Sailing the Virgin Islands on a Crewed Catamaran, The Sequel!

By David Barclay | March 21, 2025

Once again, my family chartered a crewed catamaran in the Virgin Islands for our spring break.  With direct flights from Chicago to St. Thomas every Saturday, we opted again to charter for 7-nights.    

If you read my blog post from last year, you may recall that as we ended our vacation and headed to the airport in our taxi, our kids asked us if we were going to charter Huntress (the catamaran we chartered last year) again for this spring break and my wife and I said that was a possibility.

Since that last blog post, returning to the Virgin Islands changed from a possibility to a reality.  As we thought about this year’s spring break trip, the Virgin Islands kept calling to us, as we had that much fun last year.  In May of last year, I reached back out to my boat broker partner, Ocean Getaways, to start the process of chartering Huntress again. Unfortunately, I soon learned that our captain and chef (Keagan & Olivia) had not renewed their contracts with the owners of Huntress, as they were moving on to the next stage of their lives in Florida.  My family was bummed, to say the least, as in only a week we felt we had gained new friends in our crew and had looked forward to reuniting with them this year.

I spoke to my colleagues at Ocean Getaways about what to do while we waited for a new crew to sign on to Huntress.  With their guidance, we started looking at a few other catamarans that could be good choices for us.  When the new crew was assigned, Ocean Getaways said the new crew was a solid crew, but also rightly pointed out that if we chartered Huntress again, we’d be directly comparing this year’s experience with last year’s, with any highlights likely getting only a little positive weighting but any negatives would likely have a heavy negative weighting in our minds.  They felt, having seen this situation before, that even if a 2^nd charter of Huntress went extremely well, we might not leave with the same magical feeling we had when we ended our vacation last year.  With a different boat, everything is new, so we wouldn’t make as many direct comparisons and could navigate an entirely new experience that could be as wonderful, but also very different, from our charter experience last year.

After reviewing the paired down options of new catamarans, we decided to try a slightly newer and slightly larger catamaran, Tru North.

Comparing Catamarans

While we enjoyed our time on Huntress last year, we were excited to experience a new catamaran.  There are several well-known manufacturers of catamarans and while the designs share many similarities (two hulls containing the cabins, a large indoor and outdoor area connecting the hulls and for larger catamarans, a meaningful flybridge above that), there are also several design differences inherent to each manufacturer’s hull layouts.

Tru North is a Fountaine Pajot catamaran, launched in 2021.  In comparison, she is 5’ longer and 3’ wider than Huntress.  She is also 7 years newer (2021 vs. 2014).  Although slightly larger, she is still designed to accommodate up to 8 guests and 3 crew members.  The added space allowed for a few larger sections of the boat, including a larger primary bedroom and a larger flybridge.  Also, both due to Fountaine Pajot’s design philosophy and being a slightly updated design, she also added a sitting area forward of the galley (and an entrance at the front of the galley for easy access) as well as a motorized swim platform on the aft that can dip into and out of the water.  The swim platform was especially nice for reading books while our kids played in the water, and for lowering our group into the water for a group snorkel.    

Tru North carried all of the expected water toys, including floating platforms, noodles, snorkeling gear, tubes, wakeboard, water skis (we requested kid skis as well as adult), standup paddleboards, a kayak, and fishing gear.  She also had two sea scooters, which our kids loved using as much as last year.  She also carried multiple SCUBA tanks, fairly common when one of the crew members is a certified divemaster and the boat offers dives to certified divers. A new water toy for us this year, she also carried two eFoils, basically motorized surfboards which can rise out of the water on a water foil.  Both the kids and adults (large kids) enjoyed trying our hands at these fun water toys.  I was also able to dive a few times after a quick refresher practice dive, visiting several beautiful coral reefs and two shipwrecks.  The RMS Rhone was a Royal Mail ship that sunk in a hurricane in 1867 while the Kodiak Queen was a WWII ship that instead of being scrapped, was cleaned and then purposely sunk to create a surface to grow a new coral reef and underwater ecosystem.

(Water skiing and eFoiling)

(Diving two different wrecks, the RMS Rhone and Kodiak Queen)

(My son with a starfish he found on the ocean floor)

Of course, other than the physical specs and onboard amenities, the other main difference between chartered boats is the crews.  Every crew is different.  Some are more formal, others are more laid back.  Some are great for large groups of adult friends looking to party and others are good with families and assisting children in learning how to use all of the provided water toys.  This year, our crew consisted of Captain Walmar, our Tamika, and steward/deck hand Hein.  Just by chance they all happened to be from South Africa and our kids got a kick out of trying to perfect their own South African accents during our week on board.  While our crew on Huntress last year and our crew on Tru North this year are different, they both fit in well with our travel group.  They struck a nice balance between catering to the adults in our group (we were never wanting for a cocktail or delicious snacks) and ensuring our kids enjoyed themselves (also with multiple snacks, non-alcoholic frozen drinks and taking them out to play with the water toys). 

(Our crew)

Our Itinerary

With a chartered boat, you have a significant amount of freedom in what you do and where you go on your charter.  As long as your requested route doesn’t endanger the boat or prevent it from returning to the home port before the end of the charter, captains are willing to sail where clients want to go.  Since we had seen most of the land-based highlights of the Virgin Islands last year, we asked our crew to focus this week on great places for fun on the water.  A balance of great places to snorkel and SCUBA dive combined with great places to use the water toys (water skiing, tubing, sea scootering, and eFoiling).  We were happy to have them reposition the boat only once per day and happy to sail for several hours to get to the next destination.  In our pre-charter call, we informed them we wanted a more leisurely pace to make our vacation relaxing and not feel rushed.  They definitely delivered on that request, the coves we visited were lovely and our breaks on shore for brief hiking to stretch our legs were exactly the right amount of time off the boat.  Overall, the route we sailed focused mostly on having fun on the water and spending time together.

(Drone photo of Tru North approaching one of the British Virgin Islands)

(Our group on the swim platform, about to be lowered in for another group snorkel)

The Food

Another perk of a chartered boat is the food.  Charter boat owners try to get the best chefs they can, as the chef can make or break the charter experience.  Several months prior to embarking on their charter, charter guests are asked to complete a detailed questionnaire asking about their food preferences.  The chef uses this information to create a menu for the week that is sure to please the palates of the guests.  If you want simple, homey food like burgers and fried chicken, your chef can accommodate.  On the other spectrum, if you want lavish multi-course meals beautifully presented to the table, they can also deliver.  A good chef will also be able to adapt the meals to address any food allergies or other dietary considerations.  Our chef Tamika was definitely a top chef and served us exquisite meals and bountiful snacks.  She was also very good at handling the allergies of our group, including fin fish, peanuts, sesame, and sunflower.  We were never wanting for food and came back a few pounds heavier than we left!

Since we were on vacation, drinks & cocktails were also an aspect of our daily routine onboard Tru North.  The crew pre-stocked beverages (both alcoholic and non-alcoholic) for us based on the questionnaire we completed.  They were always on top of filling our wine glasses at meals and inquiring about our beverage needs while we lounged on deck.  Hein is a master mixologist (though Captain Walmar was also pretty skilled at the bar) and treated us to a new tantalizing cocktail each day.  He also took care of our kids, making non-alcoholic strawberry daiquiris (and convincing them to try a few other fruity concoctions to expand their beverage horizons).

The Verdict

Was it worth chartering a catamaran again for this year’s spring break?  Definitely!  While we are going to take a break from warm weather “beachy” spring breaks for the next few years, this year’s charter was exactly what we wanted.  And while we were initially disappointed we could not charter Huntress with our old crew, after this year’s lovely vacation I’m glad we got to experience a new boat and a new crew, as it helped make this year’s charter just as magical as last year’s.  The new boat design with more outdoor space, and the addition of new water toys, including kid water skis and eFoils, helped add that little extra to this charter.  And Walmar, Tamika and Hein were the best, some of the best service we’ve ever had on a vacation. 

If you’ve been thinking about a pampered vacation in warm weather that flows at exactly the pace you want, I highly recommend considering a catamaran charter in the Virgin Islands.