Hello TTOL BVI Friends-
Just back form a nice charter out of Moorings/Sunsail base on a brand new Sunsail 424 Catamaran. Our charter dates were 1-25-2020 to 2-1-2020. I want to alert our community to a minor glitch that we experienced.
We have chartered BVI and USVI numerous times since 1998, picking up boats in USVI as well as BVI. For this trip, we had intended to head to St. Johns after clearing Customs and Immigration at JVD.
At our boat briefing, I explained our intentions. Our briefer said, "No Problem, the paperwork is in the chart table." In fairness to Moorings/Sunsail. I did not ascertain at that moment that the briefer was correct.
Following Tuesday morning at JVD I went to Customs to clear. I brought the various boat documents. Unfortunately, we were not able to clear into the USVIs.
There was a good deal of confusion about the reason, that is why I am putting out this note.
The bottom line is that our boat was delivered about June 2020 and the paperwork had not yet "caught up" with vessel. I had three or four different versions of why we could not clear into USVI, the lack of proper paperwork due to the newness of the boat was verified by the base manager.
So please be forewarned- this is something I had never before experienced. If you intend to check out USVIs from BVIs, ensure your have the proper paperwork in sight before you leave the base.
The company was very apologetic. They said they would have gladly out us on a different boat if we had raised this concern.
We had a great cruise, and we still recommend Moorings/Sunsail without reservation. This deal was at least half my fault. I never before thought that being chartered on a brand spanking new boat could raise a problem- but this is one odd ball deal when it did!
Wishing all fair winds and following seas-
JAM
Annapolis, Md
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