Jail bait

It seems that you need to know exactly where you are when fishing in the Caribbean -- otherwise you may end up in the slammer next to some low-life drug smuggler.

According to The Chicago Tribune a retired police officer, the captain of an U.S.V.I. charter boat, ended up in British Virgin Island territory by mistake.

The sloppy skipper was charged with illegal entry into the British territory and fishing without a license and was slapped with a $45,ooo fine and one-year prison sentence.

"He is the laughing stock of the prison," his wife Deborah Barton said Tuesday. "The inmates who are in there for every other crime just crack up at him because he is doing a year for fishing."

Antigua bound

Good news for island hoppers!
American Eagle will launch a new route between Tortola and Antigua starting on June 1.
The flights will take off Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday using a 64-seat Super ATR aircraft.
This is particularly good news for travelers from London who will be able to connect to the British Virgin Islands from Antigua.

Mariah in the BVI?

OK - so I'm well aware of my spotty blogging record as of late. Business has taken me to far away to not-so-glamourous locales and I just haven't been able to park my butt at a computer after work.
But now I'm back and just in the nick of time it seems.
According to Billboard, Mariah Carey is in the BVI laying down tracks for her new album due in the coming months.
Has anyone spotted the musical diva? Drop me a comment if you have.

Affordable yachting

If you love luxury yachts but hate the high price tag they carry then fractional ownership may be for you.

Tortola-based The Moorings offers an affordable (relatively speaking) deal which can get you on board your own private luxury yacht for less than half a mil.

For $430,000 you can buy a one-tenth ownership of the yacht pictured here to the left. It entitles you to four weeks on board including a captain and chef.

After five years the yacht is sold and proceeds are divided.

How great is that?

Smuggler's Cove indeed

When I think of Norman Island only one thing comes to mind: Willy T's. It's sad but true.

Yes, I've snorkeled in the Caves and Indians but all the evenings and afternoons I've spent at Willy T's are emblazoned in my mind.

So it was with quite a bit of interest that I read this article in Yahoo! news which says that 49 hungry and thirsty migrants hid out for days amid a tangle of trees and brush on Norman Island.

Apparently the human smuggling is not limited to one place. All the islands of the BVI "are increasingly attractive to Caribbean smugglers carrying illegal migrants to the nearby U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico," reads the article.

"The new route swings deep into the eastern Caribbean and runs northwest along the Leeward Island chain before heading to the British Virgin Islands. The migrants, mostly from Cuba, Haiti and the Dominican Republic, generally fly to the island of Dominica, then hook up with smugglers who take them on chartered sailboats to U.S. territory under cover of darkness."