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Mister B Barge Seized, Car Ferry Traffic Snarls
BY LYNDA LOHR — JANUARY 25, 2016
Barge traffic between St. John and St. Thomas has suffered intermittent snarls since Jan. 22, when according to court records the Mister B barge was seized at Enighed Pond commercial port because owner Boyson Inc. failed to make loan payments.
http://stthomassource.com/content/news/local-news/2016/01/25/mister-b-barge-seized-traffic-snarls
Problem solved for now. Love City Ferries has repositioned their barge from SubBase to ply the Red Hook/Cruz Bay passage so there will now be three barges running to compensate for the loss of the Mister B.
My sister and brother in law coming over in barge tomorrow from STJ so will advise their experience.
They decided to take regular ferry and a taxi as it was a cluster...k at the barge this morning.
Came over from STJ on 7AM barge.
No problem.
Will see how return trip will be.
Problem is not solved. Was in St. John today and had a great time. Arrived at ferry at 4:30 and did not leave until 6:30. Apparently someone in LoveCity management decided to shut down the third ferry at four o'clock. There were at least four cement mixers waiting and they put them on. The 5:00 went out at 5:30 with all trucks. What a clusterf&$@. This should not be allowed to happen. The traffic between STT and STJ is to important.
With all due respect, one incident doesn't a running disaster make. I just happened to speak to three people yesterday who've made the trip over and back in the last week (different days) who reported very little difficulty. One experienced a 1 hour wait and the other two had no issues at all in either direction. Even when the Mister B was running there were sometimes foul-ups when a ferry had to be taken out of commission temporarily for maintenance or repairs and everything muddled through regardless. Sorry you experienced the problem but, well, things happen!
This apparently is not a one-time or few-times issue.
Now I hear that they are down to one car barge (as of May 6) - seriously? Only in the USVI this would seem normal operations.
There are now two barges running. One is taking all the commercial vehicles, and passenger vehicles on an "as space available" basis; the other is running continuously back and forth for passenger vehicles only.
There were snarls and delays even when there were 4 boats running.
Just expect the unexpected. Delays happen.
Exactly. Yesterday there were three running. No visitor has reported on any travel forum being stuck and none has reported missing a return flight.
Just because it wasn't reported on any particular forum that you peruse, doesn't mean it didn't happen. Just saying, it does happen so best for people to be aware that it can.
