TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums British Virgin Islands Water taxi to BVI base vs. charter in USVI and clear across?

Hi all - I've chartered in the USVI and BVI 5-6 times, but have never transited between the two other than on a water taxi. I'm planing a short trip (~3 full days sailing, plus arrival / departure days...too short, I know!) later this year focused on the BVI. While I was initially looking at taking a water taxi from STT to a BVI base, a few of my crew have asked about chartering in USVI then clearing across at the start / end of our trip (all of our sailing will be in BVI waters). Does anyone have recent experience they can share re: the timing and inconvenience factor of clearing into BVI west end, then coming back into the US (does the ROAM app save any meaningful time?). Or how to compare the out-of-pocket customs fees vs. what's included in the all-inclusive water taxi rate? Thank you!

I would not even consider a USVI start for 3 days on the water. If however you can spend 2 transit days and then 3 sailing days for 5 total go for it! Do you have a boat boomed? Many charter companies have a 4 or 5 day minimum.

Thanks - yes, we'd arrive day 1, sail days 2/3/4, then depart day 5. I'm all set on the boat options. I'm strongly leaning toward water taxi into BVI, but am looking to satisfy some inquiring minds on my crew re: USVI. Thanks for the reply!

I have sailed out of USVI for several years. Except during covid, we always sailed into and out of BVI. If you only have 3 days of sailing (plus arrival and departure days) I would not go through the hassle. Highly unlikely you can make it to West End the afternoon of the first day. It's a 3 hour motor from CA. So you are likely going to end up in Maho or Francis on STJ. A very nice place. By the time you get going the next day it will be noon before you clear into BVI. Coming back is the opposite problem. You can't get cleared in to USVI early enough the last day of your trip. You have to check out of BVI and check into USVI next to the last day. Even if you use ROAM you can't make it back to St Thomas and get re-fueled and onto the dock by the check-in time on your last day. So Sailing the USVI is great btw - plenty of sailing and bays to visit. But if you want BVI the time you have isn't going to make that work well.

Pre Covid, we did the opposite route quite often. Starting in BVI, we'd sail to Great Harbor, get there by noon, check out of customs, dingy over to Soggy Dollar for the afternoon and set sail for St John by 7 AM the next day. Sometimes we'd go into Cruz Bay other times merely check in through ROAM. After 2 or 3 days sailing around ST John we'd do the short sail from Trunk Bay to The West End to check back into the BVI. Going to St John merely meant we wouldn't go to Anegada on those trips. Even the time we had to check into the USVI (after Irma) through Red Hook is was very doable. Nice thing about going down at least 4 times a year is it's no big deal missing some stops to include both BVI and USVI in one trip.

It was our pre-covid custom for many years to charter out of CYOA in Charlottte Amalie, head straight up to JVD, clear customs and spend 6 or 7 nights roaming the BVI. Then check back in to the USVI and spend 2 or 3 nights around St. John before heading back to base and trekking back to the Hoosier state. Like Jagmansr suggested, that approach made Anegada essentially undoable, particularly as we generally didn't charter for more than 8 or 9 days. This year, as noted in the trip report I posted a couple days ago, we flew in and out of St. Thomas, ferried over to Tortola with Island Time and chartered with Waypoints out of Nanny Cay. It was an absolutely remarkable trip, especially given that our trip up to Anegada was finally viable. And although I would very gladly repeat the same exact trip (and probably will), I will say that getting shuttled around at the beginning and end of the trip made me nostalgic for flying in to STT on a relatively cheap flight, grabbing a 10 minute taxi ride to Frenchtown, and off to the races. We also really did miss St. John. I suppose we could have done the customs shuffle and gone back and forth, but I just wasn't up to it.

Bottom line: There's a reason we go back year after year after year. Namely, I don't know if there's any such thing as a "bad" itinerary. You just can't go wrong in that wonderful place (on either side of the dotted gray line).

Meanwhile, back here in Indiana, I'm in trouble with my wife. She says I'm in a funk and need to snap back to reality. I think she's right. But I can still long for the next trip, right?

Shifty, or you could cash in your chips, retire and move to the ilons!

I wish!!! Not enough chips just yet.