Virgin on cruising perfection
Virgin Islands cruising is probably the best in the world. There is enough wind to sail 90% of the time and for the vast majority of that time you are sailing in relatively sheltered waters. There is no beating to windward against a big sea and it is seldom more than two hours sailing between anchorages.
The only long sail is if you decide to visit St Croix, the forgotten Virgin. If you sail to St Croix from one of the numerous anchorages in Flanagan’s Passage, it is a 32-mile reach to Christianstad, the most beautifully preserved colonial town in the entire eastern Caribbean. It is the only major town in the entire Caribbean that, because of its shoal harbour and the impossibility of anchoring offshore, cannot be visited by cruise ships.
The Virgins in recent years have received some negative press. Sailors complain of crowded anchorages, full of mooring buoys strictly for rent, forcing you to anchor in extremely deep water. This is caused by yachtsmen having the lemming instinct and following others to crowded anchorages.
In 2016 my good friend and shipmate Geoff Curtain lent to me his Olympic 48 for two weeks. This was December through to January, the height of the charter season. I took my daughter, son-in-law and their two offspring – three generations of the Street family and all very good sailors – on a 14-day
