Trip Report
Itinerary:
8/3 - 8/6 Rental house on Tortola
8/6 - 8/13 WSJ
Arrived STT Wednesday August 3 around 1PM. Taxied to the CA ferry terminal. Check in was a complete cluster as multiple ferry companies are sharing a very small space. Learned if you are not there 30 minutes prior to departure time, you may not get on the next ferry. After an hour of drinks in snacks in the bar, we were on our way to West End Tortola.
Customs & immigration at West End was a piece of cake. Rented a car through Jerry's Car Rental (
jerrysrental.com)...Jerry was waiting for us at the ferry terminal. Two minute drive to his office, five minutes of paperwork and we were on our way. Good car & good service.
Rented Casa Flamboyant through VRBO. (
https://www.vrbo.com/3932079ha) The 270' view from that house was breathtaking...even more breathtaking than the amazing pictures in the house's profile. Price was amazingly low...about $400 a night for 4 people all in. Great hosts...provided a local prepaid cell phone, beach towels, mats, chairs, noodles, grill, charcoal, bottled water...they really thought of everything. A couple of little issues...like the TV has previous water damage and the dishwasher didn't work...but neither impacted us hardly at all. We absolutely would recommend to others.
Saturday returned the car to Jerry who drove us to the ferry terminal. Any ferry going from Tortola to Red Hook MUST stop in St. John for immigration, so we had plenty of options. Fast trip over, cab to the WSJ, picked up a rental from O'connor on the resort. My wife and I had 9 friends joins in St. John and all 4 villas were ready by 3 PM...the most efficient check in I've ever experienced in my 8 trips there. (no lines, keys all ready, no hassle about adding multiple names to reservations)
Monday did a sail for 10 to Jost on the sailing yacht Survivan (/http://www.stjohnyachtcharters.com/). Great day. Snorkel stop at Lovango Cay, slow sail to Jost (only about 6 knt winds all day). Lunch at Hendo's Hideout which was good but a bit slow. Drinks at Soggy Dollar. Slow beautiful sail back. Highly recommended for groups larger than 6 but smaller than 13.
Wednesday did a power boat trip for 6 with Island Roots. (
http://www.islandrootscharters.com/) Jason was off island on his honeymoon so his relief captain Tom is who took us out. He looks like a young surfer boy but he was professional, knowledgeable and gave a great day. Snorkeled The Indians, Wreck of the Rhone (Salt Island) and Mingo Cay. Lunch at Cooper Island Beach Club, drinks at Willie T. Great day.
Other stuff on island was its usual great. Turtle populations at Maho and Francis look very strong. Reef at Maho was not as teaming with life as I remembered it. Construction was barely noticeable while at the resort pool.
Public ferry back to STT and subsequent taxi to the airport was very easy. Airline counter lines, customs and immigration at the airport was all of 15 minutes, but in fairness we got there at 12:30 and about an hour later, from what I could tell, it was far worse.
Now counting the days until I can go back....
I will need an extra night in November and because of better airfare, an extra night in February. 
