bvi captains log blog

There was some unfortunate news coming out of the Caribbean this past couple days. Basically, American Airlines is making some drastic changes to try and stay afloat in the new world economy with the current fuel prices. We knew that they were going to cut their flights to the Caribbean, we were just not sure how much and when. Remember I blogged a few months ago about Spirit Airlines come September going to a Saturday only flight down to St Thomas which i thought would make it more difficult for inexcpensive flights?

American Airlines/American Eagle, which we are tied pretty tightly to down here is cutting their flights to and from San Juan from about 38 a day at least to 18. This is not going to affect the flights from Miami, but apparently, it will affect mostly direct flights to SJU from gateways behind MIami. They will be laying off several hundred people in SJU. Additionally, they are cutting back the flights that go from San Juan to the islands in the caribbean from about 55 a day to 33.
This is going to make it much harder in many respects for guests:
1) cost
2) availability
3) Getting to the Caribbean without an overnight stop SOMEWHERE, maybe even our dreaded airport (gosh I hope they hurry up and finish it!) Miami will be nigh impossible.
4) Those who are used to using FF miles, they can forget it, remember me telling the story last week of using 120,000 "anytime" miles to come back and when our flights messed up right from Tortola, to go first class we would have had to wait days and go through Boston?
They will no longer offer non flight service to SJU from Fort Lauderdale, Newark, Orlando, Los Angeles and Washington Dulles. They will still offer non stop, but with a reduced schedule from (ie once a week on peek days instead of several times a week) from Boston, Chicago, Dallas/Fort Worth, Miami, New York, JFK, Philadelphia and Hartford.
They have also announced that they will ground their fleet of 34 seats Saab, and shift around some of their 72 seaters back to the states that we use in the caribbean.

We will just have to see what will shake out here. A few thoughts, yes, there are other airlines, we will see what their schedule does. This will make our ferries from St Thomas over to the BVI busier, and our airport less busy. The fare is already quite a bit higher to come into Beef Island then St Thomas. Perhaps someone will step up to fill this niche, although I don't believe it will be LIAT as they are cutting their schedule as well.

As I said in my last post, that makes it even more important to WORK with us on the logistics of getting back and forth to the islands. We are good at that! I also would suggest that if you have charters booked to the BVI, or indeed anywhere in the Caribbean this coming winter, that you "don't wait until fall when prices are supposed to fall" to buy your tickets. At least you will have a ticket, but be prepared that they are probably going to change your schedule a billion times on the plane before then. Expect costs to be higher down here then you saw before, our transportation costs of items are going up daily. When talking to boats at the last show, they all talked about sailing more and not running engines as much. It will be good for us. We have a few good things going for us. We work in the American dollar so you do not have to deal with exchange rates!

Enough of that gossip today, I will keep you on to date as things change and we have more information.

I have the following dates open still this year which I am willing to bargain on, give me an email if you are interested! Price and terms depends on how many people, for how long!

Aug 11th through 30th.

Oct 24th through Nov 1st.

Dec 13th- 19th ( 6 nights, and this week is always possible to get a good deal on!)

Those are the only openings we currently have for the rest of this year!

2009. Our availability is quite limited. This is what we have open.

Jan 30th to Feb 6th (Friday to Friday)

March 1st through 8th (Sunday to Sunday)

March 17th to 20th ( Tuesday to Friday) 3 nights, no 10% surcharge for this short charter!

March 29th to April 4th ( Sunday to Saturday) 6 nights

April 5th to April 11th (Sunday to Saturday) 6 nights

April 12th to April 19th (Sunday to Sunday) 7 nights

April 28th to May 2nd (Tuesday to Saturday) 4 nights, no 10% surcharge for this short charter!

May 17th to May 22nd (Sunday to Friday) 5 nights, no 10% surcharge for this short charter!

AFTER JUNE 7th is STILL wide open!


We can help with your transportation and the logistics of getting back and forth to our charter yacht!
Our many repeat guests tell us frequently to structure it so they can get off a plane and get on the boat. We can arrange for a charter flight to meet your group in San Juan, and whisk you to Beef Island where we can pick you up by arrangement.
On availability the night before your charter we can offer part day rates, for sleeping accomodation. This is especially important in high season when many hotels are requesting a three night minimum stay.
We can tailor our pick ups so we pick you up late in the afternoon or drop you off first thing in the morning, depending on your flight plans.
We am happy to work with you on all aspects, our goal is to make your vacation as stress free as we possibly can.
With the ever decreasing amount of luggage that you are allowed to bring on flights, why bother bringing SCUBA gear down with you? Ours is all NEW! The one exception to this is a mask and snorkel that you are comfortable with.
Don't bother lugging shampoo, body wash etc etc. We have it all!

Today, Spirit has put on sale some great rates to St Thomas in August and September, and just coincidentally, we still are open between August 11th and 30th.
Check out there prices (quickly, like today) at Spirit Sale
I am not expecting to see these prices around too often. Once you have checked out those flights, contact kerry@yachtpromenade.com and we will see what type of deal we can work out!

I know I have some family groups that are sitting on the fence!

Our friends, Mark and Sally, off the catamaran Viking Dream took a couple great pictures of Promenade out sailing one day. Well, sailing would not be the word as it is as flat as glass! They thought it was an eerie effect, and they are great! I was being very creative and turned one of them into a painting!



The Canadians in the crowd will appreciate this, although I am waiting for them all to start booking charters left and right with there strong dollar right now! I always thought this was a $5.00 Canadian Bill, but apparently it is a COUPON GOOD for a litre of gas!

One other tidbit of advertising here, which you can file under the "is all advertising good advertising column?" Here are Swimvacation and Promenade under a header that says Got Shark? Reminiscent of the "Got Milk?" campaign maybe?? I am not sure!

And just for Lisa, as she could not believe that my son Chad, has been dressing up our guests in halloween costumes forever to go ashore, here is the proof. This was at least 5 years ago and the group still comes back every year, so there must be something to his method!


I had guests ask me yesterday if they should wait to book their flights from Chicago (6 of them) down here for Thanksgiving, as a lot of people say things drop in the summer. I think this summer will be an exception. There may be a few low fares around for next winter, only enough so they can advertise them, but I would not wait personally. With Spirit Airlines cutting back to one flight a week into St Thomas in the fall, and AA announcing today they were cutting the size of their hub in San Juan and only flying 33 flights a day instead of 55 to the islands, once you add on the costs of fuel into that mix, I don't think the fares will go cheaper.

I am going to have to talk to the charter flight companies locally and see if their charter rates have gone up at all lately.
I received an email from a charter company in Puerto Rico, Airline Support Services, with an email address of atc@prw.net and his name is Luis Salva that they are offering a King Air that seats 9 for $1850.00 one way to San Juan with VIP transfer service in San Juan and a 7 seater Navajo for $1450.00. Charter flights are going to becoming more viable, although they are going to have to put there prices up as well with fuel. Diesel is sitting around $4.80 a gallon or so in Roadtown at the Delta Dock. Up on Virgin Gorda, diesel was about 65 cents less at Leverick Bay Resort then it was at Virgin Gorda Yacht Harbor, which I found strange.

I also pulled this off the news last week, it is written particularly about the USVI and Global Warming, but I think it pertains to us here in the BVI just as much. Virgin Islands and Global Warming

I also had a friend who attended Earthfest up in Boston this year and spied the VIEC's information for the court case against Beef Island there! Boston is a big market for the BVI, and it was interesting to see that they are watching us down here up there. Here are a few pictures I was sent, apparently there was about upwards of 50,000 people at this event.

Remember the charter boats have donated heavily to the VIEC and the court case, they were still giving donations at the recent boat show. You can read all about it at BVI Heritage Conservation Group





There is a lot of talk and controversy going around the island because the island is extending its cruise ship pier, and most are wondering WHY in the world we are doing that when we have such a hard time handling what we do have now. I am sure I do not know the reasons, the government says it is a necessity so we can keep what we DO have for cruise ship business, although most, I believe would be glad to see it go. One thing I thought of, and i have no idea on whether they are thinking this or not, is with the way fuel prices are going, and the shortage of flights there is going to be into the islands, perhaps they are far sighted enough to see that with economies of scale, the weak US dollar, that cruise ship passengers will get on a boat in Miami and be able to come down here without flying and connections. Could be some sense in that. And the cruise ships always put their base price very low. I even heard rumor around town that there had been some talk about switching to the english pound in government, but then someone pointed out that since most of our guests are americans, it really would not help us much.
If fuel continues to go the way it is, we will have to make some changes on the boat besides, putting on fuel surcharges.
We find more and more people want to be freezing on the boat at night, and wrapped up in blankets! One smart person told me that they just took the blankets out of the room. I have also heard many crews say that they will be doing smaller circles around the islands and sailing more. What can you do?