I'll start out by saying that I hold Glenn and his comments in the
highest regard. In this case I have a different opinion.

I've been chartering in the BVI for over 20 years, sometimes three times
in a year, more usually once.

I'm not big on the ferry from St. Thomas to Tortola. Your bags do come
off the ferry and go through customs in West End even if you continue to
Road Town. Pain. And I don't like being separated from my gear. From my
area, the cost of flying to San Juan and changing planes for Beef Island
is only a few dollars more than flying to St. Thomas plus cabs and
ferries AND it gets me on the pier a couple hours earlier.

I do like The Moorings best. I came to that conclusion many years ago
when The Moorings and Sunsail were first rate and the other operations
lagged far behind. I haven't experimented, but I do have friends who
have different opinions. I have heard good things about TMM, BVIYC, and
a little operation in Fat Hogs Bay the name of which escapes me at the
moment. See www.traveltalkonline.com. I'm a good customer of The
Moorings (Abacos and BVI) and in the BVI the desk crew, most of the boat
briefers, and some of the dock crew recognize me as a regular (not the
same as remembering me by name, but not bad). I haven't been asked to do
a chart brief in years and the boat briefs have been at my convenience.
All this goes to say that I am not objective. I LIKE chartering from them.

I rarely see an irate customer at the customer service desk. Allowing
for island time, discrepancies are fixed pretty quickly. With "evening
starts" (move aboard in the evening and finish all formalities), I'm
usually away from the pier between 8 and 9 without any stress and with a
good breakfast under everyone's belt.

In the last two years, I've been out on a 3800, a 322, and 4700. Every
trip was precious. Not sure when I'll be out next, but I'm looking
forward to it already.

dave