Shower Thoughts Blog

Why Runny Babbit? When my oldest son was in Boy Scouts, the boys built home made collapsible kayaks out of canvas and marine plywood.  Pretty cool design. My son named his kayak the Runny Babbit, since our family was fond of the books by Shel Silverstein about Runny Babbit and his friends. When it came time to name our yacht, we went through the usual process of coming up with funny word-smithed names like Offshore Account, Ship for Brains, Knot Online, Breaking Wind and my personal favorite Flaming Yawn.  But when it got down to brass tacks, the family outvoted me, and we named it the Runny Babbit. Since it’s a sailing vessel, the website is svRunnyBabbit.com 

How do I get to the BVI? Flight Options to STT Airport (St Thomas) Flight Options to EIS (Tortola) The main plan is to fly East and/or South closer to the coast, overnight near the airport (or redeye), continue Destination Options Saint Thomas (STT) Tortola Beef Island (EIS) – not a lot of direct flights, part of the year from Miami, some from San Juan Puerto Rico (SJU)  Benefits of St. Thomas (STT) – more flights, cheaper, it’s in the United StatesDownsides of St. Thomas – another taxi, then a ferry, customs, then a taxi.  Can be tiring after a long trip.Benefits of Beef Island (Tortola) EIS airport – it’s less than an hour tax from Nanny Cay, there’s buoys at Trellis Bay, so you could walk to the boat if needed.Downsides of EIS – more expensive, less flight options, and sometimes flights from San Juan are unreliable. Layover OptionsSan Juan PR

How much does it cost? There’s a lot to consider when calculating a budget for your trip.  There are entry and exit fees into the BVI.  There are Taxis and Ferries depending on where you land.  That’s all before discussing whether you are going to eat out a lot, or cook on the boat. We’ve found that most of our trips end up around $950 per person if we don’t eat out a lot, excluding the flights themselves. This includes Taxis from airport to ferry, from ferry to dock, from dock to grocery store and back.  Ferries usually charge $10 per checked bag, and you usually have to check any wheeled luggage. We usually will anchor one or two nights, and we don’t often use boaty ball, depending on where we’re going.  So our mooring expenses are just the regular mooring balls, usually $30-$40 a night. Diesel can add up

Why go sailing in the British Virgin Islands? The BVI is a favorite destination for sailing for a couple of main reasons.  It’s one of the few places on planet Earth that doesn’t have a tide.  So when you’re sailing, anchoring, whatever – you don’t have to take tide into consideration.  It’s also pretty consistently a great temperature, year round.  For roughly 9 months of the year, the winds are consistently in a good range between 5-30 knots, mostly out of the East and North East.   It’s also beautiful.  There’s tons of nice locations for snorkeling, scuba diving, or geocaching.  There are some national park areas that are tremendous and unique. Things to see: The Baths The Indians