In March of 2025 SpinSheet Century Club members Captains Jayne Durden and Stephanie Brady chartered a Dufour 40.3 in the British Virgin Islands with crew members Izzy, Katie, and Shana. Below Jayne answers SpinSheet's questions about the trip.
Describe your sailing and charter experience before the trip.
I’ve chartered here before (in 2019) and done charters in Australia. I was a designated second pair of hands for my friend Stefanie Brady who booked the charter as a girl’s trip. Stefanie and I are both USCG captains and have a lot of experience, but the others had either crew-only experience or had never sailed.
Could you summarize your itinerary?
Our plan was to go counter-clockwise around Tortola, starting at Jost Van Dyke, but the weather didn’t cooperate. We ended up going back up the Francis Drake Channel to Leverick Bay and working our way back down, stopping at Cooper Island and The Bight on Norman Island.
Was there anything surprising about the trip?
It was amazing to see the rebuilding and regeneration; the last time I was there was just after the hurricane. Things were pretty wiped out. It was also surprising to see the volume of cruise ships and excursion boats as well as the charter boats, making some places pretty packed and making booking mooring buoys for the night a bit of a speed sport.
Were there any rough days?
It’s pretty much always 20 to 25 knots and coming from the same direction.
Did anything funny or particularly memorable happen.
Great trip, plenty of memories, but I need you to imagine us screaming along, close hauled, when there is a yell from down below. The fridge on this boat was down the port side; it opened up towards the centerline and didn’t latch properly. So, as we heeled over, out came all our provisions, including two dozen eggs, flying across the main salon.
How was the boat? Any challenges?
Our boat was almost new, but wow, we had challenges. There had been an electrical short that caused some of the AC system and the battery charger to be out. The charter company didn’t see this, and we had to call the staff and get down and troubleshoot this ourselves. Later we had issues with the battery charging. We think this was because the charger was set up incorrectly. A further frustration (since the tanks were quite small) was that the watermaker didn’t work. It had never been properly plumbed! So yeah, new boat but definitely not perfect.
Would you recommend this charter destination to a friend?
Absolutely—it’s so easy to cruise.
