I know that everyone has their own favorite charter company and reasons for using or not using a particular company. In our case it has always been how we are treated and especially how the company deals with the inevitable problems. Through 14 charters, Moorings has done well in these areas so we continue to use them.

Some examples came up on our recently completed charter. With all the chaos surrounding COVID, charter companies, and more importantly their employees are struggling for survival. But none of that was seen in our interactions with base personnel. Everyone was pleasant and helpful.

Because of a potential tropical storm hit, we chose to spend our first 2 nights in the marina. We had extended our charter from 10 to 14 days because of the quarantine restrictions which ended up getting removed before our arrival. So we had some extra time. We also had friends starting a charger a couple of days later so we waited for them.

One night, around 10 as we were walking back to our boat, a member of our party managed to drop our (only) boat padlock key which took a skip off the dock and into the dark murky waters. It didn't have a float so there was no chance of recovery. The customer service desk was still open but no maintenance folks were around. A security guard found a hacksaw blade but was unable to cut the lock. So there we were facing a night of no place to sleep. Customer service opened up rooms for us (glad it wasn't crowded in the hotel). Next morning a mechanic came by with bolt cutters to get us access to our boat.

While in the marina we had issues with our AC units. There must have been a half dozen folks involved in trying to fix the problem. Eventually their "AC Expert" kicked free and replaced a failed circuit board. The next day he was back again replacing a board on the second unit that had failed.

Some little things such as a request for some lashing line and sail tape that weren't on board were quickly responded to, even though they were obviously low priority issues.

We look forward coming back to the BVI in a more normal post-Irma / post-COVID world.

Louis from Houston