18:21.4N 64:35.0W

 

The BVIs are like a theme park for yachties.  Aiming primarily at tourists, each venue has mooring balls conveniently located for to you to do the local attraction and then visit the restaurant.  The bubbly pool, the Willie T, an Anegada lobster restaurant, the Soggy Dollar bar will all be familiar to someone who has spent a week on one of the charter boats here.  Moorings alone has over 500 yachts waiting to take you around the islands, so it is inevitably a bit crowded in high season.

 

Having said that, the BVIs have some beautiful locations and sometimes it can be fun just to sit in the cockpit and watch all the charter yachts coming and going.

 

We cleared in at Sopers Hole, because customs and immigration there is a bit more convenient than the one in Road Town.  Then we moved on to Great Harbour, Peter Island. 

 

You would think with a name like Great Harbour, this would be a really good anchorage, but it is not at the top of our list.  It is a large bay, but with deep water at the centre and packed with mooring balls all round the edge.  There is one section, on the north shore, without mooring balls but this is consequently packed with anchored yachts.  We couldn’t find anywhere to shoehorn ourselves in, and so had to anchor right in the middle of the bay, in 26m, swinging around in the strong wind that funnels through the bay.  We only stayed here one night.

 

There is a pebble beach to land the dingy, but nothing much ashore

 

A short walk gets you to the Peter Island resort, but this is not aimed at your average cruiser

(Mooring balls in this bay are $65 and the restaurant is equally “exclusive”)