BVIs over USVIs?

[FarCry]

Go to the song chain and get two more. Or...post twice on another thread.

[rundugrun]

Will do. Thanks for the PM.

[EvanstonJohn]

Depends on your interests, I suppose. Two years ago in May I sailed from Jost Van Dyke to St. John, spent the afternoon at Maho Bay (after checking in at customs at Cruz Bay) and then overnighted around the corner in a lovely little bay near a hiking trail and good snorkeling. I had an incredibly relaxing time. Nice bit of snorkeling, 3 or 4 other boats in the overnight anchorage. Nice and quiet after the afternoon mooring scrum of White Bay in Jost.

I'm going out again for a 7 day sail in May and intend to spend at least two nights in St. John.

Customs are a bit of a hassle - check out of BVI, check in at USVI, check out of USVI, and check in at BVI (at least I think that's what you've got to do - we didn't, but that's another story).

[FarCry]

EvanstonJohn,
The little bay you overnighted in is called Leinster and as you noted, has good hiking trails and decent snorkeling.

[rundugrun]

Leinster also has the ruins to visit, which are cool. Additionally, you can dinghy to Mary's Creek and get Rett's Shuttle to Cruz Bay for shopping / dinner. I love Leinster.

[sigmasailor]

We went to reef bay (only boat) and had a look at the Petroglyphis and walked the really nice trails. Lamshur bay (again only boat) and Salt pond bay was also very good and an option for a repeat some time. Customs was difficult since you couldn't find a decent spot to anchor (bay was quite full and people yelling at you where not to anchor); we later learned (as usual afterwards) that a dingy ride from Caneel bay is what a lot of people do.

[rundugrun]

Anchoring in Cruz Bay is typically prohibited by most bareboat companies (for good reason)... as you discovered, the best way is to pick up a mooring near Caneel or Salomon and take the dinghy to Cruz.

[EvanstonJohn]

sigmasailor, thanks for the tip on dinghying from Caneel. Anchoring was a problem for us in Cruz Bay, nearly ran aground on the one side, was yelled at not to anchor in any of the permanent moorings, finally parked alongside customs at the dock for a bit. Of course, the facts that I had neither checked out of the BVI nor had the boat's registration in my possession somewhat overwhelmed the parking issue. We worked everything out courtesy of a very kindly INS agent who didn't make us wait for Sunsail to fax the registration to the office. However, she drew the line when we attempted to dump a bag of trash in the dumpster! ("Did you declare that??" Uh, no . . .)

[mackconsult]

I am thinking BVI next May/June ....