My Virgin Islands Boat Show flight cancelled Tuesday, but the magic of life unfolds if you let it happen…

Yesterday, I am flying from Miami to get St. Thomas for the Virgin Island Charter League Boat Show. I am scheduled to do an interview with the Boat Show chairperson, Shelly Tucker at 10AM on Wednesday. Not only is the plane delayed because of an engine that is leaking oil, but they are not able to repair it, so there will be an additional 2 ½ hour delay in connecting up with a plane flying in from Chicago that will eventually take me to Charlotte Amalie – arriving at mid-night on Tuesday instead of 9PM on Tuesday. At 8PM on Tuesday the gate attendant lets us know that the airport at Charlotte Amalie is having maintenance done so there will be no planes landing after 9PM, which means I will be spending the night in Miami.

Given all of the life experiences in which I have participated, there is only a very small group of passenger out of 200 that are OK with these inconvenient circumstances. We are all told to go stand in a line at customer service at American Airlines so the passengers can get their hotel voucher, a dinner voucher, and a breakfast voucher. The mad dash of all of the passengers to customer service was actually comical. We are told the plane will be now leaving for St. Thomas at 6:30AM in the morning, which means I will be up at 4:30AM in order to get back to the Miami airport by 5:30AM.

So, I am standing near the back of a very long line of irritated passengers, and I begin a conversation with two of the people standing next to me – Betsy and Marques. The reason why the flight was cancelled was so I could meet these two amazing people. Betsy is the one of fame and fortune of Betsy’s Bar in St. Thomas. Marques is the senior lead guide for Virgin Islands Ecotours on the East end of the island. ( You can also call them for more information – (340) 779-2155.)

I am already in heaven having the opportunity to be the Caribbean Islands lifestyle detective with two people I have wanted to meet for months, and they are standing right beside me in line to get a hotel room!

What unfolded in the next four hours was sharing dinner with two wonderful people who have amazing perspectives as to what is happening in the U.S. Virgin Islands. Betsy is in a challenging moment with her world famous bar. The tourist trade has caused the locals to not be doing as well as they have in past years. That means she does not have the clients frequenting her establishment at a rate that will sustain her business. She is extremely frustrated that the U.S. Virgin Islands economy is close to 100% based on tourism. That means if the Virgin Islands can’t design a sustainable method of getting people to visit the island it means her business may need to close. Marques just happened to be at the airport waiting for the same flight and he runs into Betsy who is one of his very dear friends. So, I am in the midst of a “family reunion”.

Marques’ frustration is similar to Betsy’s regarding how to create a sustainable economy based on tourism, but the added frustration that Marques has relates to how the island is allowing such mass development at Botany Bay, and now the proposed project at Dolphin Cove without a master plan for the island as to how the environment will be protected. I am very aware of the challenges the Dolphin Cove investment group had regarding the build-out of their development because of the endangered tree boa being on the property. That one issue delayed them for over a year as they mitigated the sensitive environmental issues.

Marques related to me an experience he had several weeks ago of being at the American Yacht Harbor parking lot in Red Hook and seeing two ladies poking at something under their car. He walked over and asked if he could help them. They told him a snake was under their car and they were trying to scare it off. Marques looked under the car, and to his amazement, there was a tree boa. He believes it was disoriented and lost from the nearby open space near Dolphin Cove. Marques picked it up and took care of it for the remainder of the day until he could arrange for the snake to be taken by him in his kayak to a mangrove forest on a different island where no one would ever bother it again. It was a sad moment for him because it was another reminder that the ecosystem of the Virgin Islands is directly impacted by what is actually needed for the economy to be sustainable – tourists and all the things they require in order to visit the islands, including places to live.

It was a memorable night with Betsy and Marques.

So, next time your plane is delayed or your flight is cancelled, look around. You are about to meet some amazing people. If you know of a great location on St. Thomas for Betsy’s Bar let me know. She is looking to make some changes. And, if you want to get in touch with Marques and find out about Virgin Islands Ecotours, email me.

Both of these people are important parts of the Caribbean community and the life that is being lived out here everyday. I will make it to the Boat Show, and I will be keeping you posted as to what I discover throughout each of the four days it is going on at Yacht Haven Grande. I just had a little detour that turned out to be part of the reason why I was in Miami. I just did not know the reasons when I woke up today. Until next time….