US Virgin Islands Yacht Charter

On 31 March 1917, the United States bought the Virgin Islands from Denmark for $25 million in gold coin, and Transfer Day has been observed there every year since. St Thomas, St John and St Croix passed from Danish to American hands almost overnight, which is why the colonial architecture in Charlotte Amalie still has a recognisably Northern European character and why the rest of life in the islands runs on US dollars, US power outlets and US time zones. For an American or international guest flying in from the United States, the USVI is the simplest first port in the Caribbean.

St John, the smallest of the three, holds the Virgin Islands National Park, which covers around 60 percent of the island, and Trunk Bay, regularly named among the best beaches in the world for its underwater snorkelling trail. St Thomas is the working centre with the Cyril E. King airport, the cruise port at Charlotte Amalie, and the marinas at Yacht Haven Grande and American Yacht Harbor. St Croix, about 40 miles south, is the larger and quieter island, with an elkhorn coral barrier reef and one of the few marked underwater snorkel trails in the US national park system off Buck Island, and the rum distilleries that produce most of Cruzan Rum.

The dry season runs December to April, with the trade winds blowing steady from the east. Most USVI charters pick up at one of the St Thomas marinas. The standard week is St Thomas and St John, and a Caribbean two-week charter stretches naturally into the British Virgin Islands across Pillsbury Sound, which is why most BVI and USVI charters do both.