Sint Maarten to Tortola BVI

We were up at 8am and had a lovely breakfast of hardboiled eggs, croissants, and cheese.

We got all packed up and into a cab by 10am to get to the airport.

On the cab ride over, we saw many ship wrecks left over from hurricane IRMA two years ago

This one was a floating restaurant

We got to the airport by 10:30 for the LIAT flight at 13:00.
Plenty of time to get check in, through security and such.

However, nothing goes smoothly.

Don/Jude and Hans/Debbie got through no problem.

I presented my ticket confirmation, and they couldn't find it in the system!
Turns out, I never bought a ticket!
This was because when were were booking the flights in August, LIAT didn't have the schedule yet, and stoopid me never got around buying the tickets when they did!
The ticket confirmation I had printed out was from 2015!
DOH

Luckily, the flight was not full and I was able to purchase tickets for Rita and I.
WHEW

We waited patiently for our LIAT flight to come in with Walter and Colleen from Barbados.

The waiting is the hardest part

 We never got a call for boarding, no announcements on the PA, until well after the 13:00 flight time.
Judy checked her phone and the LIAT flight with Walter and Colleen on it was circling Sint Maarten.

Turns out the plane had a problem with an indicator light on the landing gear, and could not land until they confirmed the landing gear was down!

They landed safely and were greeted by fire and emergency trucks.

FromWalter's phone
time on the photo was 12:40

LIAT had to get another plane together for the flight.
We met Walter/Colleen at the boarding gate.
The only casualty was Walter's duty free booze he picked up in Barbados.

We boarded the new plae around 14:00:

Colleen and Walter

The plane took off at 14:34...

...and landed at 15:10

Click for BIGGER

Trip Odometer: 98.3 nautical miles
Moving Average: 312 knots
Moving Time: 35 min

We were now in the BVIs!

We had about a 20 min cab ride to the Conch Charters base, arriving around 16:00

We unpacked our luggage, and headed to our home for the next 10 nights, the Leopard 48 called Firebolt!

Once we got settled in, we headed to the local bar and had our first Painkillers

The ladies walked to the local grocery store and bought some more provisions, while the boys got ice/mix and enjoyed some cocktails!

Later that night we went back to the same restaurant for dinner.

Our provisioning order from Riteway got delivered on the dock after dark at around 8pm.

Here is a YouTube walk around of the Leopard 48:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=neYSicoSyV4

We really liked the front seating area with a walk through door.
We speed a couple of hours out there that night.