“all the woes and worries that afflicted you on dry land – all the things you ought to have done but have left undone, all the drab detritus and clutter of your daily existence – slough away like the old dry skin of a snake". Chris Stewart’s views on cruising in, “3 Ways to Capsize a Boat”

Boatshed BVI , International Yacht Brokers, recounts the experiences of The McGrath family on their 9 day cruise around the British Virgin Islands on board a 4 cabin Leopard 4500, a boat beautifully designed for island hopping or blue water cruising.

Leaving from Joma Marine in Road Harbour, ( home of Boatshedbvi.com and nerve centre for Caribbean Yacht Sales ), the sails were raised; this was really easy as the centre located windlass can be used as an electric winch for the main halyard. In 15 knots the boat comfortably hit 8 knots as we sailed downwind to the first of many beautiful overnight anchorages. The brand new trampolines were heaven to relax on as we carved our way downwind.

On our windward sailing legs we were able to sail around 55 degrees off the wind very comfortably and logged 5-6 knots. ”This is a very solid, reliable and comfortable yacht “ mused Captain Kevin an experienced charter captain familiar with running top end crewed charter yachts. Anchoring was really easy with the well designed anchor locker and electric windlass making light work of the ground tackle and we had a very comfortable evening in beautiful Little Harbour on Peter Island.

Evening BBQ’s were fun in the huge cockpit and the galley was well set out with a large top opening refrigeration chest with a healthy capacity for storing perishables. With only 4 of us on board we each had our own double cabin and head at opposite ends of each hull so there was a surprising amount of privacy.

There was plenty of space to store our dive tanks and gear and short of a custom designed dive boat this has to be one of the easiest yachts to dive from with the huge swim platform straddling both hulls. Diving was a joy from this yacht and we were able to experience some of the BVI’s stunning dive sites including the wreck of The Rhone off Salt Island and The Chimneys at The Dogs.

The twin engines made docking the yacht very simple when we filled up our water tanks at Leverick Bay Marina and with 800 litres on board we had plenty of refreshing deck showers.

Boatshed BVI, is selling this great Leopard 4500. This is the lowest priced Leopard 4500 yacht currently for sale in the world.

For details of other yachts and motorboats for sale please visit www.boatshedbvi.com To find out more about sailing and sloughing away the detritus of your life in the British Virgin Islands please contact Adam at BoatshedBVI.com