If you know what your doing you'll be fine. I recomend Ocean Runners in Cruz Bay. Ask about North Shore swells before you rent. A 24' in 8ft swells is no fun. Be sure to stop in at customes in West End. (Wear a cover up or shirt and sandels.)

Karrieb,
As a frequent bare-boater in the BVI, I echo what Wes said; the St. John to Virgin Gorda trip can easily be done, just check on the sea conditions before you rent. And, BVI Customs agents have been a little more diligent lately about checking to be sure boaters have cleared in. Saving 30 minutes by skipping Customs is not worth having your rental boat confiscated. I'm thinking that would ruin your entire day.

Regan

P.S. It occurs to me that perhaps I should explain to the non-sailors reading this thread that the term "bare-boater" just means that we rent cruising sailboats without a skipper or other crew, i.e. just the "bare" boat. Then we sail them around by ourselves, where ever we want to go. It doesn't mean that we... I mean, yes, we wear cloths at all times... well, unless,.. but only...oh forget it.

Thanks guys for the info. When we rented before we had some fairly rough motoring/chop for the VI's so we'll be on the lookout and we did know from the previous trip to go through customs first. I won't go anywhere if there are good size swells as it means the snorkling isn't as much fun so I'll be asking about the conditions believe me! How long, assuming fairly chop-free conditions, reasonable speed, could we expect it to take to get to the Baths from Cruz Bay? 2 hours or so? We've never sailed or motored clothing-optional but heh.... that's right, lets not go there! Also, we rented last time on the spur of the moment- in November, do you think we can do that again or should I try to book ahead with Ocean Runners?

Karrieb,
Looking at my charts, it's 7 nm from Cruz Bay to West End (for customs), then 14 nm from West End to The Baths. So, if the seas are relatively calm and you can make 21 kts, you've got an hour underway to cover the distance. Two hours would be at 10 kts, which is pretty slow, so that's a fairly safe bet.

Have fun!

I reserved through Ocean Runner about 3 weeks in advance. They have a web site. It says that three days will be sufficient for reservations. They require a credit card, and have a 24 hour cancelation policy. If you take the boat on your own they require a $1000 deposit at time of rental. We're going next week.

Rod

Holy, moly- do they want that $1000 in cash or will they take plastic? I can understand their need for a deposit but I'm not nuts about carrying that much cash!

Nauti Nymph only requires a $500 deposit and you can use your credit card for the deposit.

Great, thanks. My husband reminded me last night (I have no memory) that we used a card last time anyway so we should be set-can't wait!!!

Ocean Runner will take plastic. If you take a captain you can avoid the deposit.

Rod

Thanks but you're talkin' to a couple of tough older independent Buzzards Bay sailors who don't need 'no captin'! We'll be more than fine and it'll be alot more fun going on our own. Captains make tons of sense to me when you are brand new to the area, unsure about following nautical charts, nervous about boats, have small kids and limited time, etc etc.

One thing about the weather...if you check www.wunderground,com and then type in the islands zip code, 00802, then check out marine weather, you can tell up to 3-4 days in advance what kind of sea chop you will get. Anything over 4 feet you might want to forget it or go with a larger tour boat.

Thanks, I will do that. We just had a weekend of 8-10 foot chop in Buzzards Bay thanks to the C Hurricane and no thanks to rough seas is all I can say!!! Hopefully, we'll have a good day, not post-storm weather when we're back down to STJ, at least for the day we rent a powerboat.