Meghan celebrates her birthday with family, catamaran-style. Photo: Traveler Jim Schubert.

We spent the week of Christmas on a 52′ Catamaran in the BVIs. Our family of 5 (including 3 teens) and my mom (who’s in her 70’s) had one of our most memorable vacations. And it was truly a vacation—we all came back rested!

We were well cared for by the Captain, Pieter, who maneuvered our 52′ boat into every little nook and cranny in the BVIs. He was extremely relaxed and never worried about getting into any of the sights we wanted to see. His laid-back attitude helped all of us stay calm and relaxed AND we saw everything! Pieter was never concerned about getting a mooring—he was an expert on throwing an anchor, so we were able to find a spot everywhere we went.

Two of our favorite memories of the week…
1. We sailed into Jost Van Dyke mid-day on Christmas day. The cove was filled with boats and swimmers enjoying the sunny, warm holiday. Our captain steered our boat in between all the other yachts and anchored us nearly on the beach. As we swam for shore to get a drink at Soggy Dollar bar, we noticed that many of the swimmers were wearing Santa hats! What a sight to see! When we returned to the boat, my daughter and I were not ready to get out of the gorgeous water so our chef, Ashley, gave us appetizers in the water!

2. On Christmas Eve, our captain found a private cove for us to anchor for the night! It was incredible to have the entire cove to ourselves. After some swimming and snorkeling, Pieter took our teens tubing. What a sight to see—the sun setting on a private cove and the only ones around are your kids tubing and laughing as loud as they can. After an amazing dinner prepared by our chef, we sat on the bow of the catamaran and watched the stars and constellations appear. It was so peaceful and private.

Working with Mandy and her company (as recommended by Wendy Perrin) was perfect. She took the time to get to know what we were looking for and found a great match for us in the crew. Mandy was readily available to answer all questions we had and replied to my texts/emails promptly. I truly felt that Mandy was booking the best vacation for our family and not just another charter for a random person.

Mandy Walker was fantastic, her recommendations and all the plans she made for us were outstanding. They have a lot of really good local knowledge and overall experts on sail chartering. I would definitely use them again and have already referred them to friends and family.

The Shapiro family aboard their yacht in the British Virgin Islands.

We’ve done the 7-day private yacht charters twice before to Greece, August of 2016, and Croatia, May of 2018, but for various reasons (i.e. boat was tired and was not remotely close to what the pictures on-line presented; Captain and/or crew was lazy; food and beverages were mediocre; I used a typical travel agent, not a yacht broker, for one trip; I organized the other yacht trip myself on-line; etc.) these experiences fell far short of my expectations.

Approximately five years ago we started using Wendy Perrin’s WOW List experts to plan various trips such as India, Sicily, Amalfi Coast, Thailand, et al and were extremely pleased with all of these travel adventures. Although we were certainly disappointed with our past private yacht trips, my family and I loved various aspects about the private yacht experience (i.e. the solitude of the water without hundreds or thousands of other passengers; having a boat to yourself and making plans with the Captain where you want to go; total flexibility; being barefoot from start to finish; comfy clothes and/or bathing suits everyday; incredible views from everywhere; spectacular sunsets and moon rises; being in awe of the sky-filled stars at night; finding private coves or islands to explore, have fun and/or spend the night; being as active or as inactive as anyone wants anytime; the air and sea are very soothing and relaxing; experiencing the yachting world for a week; etc.) and after a long break I especially wanted to give it another try. We decided our next and possibly final private yacht attempt would be to the British Virgin Islands over New Year’s. We heard the BVI is a beautiful and very popular destination for the private yachts, the weather should be nice and our kids, 24 and 27, were available to join us.

Total transparency, our daughter and son, and even my wife, were resistant to the private yacht charter given our past history combined with the fact that trips with our entire family because of our kids’ ages, their jobs, etc. were getting much more difficult to organize. They were lobbying for a new Four Seasons in Mexico but with some convincing and definitely reluctantly, were prepared to give the private yacht one more try. I really wanted to do everything I could to get it right this time.

I reviewed WP’s WOW List and saw there was a “Yacht Charters” section but there were no specific WOW List expert(s) highlighted, only to “ASK WENDY” if interested. I emailed WP and conveyed what we were thinking. The response was “We do not yet have a Yacht WOW Expert BUT are currently working with someone who handles different parts of the world for private yacht charters including the Caribbean/BVI who we have high hopes for. With that caveat we will gladly put you in contact with her if you’d like. Her name is Mandy.” Why not?

Sidebar — I have since learned that there is a rigorous, extensive and extended vetting process for any travel expert who makes the WOW List. Moreover, the WOW List is constantly being evaluated, which is why reviews and honest feedback is so important. I’ve also learned and seen that making the WOW List does not guarantee one will stay on the WOW List. The WOW experts earn (or can lose) their place on the list with every trip. I love this!

I started communicating with Mandy via phone, email and text. I liked her and was impressed immediately. Mandy’s intelligent questions, professionalism, enthusiasm, very apparent expertise and experience with private yacht charters, detailed and prompt (very important to me) follow up, really trying to thoroughly understand what we liked and didn’t like from our past yacht experiences, and perhaps most important, what we wanted in our BVI yacht adventure, was all giving me a confidence and comfort level.

This BVI yacht charter was just going to be for our family of four. Based upon our past experiences we only needed three cabins and a boat ranging in size from 55’ to 80’ would work well. We also felt a total crew of two (Captain and Chef who also acted in the crew capacity) would be perfectly fine for our family of four if that option was available, which it was. I wanted a beautiful, upscale, elegant, very comfortable, good size cabins each with a shower and toilet, ideally with good Wi-Fi, well maintained, luxurious boat. I wanted lots of toys — water skiing, 2 person Kayak, 2 paddle boards, snorkeling gear, etc. I wanted an experienced, safety minded Captain who on our 7 days’ charter would give us a BVI greatest hits with the islands we visit. Equally important, I wanted an awesome Chef!

Mandy took note of all of these criteria and started emailing me various boats and crew to review and discuss. Though some were interesting and may have been a possibility, it wasn’t until Mandy excitedly called me and said “I have your boat and crew! It’s perfect! You’re going to love it!” It was because of Mandy’s private yachting expertise and experience that she knew of an amazing boat and crew that was doing charters in the Bahamas and became aware that they were switching to the BVI for the upcoming season and called me immediately. I loved what I saw and we locked it up immediately and this was 14 months prior to our trip. TIP — I’ve learned finding the right boat and crew and using an excellent yacht broker like Mandy is critical to having a great experience, so give yourself plenty of time to do your research and then lock it up, especially if you are planning your trip during the busy season, which New Year’s and Christmas are the two busiest weeks for the BVI yacht charters!

Long story short…my family and I were blown away by this boat and crew! Everything about it was amazing and met or exceeded my criteria! The food and beverages throughout (i.e. breakfast, lunch and dinner) everyday were extraordinary, including a nine-course seafood tasting menu on New Year’s! The meals we had on this trip were some of the best food we’ve had anywhere in the world! This entire 7-day yacht experience from start to finish FAR exceeded all of our expectations! It was absolutely perfect! We all LOVED it! Everyone in my family not only declared this easily our best yacht experience but our best fun-and-sun trip and our best New Year’s! We will always be grateful to WP and Mandy for making this BVI private yacht trip one of our most memorable family experiences! I’m also very pleased to say that the Shapiro family private yachting adventures will continue…

We traveled to the BVIs the last week of March 2023, and Mandy Walker coordinated our visit aboard Emysa, a catamaran. Mandy was terrific. She handled all of our transfers (and there were quite a few). She counseled us in choosing a boat and our ultimate destinations. She also pivoted quickly when our teenage daughter was delayed 24 hours and missed her flight to St Thomas, and arranged for my husband and daughter to meet up with us 24 hours later while we were already under charter. The boat and crew were amazing. It was a very special vacation. We would gladly go back tomorrow and do it all again.