The British Virgin Islands are more than sixty islands and cays with a combined land area of about 59 square miles, spread across roughly 1,330 square miles of sea. Seven of them form the heart of the charter circuit, lined up along the north side of the Sir Francis Drake Channel, a sheltered passage that makes the BVI the most charter-friendly cruising ground in the world. Anegada sits about twelve miles north of Virgin Gorda's North Sound, low and flat, coral-fringed, the only outlier. Most of the rest are smaller cays and uninhabited rocks. Tortola is the hub. Virgin Gorda holds the boulders at The Baths. Jost Van Dyke is the one with the bars. The rest are quieter.
This is the place to be if you have a week, want to sail, and want to do almost nothing else. Most charters start and end in Tortola. Most weeks include three to four islands. The route is up to you, the water is calm, and the trade winds rarely fail.
The BVI's reputation rests on a few specific things: short hops between anchorages, a moored mooring system that takes the guesswork out of overnight stops, customs procedures that work, and a culture of sailing that makes a first-time bareboat feel approachable. Add the food and the bars and the snorkeling, and it earns its position as the most-recommended Caribbean charter destination.