We let the kids decide where to meet for the Christmas holidays and they unanimously picked the British Virgin Islands. We had visited there 10 years ago with our friends the Fillenworth’s and the kids were keen to return. It did not disappoint!

With a good weather window Bill and I arrived via an overnight sail from St. Martin on December 6th to Virgin Gorda. We checked into customs at Spanish Town and then sailed up to North Sound and the Bitter End Yacht Club. While there – to our great surprise we came across Lucy and Doug Halsted who had been in the islands for a few weeks on their beautiful new catamaran which they have aptly named Surprise! She’s beautiful.

We had a blast catching up with Doug & Lucy comparing notes on our new retirement digs. Our boats are from the same manufacturer so lots of fun comparing how things work (or don’t!).  Billy and Doug could (and did) talk for hours about boat systems and upgrades. We had a lovely dinner on board Surprise including a round of drinks from the Rum Runner himself – Jim and his dog Drake. This guy looks just like Jimmy Buffet – which he has heard alot, of course less now with Jimmy passing last September (RIP). Jim takes your order races back to his center console where the frozen drinks are made and delivers them back with a smile and nice conversation. 

It’s been great fun keeping in touch with Lucy and Doug and running into them as we criss crossed the BVIs waiting for our kids (in great anticipation) and enjoying the many different islands.

We headed to Nanny Cay Tortola as we were having a new helm enclosure made - a good spot for them to work and for us to meet Ryan and Willy – the first two of our “BVI Christmas Crew” to arrive . Ryan had been to Nanny Cay with us last spring and the bar tender at Pegleg’s Beach Bar was very happy to see him back! The next day we headed to Cooper Island to rendezvous with the Erskine clan who were spending their holidays in the BVIs as well. Annie knows the islands so well and they have been so many times, so it was great to spend time with them and share ideas on potential itineraries (and drink lots of pain killers!).

We only had a couple of days before our next crew members were due to arrive so we stayed relatively close to Tortola and spent the day at Norman Island snorkeling the Caves and Indians, launching our cool new paddle boards (early Christmas gift from kids) and checking out the infamous Willie T’s (floating bar & restaurant) which turned out to be the first of several visits. We sailed to Road Town Tortola to meet the evening ferry from St Thomas and pick up Trevor and Ryan’s girlfriend Bridget. While waiting we did a big provisioning run, walking up to the Rite Way (thank goodness Ryan was with me to carry everything), Steakation (Christmas tenderloin!) and of course loading up on Carib beer.  

Once aboard, Trevor and Bridget were keen to get moving so we pulled the anchor just after sunset and sailed back over to Norman Island and grabbed an open mooring ball. Norman has some of the best (accessible) hiking trails so we took the crew for a nice long hike in the morning before hitting the Pirate Bight Beach Bar for some Bloody Marys. As expected cocktails were a primary component of the BVI Christmas Crews’ plans.

We sailed back up to Virgin Gorda into North Sound to spend Christmas Eve and Day at the Bitter End Yacht Club. Christmas Eve was amazing! We had a dinner reservation at Saba Rock – recommended by Libby and Joe Parker. While it was quiet (not a huge crowd) the atmosphere was festive and the food was simply amazing. After dinner we hit the upper deck lounge with a pool table and DJ and lo and behold ran into Nate Moore and his family. Nate went to college with Willy’s good friend Jack Garrard (of googley-eye fame – iykyk). We had a great time and saw Nate and his family often over the next week.

Christmas day started with a yummy breakfast on board and the opening of Christmas stockings. To keep it simple, we had decided to have each person give and receive a stocking from one other person – it was lots of fun and opening provided some good laughs. I got a nice new I-phone (aka a new camera) from Santa so I should be able to take much better pictures for this blog (see the moonrise on Christmas day below). Notably, I searched for a church to attend Christmas mass, since we have always done the double dip (Star of the Sea AND Old North) back home. Sadly St Ursulas on Virgin Gorda was damaged in Hurricane Irma and is still being re-constructed. Of course the kids were terribly disappointed to have to spend the whole day relaxing and hanging out at the Bitter End Yacht Club bar.  Billy cooked up an amazing tenderloin on the grill and we had a lovely Christmas dinner under the stars with an amazing moon rise to finish the day!

Anegada is one of the BVI islands that we have always wanted to go to, but have been thwarted by adverse winds and weather on previous trips. The day after Christmas proved to be perfect conditions and so we made the 15 nm sail north. WOW! So worth the wait. We all loved it. It is the only island in the BVI that is low and flat (made from coral and limestone vs volcanos like the other mountainous islands). Anegada is surrounded by coral reefs (and hundreds of shipwrecks) so you can snorkel right off the beach and see a lot of sea-life. We took a mooring at Setting Point where most of the restaurants and businesses are located, there are not many, as only about 300 people live on the island. 

We decided to rent scooters to tour the island – and it was a blast! It was Trevor’s “favorite” memory from the trip. It was a little hairy since in the BVI you have to drive on the left side of the road – so I kept saying out loud to myself “stay left, stay left”.  We all did fine and survived! It rained the first part of the day, but that didn’t slow us down much. We toured both the eastern end of the island Flamingo sanctuary (see photo below), Loblolly Bay and the Settlement , and a view of Conch Island and then circled back out to the Northwestern point and Cow Wreck Bay. 

For dinner we chose the popular Lobster Shack where you call early in the day to make a reservation and place your entire order in advance. While there weren’t many other patrons, the lobsters were just incredible and yummy and the service outstanding.

Trevor’s girlfriend Sarah who had spent Christmas with her family in Chicago, arrived to Tortola on the 28th so we left early from Anegada and sailed back to the north coast to meet her at Cane Garden Bay. Bill and I had spent a lot of time at Myett’s Garden Inn while we were looking for Carried Away so it was lots of fun to go back. Not only did we add Sarah to complete our crew but we got to play musical bingo and see Nate and his family again as well! 

Next we were in preparation for the New Years holiday! Trevor had bought advanced tickets to Foxy’s “Year End / New Years Eve” celebration – we decided to head to Jost Van Dyke early and check it out as we understood it might be a bit crazy on NYE. We stopped at Little Jost Van Dyke for a night (which is an awesome, quiet spot) where we were able to make the relatively easy hike out to the Bubbly Pool.  

The next day (New Years Eve Eve) Trevor had us up and moving early to try and snag a mooring at Great Bay JVD which was just around the corner. While we were the first to arrive we had no luck as all the moorings were taken and no one was leaving and so we anchored. Given the rocky bottom it took quite a few tries and Ryan had to dive down to the anchor to set it right. With the boat secured, we headed into Foxy’s and visited with Foxy himself who shared great stories about the CYC and his North shore visits. Sad to see our old Boston Strong shirt was lost in Irma but fun to see so many new flags and T shirts filling it up again.  

We took the dingy around to Soggy Dollar beach where the Erskines had kindly left us a round of Pain Killers. Thank you to the Erskines! We also bumped into our friends the Ayer’s from Marblehead who were cruising the BVI for the holidays as well. We spent the afternoon with them at Soggy Dollar and then the evening at Foxys “pre-party”. We felt like we had fully celebrated ”Year End” by the time we were done.

Willy had originally planned to depart on the 28th but we talked him into extending his stay a few more days. We are so glad he stayed and it was easy to drop him off at Sopers Hole to catch his ferry and the rest of the crew decided to spend NYE back at Norman Island - we visited Willie Ts (AGAIN!) where the Buckley Family (from Missou) loudly counted the family in for the Willie T “jump” .

We had a fun and festive evening ringing in 2024 at Norman Bight – with plans to get up early on the 1st and snorkel the Indians and then sail on to Cooper Island for a lovely New Years Day.  

We finished our trip by visiting the Bath’s then stopping for lunch at Peter Island and ending the day back at Nanny Cay Marina so the kids could have an easy taxi back to Road Town the next morning. It was one of my favorite days as we did so much in one day!  Overall it was a busy (somewhat exhausting) and wonderful holiday in the BVI. 

With the kids all disembarked and our new helm enclosure installed which we love, Bill and I headed back east to St. Martin. We will spend the balance of the winter in the Eastern Caribbean. More on that in my next installment…..