Moorings charter - Tortola

searaycruisn

searaycruisn

New Member
Nov 10, 2006
242
Old Saybrook, CT
Boat Info
2000 380 Sundancer
Engines
CAT 3126
A group of my dock buddies and I are looking into a bareboat power charter in the Carribean. Being the largest, I figured the first place to look is at the Moorings charters. It will be a guys trip...all of us turning 50 this year...there will be from 4 to 8 of us on the trip. Trip will probably be either in the beginning of December, or right after New Year. Any information about the Moorings and the Tortola area would be appreciated. What to watch for...think about...your experience.....where to stop for nightlife....suggestions?
 
Very good company...r u doing sail or power......jost and cane garden bay are fun.....i have only done sail with them.......
 
Eric,

I've chartered with the Moorings 4 times..... always outstanding. However, I must admit my experiences are very dated. First trip was in 1883, most recent was about 2002. First trip was all single friends, 3 couples.... all of us scuba divers too. Diving there is not worth it, especially if you've dove other top spots. First trip you could pull up into any cove and anchor up just about anywhere. Next trip, several years later, it was getting pretty busy by 4 pm. Last trip you picked up a mooring bouy and if you didn't get there by 3 or 4 it was slim pickin's.

I always had monohulls. from a 46 ft Morgan to a 41 ft Beneteau the last time for just my wife and I. She doesn't know the first thing about sailing either. Still had a great time. The last time we were there, most of the charter fleet was cats, and far fewer monohulls. The sailing is fantastic.... trade winds always out of the east at 10 to 20 mph, except when the "Christmas winds" come up and kick up the seas too in late December.

Not sure of the yacht you are thinking about, but 6 is an easier number to deal with than 8, whether it's on the yacht, a restaurant or just about anything else.

"The Bitter End" on Virgin Gorda was ALWAYS one of our favorite spots and has a very good restaurant. Cane Garden Bay was another great spot. The first several trips they would allow you to take the yacht to the US Virgins...... the last trip they said NO.

Little Yost Van Dyke is great too. A must see is "The Baths" an outcropping of huge boulders on Virgin Gorda. Too many other areas to mention. As I said before, my time there is way too old to give you hot night spots to see..... perhaps some of the other folks can add some fresh updates.
 
Oops...... I meant to say 1983........ not 1883. I'm not that damn old !

By the way, I also bare boat chartered out of St Thomas another time, and they were not nearly as professional or organized. The Moorings is #1 for a reason. Once you get their "Captain's" certificate, they never go back and ask you to fill out another sailing resume' again.

Our trips were always bare boat sailing charters. I forgot they also charter power boats now.
 
Do it on a sailing catamaran. More room to hang out and you can actually have some time on the boat between destinations. Everything in the BVI is so close. I've done it both ways. Will only do sail moving forward. Moorings was great and I would use them again. Good luck, it will be a blast no matter if you do power or sail.
 
Eric R,

Sailed countless times through BVI; Moorings are great. Also consider Footloose Sailing; exact same boats, just add a couple of years. They are carefully maintained and just as nice as the "new" Moorings boats. My sister and her family are very "thrifty"...we chartered a Cat from Footloose last year and I can truly say I wished I had done this earlier. Saved several hundred dollars on the boat charter cost. Also, check and see if "Ample Hamper" is still available to stock your boat for groceries. Price is almost identical between Moorings, SunSail, Footloose, etc...all high. It's expensive to ship groceries to islands. However, I like the ability to be very specific with the Ample Hamper folks in terms of actual items my family will eat. If I ask for yellow mustard, then I need yellow mustard--not a gourmet mustard which my picky non-eating son will NOT eat.
Anyway, enjoy and have fun and "just do it" as the commercial says...

ear
 
A group of 8 of us - 4 couples - chartered a 47' Power Cat from the Moorings this past Nov. and it was AWESOME!! The Moorings was great, the boat was INCREDIBLE and the Islands were fantastic! Any and all places we went were really a lot of fun. Anagada was a particular highlight - we caught 5 tuna and a nice mahi-mahi on the way over and had a great day of bone fishing and excellent lobster while there (plus fresh tuna sushi). All in all a fantastic vacation and we can't wait to go back for more.
 
If you have a few spare hours in Tortola, take a taxi ride along "The Spine", toward Roadtown. Beautiful views!
Trellis Bay 50 yards from the airport is just a nice place to relax on the beach with a cold drink, there is limited lodging, 1 restaurant, several "galleries".
You can catch ferries to Virgin Gorda, JVD, & West End.
No nightlife at East End, it's better in Roadtown or West End (Soper's Hole), I think, but still 'sleepy', even by Caribbean standards.
Enjoy your trip!
 
December/January is windy season in the BVI - we did a Moorings bareboat 50' monohull some years ago in January. It was fun and the wind was great for sailing aboat of that size, but less fun in the anhorages at night.
 
I, along with 3 other friends, did a bare boat charter out of Roadtown in the BVIs last year (in fact, exactly now last year). We rented through Footloose charters, which is a division of The Moorings. We had a blast, but the boat had a number of issues, which took some time to resolve, resulting in a loss of several hours of cruising. Footloose gets the older boats from the Moorings and they in turn are a little beat up and "rigged" in some regards. Of course, they are cheaper than the Moorings boats too. If I was going again, I would move up to The Moorings, pay a little more, but not have to worry about things not working when you get on the boat.

If you get above 4-5 guys, you'll want to strongly consider one of the catamarans as there's more space on them. Even with 4 guys, you'll want one of the larger boats (ours was 47') if you don't want to have to share a stateroom. Our boat didn't have A/C so it was very warm at night and if I had had another person anywhere near me, I couldn't have slept at all. I think some of the boats have A/C on them, but since you'll be moored there's no shore power, so you'll run the genny if want to use the A/C, which means you'll have to carefully monitor your diesel usage, since you'll be motoring at least some of the time.

In terms of places to go, there are many, but the trip up to Anegada stood out for me. Get there in time so you can get ashore, make reservations for the roast lobster dinner, have a few Painkillers, and then watch the sun set as you eat. The beach on the end of Anegada is great too with some pretty good snorkeling. I was there before the hurricane hit last year and I understand that Anegada was one of the islands hit, so you'll want to check on status there.

I loved the trip and will go back again.
 
We are doing the BVI bareboat Jan 9 - 15, 2012 with Virgin Traders. We have reserved the 48 Horizon. This will all be new, but anxious to do it. Hopefully a 48 footer won't be too hard to drive. The reviews on Virgin Traders were good and they have be very prompt on responses so far, but the actual experience will tell.

http://www.virgintraders.com/
 
What experience do you have to document to do a bareboat charter? Do they require a captains license?
 
You will fill out a form with your qualifications and anyone else on the boat that might have more than you and boating experience.......They will also have you go out in boat with a mate (for me, they made me pull out of slip and dock boat to let him off) and they can tell if you are lying..The first time I was alone and now I am all set to charter anything through morroings.....In San Jaun, we went out with owner of comapany to fuel dock and that was it......Not too hard!
 
We were allowed to take a 43' sailing sloop out alone for a week the first time out. Came back without damage, so they sent me a Captain's license in the mail. FOXY's!!!!!!! The pirate ship!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (topless ladies).
 
Wait a min.....are you guys saying that Moorings doesn't require any sort of certification?

When we chartered a sailboat in BVI from Sunsail they required some kind sailing certification my friend has. I submitted my captain's resume, but from what I recall if my friend didn't have that sailing certificate we wouldn't be allowed to take the boat. Has this changed or is it just b/c different companies do things differently?
 
Alex F said:
Wait a min.....are you guys saying that Moorings doesn't require any sort of certification?

When we chartered a sailboat in BVI from Sunsail they required some kind sailing certification my friend has. I submitted my captain's resume, but from what I recall if my friend didn't have that sailing certificate we wouldn't be allowed to take the boat. Has this changed or is it just b/c different companies do things differently?
Click to expand...

When we went with Footloose last year, there was a form that our captain had to fill out and that was it. Based on the boat handling I witnessed there, I don't think their standards are too high. If they required USCG certification, they'd be out of business, so it's a little loosey-goosey. In our case, we had two very experienced sailors (and one of them was a USCG certified Captain). I would say that our standards for the boat readiness exceeded theirs by quite a margin. We brought the boat back in better condition than we got it.
 
Alex F said:
Wait a min.....are you guys saying that Moorings doesn't require any sort of certification?

When we chartered a sailboat in BVI from Sunsail they required some kind sailing certification my friend has. I submitted my captain's resume, but from what I recall if my friend didn't have that sailing certificate we wouldn't be allowed to take the boat. Has this changed or is it just b/c different companies do things differently?
Click to expand...
TUI Marine owns The Moorings, Sunsail and Footloose, so I'd think their standards would be consistent.
 
mddickens said:
TUI Marine owns The Moorings, Sunsail and Footloose, so I'd think their standards would be consistent.
Click to expand...

Well, in that case some certification is required, I just don't recall which one exactly. This might be different for power vessels, but at least it applies to sailboats/sailcats.
 
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