TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums British Virgin Islands Logistics help

If you were going to pick up a boat in road town, but the majority of your group was flying into St Thomas the day of your charter (and you were already on the boat earlier), would you suggest to pick them up at red hook, or St John? How might that work. So our charter starts at noon on Saturday, but our group lands at 1:30 in St Thomas that day, would it make more sense to have them cab to red hook? Thinking we could start the trip in St John anyhow, so this might work.

Can you clear your boat in at St John now, or is customs only in Red Hook?

Thinking we could spend Saturday night and Sunday on St John, and head to Jost on Monday to clear back into the BVI with our group of new crew.

Any help with logistics would be great.

Grab a mooring ball in Caneel bay St John and meet them at the ferry dock in Cruz Bay. You’ll enjoy a day or so in St John.
You can clear in in Cruz Bay

If this is a typical 7 day charter that would mean by the time you cleared out - checked in and cleared back in you'd be shortening that to + or - 5 day in the BVI. If I was to do something like that I would probably stay in the USVI for most of the 7.

IMHO it's not worth the hassle to clear out of BVI, clear in to USVI (Cruz bay St. John), pick up your crew and then clear back in to BVI.
I would have them take the ferry to Roadtown and meet you on the boat. You can get the boat checked out and your provisions all set. It's possible they can get there in time to get off the dock and make the short hop over to Norman or Peter. And if not you can make an early departure off the doc the next morning.

^^^^^
This! - nice beam reach over to Cooper Island or Peter, some sun setters! Depending on flights the ferry ride to Road Town isn't bad. Or if there are enough crew, could arrange a private water taxi ($$$$)

So this is a 10 day charter, and the down side to having them take the ferry is that it is a wasted day on the dock in roadtown waiting for the 4:30 ferry to arrive (they all arrive at 1:30 ish). Was thinking that we could spend first 2 days in St John, and then head over to Jost after that.

I really don't want to sit on the dock at Road town and spend the night there. Would a private water taxi take them to Norman or coppers?

Steph - I would much prefer to be on the water moving (even if motoring) than to spend the afternoon sitting at a Road Town dock waiting for crew to arrive (and very likely too late an arrival to be able to depart Road Town and get to an anchorage by sunset).

Let's assume you're ready to depart by Noon. It's 7.7nm to Soper's Hole so you're moored by 1:15pm. Dinghy to BVI C&I to clear out (with manifest completed in advance), and return should take less than 30 minutes, so you're underway by 1:45pm. It's 6.5nm to the Lind Pt moorings near Cruz Bay so you're moored there by 2:45pm. It's a 5 minute dinghy to Cruz Bay - I would beach & lock up the dinghy by the ferry dock where your crew will arrive. Walk 200 yards to the US customs trailer (with your CBP-1300 and I-418 forms completed in advance). You should be out of their office by 3:15pm. This gives you time to walk over to Cruz Bay Landings for a bushwacker as your crew arrives on the Red Hook-Cruz Bay ferry that departs at 3pm and is offloaded by 3:30~3:40pm. You're back on the boat by 4pm, with time for a quick swim at Honeymoon/Salomon Beach or to reposition to Caneel Bay or Francis Bay/Maho Bay mooring fields, if you choose, or enjoy dinner ashore in Cruz Bay.


Definitely spend 2 days in St John, then clear back in at JVD.

Thanks for the idea. Is there no C&I in roadtown? Was thinking we could have one of us clear the boat out before we even left the dock.

You
Can clear out in Roadtown or
Great Harbour JVD

Yes, definitely clear out in Roadtown before leaving as opposed to stopping at Soper’s to clear out. With a 10 day charter I definitely would get on the water and pick them up in USVI and s-end a day or two exploring USVI and clear back in at either Jost or Soper’s depending on your itinerary after that.

Alternatively, if you don’t want to spend time in USVI and waste time with the customs process, we have made our way to Jost in the past and had our crew hire a private ferry like Foxy’s and clear in themselves to Great Harbour and we dinghy over and pick them up there from a mooring ball. Or they can taxi to White Bay or Little Harbor if you are moored there. A little more expensive for crew but I have found they are more than willing to pay a little extra to get to a place like Jost for the night instead of going to Roadtown to sit in the marina. Found this to be a good option for a 7 day charter staying in the BVI.