Feeding six on a bouncing deck.

On St. John, "boat day" is a real job description. Captains out of Cruz Bay, Coral Bay, and Red Hook are running day charters to the BVI, Jost Van Dyke, Norman Island, and the wreck of the RMS Rhone almost every day in season. Six guests, one head, no galley, and a 6-hour window where lunch has to happen at two knots off a dinghy line.

We provision two or three of these a day between November and April. Here's the order we build.

A boat day fails on the sandwich long before it fails on the weather. Wet bread at Willy T is what people remember.

The build, by headcount

For a party of six on a full day (breakfast pastries, mid-morning snack, real lunch), we run this template. Scale it up by 20% for eight, 40% for ten.

• 6 sandwiches, individually wrapped and labeled — one per guest, plus one 'group' extra.
• 3 sides in pint containers: pasta salad, slaw, one seasonal.
• 2 bags of chips, opened at the boat.
• 1 fruit tray, pre-cut, no rinds.
• 6 bottled waters plus a gallon jug of ice water for refills.
• A dozen cookies. Always. The captain gets two.

The cooler map

We pack in two coolers, not one. Small cooler is drinks — opened all day, ice gone by 2 p.m. Big cooler is food — opened once at lunch. This is the single biggest upgrade you can make on a charter, and captains will thank you for it.

Sandwich rotation that holds

• The Norman on ciabatta — the anchor. Cold, sturdy, four hours in a cooler.
• The Sammy Hammy pressed — flat, forgiving, no drip.
• The Godfather cold — stays firm, cuts clean for two-bite servings.
• A vegetarian build-your-own with pesto and roasted peppers — someone always needs it.
• Skip breakfast sandwiches. Skip anything with a fried egg or hot sauce on the bread.

Sides that don't spill

Pasta salad in a pint holds. Slaw holds. Anything with a mayo dressing gets iced hard. Skip the potato salad on a rough day; the vinaigrette-based bean salad is the pro pick for anything past Norman Island.

Kid plates

Half sandwich (turkey, no mayo, on soft bread), a bag of chips, fruit, a chocolate chip cookie. Two juice boxes and one water. That's the plate. Do it for every kid under twelve and you buy the parents a real lunch.

How to order for a charter

Give us 24 hours' notice for orders over six people. For anything over ten guests or a repeat weekly charter, our catering side handles it directly — dedicated invoice, dock delivery in Cruz Bay, and coolers loaned out for the day. For six or fewer, order online the night before and grab it on your way to the boat.

Frequently asked at the dock