"I'd like to meet the "discerning" visitor who has no problem with constant power outages, frequent and severe water shortages, torn up, pot-holed, badly engineered and mostly unlit roads with few road signs, questionable food establishments (certainly not all but a large majority), over flowing dumpsters all over the place, trash strewn everywhere, and sub-par (disinterested) service at many establishments, shops and indeed in government."

They are out there everyday on their yachts carrying those services with them. They are at Peter Island, Bitter End Yacht Club, they will be back at Little Dix spending more than ever in a couple of years. They will build villas at Nail Bay. And yes some show up on larger ships like The World.

Many get lost looking for simple answer to a complex ever changing market. One part of that market and in many cases the decision maker will want to arrive and depart on a FAA Part 135 private flight. Others in the group travel on different days with the rest of us. Family, friends, guests, and co-workers must be able to get in an out without the taxi, ferry, taxi, STT dance or other hassles the current mess has in place.

To answer your question discerning visitors are all around you each day. The hope is to at least keep the number visiting today and gain more repeat business from the "discerning" group ten months out of the year. I will accept many and maybe most who visit the BVI only set foot on Tortola to get in and out of the BVI Islands. The same is true with St. Thomas. Just mixing the name St. Thomas with any BVI trip damages the BVI brand.

If you read the local press this week the USVI is having their own problems with the St. John ferries.

For the record if I were Czar there would be very nice ferries at no charge taking anyone getting off a plane to suitable docks on each of the area Islands every hour until two hours after the last plane lands for the day. Bag would be checked directly to the boat and ALL C&I would be majestically done on the boat ride. A simple beautiful welcome to the BVI first and last impression.

Does my plan fix the capacity limits that have long been reached at STT? My plan ignores the reality of the tribal politics and jealousy between the two sets of Islands. US educated Pickering and a few others more than get all that. That is why they will keep working until they find a contractor willing to contract to build the airport to FAA specs. Not doing it would be the same as The Moorings going back to the 38 foot monohulls with no AC of the 70's.

With the loss of AA from EIS. Our large and growing family spreads the money around a little more. We do use private charter into EIS. Scrub makes a great base for greeting and dropping off crew. Pre 9/11 we used the fuel dock at Red Hook for that at times. We also make use of the direct flights to St. Lucia and the Mooring Base there. St. Vincent by far has the best sailing but until the airport gets open the hassle of going through Barbados is not fun. Martinique has the best food and provisioning with almost no flights from the US. My daughters have connected through Paris to meet us in Martinique. Fun once; doubt they will do it again. The BVI has the easiest sailing +9 months of the year of any of the charter options. The BVI is losing or surrendering the ease of ingress and egress the iPad generation is going to demand.