Virgin Anchorages

Rating:
Summary: Save Your Money
Review: I agree with the previous reviewer that the photographs are of excellent quality. However, I do not think that they are a very good aid to navigation. Nautical charts provide all the necessary information (water depths, buoy locations, length scales, navigation hazards, etc.) in a more useful manner. In addition, there is very little supporting text to augment the photos. So unless you want a collection of pretty pictures, I recommend that you save your money and buy a cruising guide and a set of up-to-date charts.

Rating:
Summary: Save Your Money
Review: I agree with the previous reviewer that the photographs are of excellent quality. However, I do not think that they are a very good aid to navigation. Nautical charts provide all the necessary information (water depths, buoy locations, length scales, navigation hazards, etc.) in a more useful manner. In addition, there is very little supporting text to augment the photos. So unless you want a collection of pretty pictures, I recommend that you save your money and buy a cruising guide and a set of up-to-date charts.

Rating:
Summary: Simon Scott's top-notch photo guide to anchorages of the VI.
Review: This is a beautiful photo guide to the most popular anchorages of the US and British Virgin Islands. If you are planning a sail of the islands, this is a _must_ have.

I spent ten years growing up in the Virgin Islands, and went back to sail after several years away. The charter company included this book, with which I fell in love. It offers a bird's-eye view of the anchorages available throughout the VI. The clear waters and high vantage allow you to see the reefs on the page, providing the most intuitive navigation possible. It definitely makes cruising easier and more enjoyable.

Weak points are that it does not cover some major beaches (more focus on harbors) and it has little supporting text. You should also get Scott's "Cruising Guide to the Virgin Islands" or another guide book for more information about restaurants, night-life and other attractions available near the anchorages.

Rating:
Summary: Simon Scott's top-notch photo guide to anchorages of the VI.
Review: This is a beautiful photo guide to the most popular anchorages of the US and British Virgin Islands. If you are planning a sail of the islands, this is a _must_ have.

I spent ten years growing up in the Virgin Islands, and went back to sail after several years away. The charter company included this book, with which I fell in love. It offers a bird's-eye view of the anchorages available throughout the VI. The clear waters and high vantage allow you to see the reefs on the page, providing the most intuitive navigation possible. It definitely makes cruising easier and more enjoyable.

Weak points are that it does not cover some major beaches (more focus on harbors) and it has little supporting text. You should also get Scott's "Cruising Guide to the Virgin Islands" or another guide book for more information about restaurants, night-life and other attractions available near the anchorages.

Rating:
Summary: Extremely useful when sailing in the Virgin Islands
Review: We first saw this book in the nav station on a Moorings boat that we chartered in the British Virgin Islands. We looked it over and thought "These pictures are gorgeous. Why do they include it? Maybe they want to sell it to us." The Moorings doesn't sell it and, as of Summer 2004, they are not including new copies on boats because too many people took them home. It is a gorgeous picture book of anchorages in the Virgin Islands. It is not just a pretty picture book though.

Overleaf from every photograph is a copy of the picture with lines to show reefs and the passage into the harbor. In our two trips to the British Virgin Islands, these pictures have been extremely helpful more than once to get a picture of what we were doing. While text descriptions are helpful, sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words when you are looking for a bouy, and you sure don't have time to read a thousand words.

This is a great supplement to the Cruising Guide to the Virgin Islands and I wouldn't go to the BVI without it.

Rating:
Summary: Well worth the price
Review: We just finished a bareboat charter trip to BVI and found that we were frequently referring to this book. It was extremely usefull in locating moorings and anchorages. I would recommend it highly. The only negative is that there were some areas missing.

Rating:
Summary: Well worth the price
Review: We just finished a bareboat charter trip to BVI and found that we were frequently referring to this book. It was extremely usefull in locating moorings and anchorages. I would recommend it highly. The only negative is that there were some areas missing.