Long trip report, but lessons learned. Our 16th charter in BVI, 1st since Irma in 2017. Crew was me, my wife, and 8 adult children/spouses
Yacht: Island Knights, Navigare

Prefloat: We planned to fly to St Thomas and take the ferry to Tortola, our usual route. With Covid, there are stringent screening measures in place.
1. To travel to US Virgin Islands, you must be accepted by filling out the form on the USVI travel portal. This requires your name, address, passport info and an upload of your vaccination card and proof of a negative Covid test. For our trip, the negative test needed to be within 5 days of travel. However, there is another screening at BVI Customs: if the test is within 48 hours, you pass through. If more than 48 hours, they do a rapid test at Customs. It doesn’t take long; Megan had to retest and it didn’t hold us up at all, but it costs $75. After uploading the info into the USVI travel portal, you will receive an email with the approval and a green QR code, which they will scan at the St Thomas airport upon arrival. The USVI travel portal updates requirements frequently, the last I saw was 24 hrs Covid test when arriving by air.
2. We also prebooked our ferry rides. There are 3 ferries per day from STT to Tortola, the latest being 5 pm. We all got in by 3, so a short cab ride and we were at the ferry terminal. They wanted to see our passports and covid tests, as well as proof of trip insurance (more on that below). To prebook, look at the BVI-USVI ferry schedule, see which company runs the specific ferry you want, and book from their website. $60 pp one way, they also charge $10 per bag and $10 (I think) for some ecological tax.
3. Trip insurance: I got it from auraassistance.com, not sure what it covered but it was approved by BVI government. On traveltalkonline, several people said they weren’t asked for it, some said they just showed their private health insurance cards. It was only $9 pp/day, so I didn’t want to take any chances.
4. Boaty ball: online mooring ball reservation system, most harbors use it. Create an account ahead of time with your credit card and getting a mooring is easily done with it (theoretically).
Travel
Day 1: With all the prefloat preparation, the trip went smoothly. We got off the 5 pm ferry in Road Town at about 6, but Customs was extremely slow, got out of there well past 7. It was dark, took a cab to the Navigare marina at Nanny Cay and found our boat. The beverage provisions had already been delivered. We walked down the path and found a decent restaurant and had dinner. Slept aboard.
Day 2: Boat briefing at around 10, not very thorough and we were able to leave the dock by 11. Judy worked with Rite Way when they delivered the provisions. Not 100% accurate (never is) but acceptable. Last Stop Sports delivered water toys and we were off.
The first night destination was Cooper Island, since it’s close to Tortola. We used Boaty Ball since Cooper Island frequently fills up. Anytime after 7 am on the day of arrival, you can reserve a ball by number in whatever harbor you’re going to. The problem is internet availability, and we had to kick a “squatter” off our reserved ball at Cooper. But it did work. We got to Cooper, had happy hour and dinner at the restaurant, capped off by a visit to the rum bar.
Day 3: Quick breakfast, then motored to the Baths. The winds the first few days were 20-30 kt (gusting to as high as 38!) and we were nose into the wind, so we motored both days in rough seas. Caught a mooring ball at the Baths and took the dinghy to the swim area and swam ashore. Walked through the rocks, then up to the top for a drink. Then back to the boat; I wanted to be out of there by 2 so we could get to North Sound Virgin Gorda in the light. I prefer driving a rental car from Leverick to the Baths; less time constraint and the swim in can be rough for inexperienced swimmers.
We went to North Sound and directly to Bitter End; we wanted to see what progress had been made. The rebuilt looks great but still a lot of work to do. They weren’t open yet, soft opening later in the week. So we motored over to Leverick for the night. Restocked ice, water, food, drink and ate lasagna onboard that Sophia had brought down. There were only 3 boats in the anchorage, did not use Boaty Ball.
Day 4: Awoke, had a great breakfast prepared by Megan and Chad, eggs benedict. So got a bit of a late start out of the anchorage and headed to Monkey Point. Beautiful downwind sailing conditions. Snorkeling there was so-so, no tarpon or big fish spotted. Then headed to Cane Garden for the evening. Picked up an open mooring ball, paid $30 cash for it. Went ashore for dinner at and Matthew surprised us by showing up (except Chip and Judy, who knew about it)! Nice meal at Myett’s then back to the boat.
Day 5: Off to Jost van Dyke, arrived at White Bay at about noon, got a ball and swam ashore. It was a beautiful day, had a great time having drinks, lunch, volleyball, etc. About 4 went to Great Harbor for a mooring. There is a mooring close to shore near a partially submerged tree, and when I approached it, I went aground in sand. We came quickly off, but it was tense and people on shore were yelling at us. Picked up a mooring in deeper water and paid with Boaty Ball. Dinner on the boat (grilled filets that Judy had brought frozen) then in to Foxy’s for drinks and dancing. Fun night.
Day 6: We didn’t have a specific plan for the day, so we decided to repeat the day before. First we had to get Covid tested again, which we did at the JVD clinic in Great Harbor. Not an easy process: first had to email everyone’s name and DOB; then they sent you an appointment; then we all got tested; then the results a few hours later. $75 pp. Next back to White Bay/Soggy Dollar, then back to Great Harbor. Dinner on board was fish and steak fajitas prepared by David, Andrew and Becca. The kids wanted to go ashore but we didn’t think it was a good (safe) idea.
Day 7: Sailed to Norman Island, good conditions. Stopped at the Indians for a snorkel, not bad but still no big fish. Then into Pirates Bight for dinner. Last night, ran out of booze and food. Kids went to Willie T, which is now located in the Bight at Norman Island. Oh, also filled out the USVI travel portal again for our return trip to St Thomas the next day (has to be filled out the day before).
Day 8: Returned to base at Nanny Cay; got up early and arrived by 8 am. They wanted me to dock at the fuel dock, instructed me on which side to put the fenders, etc. Very windy and I had difficulty keeping the boat close to the pier. Eventually one of the dock guys came over and helped us tie up. Fueled up, $440 for the week using a lot of engines and generator for AC every night.
Now the nightmare started. I had not pre-ordered ferry tickets because I never had good wifi. Also, on a Thursday at 11:30 am I didn’t figure it would be busy. But I went on the Native Son website and was told that that ferry was sold out. I went to the Navigare office in a panic and they said I could go over to the ferry terminal and see if we could get on (there were 10 of us). Or a water taxi, which I said sounded better. Problem: getting a water taxi is not like a car taxi. They have a lot of immigration/customs forms and red tape, so the first 4 she called said “no go.” Finally she found a guy. It’s normally $700, which for 10 persons isn’t bad, but they were charging $150 pp since it was last minute and he would take care of all the immigration fees. I didn’t have any other choice.
So Johnny’s Water Taxi picked us up at about 10:30. Loaded all our gear and took our passports and filled out some paperwork. Then we took off and stopped at Sopor’s Hole for BVI Customs. The taxi captain took all our passports into the building and we stayed on the boat. He was inside for at least 20 minutes, then came back out and we took off. Next stop was Cruz Bay St John for US Customs. There we unloaded all our baggage and went through customs. Because we were on a taxi, we were the only ones there and it went pretty quick. Then had to show the USVI travel QR code from the portal, then load back into the taxi. Next stop was Red Hook on St Thomas, on the east end by about 11:30. Unload everything again and into a van taxi that the water taxi guy had arranged. About 30 minute trip to the airport, $200 cab fare. At the airport, check in, then customs again, then a pretty slow TSA process. Did not have to show the QR code again. Made it to the gate by about 1; David’s flight to Chicago was at 2:45, the rest of us at 6. We were so happy to be clear of that ordeal that we just sat in the airport for 5 hours.
Lessons learned:
1. Pre-book all transports, especially ferries
2. Pay attention to changing USVI requirements
3. Plan out where you’ll get tested for the return trip, even pre-book that
4. Internet access is now very important. Ours on the boat was terrible, we relied on shore wifi. Next time I’ll buy the international data plan.
5. Lots of cash, you get hit up for $20 every time you turn around.
6. The water taxi was a great experience (but expensive). If you have a large group it might be more economical to use it over a ferry, and it’s considerably faster and less hassle.

Respectfully, Chip Bond

Thanks for the thorough summary Chip. Definitely helps those of us that are inbound. I moved up my arrival by a half a day due to all of the travel issues and figure an extra night in St. Thomas isn’t a bad deal. We land Jan 21st.

Sailing in the USVI looks more and more attractive right now -- especially economically!

Very nice report and a fine time for all it seems !!!--- lines, wifi, and $$$ aside.

Great report...thanks for posting

Thanks for sharing - glad you had a nice trip

Great report, thanks for taking the time to share.....