We left Road Town Sunday, 2/16/20, on the 11:35 am ferry (Smith’s Bomba Charger) to CA. Our flight out of STT was scheduled to depart at 5:01 pm. We had arrived at the RT ferry terminal at 11:00. We were informed at the ticket counter that we would go to West End to pick up passengers, then to Red Hook to clear U.S. Customs and Immigration because the CA ferry terminal C&I was under renovation. We were told to leave ALL our bags, including carry-ons, onboard the ferry as we disembarked at Red Hook to clear in - if we were going on to CA. We left our bags (we only had carry-one) on board, cleared C&I in about 15 minutes, went to a line to re-board Bomba Charger and were back on the boat total time in Red Hook about 30 minutes. Ferry was 3/4 full. The crew did a good job telling us the protocol and retrieved bags for those getting off in Red Hook. Arrived at CA ferry terminal, one didn’t even have to go inside the terminal, one could disembarked to a waiting cab. We had a 45 minute lunch at the Petite Pump Room, then caught a cab to STT.

Once at STT we realized C&I there was also under repair and moved into a “corner”. Everyone was told to keep all their bags with them and everyone got into one very long line. The line moved almost continuously and we were through it having our passports checked fairly quickly, total time in line at STT - approximately 45 minutes. We still had more than an hour before our flight boarded. Our flight left about 5 -10 minutes early.

Overall, it went very smoothly for us. We travel to the BVI about 4 - 5 times per year and although the protocol was different and a bit more time consuming, it was not bad at all. We have a rule of thumb if flying out of STT, leave on either the RT ferry or West End ferry at least 5 hours before our boarding time at STT. On our last trip the person in front of us bought the last ticket on the RT to CA ferry. We had plenty of time to taxi to West End, catch the next ferry to Red Hook, then taxi to STT. It cost extra because of the extra taxi fares but we were in the airport and through C&I and security an hour prior to boarding. We travel a good bit and try our best not to be the ones running through airports like chickens with our heads cut off or the people yelling at the ferry terminal ticket agents - all of which we saw on Sunday. We much rather wait an extra hour at the ferry terminal or airport with our feet propped on our bags.