Sopers Hole, Tortola

As mentioned, we chartered out of Sopers Hole, which is on the far west end of Tortola.  Most charter yachts are based in Road Town, and that’s where nearly all of the provisioning is located, but we have to say it was very pleasant being in a small, pretty port instead of the large port of Road Town.  The cab ride is farther and a bit more expensive (count on $12 to $20 per person), and you’ll probably end up spending some time in Road Town for provisioning, but our party spent an enjoyable and leisurely afternoon at Pussers while the boat was being readied, instead of running around Road Town.  Highly recommended, if you can can find the right charter yacht out of Sopers.

Pussers Landing has great food and drinks, but we found the service speed a little, shall we say, Caribbean.  But that too was good for the group, because they had to learn how to relax and live in Caribbean time!

Sopers Hole also has a number of boutiques if you need a hat or beach wear, and a small grocery store.

The Bight, Norman Island

As is so often the case, we chose a counterclockwise itinerary around the Islands.  So the natural first destination is Norman Island, anchoring in the Bight, and visiting the Caves and Indians for snorkeling. It’s a beautiful sail across the Sir Francis Drake Channel and right beside St Johns, providing perspective to the group as to where they will be heading in the upcoming week.

While everyone hears of Willy-T’s in the Bight as a great floating bar and restaurant, we chose to head to the beach and hang out at Pirates instead.  Pirates has nice food, a beach with a floating climbing mountain, which I believe is called an Iceberg, and shoots a cannon off every day at the start of Happy Hour. No need to have a watch on to know when to drink!  Pirates is also more kid-friendly than Willy-T’s (you don’t need to explain to them why men are drinking shots off of a woman’s stomach…).  We also danced to a great reggae/rock band until quite late.

The Caves and the Indians

The Caves and the Indians are the two key snorkeling areas near Norman Island.  The Caves, which can be reached in a dinghy from the Bight, are famous because not only do they have good snorkeling, but they also were reputed to be hiding places for Pirate Treasure. The way to snorkel the caves is to pick up a mooring ball with your boat or dinghy, swim to the first cave, go in as far as you dare, and then continue to the others at a leisurely pace being pulled by the current.

The Indians are a great stop on the way to Peter Island or Tortola. They are so named because the rocks stick out of the water in a line like feathers in an Indian headdress (with a little imagination).

The general opinion of our group was that the Indians had better snorkeling, and that small children find the Caves a bit intimidating.

Your author recently had the great pleasure of being on a charter – planned for over a year – to introduce 5 families, kids and all, to the wonders of the BVI.  In 8 glorious days our party of 27 people – 12 adults and 15 kids – sailed to all of the major islands and destinations and saw first hand the impact the BVI has on its visitors.  We also picked up plenty of information to update pages on the boatbookings.com bvi charter page and the yacht-charter-bvi.com site.

Over the next two weeks, I’ll be doing a retrospective blog on the trip, to point out things we learned, things to do (and things to avoid), and other information that may be helpful next time you decide to charter a yacht in the BVI.

To begin, a bit of background.  Over a year ago our group of close friends began discussing holidays that would be perfect for all of our families together – husbands, wives and kids from 6 to 16.  Criteria were that the weather had to be warm and sunny, the destination both kid friendly and interesting for all, and we wanted a real adventure. As all of the adults were experienced on boats, we discussed whether it would be feasible to put all of our families on a charter together.  We wanted sailboats to give the families the experience of sailing, not just motoring, and we quickly agreed we would want catamarans for all the reasons they are so popular – they have great salon space for the families, offer excellent privacy so we could put two families on one boat, and they don’t heel like a monohull so inexperienced sailors would be far more comfortable. After thrashing about the right sizes and configurations, and adding in the need for skippers cabins on each boat, we finally reserved two 5 cabin Voyage 500’s and three 4 cabin Voyage 440’s in Sopers Hole, Tortola through, you guessed it, Boatbookings.com.

This is what this impressive armada looked like when all lashed together in Cam Bay, Tortola:

Flights
The next issue was flights.  It’s no secret that getting to the BVI, especially from Europe, can be a challenge (one of the great advantages of the BVI is that it’s not overly touristed).  American Airlines reduced the number of flights to the BVI from San Juan from 10 to 3 a day, which makes it difficult to find a flight for 27 people!  We finally booked all of our flights on Cape Air and bought low cost commuter passes which were much cheaper than the basic rate. So if you have a group of more that 5 people we recommend you buy commuter books through Cape Air for your next trip to Lettsome Airport in the BVI – it’s about half the price.

The Cape Air flight from San Juan to Beef Island is fantastic – it’s in a 9 person Cessna and one child on each plane got to sit in the co-pilot’s seat.  You see the coast of Puerto Rico, then the Spanish Virgin islands of Vieques and Culebra (pictured at right), and then St Thomas.

Soon you’re looking down at Jost Van Dyke, seeing the gorgeous beach of White Bay and Great Harbor where Foxy’s is found.  Next we  flew over Sopers hole and could actually pick out our waiting catamarans at the docks!

Then over the length of Tortola with views of all the islands that were to be our destinations, and finally to an exciting landing, with Marina Cay glistening in turquoise waters just behind.