St. John USVI: Where to liveaboard?

[mayday51]

Wow! How fast things can change! Here I just introduced myself and my 2-to-3-year plan to ultimately move aboard with my family, and now it looks like the plan might change. I may have a great job opportunity in St. John...which means we might be able to move down there within the next six months or so. That is SOON. Can I get any help from the CF folks on where we can liveaboard in St. John? Or will it have to be St. Thomas and I'll commute to work on St. John via dinghy or water taxi?
Any ideas on where we could live while we are boat shopping? Would you recommend shopping in Tortola for a boat? They look like a they have a much larger inventory.
I would love some advice from sailors who are down in the USVI already! The next step is for us to visit there in the next 2 months or so and get a feel for things. Hopefully we'll meet a lot of people and check out some potential anchorages. We'd like to avoid marinas for the most part I think. Thanks for any and all advice.

[silversailor]

Tortola is the place that has the majority of the charter companies, all of which spit out hundreds of boats every year. St Thomas has a few but Tortola is the place to start. AS far as living aboard your choice will probably be effected by where you work on the island. Certainly consider Coral Bay. Stay away from Cruz Bay which is just too crowded and very busy.

[Perstarebob]

Many of the best anchorages are with in the Nat. Park and allow no liveaboards . As said above Coral Bay is a possibility depending where your work is ! If your work is on the west end around Cruz Bay then anchorages on the east end of St. Thomas are also possible using the ferries from Red Hook . Arrange financing before leaving the States , you may find it is impossible to get a bank interested in financing a boat bought in another country , for liveaboard at anchor >