USVI-On-Line

I have some questions about using a rented dinghy:

What's the protocol for using a dinghy to visit multiple beaches? Are there buoys at most/all beaches to tie up the boat? If there are no buoys, is it considered rude to bring the boat up to shore? And if there are buoys, do they get taken up pretty quickly during peak season? (Can you tie to a buoy that already has another dinghy tied to it?)

From what I've read, if you rent out of Cruz Bay, you can visit the north shore beaches; rent out of Coral Bay if you want to visit south and east end bays. If there are no buoys at a pebble/rocky beach, can you pull the boat up to the shore? I don't know if the dinghys have anchors, but I wouldn't want to anchor a boat somewhere where it could damage the coral, and those are sometimes the best spots to snorkel.

I plan to call the rental places with the same questions, but I'd also like to hear from other forumites!

Thanks!

You don't tie up at buoys at the beaches. If the beach has channel buoys you can drive between them and pull up to the beach in front of them. If the beach has no channel bouys then you may not moor there.

Maybe 'buoy" is the wrong term. Aren't there some spots with mooring balls where you can tie a boat?

Oh yes, you can do that. Many of the bays and cays have public bouys. Waterlemon has 2 or 3, Frances has many, Salt Pond several, etc. You'll find a long swim to shore from many of them, however.

Does anyone know which beaches allow dinghys to pull up to shore? I think it would be fun to rent one, but I know I'd never be able to climb back in in deep water

Where you see the green and red buouys you can actually go between them right onto the beach. Most of the beaches sport these. Francis bay has them on the port/right as you approach the beach, the left side from the perspective of the folks on the beach.

I believe that the dinghy rental folks are required to give an orientation that goes over these kinds of things.

Cheers, Rick

Crabby's in Coral Bay specifically prohibits beaching the dinghy's. Does that prevent folks from doing it? No. (You folks know who you are )

We aways hook up at one of the balls floating in the water (my mind just went blank on what these are called!) and we swim in, but as mentioned before this can be quite a swim.

As far as hook up etiquette is concerned when another boat is already hooked up, common sense would tell me that if there's another free one available you shouldn't hook on to someone else. But if no other options are open (I have NEVER seen this happen) then you can hook on.

Personally I would keep looking for someplace that isn't crowded!

On our last visit, we really enjoyed renting from Crabby's Watersports http://crabbyswatersports.com/dinghy.htm and exploring that side of the island. We've been visiting STJ for so long, we wondered why we hadn't done it before!

As mentioned above, which beaches have what facilities for dingys should be covered in your orientation before you leave Cruz Bay, but regardless of where you decide to go please be EXTREMELY careful in approaching any beach, even between green and red bouys since swimmers typically don't know - or care - what channel markers are. I've also had snorkelers suddenly surface 10 feet in front of me and if I hadn't been just idling along, I'd have run them over in spite of my caution.

Thanks for all the great info!

We will definitely be very careful, since when we're not in the dinghy we'll be the ones in the water, with our kids. (As a former life guard on Lake Michigan, I'm a big believer in water safety!)

Sounds like a great way to see parts of the island when you do it the right (smart/safe) way!

We have beached our dinghy at Trunk Bay...and there were at least 6 others beached there as well...and treated as if we had pulled in on the QE2 at Caneel Bay..lol Not kidding..we pulled into their dock so we could stop for lunch and hang out for a few hours and treated by the staff on the dock as if we were royalty..