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Connor Passe

Travel By Sea

British Virgin Islands

6–12 November 2025 · Round trip from Tortola

A week sailing the British Virgin Islands with friends. I flew into St. Thomas and took the ferry to Road Town, and we picked up the boat at Hodges Creek on Tortola’s East End to sail a clockwise loop: the Caves on Norman Island and a night in the Bight, the RMS Rhone marine park off Salt Island, Cooper Island, the Baths on Virgin Gorda and a night in North Sound, the farthest east we went; then an afternoon at Beef Island, Great Harbour and White Bay on Jost Van Dyke, and back down the Sir Francis Drake Channel.

Sailing · By Sea

A chartered sailboat, with friends

  • 5 nights aboard
  • ~77 nm
  • 7 islands
  • Norman to Virgin Gorda to Jost Van Dyke

The chart

A chart of the route. Each stop on it is a button that reads out its day and note, and the same stops are listed day by day after it.

Day by day

    • St. Thomas (Charlotte Amalie), USVI Flew into STT; night in Charlotte Amalie.

  2. Wind from the E, 13–15 kn, gusts 20, force 4 Waves 1.0 m, slight; swell from the ESE, 5 s,open water nearby

    • Road Town, Tortola Native Son ferry from Charlotte Amalie (9:00 AM); cleared BVI entry.
    • Hodges Creek Marina, East End Tortola approx. Charter base (start/end); first night aboard. Photos cluster at the marina; the charter company isn't in email.

  3. Wind from the E, 16–19 kn, gusts 25, force 4–5 Waves 1.2–1.5 m, moderate; swell from the SSE, 5 s,open water nearby

    • The Caves, Treasure Point (Norman Island) approx. Afternoon stop just outside The Bight.
    • The Bight, Norman Island Overnight.

  4. Wind from the ESE, 16–20 kn, gusts 26, force 4–5 Waves 1.2–1.6 m, moderate; swell from the SE, 5 s,open water nearby

    • Salt Island (RMS Rhone marine park area) approx. Morning stop off Salt Island.
    • Cooper Island (Manchioneel Bay) Midday stop.
    • The Baths, Virgin Gorda Afternoon at The Baths boulders (~70 photos).
    • North Sound (Saba Rock / Bitter End), Virgin Gorda Overnight; farthest east of the trip.

  5. Wind from the E, 15–20 kn, gusts 26, force 4–5 Waves 0.9–1.5 m, moderate; swell from the SE, 5 s,open water nearby

    • Beef Island (Trellis Bay area) approx. Afternoon stop (~130 photos); exact bay uncertain.
    • Great Harbour, Jost Van Dyke Overnight; farthest west of the trip.

  6. Wind from the E, 10–15 kn, gusts 21, force 3–4 Waves 0.9–1.1 m, slight; swell from the E, 4 s,open water nearby

    • White Bay, Jost Van Dyke Late morning into afternoon (~110 photos).
    • Hodges Creek Marina (return) Back via West End and Sir Francis Drake Channel; last night aboard.

  7. Wind from the E, 13 kn, gusts 17, force 4 Waves 1.0 m, slight; swell from the E, 4 s,open water nearby

    • Road Town → St. Thomas Ferry back to STT, flew home.

Key to the chart

  • Traced from photos
  • Estimated, no photo for a long stretch
  • A photo’s GPS fix
  • Ferry
  • The boat
  • Port
  • Charter base
  • Anchorage
  • Landing
  • Snorkel
  • Stop
  • Approximate position

The track comes from about 1,670 geotagged photos taken close together, so it is dense and accurate; the few gaps, estimated around the islands, are dashed. The thin lines are the ferries to and from St. Thomas. Where a straight line between two photos would cross land, the route goes round by sea, as the boat did, and a photo taken ashore marks where the boat lay off.

Each day’s wind and sea are the models’, read for every hour on the water where the boat was then: the wind from ECMWF’s IFS, the waves from Météo-France’s MFWAM, through Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0). Where a day says open water nearby, the boat lay at anchor or went ashore, in water calmer than the model’s, or was in a channel the wave model has as land, and the waves are the nearest open water’s, within 30 km; where the route is dashed, so is where they were read. A ferry’s crossing is read along the ferry. Generated using E.U. Copernicus Marine Service Information; doi.org/10.48670/moi-00017.