British Virgin Islands (BVI's) 13-25 April 2011

Nimue
Thu 14 Apr 2011 02:03
With an 80nm sail ahead of us, an ‘overnighter’ from Anguilla to Virgin Gorda in the BVI’s would guarantee a daylight landfall.  Little wind, meant that we motored sailed most of the way and we rounded Round Rock in the early hours of a particularly overcast day. 
 
First thing first, we needed to clear into customs and immigration, so we headed to Spanish Town in Virgin Gorda.  We were quite wary,  as we had heard that the BVI customs officials can be very difficult and unhelpful!   Anyway we managed to come off okay and only had to pay U$14.50 to clear in, but had to pay an extra 75c for the paper forms which we had to complete! We came out with the belief that further dues of U$10 per day, would be payable on clearing out.

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Passing one of the remote Anguillan islands; couldn’t see anyone there!

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Michael hoisting the BVI’s courtesy flag and Nimue approaching Round Rock, our first glimpse of the BVI’s

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Oops, look what’s happened to this trawler! 

The BVI’s were a bit of a culture shock, with lots of boats milling around in a relatively small sailing area.  The amount of charter boats on these waters were just amazing and on a visit to Tortola, the capital, to stock up at Bobby’s supermarket, we couldn’t believe our eyes, on seeing the rows and rows of charter boats moored together in just one marina.   

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The Moorings charter fleet

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The Sunsail charter fleet