The fees at SJU had a lot to do with American shutting down the Caribbean hub in SJU. American was particularly upset that SJU was charging significantly less for low cost airlines. I miss the days of 4 to 6 flights a day SJU-EIS with 64 seat aircraft plus the 120 dollar round trip airfares. Americans pull out sent air and ferry prices soaring.

Was there end of May, beginning of June. Secrets was closed for renovation. Doubt it will open until next season. Didn't see any sign of life at Blue Sail so that was probably closed as well. There is a Petit Casino mini-market, a sushi restaurant, a couple of clothes shops and a laundry. That's it I think.

Very sad news indeed. Condolences to the family at this difficult time.

Retitled this thread to be about what is being discussed.

TRIP REPORT PART TWO
Our first stop after leaving the dock was the Indians because were numerous open balls at about 3pm. Short snorkel around the Indians but visibility wasn’t very good. Then onto a FCFS ball in the Bight. A runner from the restaurant collected the mooring fee. Our young group headed straight to Willy T where they promptly forgot their sandals after numerous jumps off the top. First day and they lost their shoes which they didn’t realize until after we left the next day

Day 2 we headed to White Bay JVD and picked up a mooring right off the spa barge on the east side. Five of us had massage appointments over the day and it was a fabulous massage and great experience. The owner insisted on picking us up at the boat (a whole 25 ft away) and then wanted tips for ‘transportation’. We could have easily swam over but they don’t have a ladder for access to the barge. He also wanted to sell us ice and take away garbage.

My daughter has sailed with us many times, but this was her first trip as an ‘adult’. So, I prepaid for painkillers on the Soggy Dollar board for the four young people and she was surprised and loved it. Later in the day I searched Boaty Ball and we reserved a mooring (wasn’t necessary) and we went around to Great Harbor. I don’t normally pull into Great Harbor because it’s not really a ‘beautiful’ anchorage and it’s always crowded. But we enjoyed a morning walk along the sand road and rediscovered Great Harbor.

Day 3 the kids had a scuba dive. Two took the Discover Scuba (one as a refresher to their PADI) and two were recently certified. JVD Scuba did a fantastic job doing the refresher course and combing everyone into a two dive morning. Favorite dive was The Playground – evidently it was fantastic. The adults moved the boat over to Sandy Cay for some swimming and photos. JVD Scuba dropped the divers off alongside and then we headed off to Cane Garden Bay and picked up a mooring. Plenty of open balls. We decided to go into Cane Garden Bay because Hurricane Beryl was barreling south of us and we expected high ESE winds and rain. In the end, we got nothing really (it came days later at Anegada). We put out our rented floaty chair and everyone took turns floating around with a drink announcing ‘I survived Hurricane Beryl’. There was a loud local band that played at Myett’s Sunday afternoon and the kids went in and enjoyed.

Day 4 Walked around Cane Garden Bay and did an ice run at Bobby’s market. Our boat did not have a can opener so we had been scrounging all the markets and could not find one. Consensus is Cane Garden Bay is ‘trashy’ walking around compared to Great Harbor. Dropped the mooring and went over to Brewer’s Bay. We anchored carefully in Brewer’s Bay (have been there numerous times, cleared with charter company) and did our Spread the Ashes ceremony. We had picked flowers, leaves and found an open coconut. We made a bouquet and put the ashes in the coconut with a piece of coral on top. We said prayers, played some favorite songs and floated off in the dinghy to spread ashes. It was very touching, not a dry eye. Then we all slipped in to snorkel the reef. Reef is damaged along west side and it was not good snorkeling

Yes the sound came on this past week or so. I think it mutes after dark. As of today another SXM live web cam came on at the Simpson Bay Resort

You might consider bringing a couple of kids inflatable life vest.
Would not take up much room in luggage and more comfortable to wear.
Lots of options out there.
Eyson Life Jacket Inflatable Vest for Child Classic Automatic

That's the workers jobs .

Who was the Captain?

Following…we will be looking for flights shortly for our January trip.

Coming from East coast Canada we usually fly through Boston or NYC .

If by some fluke a flight gets reasonably priced to Miami from here we can look at that .

Such a wealth of knowledge you all are

I remember the first time I used the rest room there. Based on how the rest of the restaurant looks, I was surprised at how nice it is. November soon come!

As @Jeannius stated, the system in St. Barths is different from the standard French one and does indeed allow storing the boat name to save on typing. The folks at the Capitainerie also have access to the passwords for the charter boats, so if you don't have it with you, they'll give it to you. The closest computer to the desk also sports a U.S. keyboard (QWERTY rather than AZERTY) to make life easier for the non-French.