The BVI is a boater's paradise. Most of the islands are within sight of each other so you don't have that feeling of being out on the open ocean.

Everyone there has boat and the run is practically a national holiday- even the customs guys and air-sea rescue join in. My friend, Bob has fallen in love with the place. He ships his boat down in the spring and travels down a couple times before the run and then ships it back afterwards. We've tried to get others to do it, but so far no takers.

I've traveled there 3 different ways- Miami>San Juan>Tortolla, Ft Lauderdale>Tortolla and a week-long, 1200-mile ride- Bahamas>Turks&Caicos>Dominican Republic>Puerto Rico>BVI (needs its own thread). The Lauderdale flight takes a couple hours. Beef Island Airport on Tortolla is across the street from the ferry dock- from there it's about a 45 min ride up to Virgin Gorda.

Castle Rock - it's 325 miles from Great Exhuma to Turks & Caicos and if you are here, you are a very long way from home.



We docked for the night at a place called Ocean World in Dominican Republic. Nice place, but didn't look used very much. Spent the night at very nice resort there, but got a real eye-opener the next morning when we took a cab into Puerto Playa for oil and tranny fluid- seeing a third-world country up close and personal is something you don't forget.



Lunch stop at Pirates, on Norman Island.



Heading down the Sir Walter Drake Channel to the first card stop.