Murdock - thanks for the info. Everyone has their own style and do things different. Not because they have to but because they want to. And sometimes people do things because that's how they've done things in the past which may or may not still make sense to do.

When we chartered on Tortola the last day was immensely stressful with a near miss getting on a flight on STT one time. I well understand those that tack on an overnight at a hotel or fly out of EIS. But just for the record, one of the big advantages of chartering on St Thomas is to avoid that stress and possible extra cost. Since we've started using St. Thomas as our starting point we have spent the last night in a beautiful bay on St. John. We try to get a flight that is no earlier departure than 2:00. It's possible to leave St. John, get fueled and be tied up at the dock at CYOA by 9:30 and thus have plenty of time to get stuff pulled together, swap stories with the dock crew, grab a nice lunch in Frenchtown, and get to the airport. In June we were in Maho the last night. It's about 2 hours 15 from there to Crown Bay marina fuel dock motoring on our Beneteau 45. A cat can cut down the time a little bit more. Many people spend the last night at Christmas Cove (about 1 hour 15) or Honeymoon Bay (Water island) which is probably 10 minutes from the fuel dock. Or possibly on one of the bays on the south side like Salt Pond (which is about 2 hours). And given most of the boats have water makers and generators you can stand in the shower however long you want and then dry off in front of the freezing cold AC vent if you prefer. The other advantage to avoiding the hotel is that you avoid packing all your stuff up off the boat, moving to the hotel, unpacking stuff and repacking the next day. Just pack your stuff up and go to the airport. No fuss no stress!