I am eternally grateful for those on this board that have made out trips to the BVI so much better. In an effort to pay it forward I wanted to share some tips on the BVI portal. 8 of us (fully vacced > 14 days) got fully approved 1st go around at 115 AM this morning, a full 3 1/2 days before our trip thanks to a lot of pre-work and mainly to the credit of 2 ladies who are running the system. As usual in BVI the great people make a bad system work.

Our 2 week trip starts Jun 14th (Monday) - Day 0. Day 5 for PCR-RT test is Jun 9th, the Wednesday before. Days matter, hours don't so you can go at any time Wednesday Day 5 for your PCR tests.

1) Pre work. Create folders with each of your crews names in it. Well before the trip collect pdf's for your folder of (1) pdfs pics of their passports, (2) pdfs of their insurance cards, and (3) pdfs of their vaccination cards front and back (you need to upload both sides but I had both on 1 pdf so uploaded same document 2x for front and back)

In another folder have your (1) flight (entry into BVI) information in pdf form, (2) your lodging or vessel proof to include all the names of the crew (this needs to be uploaded), and (3) pdf of any travel insurance. (4) In addition I had pdfs of the general insurance coverage internationally for our crew. Fortunately 4 were BCBS and 2 its sister company Anthem so 1 pdf. More on (1),(3),(4) later

2) PCR-RT test - Have your crew set this up on Day 5 as early as they can. We used a local pharmacy, CVS, and local medical center. CVS is now free for all with insurance card. The tests need to say PCR-RT contain your name and DOB. We live in DC and all tests were returned within 24 hours via email (my charts for CVS) in pdf form. The crew emailed the results to me to complete their files.

3) BVI Portal (the beast)-Wait until you have your Covid test results so you can enter all at once unless of course you are up against the 48 hours window. If you do without Covid tests you will have to manually get an email link to go back and enter the results. They will want to know type and date of 1st and 2nd vaccination. I paid $105 each at the end of each entry.

Use 1 email (an email you can check your spam filter) for all people and 1 cell phone (lucky me). One person enters everyone's information in the portal for the other people. Everyone needs to be entered and they will ask if any are travelling together for the purpose of the custom form only. At the end you will see a list of people as you add.

Don't do this alone. In my case my wife and daughter sat with me and like surgery we confirmed everything we did 3x and entered by comparing to the actual documents and a spreadsheet we created and uploading their (1) covid tests results, (2) proof of destination, (3) insurance cards, and (4) vaccination cards front and back. We started at 415 on Day 4 (Thursday) and ended at 545 with all 8. After each you will get a long string of letters and numbers as an ID for each person. We wrote it down and then at the end realized we could just take a screenshot of all 8 of us with this information. Keep this information if you need to reference an application later.

After the portal entry at 6 pm I emailed to Lynette Harrigan (1 of the stars of this show) pdfs of (1) our flight entry information (Island Birds bill showing crew names-note for private charter select "charter" and flight number "1111" in portal), (2) travel insurance 2 page document listing names (we got travel insurance through Moorings), and (3) pdfs showing international coverage for health insurance even though none of this was asked for in the portal.

At 115 AM this morning (Day 3) I got 8 emails with the all clear for our crew and their pdfs 7 hours after portal entry.

1 more hurdle down....

PS I then took all the pdfs I have for each crew member and stapled together in 8 packets (1) passport pic, (2) covid test results, (3) vaccination cards, (4) health insurance cards, and (5) BVI entry acceptance so everyone has these in paper form and on their cell phones. On the front I stapled a 3x5 card with my email in huge font to hand to the person at the testing center for the last of the Day 0 tests on the 14th. One email for all results...and want to make sure it is correct.

I also have everyone's information on my phone and in dropbox

We have scheduled our return to US test on the Friday before the Monday we return at JVD at 745. Again they have via email all the information they need via spreadsheet.

Wishing you fair winds and following seas