New Boat Charter Company! Wahoo Boat Charters!

As many of you know, since we have been down here, we pretty much go boating every weekend. What started out as a 19 ft boat in Nevada, grew into a 26 foot boat in the Virgin Islands and now has grown to 32 foot boat.

I have received many requests to take friends of friends out on our boat, but due to Coast Guard regulations, I can only charge for gas. Meanwhile I have all the other associated costs, maintenance, dock fees, repairs, etc. What better way to take folks out and charge an amount to where our costs of owning the boat are paid for by doing some charters?

I recently took the Coast Guard class for a six pack license, meaning I can take out 6 charter guests. I passed the exam of Rules of the Road with a 97%. I am now working on getting all the mounds of paperwork into the Coast Guard so I can receive my Captain's License. Once I have that, I will have to deal with the USVI Dept of Licensing to get my business license.

In the meantime, I received approval of my LLC, Wahoo Boat Charters!

Does this mean I am no longer going be the broker of America's Caribbean Realty? No, I still love doing Real Estate and plan on continuing to practice real estate sales and leasing on a full time basis.

As far as the charter business, I will not be going to the British Virgin Islands, why?

• Customs - going to the BVI = long wait times for both checking into the BVI and then checking back into the US. You have an 8 hour day on the boat, count on 2 hours dedicated to customs, not to mention the mounds of paperwork I have to fill out. 
• Cost - They raised the fee to $15 per person. 
• Fuel  - at an average of $5 a gallon for gas here, your gas bill can get upwards of $200 onward to $500 depending on where you go. 

Don't get me wrong, I love boating to the BVI, but the aggravation of customs starts taking its toll on fun! I plan on keeping our tourist dollars in the USA and doing charters around St John and St Thomas. There is more than enough great snorkeling, beaches and beach bars to be had locally. Honeymoon Beach on Water Island and there is a new beach bar that you can only get by boat opening soon on the south side of St Thomas. If you don't think there is enough to do here locally, I can change your opinion! I will also be doing fishing charters with advanced notice! 

I hope to be ready to go with paid charters by mid January, but we shall see what road blocks I will encounter with our business licensing division here. Feel free to contact me with any inquiries you may have in the meantime as to booking your charters from mid January on. I am working on the new website too and will have a facebook page up soon! 

Meanwhile here is the new logo and our facebook page, http://www.facebook.com/wahooboatcharters

Update

I am still alive!

After a busy month of November and fist week of December with 4 sets of stateside visitors, buying a rental condo in Sapphire Village, studying for and passing the Coast Guard Captain's Exam and listing a new condo for sale, I am starting back to being normal again and will have time to start writing on the blog again.

I will have an announcement to make hopefully next week, so stay tuned! Meanwhile here are a few highlights of the last month:

Happy Friday

It is that time of the week again for Happy Friday! I am running out of things to write about on here, any suggestions would be appreciated?

We have been really busy with out of town guests.

We had Al and Tina from California stop by for a day on the Carnival Glory. We met Al and Tina almost ten years ago when we were all on a cruise through the Panama Canal and have kept in touch with them all these years. We took them to Magens Bay to the beach for the day with some Pizza at Island Time Pub in Red Hook.

Then it was off fishing and caught some Wahoo.

Then taking a friend from High School and her family and friends to Jost as they were here staying on St John.

And finally taking a group of friends over to Cane Garden Bay on Tortola and then Soggy Dollar.

And of course, we had another visitor come by, this tarantula.

Now we have guests in from where we used to live in Driggs, ID here for a few days, so it will have to be Jost tomorrow, fishing Saturday and watching the Jets beat Buffalo on Sunday.


Have a great weekend!

Happy Friday!

Happy Friday everyone!

After an unsettled start to the week, the Summer heat and steam has finally broke! And it was one hell of a hot Summer this year. It feels like winter here again with temps in the mid -80s and lows in the mid 70's. The humid haze is also gone!

We had a good day fishing on the South Drop yesterday, bringing in 3 wahoo, one being 40 lbs.

It was nice to get some blood on the boat!

Today I am heading over to St John to pick up an old High School friend and her family for a day over at Jost. Sunday I am taking some friends out for a birthday cruise on Sunday!

Happy Friday and have a great weekend!

Happy Friday!

Went out fishing today in the afternoon on the new boat as I heard the wahoo bite was on!

No wahoo, had a blue marlin on, too bad it broke the line and took a $80 lure?

This weekend, Cane Garden Bay, BVI and fishing on Sunday as I doubt the Jets have a chance against New England?

Have a great weekend wherever you are and to those stateside, Fall is here I guess, stay warm!

Fishing in the Virgin Islands

Last weekend we went fishing with my father, George, who was here for a visit.

Back in February, the Abigail III had a 1/2 day fishing trip up for silent auction at the Humane Society of St Thomas annual dinner event. I was the lucky winner of the auction.

We left the dock at 12:30 on the nice boat, complete with a cabin with A/C, fridge stocked with beer, water and soda and a bathroom. We also had three fishing chairs. Captain Red had us out to the south drop in 30 minutes with a five mile trek from Sapphire Marina.

For the first hour we trolled around at about 7.5 knots, looking for birds on the South Drop off of French Cap and St John. We found a piece of floating trash and low and behold, we were in luck.

April and May are known for the best season for Mahi and we hit a school!  Everyone had multiple chances to reel in fish and then the Wahoo started coming in! After about 2 hours, our frenzy was over.  Trolled for a little while longer

and back to the dock by 5:30 PM.

I love Wahoo, it makes a great fish for sushi, and for safety, I freeze mine over night. Here is the result of our catch, Wahoo Rolls!

Abigail III was a great day of fishing and thanks to Captain Red and his wife for their donation to the Humane Society!  They offer 1/2 day fishing charters starting at $800 with full day Marlin trips and up to six people. For more info, please contact them here http://www.visportfish.com/abigail_iii.html