St. Thomas - not just the diving, but moving there!

[grouchyturtle]

STT is WAY too crowded for him (it's like Miami but with horrific roads) … it's much less crowded

That settles it for me. I think it will have to be STJ or STX.

Many residents are artists and/or musicians (Tom is both).

Me too! Maybe in addition to giving the charter thing I try, I should brush up on the old guitar chops and try selling my photography down there?

The dive business is pretty much covered. ... However, you may be able to secure a job driving a dive shop's boat. Or the ferry from the Christiansted boardwalk to Hotel on the Cay. We just beach dive or kayak dive as the reefs and wall are so close to shore.

No big deal. Would love to do dive charters, but I’m open to doing anything someone will hand someone with a boat money to do. Just living on the hook, and dinghying to work every day, to run a boat for someone else wouldn’t be so bad either. Or dinghy dive!

Life is great for us, but it isn't for everyone. Come on down for a visit, you're always welcome.

I just may take you up on that!

Plenty of people like to get on a private boat and go around St John, snorkel, eat lunch, drink rum and sometimes get naked

That sometimes happens around here to, but I'm not getting paid for it!

There are some places to tie up at Benner Bay, some at Sapphire Marina (more expensive, but more tourist at the resort).

What about places to live on the hook? Or live on a mooring? I've heard some people just run passengers out to the boat in their dink. That's hard to do in FL, thanks to BS local regulations.

 

[DebbyDiver]

Chris, if you're any good there could be guitar gigs to be had in season, or you could try to get in with one of the existing bands.

If you can get a Cruise Ship Day Permit (I don't know what they are actually called), you could sell your photography, but we don't get many cruise ship days here. We also have some festivals throughout the year and you could get a permit and sell them there, too.

I don't know anything about living on the hook here (and Tom's off driving his tugboat, so I can't ask him), but it seems to be done around here. So far as the charter boats, some have slips in marinas. Others are moored off Christiansted and the owners keep dinks on the boardwalk. Captain rows or motors the dink out to the moored charter boat and brings it up to the dock.

There are boat driving jobs to be had here, for sure, but you'll need more than a six pack license for most of them.

I just had an idea, if you could specialize in photography sailing trips where you guarantee them good, unimpeded views (unlike trying to get a good sunset shot on a cattleboat) you might find a niche! I.E. taking photographers to cool places where the other boats don't go, stuff like that. Your thoughts?

 

[DebbyDiver]

Just thinking, Chris, if you live on the boat does it really matter if STT is really crowded? You know we'd love to have you here, was just sayin'.

Of course there is also WAY less privacy for you if you live aboard there. Here, it's so quiet that it's not unusual to not see another live person in an anchorage or marina, well at least now while it's not season.

You'll just have to look into legalities and costs of living aboard on either island. I don't think it's illegal to live on the hook here, but I really don't know.

 

[DebbyDiver]

Just got off the phone with Tom, I told him of your thoughts. He said that to run to Buck Island, which is a Nat. Park, as a charter, you need a permit and they are hard to get. A friend of his who has been chartering her sailboat for a long time has been unable to secure one. He said maybe you could hustle up some business off Fredericksted on cruise ship days but we don't have that many of them.

He said STT will have a lot more opportunity but also LOTS more competition.

He thinks it is legal to live on the hook here; he's unsure if you need to buy or rent a mooring. Marina docks are very expensive.

Sorry to be so negative but just sharing some information. I hope you can figure out something that will work!

 

[drrich2]

I recently did some wistful checking into the idea of moving to St. Thomas someday in the distant future, & found a thread on another forum discussing it (if memory serves with some lively debate). While some issues might not bother you if you live on a boat, and the thread is a couple of years old, it's well worth thinking about. I also ran across an online site talking out people using cisterns on St. Thomas. THAT was rather...interesting.

Richard.

 

[DebbyDiver]

Richard, we're on a cistern here on STX...would you mind sharing the link to the site about STT cisterns? Thanks in advance.

 

[drrich2]

Sure; here's the link. It's a page on a self-proclaimed 'St. Thomas Blog,' so other info. there should also be useful.

Richard.

 

[DebbyDiver]

Thanks, was just curious what they wrote about cisterns. We had so much rain this summer that ours is still pretty full; we were counting on it being low by now so we could clean it out. We have a very large "water buffalo" next to the house and when it's time, we'll have the water truck deliver a tankful. Meanwhile we're taking lots of luxurious baths, lol.

We do not drink or cook with our cistern water or give it to the pets. We get those big bottles of water and use that.

 

[grouchyturtle]

Just thinking, Chris, if you live on the boat does it really matter if STT is really crowded? ... Here, it's so quiet that it's not unusual to not see another live person in an anchorage or marina, well at least now while it's not season.

Well, it's not like I'm not going to go to shore, though. Less boats to drag into me when a storm comes?

He said that to run to Buck Island, which is a Nat. Park, as a charter, you need a permit and they are hard to get. ... He said STT will have a lot more opportunity but also LOTS more competition.

Maybe just a loop around the island then drop the hook somewhere else. STX isn't that small, there has to be another nice spot to bring people for the day.

That's a tough call. Less competition may be the way to go, though. Better not to be the new guy stepping on someone's toes.

 

[DebbyDiver]

Good points, Chris. A friend took me to STT on his speedboat this summer and I was astounded at how crowded the harbor was there. Boats everywhere! And, while this is just a guess, I'm thinking that there are a lot more boat transients on STT than STX. It's right near STJ and the BVIs and even PR which gives you lots of options and lots of neighbors.

Yes, STX has other places to sail to for the day. I just measured the circumference of our island and it is roughly 57 miles. A bit long for looping the island then dropping the hook. Instead you might sail to a secluded beach that people can't drive to and serve lunch and let them snorkel. You can set yourself apart by offering what you call a premium trip, an uncrowded boat and a real nice lunch and nice, clean snorkeling gear. Take pics of them sailing and snorkeling and offer them free online or via e-mail. Perhaps offering such a nice service would let you charge more than the competition for a day sail.

Or perhaps get into VRBO or similar and offer the Turtle as alternative lodging. Right now, the island is dead and vacant, but I hear that in season rooms are difficult to obtain.

One of the local kayak tour companies offers a multi day trip with camping; you can offer something similar but with more upscale accomodations.

We haven't talked about STJ too much, but it's pretty much all National Park which means permits, etc. That pretty much leaves it out of the equation.

Check out this website, you'll see what types of other adventures, land and sea, are offered here already. I'm positive you can find your niche! St. Croix, US Virgin Islands: St. Croix Information, St. Croix Tourism, Hotels on St. Croix, St. Croix Vacation Information, Caribbean Vacation

Have you explored STX using Google Earth? It's really interesting. BTW that harbor on the south shore with the big ships? You can't go anywhere near that, it's the oil refinery port.