While it is popular to bash the ferries, and there are occasionally good reasons to do so, in over a dozen round trips between STT and Tortola we have never missed a ferry trip we wanted to take. They don't always / almost never run on time, but there has always been a ferry from either Charlotte Amalie or Red Hook going to either West End or Road Town. Hence the reason for a flexible approach.

I think StormJib usually swims it <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/jester.gif" alt="" />, but for the rest of us, as most of the other posters have said, buy a one-way ticket on the first ferry that will get you where you want to go. It is still the least expensive way, for most folks, to get from STT to Tortola and back. We make voice or text taxi arrangements on STT with Kevin Campbell, (340)643-0025, a week or so in advance of arrival. He and his co-drivers seem to know, on an hourly basis, which ferry is leaving next, and from where it is departing.