8 people, 1 Beneteau 48′ Oceanis sailboat.

“Very Plush Looking” is how my father described the boat. I don’t disagree. These boats sell for half a million dollars used, they’re fancy. First time ever sleeping on a sailboat and it probably doesn’t get any better. So how was it?

If you get motion sickness, you should load up on Dramamine for open ocean sailing. We left port under motor, encountered a squall just as we were about to raise the sails. New crew to a new boat, we didn’t have a process yet and we bobbed for a few minutes. I turned back and my partner was already hurling over the back of the boat. Didn’t quite clear the transom so she had some hosing off to do later. Two hours later, she passed out after two hours of convulsions, all while being tossed about the cabin and head by waves and tacks as we navigated to the other side of Tortola. She was horrified to find out that this trip put us right at the airport we had flown into the day before and was only a 40 minute cab ride. Pack Dramamine, day two was so much better for her. It seemed to have exchanged fatigue for nausea in equal doses, so under way, she mostly napped.

Six strangers. The first day people were shy. That went away quickly. The first day people were very accommodating and amicable. That lasted for the entire week. 48 feet of boat is not a lot of space for 8 people and everyone was everywhere and it all seemed fine.   I have no idea how these people felt about us, what I know, is we thought it would be best to go with the flow, expect little, willing to share resources, snacks, heads (bathrooms), whatever was needed. The rest of the boat seemed to be operating under the same exact philosophy. I realized that if there was more of this, anywhere in life, things would be much more pleasant for everyone. You can’t force people to be accommodating, but you can be a good host, even as a guest.

Port to port. Mooring ball to mooring ball. Sailing in the morning and sometimes in the afternoon to a different destination. The Virgin Islands are old volcanos from what I gather, so most Islands are mountains, a poor liar could have convinced me it was Hawaii, I haven’t been, I’d of been fine believing. Sea Turtles were plentiful and made for exciting snorkeling. “It’s just sitting on the bottom munching on seaweed like “chomp chomp chomp”.

We had a rubber dinghy with an outboard motor, this was our shuttle to any docks. I enjoyed learning to motor this as much as the sailing. One night I played taxi and being under the stars with their brightness turned all the way up, while dodging a mine field of catamarans with white anchor lights above and neon “courtesy” lights reflecting blue into the water below which created a surreal and calming visual to pair with the 72 degree air temp, gentle wind and the outboard drowned out any distant partying or chatter which created a noisy illusion of quiet.

I’ve been fortunate living in the mid Atlantic for more than a decade where sailing is common enough for affordable options to learn or participate. I first joined Downtown Sailing Center in Baltimore which is a community based, volunteer driven sailing non-profit. I then took lessons at Annapolis Sailing School for my ASA 101, 103, and on this trip, completed my 104 which would technically certify that I could bareboat charter (charter without hiring a crew and provisioning the boat myself) but I imagine I won’t for at least another year.

All of this to say, the BVI is famous for amazing sailing at the key months where Northern North America is at its coldest. We had sustained 15-25  knot winds every day which are just strong enough to not be dangerous and to make great sailing.

You don’t really need to know how to sail to do what we did. You can find groups who go as flotillas, in fact ours was public and no sailing knowledge was required. It’s not the cheapest vacation but it’s not the most expensive I’ve had and you can likely swing it for $4000 per person all in. If you’re not sure if it’s for you, I would recommend it, if you hate boats, maybe pass.

Here’s a list of the challenges. Rain happens for 5-10 minutes every 3 hours or so. It’s unpredictable and it’s gone as soon as everyone is done scrambling to close all of the hatches, only to reopen them. We weren’t allowed to flush anything in the heads that didn’t come out of our bodies. Trash in the bathrooms is where you put all toilet or tissue paper, wasn’t as gross as I thought it would be and didn’t seem to have much smell at all. We often didn’t have enough battery power to keep the refrigerator going all day, had to strategically shut it off, or when possible, pack ice in the freezer. There was also plenty of water, and we were told we could take “sailor showers” (rinse, soap up, rinse off. No water running in between steps) but nobody did, other than our skipper. In fact our water gauge didn’t work and we ran down to our last tank without showering. We ran out of dinghy fuel which kept us on boat one night where we might have journeyed out. We found more fuel the next day but there are a number of locations without fuel stations and being islands, locals guard what fuel they have. A number of ports have showers, real toilets, delicious food, alcohol, etc.

There are some opportunities to feel like a pirate. We visited The Baths which are a natural rock formation. You cannot anchor or dock there, you can get a mooring ball for three hours, dinghy to outer markers of swim areas, and swim to shore with whatever you need kept dry in a drybag. That was very pirate like, that and all of the rum and whisky we consumed at night. Daytime was for sailing, nighttime was for leisure, and warm rum is better than warm beers or wine when the refrigerator is overloaded and there is no ice.

Their lobsters have these two enormous antennas that jut out of their face. I called them snouts, there is some bonus meat in there that most of our people ignored but was delicious. They split their lobsters down the middle and grill them over wood fires. It’s delicious.

“Are you still writing that thing? Just write “The End.””