This has been a fantastic vacation, and we’re all anxious to plan a return trip next year. A few lessons learned and thoughts for our next trip, which may be of interest to readers:
1) We’d like to try a catamaran on our next trip. Particularly if we end up bringing more friends along, a catamaran could easily accommodate 4 couples in its staterooms, with plenty of privacy and lots of room to lounge around on deck, in the saloon, and in the cockpit.
2) We need two full days at Bitter End Yacht Club. There’s so much to see and do here, each time I come I feel like I am missing out on a lot of great sites and activities.
3) Although we are developing some favorite places to visit down here (The Baths, Fallen Jerusalem, Bitter End, etc) we need to make sure and try several new places with each trip. I’ve still never snorkeled the Dogs, Monkey Point, the Caves, and a dozen other places that are on the top of my To See list.
4) The two best cruising guides are still these. I refer to others, but if I only had two books down here, these would be the two. You can pick them both up from Amazon with these links: Cruising the Virgin Islands
5) I’ve tried summer and winter cruising here, and love them both. We’re planning to return again this summer with the whole family (8 of us!) plus Grandpa. Short of sailing in the hurricane season, we should have a pretty good idea of what the various seasons offer. So far, I don’t have a favorite.
6) Conch Charters is a great charter company in the BVI. We’ve sailed twice with them now and had great experiences both times, I highly recommend them. We’ve actually booked our next trip with them already. Check them out, and let them know you found them on Unsinkable 2’s blog. Click here to visit Conch Charters.
And in conclusion, I thought you might appreciate the irony of where I spent my first weekend back on the mainland. Winter camping with one of my sons at the Beach.
Back to reality, sleeping bag in the snow, -4 Fahrenheit that night and waiting for spring to come…