Our Grand Adventure

5th January 2026 | Odometer: 813nm | British Virgin Islands

The BVIs were a decently long distance away from St Martin and once again, it was our longest passage yet. Our estimated crossing time was thirteen hours so we knew we wanted to go in really good weather. We were very fortunate the famous Christmas winds had not really appeared around Christmas time or New Years and we were expecting a delightfully calm day on the second of January. 

We had completed our paperwork, gotten the Port Authority to stamp us out and set our alarms for 2.50am. Waking up in the deep darkness after a few hours sleep, we simply started up the engine, pulled up the anchor and headed out.

The night passage felt surreal and had a dreamlike quality to it. There was almost no one around and we passed only a handful of cruise ships in the darkness. A gorgeous full moon was low in the western sky and we spent the night and early morning heading directly west into the setting moon. In the brief hour between moonset and sunrise we had deep darkness; but were so far out in the depths that we didn’t need to worry about any lights.

The sunrise was so pretty and was the first we had had where we were surrounded by water on all sides. Seeing the light brighten behind you and diffuse through the entire spectrum from light to dark as far as the eye can see all around. It was perfect timing as we were in the centre of the crossing as far from all landpoints as we are likely to get. Only Statia was visible as a distant mount just on the horizon.

We both took it in turns to catch a couple of hours sleep, with mine getting broken up by Ryan waking me – quick! dolphins! A large pod of dolphins played on our bow for a good half an hour. I can’t explain how stunning these creatures are, they weave and dance so close to each other, right on the edge of a crash but never colliding. I could stand on the bow all day to watch their powerful, sleek bodies launching through the waves, building up speed and surfing the crest of the waves overtaking us. Such a beautiful sight.

We entered into the main channel of the BVIs, St Francis Drake Channel, between the southern end of Virgin Gorda and some much smaller islands. The entrance was very choppy with wind in multiple directions, and two currents colliding in the middle. The white caps and chop was very concentrated into a small space, but once we were through it was beautiful, calm and protected amongst the islands. 

Entering into the channel was a snap back to reality after the long, isolated passage with no one around. The BVIs is famous for charter boats and there were SO MANY BOATS in sight. Catamarans, monohulls, super yachts, cruise ships, power boats, speed boats – cruising, sailing and ripping by in every direction. So much life and water activity!

We could see the exterior of the famous Baths, but carried on past to make our way to the anchorage at Spanish Town to check in. Unfortunately we arrived about half hour after the customs & immigration office closed, so we settled in for a quiet night with a yellow flag.

Customs Chaos

The customs & immigration office was quite an adventure in the morning. There are five windows you must proceed through, numbered 1->5 but placed in the room as 5,1,2,3,4. Don’t get mixed up and go to window 5 first though! Tut tut tut. With no waiting area and just a long thin corridor in front of the windows we proceeded to get very chummy with the many other folks waiting to check in (about 20 captains of crewed charters and 3 private boats including us). Unfortunately, two boats at the front had separate paperwork issues going on and about an hour passed before there was any movement at all.

Meanwhile, the room continued to fill, and fill, and fill! We were all packed in, hot and sweating. Due to the complete inability to form a line, there was a pretty funny verbal line established and each newcomer was told who the last before them was – everyone was pretty cheerful though and there was a lot of banter and joking around going on. 

Once we finally made it to the window we actually were through pretty quickly – guess we just got unlucky that day. Escaping out, we picked up some fruit smoothies and got out of that anchorage as fast as possible. 

Gorda Sound

Our first stop after checking in was Gorda Sound, we were both quite tired from the crossing over still and spent that day and night just hanging out and doing some boat work. The anchorage was in the lee of Prickly Pear island, which true to its name, was covered in cactus. Definitely not going for a walk there!

Unfortunately, this anchorage is also right next to the channel into the sound, and the fast ferries, power cats and motor boats come right past the anchored boats at top speeds, throwing enormous wakes around. This meant we would be completely relaxed and just chilling, then randomly would get thrown around like we were in the middle of the ocean. Very annoying, exacerbated by the fact that the sound is enormous and these really fast boats could actually go anywhere at all but usually chose to come right next to the anchorage. Very inconsiderate behaviour in the boating world – but, again, nearly everyone here is a charter and has 1) no idea what they are doing and 2) no understanding of the usual considerations you give other boats. 

The attractions in the BVIs seem to consist of three things: snorkelling, bars, and more bars. The main attraction in the Gorda Sound is the East End Yacht Club, known for it’s… bars! And restaurants and wild party life. We putted over for sundowners, had a drink, laughed at the variety of inebriated tourists getting around and then left. I think we are both a little out of practice at bar life.

The Charter Racket

Charter boats in the BVIs generally do “the loop”, starting roughly at Road Town in Tortola, they then proceed north east up through the channel, then around the top, head south west to the other end, then make their way back up to Road Town to finish. 

Because of the number of charters, the BVIs have installed many mooring fields in the anchorages so that the charter boats don’t mess up the coral, or their boats, or other people’s boats by misjudging anchoring. Moorings are generally much easier than anchoring especially when it’s crowded.

Unfortunately, this leaves little to no places to anchor! You either have to anchor in 12m+ of water (we don’t have enough anchor chain to do that) or you end up in the less desirable spots with less protection. The mooring balls are crazy expensive though and seem to just be going up and up. The guide book we had from 2023 said moorings were $30USD per night, the reviews on our app from 2024 said moorings were $40USD per night, by January 2026, it was now $50USD per night. They have obviously realised they have cornered the market – you can’t get any (or many anchorages), so in many cases you now have to take a mooring, and the price is nuts. 

We managed to get a few spots where we comfortably anchored, but in several of the busier bays we just bowed to the system and paid the fees. A very different feeling to most other places we have been!

Anegada

After hearing some rave reviews from the folks in the customs office, we had decided to be sure we made it to the northernmost island, Anegada. We had gotten lucky with good wind conditions and made the three hour crossing to get there. We were so glad we did! This was definitely one of my favourite places in the BVIs by far.

We pulled in early and found a lovely anchoring spot just near the mooring field. We had read that you could hire mini mokes on the island and Ryan was super keen to try one – a life goal for him! We found a nice dinghy dock, tied up and hired one right off the beach.

So much fun! 

Whizzing around with no doors, and just a little canvas roof, the wind blowing in your hair and feeling free as a bird. Being so low to the ground it’s like riding a go-cart, and even at slow speeds it feels like you are zooming along really fast. Ryan’s grin was bigger than the Cheshire Cat the entire time we were in it. We encountered a couple of stressed out tourists who had to drive on the left on the wrong side, and we laughed in Australian at them as we zoomed past.

The island is not very big and we had the moke for the whole day, so naturally we drove the entire island first off to see it all. Then went back to our favourite spots for lunch and through the afternoon. 

We found our way to a really fun spot called Tipsy’s which was exactly like going to the Punchbowl Social in Austin. Games everywhere, drinks galore, nice food and lots of friendly, tipsy folk playing pool, ring toss, corn toss and foursquare. The main difference was you could also take your drinks down to the beach and relax on the sun loungers there (or in our case, the ones in the shade haha). The BVIs really does feel like stepping into the middle of the USA, right into a sorority reunion party. 

Eventually, after a decent afternoon rainstorm and visiting a few more of the lookouts, even Ryan got tired of being in the mini moke and we called it a day, dropping it back off and going for sundowners on the roof. Later that night, dinner at the beach bar. 🤤

All in all? This felt like the most perfect holiday day and I couldn’t wish for anything else.