecaps were something we constantly monitored. Crossings from one island to another were a little bumpier than on our last visit, but our powercat handled them admirably. We made sure to choose mooring balls in protected anchorages and were much more cognizant of swing radius, especially when boats were anchored near us rather than on a mooring ball.
It was not an easy decision, but we ultimately decided that it would be too close to that “no-go” line if we were to venture out to Anegada. There was one day, for only a brief window, that the waves were forecasted to lay down, but there was no guarantee that the weather would cooperate for our return trip. This caused our only brief argument of the trip, if you can even call it that, but at the end of the day, safety must be paramount (especially when it’s not your boat). If you find yourself in a similar situation, it’s always best to err on the side of caution.
But I can’t even say I regret the decision. We’ll get out to Anegada someday, and at that point in the trip we still had so much of the BVI left to explore.
The Best of Both Worlds
After leaving The Dogs we made our way to the North Sound of Virgin Gorda where we had reserved a mooring ball off Saba Rock. Knowing this was a popular spot, I made sure to pre-reserve a ball with BoatyBall. There are no photos on the site, just a map, so you can only get a vague idea of what your spot will actually look like.
Upon arriving, our mooring ball seemed closer than it should have been to the ball directly behind it. Perhaps one of them had shifted or dragged over time? It was hard to know for sure, but personally we didn’t feel comfortable staying there. Thankfully there were still first-come/first-serve white mooring balls located farther back. We were able to pivot and grab one of those and noticed that at many of the anchorages the FC/FS balls were generally more spaced out and located towards the back of the mooring field, if there were also BoatyBalls there. Thankfully we took photos of the BoatyBall in question and emailed customer service. They were great to deal with and promptly issued a refund. So, if this ever happens to you, always make sure to take photos and reach out to them directly because chances are they can resolve the problem.
We ended up staying two nights in the Saba Rock mooring field; the only time that week when we didn’t move after one night. It was by far one of the more bustling stops on our trip, but because of where it is situated, you could enjoy secluded beaches on one side and lively nightlife on the other, and both are only a short dinghy ride away. Truly the best of both worlds for our group.
Prickly Pear Island, another uninhabited national park, is located just to the northeast of Saba Rock. When looking at the island on Google Maps, Brooke’s Bayou is located onshore adjacent to the mooring field and if you walk around the perimeter of the island towards Eustacia Island, you will come to B Attitudes Beach, which is a beautiful and secluded little spot that had great snorkeling just offshore. We found that the beach on the other side of the island, marked Boverhof Beach on maps, while also very nice, was more churned up from swells so visibility for snorkeling was not as good.
While hiking around the island, the beaches are littered with hundreds of conch shells, and we saw so many small sharks (possibly lemon sharks) swimming amongst the grass in the shallow water. That evening we had a delicious dinner at the Bitter End Yacht Club. This spot had my favorite dinner views out of all the restaurants we visited in the BVI (but Saba Rock had the best happy hour prices). Both Saba Rock and the Bitter End Yacht Club were completely destroyed by Hurricane Irma in 2017, but you’d never know it to look at them today. Reconstruction of both properties took several years, but they were thoughtfully rebuilt (often with salvaged materials from the storm) and reopened in 2021.
The next morning was spent lounging on the beach at Prickly Pear Island, paddleboarding, and snorkeling. It began as one of the most relaxing mornings of the trip, and then quickly devolved into the most stressful.
I Hope You Have Insurance
I had read about the Rum Runner in our BVI Cruising Guide and wanted to make sure we saw him during our time off Saba Rock. If you’re in the area, you can’t miss the small dinghy with the orange flag, and of course the dog, who cruise around the mooring field delivering frozen drinks directly to the boats.
The entire trip I had been so careful with my phone, using a small waterproof lanyard and even an extra drybag whenever going to the shore, but perhaps I had gotten complacent halfway through the trip.
All I know is that I was so charmed by the small dog on the bow of the dinghy and so ready for that frozen drink that I bent over to hand the man his money and didn’t notice that my phone had slipped out of my unzipped fanny pack and plunked right into the North Sound. Cue the mental breakdown.
While I was pacing back and forth shouting a litany of “Oh no’s” and “I can’t believe I just did that,” St. John onboard the Rum Runner managed to calm me down and tried to troubleshoot the problem. He assured me that it happens all the time and then raced off to bring back his friend, a free diver, to see if he could find my phone. When that didn’t work, he offered to give me a lift to the Bitter End Yacht Club dive shop to see if a diver would be able to recover it. I couldn’t believe how kind they both were to a perfect stranger, especially one mid-breakdown. When they left, they tried to cheer me up, saying that if that was the worst thing that happened on my trip, I was still doing pretty darn good.
Next came the diver. My dad and I raced over to Sunchaser Scuba and discovered that I could in fact hire a diver, but that it would be pricey. So then came the difficult decision: was a potentially already ruined phone worth spending hundreds of dollars to rescue? The odds weren’t great; the phone had been submerged for an hour at that point, 40 feet down, in saltwater. But I figured I would always wonder ‘what if?’ if I opted to leave it at the bottom of the ocean.
Diver Ben Williamson agreed to come out and found the phone in less than 10 minutes. I’ll skip ahead and say that, no, the data was never recovered. There was simply too much damage. But because I had that tiny bit of hope for the last few days of the trip, I was able to put it out of my mind and move on with our adventures. After a few days, as cheesy as it sounds, I realized the memories were more important than the photos.
But lessons were definitely learned—all I can say is, for Pete’s sake, back up your photos and buy the phone insurance!
By Kaylie Jasinski
To learn more about planning a charter with The Moorings, visit moorings.com. And stay tuned for the final article in this series next month! We’ll cover Little Jost Van Dyke, Sandy Spit, Sandy Cay, The Indians, and the specifics of booking, travel, provisioning, and checking out on the final day of charter.