A winter getaway to the islands.
SpinSheet Century Club member Americo Cottely and his wife Lisa joined a group from the Peninsula Sailors club for a mid-February 2024 charter with Dream Yacht Charter out of Compass Point Marina in St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands (USVI). Below Americo summarizes his sailing charter vacation in his own words:
Monohull or multihull?
We selected a monohull, specifically a Jeanneau Sun Odyssey 449. I went with a group from a boat club I belong to: Peninsula Sailors. They regularly book with Dream Yacht Charter and get preferred pricing. The club chose the boats; I selected to sail on this one because I knew most of the people on the boat.
Captain or cook?
Our group had about 24 sailors in three boats: two monohulls and one catamaran. The idea was for the three boats to sail as a group and help each other as needed. We sailed with eight on our boat. I was the first mate and was able to make many of the decisions regarding navigation and boat handling. We did not have a captain or a cook; we did it all ourselves. Several on the crew had chartered multiple times and were experienced with provisioning and cooking on a boat.
The crew:
We had three men and five women aboard (this is a good ratio as far as I’m concerned): my wife and me, a good friend, another couple, and three additional crew/friends that I’ve sailed with before.
Destinations and anchorages:
Starting from Compass Point Marina, we did a short sail to a beach on St Thomas. This was good to get a feel for the boat and make sure everything worked correctly. After that we sailed to Culebrita in the Spanish Virgin Islands. We did immigration on the boat using the CBP Roam app on our iPhones. We sailed to Culebra and Vieques. We returned back to the other side of Culebra before returning to St Thomas. We anchored everywhere we went because we were advised the mooring balls in the Spanish Virgin Islands aren’t the greatest. My two favorite anchorages were Turtle Beach in Culebrita and Flamenco Bay in Culebra.
Sailing conditions:
The sailing was really good for seven out of eight days. The winds were steady at 10 to 20 knots. On the day we sailed back to St. Thomas the winds were on the nose and a tad light, so we decided to motorsail to get there faster. It was sunny most days. It rained once for about an hour.
Excursions and highlights.
We climbed up to the top of Culebrita and explored the island. We snorkeled and visited the bioluminescent bay in Vieques, and we saw the Sherman tanks on the beach on Flamenco beach in Culebra. On land the highlights were climbing to the lighthouse at the top of Culebrita and swimming in the crystal blue waters of Turtle Beach. On sea the highlight was sailing from Culebra to Vieques. We had a nice beam reach with steady 20 knot winds. We got the boat up to 10 knots while towing a dinghy.
Surprises along the way.
I thought we would be able to dock in Culebra and Vieques to get water. This wasn’t an option. We had 100 gallons of fresh water in the tanks, yet we ended up running out before we returned to St. Thomas. I was surprised at the prices at the supermarket near the marina in St. Thomas. Expect to pay two to three times what you pay in the US. The markets in Culebra and Vieques were really good and reasonably priced.
On the next charter trip…
I would get a boat with a watermaker. Also, I would either choose a catamaran or a bigger monohull. Eight people on a 45-foot monohull was fun, but it was a tad tight.
