Back in 2019, we booked a bareboat charter to the BVIs (British Virgin Islands) for March of 2020. We were the first group to be postponed due to the covid pandemic and it was probably a blessing as we may have been stuck down there. The four of us (Scott and our friends Ben & Maria) rescheduled the trip for February 2021. We were thinking that surely the pandemic would be over by then, right?
Opening up the islands to tourists
In October 2020, many of the Caribbean Islands started allowing tourists back, but under very strict guidelines. The BVIs implemented one of the strictest policies making travel there near impossible. First you had to have a negative covid test before boarding your plane. Then you received another test when landing and would then need to quarantine for four days. After four days, you take another test and if that is negative, you are allowed to tour only certain (non-tourist) locations on the island for another four days. After that, you were allowed to visit approved mooring fields and marinas on day nine.
Since our charter is only for five days, these rules would not work for us. As a result, we moved the charter to April 2021, in hopes they would ease up on the restrictions. That has not happened and it looks like they are here to stay for most of 2021. In addition, all water ports are currently closed and we were arriving by ferry from St Thomas.
Change of plans
Since we had our airfare booked (arriving in St. Thomas), the four of us decided to continue the trip and visit the US Virgin Islands. Ironically, Scott and I have traveled to many Caribbean islands, including the Bahamas, Jamaica, Antigua, Dominican Republic, Guadeloupe, Dominica and St. Maartin, but never the US Virgin Islands.
Our plan is to stay three nights on the east end of St. Thomas, then take a flight to St. Croix. There we are staying on the northeast end for four nights. We were going to take a ferry to St. Croix, but in the end the flight was easier and much faster. From there Scott and I are heading to St. John for three nights, so it is a stretched out trip.
Boating in the US Virgin Islands
Looking at the excursions that are offered, there are a lot to choose from! Kayaking at night looks interesting and they also offer an eco kayak trip. We definitely want to go sailing and snorkeling a few times and squeeze in a sunset cocktail cruise too. If you have any recommendations of “must do” excursions in the US Virgin Islands, please let us know!
Scott and I have wanted to retire in the USVIs for a long time, so it will be interesting to see if this destination meets our expectations. We could have moved our Moorings departure from Tortola to St. Thomas now that they have a base there. But honestly, we have been waiting for years to do the BVIs and we didn’t want to swap that out for the USVIs. Maybe after we boat around in April, we might regret our decision. We’ll see.
Our trip takes off on April 23rd for ten days. We do have to complete an online profile for covid and provide a negative test before we can enter the islands. For this trip we did buy trip insurance, as things can change at any moment.
Tune in next week for a tour of a Bayliner 4788. Please be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel (see Star Clipper video link below). As always, we thank you for following our journey!
Cheers, Scott and Ally
It sounds wonderful!