---
title: "Best Time of Year to Sail the BVI: March to June"
url: https://virginislandvilla.com/bvi/guides/best-time-to-sail-bvi
description: "March to June is the time to sail the BVI: light rain, a steady trade wind, and no storm within 100 km of Road Town in those months from 1991 to 2024."
updated: 2026-10-21
source: https://virginislandvilla.com/bvi/guides/best-time-to-sail-bvi
---

[British Virgin Islands](https://virginislandvilla.com/bvi) · Seasons

# Best time of year to sail the BVI

Written by Virgin Islands Villas·Updated Oct 2026

The best time of year to sail in the BVI is March to June. The rain is light, the trade wind holds steady, and in more than thirty years no storm has passed close to Road Town in those months. Winter brings gustier spells, the north swell and the holiday crowd; autumn is cheap and quiet because it is storm season.

*Sailboats at anchor in a British Virgin Islands bay at sunset, the sun setting behind a low island*

At a glance · checked Oct 2026

|  |  |
| --- | --- |
| Our pick | March to June Little rain, steady wind, no storm within 100 km of Road Town in those months, 1991 to 2024. |
| Windiest month on average | July, 14.1 knots NOAA buoy 41052, south of St. John, 2015 to 2025, our computation; anemometer 4 m above the sea. |
| Lightest wind | September and October, 10.4 to 10.8 knots Same buoy; about a quarter of readings under 8 knots in those months. |
| Hurricane season | June 1 to November 30 NOAA National Hurricane Center. |
| Storms within 100 km of Road Town | 19 systems, 9 hurricanes, 1991 to 2024 17 and 8 of them in August to October; NOAA's HURDAT2 best-track record, our count. |
| Wettest month | November, 6.0 inches Our read: a 1991 to 2020 reanalysis corrected against the St. Thomas airport's NOAA normals; the BVI publishes none of its own. |
| Sea temperature | 80°F in February to 86°F in September and October Channel off Road Town, November 2022 to December 2025, from a marine reanalysis. |

## BVI sailing weather, month by month

Each row sets the BVI's climate beside the wind on the nearest NOAA buoy and the storms that have passed close.

| Month | High °F | Rain, in | Wet days | Sea °F | Mean wind, knots | Readings 15 knots or more | Storms within 100 km (hurricanes) |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| January | 84 | 2.6 | 6 | 81 | 12.4 | 25% | 0 |
| February | 84 | 2.0 | 6 | 80 | 13.3 | 36% | 0 |
| March | 85 | 1.9 | 5 | 81 | 12.4 | 25% | 0 |
| April | 86 | 2.2 | 4 | 81 | 12.5 | 23% | 0 |
| May | 87 | 2.8 | 6 | 83 | 12.4 | 16% | 0 |
| June | 89 | 2.3 | 5 | 84 | 13.3 | 28% | 0 |
| July | 90 | 2.7 | 6 | 85 | 14.1 | 35% | 1 (1) |
| August | 90 | 4.1 | 6 | 85 | 12.7 | 19% | 6 (3) |
| September | 89 | 5.4 | 9 | 86 | 10.8 | 11% | 5 (3) |
| October | 88 | 5.4 | 10 | 86 | 10.4 | 12% | 6 (2) |
| November | 87 | 6.0 | 9 | 84 | 11.7 | 17% | 0 |
| December | 85 | 2.8 | 8 | 82 | 12.9 | 31% | 1 (0) |

Where each column comes from: the BVI has no weather station with published 30-year normals, so the highs, rain and wet days are our read, a 1991 to 2020 reanalysis at Road Town corrected by its own error at the St. Thomas airport's NOAA normals. Sea temperature is the channel off Road Town, 2022 to 2025. Wind is NOAA buoy 41052, about 25 km south-west of Road Town, every reading from 2015 to 2025 averaged by month; its anemometer sits 4 m above the sea, so a forecast's 10 m wind will read a little higher. Storms are every tropical system whose track came within 100 km of Road Town from 1991 to 2024, by the month of its closest pass, from NOAA's HURDAT2 record.

## Which month to charter in the BVI, by crew

March to June, for most crews. This is the stretch where everything lines up: the dry season's light rain, with March the driest month of the year and April the one with the fewest wet days; a trade wind that barely changes from month to month on the buoy; a sea warming toward summer; and not one tropical system within 100 km of Road Town in 34 seasons. May is the gentlest of the four, with the spring's fewest strong-wind readings, which suits a crew that wants flat passages and short days.

January and February are nearly as dry and windier, and they suit a crew that wants the boat to move. December starts wetter and fills with the holidays. A family crew or a first bareboat belongs in April to June; experienced sailors chasing wind, in February.

## Christmas winds and the winter north swell

The Christmas winds come in spells of a few days, when a cold front far to the north sends the trade wind up a notch. The National Park Service on St. John describes them as winter wind that cold fronts moving off the continent sometimes bring down from the north; the fronts bring no cold air this far south, but they can send large waves onto north-facing beaches, and the park says winter in general brings stronger wind and less rain. On the buoy the winter months average in the low teens from the east-northeast, and February has the year's largest share of readings at 15 knots or more.

The swell is what changes the plan. A north swell runs into the bays that open north and west, and the National Parks Trust warns that winter swells at the Baths can make its moorings unusable and the beach unreachable from the sea. Keep a sheltered alternative for each north-facing stop.

## Sailing the BVI in July, the windiest month

July, not December, is the windiest month on the buoy. It has the highest average wind of the year and almost no calm readings, with June close behind, while the rain stays low and the sea is at its summer warmth.

The tradeoff: the Atlantic hurricane season runs from June 1 to November 30, per NOAA's National Hurricane Center, and July has already produced one hurricane within 100 km of Road Town since 1991, Bertha in 1996. A July charter wants a contract that says what happens when a storm is named.

## August to October, when the storms come

Hurricane season is six months long, and three of them carry nearly all the risk here: of the 19 tropical systems that passed within 100 km of Road Town from 1991 to 2024, 17 came in August, September and October, and so did 8 of the 9 hurricanes. Irma passed 21 km away on September 6, 2017, at 150 knots, the strongest pass on that record.

The wind fails too. September and October are the lightest months on the buoy, with about a quarter of readings under 8 knots, and the rain doubles from midsummer. Many businesses close for weeks. Cooper Island Beach Club closes for the late summer, from early August in 2026, and usually reopens with the season; Pirates Bight on Norman Island keeps a season of October to July. Check each one before you plan a night around it.

## November and December: wet first, then crowded anchorages

November is the wettest month of the year, and yet no tropical system passed within 100 km of Road Town in a November from 1991 to 2024: the wet season and the storm season are not the same thing. The wind comes back, the businesses reopen, and [the Anegada Lobster Festival](https://virginislandvilla.com/bvi/events) takes the last weekend of the month; check the BVI Tourist Board's events page for the year's dates. December dries out and the anchorages fill toward the year's end: Foxy's Old Year's Night on December 31 is the night Great Harbour fills with boats. Book the moorings early or plan to sail at dawn.

Photos

*Sailboats on blue water below green hills in the British Virgin Islands*

## Questions about the BVI

### What month should you charter a boat in the BVI?

By our read, April: 2.2 inches of rain over four wet days, the fewest of the year, a trade wind averaging 12.5 knots on NOAA's buoy south of St. John, a sea at 81°F, and no tropical system within 100 km of Road Town in any April from 1991 to 2024. March is drier and as steady; May is the gentlest month on the buoy, and June is warmer but nearly as windy as July.

### When is hurricane season in the BVI?

June 1 to November 30, per NOAA's National Hurricane Center. The risk is not spread evenly: 17 of the 19 storms and 8 of the 9 hurricanes that passed within 100 km of Road Town from 1991 to 2024 came in August, September or October, by our count from NOAA's best-track record.

### What are the Christmas winds?

The National Park Service on St. John describes them as winter wind that cold fronts sometimes bring down from the north, with large waves on the north shores. On NOAA's buoy south of St. John, December to February average 12.4 to 13.3 knots, mostly from the east-northeast, with 31 to 36 percent of readings in December and February at 15 knots or more.

### Is October a good time to sail the BVI?

It is the quietest month and the riskiest. October averages 10.4 knots on the buoy, the lightest of the year, with 5.4 inches of rain, and six tropical systems passed within 100 km of Road Town in Octobers from 1991 to 2024, two of them hurricanes. Several anchorage restaurants are closed or just reopening; check each one first.

Facts checked against [NOAA's National Data Buoy Center](https://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/station_page.php?station=41052), [NOAA's National Hurricane Center](https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/climo/), [the National Park Service](https://www.nps.gov/viis/learn/nature/weather.htm) and [Cooper Island Beach Club](https://cooperislandbeachclub.com/). Checked October 2026.

Related guides

- [BVI catamaran charters from Tortola's harbors](https://virginislandvilla.com/bvi/experiences/boat-charters)

- [A seven-day British Virgin Islands sailing itinerary](https://virginislandvilla.com/bvi/guides/bvi-sailing-itinerary)

- [Norman Island and the pirates of the BVI](https://virginislandvilla.com/bvi/guides/bvi-pirate-history)

- [All British Virgin Islands guides](https://virginislandvilla.com/bvi/guides)

- [All of British Virgin Islands](https://virginislandvilla.com/bvi)

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