Chartered the sailboat Sophisticated Lady for a week starting on March 5, 2011. Four of us booked the week charter for $6,600 and it included seven days sailing, all breakfasts, 5 lunch’s, two dinners and all drinks. We flew from Michigan to St. Thomas, then took a ferry to Tortola, then on to Virgin Gorda to meet the boat. The ferry system is not that efficient and would recommend catching a puddle jumper over to the island. We barely made our connections on the ferries. We booked a room at Leverick Bay Resort on Virgin Gorda for the Friday night before we could board the boat. The resort was nice, clean room and a nice view, not bad for $150. We had dinner at the Friday night BBQ at Jumbies, the restaurant at the resort. The Jumbie show was very good and the BBQ was average.

Woke up Saturday and boarded our charter Sophisticated Lady, a 50 foot monohull. The Captain is Rick Moore and his first mate was Amy. There is also a Grey parrot on board, Lucky..Rick and Amy were very knowledgeable about the area and made our sail thoroughly enjoyable. Amy is a ball of energy and an excellent chef. Rick changed the itinerary to meet our requests and guided us to the best places to eat/drink at each stop. He also took approximately 500 pictures of us along the trip and gave us the CD at the end of the trip. Very nice touch!

On Saturday, we set sail and anchored for the night between Saba Rock Resort and the Bitter End Yacht Club. Both places were very nice places to eat and drink. Monday we set sail for Anegada, a three hour sail. Arrived in Anegada and explored the beach, then took a cab to Cow Wreck Beach. Very cool place, sweet beach bar and local characters, highly recommend the spot. The island is known for the lobster and we had a few monsters grilled to perfection. On Monday we set sail for Cane Garden Bay on Tortola. Had dinner at Myetts. Tuesday, we headed to Jost Van Dyke and my favorite spot, White Bay. The strip of beach is home to several sand floored beach bars, Soggy Dollar, One Love, Ivans and a few others. After a long day of hanging on the beach, we sailed around the point and anchored near Foxy’s for the night. Had dinner at Foxy’s. I would skip eating there, the only place we ate that we all agreed was not that good. Woke up and set sail for the Sandy Spit and hung out there for the day on Wednesday. We headed over to the harbour in front of Foxy’s Taboo and hiked to the bubbly pools, highly recommend a visit to them. Thursday, we sail to Norman Island and anchored at the Bight. We had an excellent lunch on the Willie T and made the jump off the top. We also snorkeled around the famous caves of Norman Island. On Friday, we met up with a dive boat and dove the Wreck of the Rhone in the morning and then sailed off to Trellis Bay on Tortola for our last night. Had one the best dinners at the Last Resort in Trellis Bay, highly recommend this as the last stop on a sail charter. On Saturday, it was off to the airport and back to reality.

This was our first time chartering a sailboat and I would highly recommend the boat Sophisticated Lady. The ship was clean and well maintained. Cocktails were plentiful and the food that Amy prepared was excellent. The captain always kept on eye on the wind/waves and anchored us in quiet harbors, so the rocking on the boat at night was minimal. I always wanted to take a charter, but Moorings and other outfits were not in my budget. That statement is not a slam on Moorings, there boats looked absolutely beautiful, just more than I wanted to spend. When I found this charter, I was a little hesitant, because of the low cost, but the captain owns the boat and markets it himself, thus is able to keep the cost down. If you have any questions please email me at bradconkey@yahoo.com.