Nightmare ferry crossing to the BVI!

We had the sails up by 6am to make it in time to Red Hook fuel dock (on St Thomas Island) to meet our skipper by 9am. It should be a 2 hour sail but I wanted to leave lots of time just in case, as I was feeling a little worried about timings. The winds were light but we managed a respectable 5+ knots, so of course we arrived a good half hour early. For some reason we had to be off the boat when the skipper boarded. We were relieved when he turned up looking a respectable middle aged sailor!

Leaving the National Park.

Feeling a little nervous with only our backpack full of all our official documentation we set off to find a taxi to take us across the island to Charlotte Amalie where we were booked on the ferry to the BVI at 4pm. Amazingly when we were in Charlotte Amalie on Wednesday getting our PCR test, I had spotted a couple who looked like our friends the Keller’s on sailing boat Witwat. The last I heard they were heading to the ABC islands en route to Panama end of April. The jolt of memory prompted me to send them a message. Due to all sorts of circumstances and coincidences, they just happened to be anchored in Charlotte Amalie. So we arranged to meet them today, as our rendezvous with them in St Croix had been cancelled due to problems with some of their equipment on their boat, and our departure!

We went for a lovely wander around the old town with them, enjoying some of the old architecture, in the narrow back alleys. We walked up the famous 99 steps in the roasting heat, and enjoyed the view from the First Lady’s Garden. We found a great little Spanish restaurant in a very shady back street that was very pleasant. Peaceful enough for us to compare sailing notes and have a good catch up. Our view of Charlotte Amalie improved enormously after visiting the old town, we found it all rather European and charming.

99 Steps

Karen and Denis Keller, their boat Witwat, on the water behind them.

Govenor’s house under repair.

Blackbeard’s Caste!

We finally got to the ferry at 3pm and the chaos in the queue should have been a warning of what was to come. We had hoped that the ferry would be empty but no such luck, we finally departed 20 minutes late which didn’t seem too bad, as I had been warned the ferry schedules were a law unto themselves. We had strategically sat right next to the door for a quick exit. After a wonderful 50 minute ferry ride passing some extraordinary little islands and rocky outcrops we were at Road Town in the BVI.

We were incredibly lucky to be in the first group of 30 people off the boat. And then began the pharisaical scenario of 7 manned stations to get through. Even though we had filled out a 10 page online doc with all our details, which had copies of our passport, PCR test, vaccination certificates and travel insurance uploaded onto it, we had to give email addresses and phone numbers again. What a nightmare, the plastic Covid barriers were incredibly hard to hear through, with the added noise of so many people. One station required us to show an email to confirm we had paid the $175 fee for our tests in the BVI. This was the first email we had received in the online registration and most people could not find it, which caused the first enormous backlog. It really was tough on the older people, between the bad light, noise and fluster. Finally we got our noses wrung out by the most vociferous doctor(only one for all 150 of us). Then we went to a waiting room where we waited until we were called up in couples. This seemed to grind on for ages and was the biggest hold up. They quickly ran out of seating and after two hours in the heat queuing, people were getting tetchy and thirsty. We were finally called up to be given our assigned mobile phone with a charger, they had to take a photo of us on it to activate it. From then on we were being tracked! We have to take a photo at least twice a day on it. All this even though we are vaccinated and supposedly only need to wait 24 hours for our test result to be released, plus we entered with a negative PCR. We had to give credit card details, in case we don’t return our phones to a police station in the allotted time. You can imagine how long this all took. Then we had to go through customs and security, another station for inspection and the last to pay our visitors fee. The whole process took over 3 hours and we were near the front of the queue, it was all beginning to get miserable, with tempers fraying this late at night. We were so relieved to be out. In hindsight we should have thought their first day of allowing vaccinated people in would be troublesome.

We finally got into our Covid strict taxi, the irony being that social distance went out the window as we crammed in 3 to the back seat, but at least the windows were open! We finally got to Nanny Cay marina and were so relieved to be reunited with PolePole jut after 8pm. She was all in order and securely docked. It seems even hotter here, after a snack for supper we collapsed into bed exhausted.