Hi,
My
family and I
cruise twice a year and at least one trip each year is out of the USVI. If you are flying
Delta a YETI 65 is exactly at the limit of length+width+height to not be labeled oversized and cost more. We bring two Yeti 65s as our checked bags. Makes it easy as they are balanced while two people carry them to the taxi. One of them invariably is full of food. This also greatly increases the cold
storage on a 53'
monohull when they are full of ice once onboard.
Like many have posted almost everything is available in the USVI. What we put in the cooler are the items we are sometimes unable to source and some that are hard to find or out of season down there. A couple of notes from our experiences with TSA and travel in general:
- Herbs, we pack at least a dozen we like to cook with. We pack that in the carry on because if the TSA opens the yeti they will likely test for bomb residue every powder like item in there and if it is checked it could miss the flight. (alot an extra 15 minutes and some stares at security). Sometimes something simple like parsley is MIA at the markets down there, easy enough to bring some along. We have yet to find Kosher
salt for
cooking on our dozen trips down there, easy enough to bring a zip lock of it with us.
- High quality ginger
beer like fever tree and stuff like agave is something you should pack if you want it. Specialty items like this and other organic stuff is hard to source in the islands, plenty of ginger
beer is available for sure but all of it is made like cocacola.
- On that note there is literally no gluten free options so if any of your crew is used to that take it with you. We take 2 boxes of the bisquick gluten free pancake mix which is surprisingly good. For that matter any of the boxed stuff you like at home like Panko mix for frying etc is stuff we take with us.
- Fruits. Here is a crucial point. In our understanding one is not allowed to transport fruit TO the mainland US from the USVI but a ban does not exist going the other way. There are no checkpoints going into the USVI. However, the
airport personnel in the USVI or the US for that matter are not always completely straight on what is the law and make it up as they go along... with little room for a mere citizen to argue. We have never had an issue bringing hard to find fruit into the USVI. We only bring what we may not find which is usually Kiwi and Avocados. Everything else is source-able, those are also findable sometimes.
Meat, we have not taken meat with us before. This is because we acatch 2 or three
fish a day that are editable (Tuna/Dorado/the very center of the Bonita filet). You have to go out of the
passage onto the back side of of Jost or Norman in the early morning to catch them but they are out there.
We eat Steak at Leverick Bay or
Anegada and generally stick to
fish on board. As others have stated Bacon and NY Strip steak may be 30% more expensive than the mainland but it is available and of ok quality, no reason to bring them. Also if you have a try at
cooking 4, 2lb porter houses on a 4 year old
salt encrusted Magma with rotted out gas burners let me know how that goes for you
I know you didn't ask but we also put our own filet knife, pairing knife and kitchen knife in the one of the coolers. The knives on board the charter
boat can be very unrewarding tools to use for 10 days. Once you have committed to a Yeti and fill it to the
Delta lbs limit there is actually room for a lot of stuff.
Hope you find this helpful.