7-Day BVI Sailing Itinerary: Norman Island, The Baths, Anegada & Jost Van Dyke

Before You Slip the Lines

Most charters start from Road Town or Nanny Cay on Tortola's south coast, and the season runs roughly November to July — December to April for the steadiest trades (watch for the stronger “Christmas winds” of 25+ knots in late December and January), with hurricane season closing things down August–October. Three local rules shape every day of this trip:

• Anchor only on sand. Anchoring on coral or seagrass is prohibited throughout BVI waters, with serious fines — and several marine parks (Norman Island's Bight, The Baths, the RMS Rhone) are moorings-only, no anchoring at all.
• Learn the mooring system before day one. Reservable balls run through the BoatyBall app ($55/night, released at 07:00 if unbooked); first-come first-served balls are $30–40 and go early at the famous stops. National Parks Trust day moorings need an NPS permit from your charter base.
• Clear customs at the right ports. Road Harbour, Soper's Hole and Great Harbour (Jost Van Dyke) are the ports of entry — relevant if you're arriving from the USVI.

One more habit worth forming: keep your anchor alarm running on mooring balls too. BVI moorings work hard — thousands of charter pickups a year — and pennants chafe and shackles fail more often than anyone likes to admit. In a field packed gunwale-to-gunwale at White Bay, you want to know within seconds if the ball lets you go. Our full BVI anchoring guide covers the rules, fees and technique in detail.

Day 1: Road Town → The Bight, Norman Island (6 nm)

A short shakedown leg, by design — provision, brief the crew, and reach across the Drake Channel to The Bight on Norman Island, the sheltered bay that supposedly inspired Treasure Island. The Bight is a marine protected area and moorings-only — pick up one of the balls (this is the first place BoatyBall reservations pay off in season) and dinghy to the Caves at Treasure Point for the best easy snorkel of the trip: three sea caves alive with glassy sweepers and tarpon. Ashore, Pirates Bight does a proper dinner; afloat, the Willy T — the infamous floating bar — is either a highlight or a reason to moor at the far side of the bay, depending on your crew. Even on a ball, set the alarm radius around 70 m — the field is busy and the night ferry wakes leave boats dancing.

Day 2: Norman Island → The Baths → North Sound (17 nm)

Leave early, because today has the trip's one hard deadline: The Baths at Virgin Gorda's southern tip, where giant granite boulders form grottoes and sunlit pools you wade and swim through to Devil's Bay. The NPS mooring field (~30 buoys, day-use, no anchoring) fills completely by late morning in season — arrive before 09:00, take the dinghy to the swim line, and give it two or three hours. It's open to the south, so in any southerly swell skip it and save The Baths for a land visit later.

In the afternoon, sail up Virgin Gorda's west coast and round Mosquito Island through the buoyed entrance into North Sound — a huge, nearly enclosed lagoon that is one of the best-protected anchorages in the Caribbean. We overnight at Leverick Bay (fuel, water, restaurant, and Friday's famous beach BBQ) — anchor south of the marina dock in 3–7 m of sand, alarm radius around 65 m. If you prefer the eastern side, the Bitter End mooring field has excellent holding on sand throughout. Top up water and ice here — Anegada has little of either.

Day 3: North Sound → Anegada (13 nm)

The adventure leg. Anegada is the BVI's outlier — a pancake-flat coral island you won't see until you're nearly there, ringed by Horseshoe Reef, one of the largest reefs in the Caribbean. The sail itself is a glorious open-water beam reach, but the arrival demands respect: approach Setting Point through the buoyed channel only, in good light, leaving the inner green buoy to port on entry. The anchorage is shallow — 2.4–3.5 m over brilliant sand with excellent holding — so check your draft (over 1.8 m needs careful positioning), take a mooring if one is free, and set the alarm radius around 60 m. Note the anchorage is open to the east and south-east, so give it a miss in unsettled easterly weather.

Ashore: rent a scooter or share a taxi to Loblolly Bay and Cow Wreck Beach on the north shore — miles of empty white sand inside the reef — then book the thing Anegada is famous for: grilled lobster on the beach at Setting Point (order by mid-afternoon; the restaurants cook to count).

Day 4: Anegada → Cane Garden Bay (22 nm)

The longest leg of the week, and the best sailing: a downwind run with the trades over your quarter, Tortola's green ridgeline slowly filling the horizon. Close the coast and run along Tortola's north shore to Cane Garden Bay, the postcard crescent under the palms. Anchor in the centre of the bay in 4–12 m of sand (buoys available too), and set the alarm radius around 85 m — this is the widest swing room of the trip. One genuine caveat: the bay is open to the north, and from November to March distant Atlantic storms can send in a ground swell that makes it rolly or untenable overnight. Check the swell forecast before committing; in a northerly swell, quieter Brewer's Bay next door suffers the same problem, and the right call is to continue round to Soper's Hole and swap tonight for tomorrow. If the swell behaves, sundowners at the beach bars with live music are a BVI institution.

Day 5: Cane Garden Bay → White Bay → Great Harbour, Jost Van Dyke (6 nm)

A lazy hop across to the BVI's party island — which is far gentler than its reputation. Spend the day at White Bay, home of the Soggy Dollar Bar and the original Painkiller. Approach from the west (the eastern entrance carries a reef that's tricky in swell), use the NPS mooring field in 3–8 m, and swim ashore the traditional way. It's a daytime stop in anything but settled weather, so for the night move one bay east to Great Harbour — good holding on sand in 3–10 m, alarm radius around 80 m — and take the dinghy in for dinner at Foxy's, the beach bar that put Jost Van Dyke on the map. Like all Jost anchorages it's open to the north, so the same winter ground-swell caveat applies.

Day 6: Jost Van Dyke → Sandy Cay → Soper's Hole (5 nm)

Almost a rest day. A mile east of Jost lies Sandy Cay — the desert island from every screensaver, a single dot of white sand and palms with a walking trail round its interior. Pick up a day mooring or anchor on the sand patch in settled conditions, swim, and take the photo. In the afternoon, slip south through Thatch Island Cut to Soper's Hole at Tortola's West End — one of the most protected anchorages in the territory, a deep pool surrounded by hills with only a narrow opening. Anchor east of the wharf in 4–10 m (excellent holding in soft mud over sand), set the alarm radius around 70 m, and enjoy the pastel waterfront — provisions, restaurants, and the calmest night of the week.

Day 7: Soper's Hole → The Indians → Road Town (12 nm)

Beat gently back east up the Drake Channel toward the charter base, with one last stop if your check-in time allows: The Indians, four rock pinnacles off Pelican Island with the best snorkelling in the BVI — NPS day moorings only, arrive early for a ball. Then it's a final hour to Road Town. Seven days, roughly 80 nm, five islands — and, if the alarm stayed quiet, seven full nights of sleep.

Variations: 5 Days or 10 Days

• 5-day loop: drop Anegada. Day 3 becomes North Sound → Cane Garden Bay (18 nm along Tortola's north shore), then compress Jost Van Dyke and Soper's Hole into a single day. You keep every marquee stop inside the reef-free channel loop and lose only the open-water leg.
• 10-day cruise: add a lay day at Anegada (it deserves one), a night at Cooper Island's Manchioneel Bay eco-resort mooring field on the way east, and a morning dive or snorkel on the RMS Rhone at Salt Island — the Caribbean's most famous wreck, moorings-only. Deep crews can also add Peter Island's Deadman's Bay before closing the loop.

Why an Anchor Alarm Matters on This Route

The BVI's reputation for easy sailing is deserved — and it hides the two things that actually put charter boats on the news. The first is mooring failure: this is the busiest charter fleet on earth, the balls work year-round, and a chafed pennant at 2 a.m. in a packed field at The Bight turns into contact with a neighbour within a boat length or two. The second is wind against swell: the trades pump 20 knots through anchorages that are simultaneously rolling to a winter ground swell, and an anchor that held at sunset can walk across a sand bottom once the boat starts ranging. At Anegada there's a third: drag more than a few dozen metres the wrong way and you're not in deeper water — you're on Horseshoe Reef.

A GPS anchor alarm covers all three: it watches your position all night, phone locked, and wakes you the moment you leave your circle — while the problem is still a winch job, not an insurance claim. Set the radius from your scope with our anchor scope calculator, allow for GPS scatter, and leave it running on mooring balls. Every anchorage linked above carries its own recommended radius.

The Bottom Line

No cruising ground on earth packs this much into 80 nm: a treasure-cave snorkel, granite grottoes, a hidden lagoon, a lobster dinner behind one of the Caribbean's great reefs, two of the world's most famous beach bars, and short, sheltered, line-of-sight sails between all of it. Book the marquee moorings, respect the reef at Anegada and the winter ground swell on the north shores, keep to the sand when you anchor, and run your anchor alarm every night — ball or hook. The rest is Painkillers and postcards.