On February 25, 2022, Scott and I finally arrived in the British Virgin Islands after a week of testing and waiting. We took a red eye flight from Seattle to St. Thomas, via Miami. The total travel time was about 12 hours. Our flight had been changed a few times, arriving into St. Thomas later than we had expected. As a result, we chose not to take the last ferry to Tortola as we might miss customs. Instead, we booked a hotel at the Windward Passage hotel, which The Moorings recommended. It’s located directly across the street from the Charlotte Amalie Ferry Terminal.
I will say the location was great, but the rooms were not very clean. Good enough for one night though. After checking in, we were hot and hungry, so we headed down the main boulevard to find dinner. Lucky for us, we stumbled upon the Green House. We grabbed a view table and made ourselves right at home. The food and service was fantastic and a restaurant we would recommend in the Virgin Islands.
Heading to the British Virgin Islands
The following morning, we had a reservation at 9am to head to Tortola. We checked our bags and then grabbed breakfast next door to the ferry terminal at the Petite Pump Room. Just like last year, the service is a bit slow, so plan accordingly. There are three ferries that work out of this terminal and we had reservations on the Road Town Fast Ferry.
Just like last year, this ferry had an upper deck. The weather was great, so we were happy to grab a seat up above and enjoy the view.
The ride takes just under an hour. When you to the Tortola Ferry Terminal, you can either scan their QRcode to get tested for covid at the terminal, or show your negative test results at the check-in desk before customs. Scott and I got thru customs and immigration within 20 minutes. Maria and Ben had arranged for a taxi to pick us up and they were waiting for us when we arrived.
The Moorings British Virgin Islands Base
The base is about 10 minutes from the ferry terminal, so it’s a quick trip.
The front desk is located in an open air lobby and they have a few shops around the base.
Check-in for the boat was not until 4pm at the earliest, so we stowed our luggage in the large room next to the lobby.
From there, we went to the bar on the base and grabbed a drink and a quick bite to eat.
Provisioning in the Virgin Islands
When our crew put our provisioning list together, there were a few items we knew we had to get locally. Luckily the Rite Way grocery store was a short walk away.
As we mentioned in our video, we chose to have The Moorings deliver the heavy stuff like bottled water, wine, beer, vodka (mostly our beverages).
I had noticed that many provisions had been sitting in the sun while we were walking around the base waiting, so I was anxious to see how ours would be. We ended up “hanging out” at the base all day and in hindsight, I wish we would have explored Tortola during the day.
We checked with the desk right at 4pm asking if our boat was ready and she said “no, in fact, you may not get your captain’s review tonight”. That made me raise my eyebrows, as we were paying almost $1100 for a sleep over so we could take off first thing in the am. Instead of being nasty, I pleaded with them and finally at 5:30pm our boat and captain were ready! Yea.
As soon as we got on board, I started to put the food away. Sure enough some of the lunch meat was warm and not edible. Bummer.
On Board “Cool Change”
Our Leopard 433 PC was named “Cool Change” and was a 2020, so we were surprised we got a newer boat when we were scheduled to get a 3-5 year old boat. I will say the boat was in fantastic shape, but the heads did stink. We’re thinking the heads must have used salt water and that’s why they stunk. During the review, we found a few things, so a technician came down to fix them right away. Just like last year, I recorded his review, so we could easily go back and see what he said. We highly recommend this, especially when it comes to the generator and how to empty the holding tanks.
Quick Tour of the Leopard 433 PC
This Leopard 433 PC from Moorings is what they call an “owner’s version”. There are two types of catamaran builds: charter or owner. In a charter version, you have four staterooms, two on each side with a shared head. On an owner’s version, the starboard side is all for the owner, so it has much more space. We gave Ben and Maria the owner’s version and then used the extra stateroom for our luggage. It was tight, no doubt still.
The salon / galley offered lots of space for everyone!
We picked the aft stateroom on the port side, which was actually slightly bigger than the forward one.
The forward cabin also has another “berth” in the far forward V (see the pillow?). No thanks! I think most sailors use that for storage.
After putting everything away and unpacking, we were ready for dinner. The Moorings base has two restaurants, including one wood fired pizza restaurant. So the four of us grabbed a quick bite and came home with left overs for the next few days!
Needless to say, we were anxious to wake up and leave the next morning. However, we were still missing our inverter and we needed to go back to Rite Way and grab a few provisions, that they missed.
Stay tuned and see how our first day of cruising went in the BVI!
As always, thank you for following our journey! Please subscribe to our blog and our channel (link below) and follow us on social @BoatingJourney #BoatingJourney. Lots of exciting things are happening right now, so stay tuned!
Cheers, Scott and Ally