If We Had Only Known (Soper’s Hole, West End Tortola BVI 7.29.09)

It could have happened to anyone, right? I mean, this being our first time to sail to the USVI, and we are U.S. citizens, for crying out loud. We even bothered to clear Customs when we went to St. John. Why in the world would we be in BIG trouble coming back to our beloved BVI? Even though I did my research beforehand, no one is perfect. I failed to understand and thus tell our Captain that protocol is to clear the BVI before leaving. How that tiny detail could land us in so much trouble is beyond me, but, we knew there must be something up when several officers started pacing in an out of the Customs and Immigration building in Soper’s Hole (when Lloyd and GB happened to be inside). We would have been liable for a $5000 fine and perhaps some jail time had they not believed GB and Lloyd when they delivered their “deer in the headlights” apology. “Had we only known, we wouldn’t have done this, sir.” I won’t tell you how thankful we were to have escaped with paying a mere $70 departure tax. And, I’m very thankful to have my husband out of handcuffs.