BVI's Provisions

[Ducati]

Just booked a 40' from Sunsail in the BVI's (October 15-22)

Question?

Order food from Bobby's?

or

Have Sunsail do provisions?

What is the quality of food and costs either way?

Thanks

 

[higgs]

Generally, If you do the shopping yourself it will be cheaper.

 

[Ross]

Determine how the food arrives in the store and you can determine the cost. Shop where the locals shop for the best prices. American food imported by ship or airplane will cost more generally.

 

[PKFK]

You need very Specific Answers - not generalizations..

"Buy Local" mqy be generally good suggestion - but depending on the charter base, you really need info from folks who have been at your SPECIFIC charter base in order to get meaningful recommendations. Make sure the posters have been to your location when evaluating their suggestions.....what makes sense for Road Town may be meaningless if the advice is based on a Guadaloupe charter experience.

We have chartered twice from Tortola (Road Town, and Hodges Creek Marina).

Both times, we pre-ordered lots from Bobbies - for stuff that you might not need to check personaly for quality (hard goods, booze, drinks, etc.)....and then went to the store in person to select the stuff we wanted to "approve" (eg: certain produce and meat cuts).

This is generally cheaper and better selection (if you are picky) than allowing Sunsail/Moorings/whatever to pick your food for you.

So.....from TWO charters of personal experience from TORTOLA - I can suggest that you buy most stuff from a pre-order to Bobbies (google them for an order form), and buy the remainder in person.......if you want to pay MORE, and don't mind someone picking out your stuff (perhaps with slightly less pickiness than you might do....) then pay the charter company to stock you totally (not my preference).

Paul

 

[gfrazzle]

BVI

We have chartered for several years in Rhodetown BVI and have found that we prefer to preorder all but the perishable goods from Bobbies.

Once we arrive they will deliver to the boat. We then go to their store to select the rest in person. Excellent service and the best selection/ price we have found.

They have a very comprehensive online ordering site. The store is very close to Moorings/ Sunsail so can walk and Bobbies will usually provide transportation back to the boat.

 

[cephius (Dave)]

We have tried all types of provisioning in the BVI. While you can do it cheaper, I really like the convenience of having the food already there as I board. One less thing to delay getting under way. I now let Sunsail, or Moorings, provision us.

I do tell them to provision me for 1/2 the amount they would normally provide for the number of days and crew. There is always too much for us older folk.

 

[Winkfish]

I'm with Cephius. Neither I nor my wife want to spend any of our holiday shopping, and we'll gladly pay more for that. We've had good experiences with Sunsail provisioning.

 

[hhcribbs]

For us it depends....
When we take our four kids there is NO WAY we are going to try and shop...we let check the boxes on the Moorings sheet and away we go (eating most dinners in our various ports of call). When we do the "way to infrequently" mommy / daddy BVI trip we take our time, shop, enjoy the local tourist culture and get exactly what we want. Either way, enjoy! It's a fun time of year since the tourist season has not really started and the crowds are down. Post a report / pics when you get back.

Fair winds!

 

[Tom Spohn]

If you have the time, pre-order all non-perishibles from Bobbys. Then take a quick trip to his store when you arrive and buy the perishables. Worked great for us.

 

[FourPoints]

last december I chartered out of road town (Conch Charters), and we had everything, including the pershiables delivered. We did a sleep over the night before the charter technically started at 12 the following day. Bobby's delvered everything in the morning, and we had everything stowed long before we were allowed to take off from the dock so we didn't loose any time to stowage, and we didn't have any problems with what they deliverd (just remember to get rid of any cardboard before loading it on the boat)

 

[jfmid]

My $0.02 worth

Man I'm jealous just reading your post title and the memories come flooding back.
For us it's Bobbies for the breakfast and lunch stuff and also sunset Hors D' oeuvres. There is a great fresh bakery just to the right of Foxy's Too in Long Bay that has delicious stuff when their open. Like all things in the Islands it's hit or miss.
Dinners are strictly on land via the dink. We love to sample the various restaurants all around. Lobsters on Anagada, fresh fish at the new resort in Manchioneel Bay - Cooper Island, the last resort Bellamey Cay is always decent, and on and on and on.
We saw Michael Beans in Marina Cay the last time and laughed the whole time plus the free rum ain't too bad either.
Have a great trip and if you get a full moon watch out for that mushroom tea.

 

[Steve L22188]

Bobby for breakfast and lunch

We did our first time in the BVIs in February with the Moorings. We perused Bobby's list beforehand and sent our wives to Bobby's with the list while the guys went to the captain's briefing and got the boat checked out the morning of our departure.

We bought enough for breakfast and lunches and munchies on the boat and we ate ashore every night. Only had one bad meal (don't order the burger at the Bitter End Yacht club!)

We also stocked up mid week at a small store near the Baths.

Agree with the previous poster it's fun to sample the different places. Don't miss Cooper Island -- sitting at that bar watching the water, the people and the winds sway the palms.....must be what heaven is like.

Have a great time.

 

[FourPoints]

you guys are making me sad, I was at Cooper island the day before the new resort opened, they were still hauling furnature in. had a few drinks at the bar, but never got to try the food.

We left the next morning before they were open, and missed the grand opening by just a few hours. We didn't know about it in advance, or we would have worked it into the schedule...

 

[Cayennita]

Remember that when you ask the charter company to do all the provisioning you will give away almost half of it. Make sure that you re-emphasize what exactly you want. We gave away lots to a newly wedded couple on a shoe string so all was not lost

 

[secondwind410]

I would have to agree with four points. We chartered last year and ordered everything from Bobby's for a 10 day charter. I can't say enough about the quality service and selection from Bobby's. We did a sleep aboard the night before and all of our food and booze was stored away before we went out to dinner. The staff that delivered the food made sure all of our order was accounted for before he left. This took about 90min and when he found one loaf of rye was missing he insisted on going back and picking one up. We are again chartering in Jan and we will be ordering again from Bobby's. I hope the service is as good as it was last year.
Dave