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Your Vacation--a typical itinerary...
Where
St. Johns was luxurious and pristine, Jost is down Island Funky. Once
ashore, you won't want to miss Foxy's Beach side restaurant. Foxy's Caribbean
lilt accompanied
by his ever-present guitar can be Shaking the sand out of your shoes, you head back to your anchored Yacht in the harbor where your cook has prepared a sumptuous meal aboard, or where you barbecue under the stars.
The
next morning, you take a quick dip and
enjoy a hearty breakfast as you head off to your next adventure. A short 35
min. motor trip over to Sandy Cay. Here, you'll ride the tender in to an
exciting (hopefully not to exciting) beach landing. Then it's off through
From
here we ricochet off the North Coast of Tortola. Anchor for a quick
Meanwhile,
back at Marina Cay, the rest of the crew can take on water and visit the
boutique. There's a fine restaurant on the Beach with an Maybe this should really be called land to sea to land again--because now we're off to the famous baths--about a 2 hour sail.
On the way in, you'll pass pristine beaches as you slide down the side of the entry reef admiring every color coral imaginable.
We'll
pick up one of the gaily dancing moorings in the cut off to the side
Superb
views. Superb cuisine. Fine wine. Dancing on the Veranda. Biras
Tonight, you'll not want the A/C as the gentle trade winds push between the hill at Bitter End and Saba Rock flooding your cabin with fragrant, tropical breezes that make you pull the sheets up tight around your chin. In the morning, a refreshing swim, or maybe you go up to the club at Biras Creek to jog around their manicured running/exercise path and have a light breakfast. Meanwhile, others in your crew might rent a couple of Hobie cats and have an impromptu race around the moored boats in the harbor. Whatever you decide to do, everyone meets back at the boat for the two hour sail across to the fearsome, dreaded ANEGADA. We always post a quarter on the cabin top in the cockpit to be won by the first person to spot Anegada. You see, where the other Islands are relatively high, and volcanic, Anegada is a reef Island (Like the Bahamas). Maximum height above sea-level is 15'. The surrounding reefs extend out in all directions and have captured over 300 ships over the years. These wrecks make Anegada a divers paradise. In the old days (just 10 years or so ago) before GPS and navigation markers it was tricky approaching. You had to line up certain trees with certain red roofs and read the colors of the water. (You still need a special exception, or to hire a guide if you don't have a professional captain aboard.) As
you sail out from Gorda Sound,
you'll be looking back at the mountainess Islands you've just left and it will
seem like you could throw
You'll zig and zag. Sail over coral. You'll swear you could reach down and touch the coral which appears to be within reach, but you'll still be in 8-10' of water. Eventually you'll round into the small inner harbor and pick up your mooring. You've arrived! Everyone will want to rush ashore. Don't forget the snorkel and beach gear. If any of your party wants to do serious diving, they should have made arrangements ahead of time with Lowell, the congenial owner of the resort you're visiting--or with the concierge at the Bitter End. Make reservations for grilled lobster on the beach tonight. Grab a rum punch at the Honor bar and then pile into a beach cab for a jolting overland ride past Flamingos and cows. Flowers and cactus. Passing ponds and scrub cactus, bouncing over ruts and dodging serious pits. Dirt roads turn into a paved stretch which stars and then inexplicably ends dumping you unceremoniously back onto a dirt road again as you head for Loblolly bay at the far end of the Island. There's
no way to describe it. The cab parks and you hear the surf from
No
pictures could do this beach justice, so I won't even try. Now the day is full
of choices. Walk barefoot down the beach in either direction. After the first
3 minutes you're not likely to see a soul for the next hour or so until you
return. The coral twists in to the beach at spots forming warm
"Jacuzzi" pools. Hot tubs,
where you can skinny dip with confidence.
Swim out from the powder fine sandy beach of pink and white ground shells. Slip into the depths with your snorkel gear to see a new breathtaking world. With each stroke a new marvel of coral and reef fish. Some larger than you've seen anywhere else--but friendly--all. You can swim down between mountainous coral and between elkhorn coral branches, or just circumvent the edge. When you return everyone will be giddy and regaling about the big fish and bigger coral; about the colors and the currents that gently swayed the fan coral making them appear to be gently fanning the sea. As you lay on the Beach, you'll find yourself contemplating the big issues--love, adventure, what's really important? Wander up for a Heineken at the beach bar behind the main part of the beach (a 100 yard or so stretch).
You'll arrive back at the beach bar to see final preparations as the hostesses set up the beach tables with linen and candles. If you haven't had barbecue lobster with Lowell's special sauce, well, as they say, you haven't had lobster! For many of us, this makes the whole trip. Dinner is accompanied by home made family style vegetables and desert.
Your
captain will get underway shortly after dawn while everyone's still If
you've left early enough, there may be time for a quick stop at Norman Island
to visit the Caves. Norman is the Island that Cooper used as the model for the
famous story of Treasure Island. It's said that Pirates really did bury gold in the caves
there. And in the bars around Soon,
you'll be slipping past one beautiful beach after another as you The Virgin islands, the most popular sailing destination in the world and still mostly untouched because you can only get to most of these marvelous spots by private Yacht. Cruise ships can't make it here. Enjoy... For more information about chartering or investing in our Yachts call 410-263-1818, or e-mail us at: info@letsgocruising.com We have bareboats available with or without captains, as well as captained boats. You can get bareboat qualified with our ASA courses during a summer or over a couple of bare boat weekly charters with a certified instructor. |
In
this example, You
will board at our Marina on St. Thomas (alternately, you may start from the BVI. After settling in with a welcoming
Rum punch, you will be whisked away to your first stop at (B) St. John's
Rockefeller, Caneel Bay
Resort. Here you will take your tender ashore to
enjoy a leisurely lunch enjoying the view from the converted Rum Mill
restaurant which overlooks breathtaking Caneel Bay. After a visit to the
Boutique, you'll head back out to your mother ship to head on over to (C)
Jost Van Dyke.
heard clear down the beach as you approach
his somewhat thrown together restaurant. The roof is peppered with shirts,
underwear and hats from visiting crews (Kind of gets you in the right frame
of mind for what clothes are essential or not!). His home-made songs about all of his favorite
places in America will delight you. (I'll bet he'll even have one about your
home town if you ask.) 
And
then, after sunset, you drift off to your favorite area of the boat, perhaps
up on the forward deck or net, to relax
and watch the stars as you sip your evening cocktail. Your senses never so
keen. The tree frogs sing you to sleep as you give in to the gentle rocking of
the boat.
the
scrub to the backside of the Island where you'll overlook the cliffs and
breaking waves arriving from Africa. The adventurous will climb down the cliff
to venture into the
foaming surf below. Beach coaming is the order of the day, and I usually find
some fan coral to cart home--I'm running out of places for where to put it
though. But some others have their own idea of what to do on a
glorious morning in the tropic sun on their own private beach... 
dip in
any of the numerous bays, or off one of the Islands just as we turn South
again at the cut between the Islands headed for the anchorage at Marina Cay.
This famous resort is now run by 
interesting picture
story on the walls of the history of the Island. Wend your way up the path
to the spectacular view offered at the hilltop bar. Enjoy views of Virgin Gorda to the South, and the highest peak in the BVI, on Tortola to the West.
There's plenty of room to just kick back and relax, or get engaged in a
rauquous discussion about the adventures of the day with voyagers coming
back from other Islands, world travelers and whoever else has found this
haven on this night.
These
massive granite boulders have created quiet pools to wade in. You'll
experience suburb views as you climb among, over and around the boulders
which seem to have spewed from the bowels of the Earth and settled into a haphazard,
whimsical pattern leaning against each other as if for support against the
wind and waves. Their surfaces have been weathered smooth and the
constant water assault has carved intricate swirls and paths on their
exterior. Later, when you wade into the water with your snorkel gear-- from the sea side
the shear rock sides host a variety of
tropical fish and beautiful coral at their base, just steps off the beach. The
tiny
beach bar will take care of your thirst problems while you're ashore so you
can travel light as you explore the beautiful bathes and luxuriate in their
swirling sparkling clean iridescent pools scattered throughout the boulders.
The faint of heart should take caution as occasionally in one outcropping or
another you may come across a topless European who has a different view of
sunning than most shy Americans. After a while, this too just seems a part of
the local scene.
After
lunch, we will head upwind to Gorda Sound. As soon as we round the next point
of land we
call ahead for dinner at the luxurious Biras Creek resort. This beautiful
resort is perched on the rise separating the East and West hills of Gorda
Sound. (Playboy Magazine once rated this restaurant one of the 10 best
and romantic in the world.)
of Saba rock and adjacent to the
famous Bitter End Yacht Club resort. After freshening up with a cooling shower
on deck, we head in for evening cocktails. If you have children or Grand
Children aboard, you can arrange for them to stay and watch the family movie
playing at the open beach hut movie screen tonight. After cocktails, it's off in the tender, the
length of the Bay to the Biras Creek dock just as dark quietly descends. We'll
take the gentle 
Creek has been
listed as one of the top 10 resorts around the world by many reviewers. You'll
come away enchanted. (Don't miss a walk down to the lighted pool which cantilevers
out over the beach on the lower Caribbean side of the Island. Contemplate the
"sting of pearl Islands" that stretch out before you all the way
to South America. St Martin, St. Barts, Antigua, St. Vincent, Mustique,
Bequia, the Tobago Cays--a lifetime of Islands to explore on future trips.
a stone and hit the closest Island. At about this time, after an hour
or so of sailing, the winner of the quarter will see the first Palm tree growing up
out of the Atlantic. This will soon be joined by more and a house--all with no
apparent land which is still under the curvature of the earth (below the sea!)
Gradually the dots will connect. Land will appear right where the GPS says it
should and you'll see one of the new welcoming buoys bouncing merrily in the
channel. 
the distance
off behind the dunes. You ascend the first dune and it's breathtaking. The
beach stretches out as far as the eye can see in both directions backed by
sand dunes. You would think you were on Nantucket
Island in New England except for the colors and the warmth, and the strong sea
breeze cooling your skin. 
Rediscover your soul mate. Find a
ship wreck on the shore. (We did one year!) or the flotsam and jetsam that
naturally accumulates on a leeward beach 1,000's of miles from the next
land--Africa to the East. This is the place in the Ocean where, in summer,
Hurricanes brew. But not now. Now you luxuriate in the tropic breezes. Inhale
the pure, fraquent air. Listen to the waves crashing on the reef that surrounds your
own private world of beach and pink coral sand. 
In
the middle of your reverie, and long before
you're ready, your cab will arrive to take you back. Some will visit the gift
shop while others continue their story telling at the beach bar, or lounge in
the beach chairs watching the sun drop into the Sea to the West. Everyone
usually gathers just before sunset to watch for the famous Green Flash, said
to be a phenomenon caused by the sun-light refraction through the emerald
green water at the meeting with the sun's top most crest. Walk down the
rickety dock to see the lobster pens and the lobsters being prepared for
dinner. As
soon as the chance to see the Green Flash is over, everyone heads back to the boat for a shower and
the gals always try on their new tropical sarongs for dinner...
As
each person finishes showering and comes up to the cockpit sipping their
drink, they'll be greeted
by roaring beach fires of drift wood on the beach. These are the fires under
the home built barbecue drums, cut up oil drums actually, which serve as
beach barbecues
to barbecue the tasty lobsters yet to come. 
After
dinner and wine, we always get into a challenge match of Bochie ball with a
crew of another boat. You draw a line in the sand, put a life ring about 15'
away, and toss lobster floats which you hold onto by their buoy rings. Some
people seem to be naturals. One ball knocks another away. Losers buy winners
drinks. Everyone knows everyone and no one wants to leave. The bar is left
open and you help yourself (The Honor Bar,
remember?) Finally. Reluctantly,
you wobble back down the dock to the tender and back to the boat. You probably
won't remember the rest of this night well. 
sleeping.
As you poke your head out into the dawn, you're at sea with the big Islands
looming in the foreground, and Anegada fading off the stern. This is often a
rollicking, fun, downwind, fast sail back past all of the Islands you've
missed. Interesting sounding Islands like Prickly Pear, and
Necker. Cooper and
Ginger. You'll swoop past Tortola heading down Drake's passage for St.
Johns. 
Tortola, late at night I've heard scruffy
looking wharf folks talk about this or that tourist finding a Gold Doubloon--totally
by accident. "It just washed away from the mountain side after all these
years and dumb luck brought him to the cave floor just at the right
time." Be sure to keep your eyes peeled if you're diving there. 
slide down
the coast of St. Johns heading back for St. Thomas. As you look wistfully
back, you'll be planning your next trip. Maybe longer next time?|
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