If Seaborne Aviation was looking for publicity, it got a little more than it possibly could have bargained for Monday when famed CBS News anchorman Walter Cronkite showed up at the West End ramp in Tortola for the company's inaugural flight.
Cronkite, an avid sailor, currently has his boat in British Virgin Islands waters. He was curious about the seaplane and was invited on board, an invitation he snapped right up for a flight which, according to Chief Pilot Marcus Sessums, he thoroughly enjoyed.
No stranger to all kinds of aircraft, Cronkite was enthusiastic about the flight aboard the DeHavilland Twin Otter, Sessums said.
The revered newsman is enjoying a BVI vacation with his wife and friends aboard his yacht "Wjente.”
Clement "Cain" Magras, acting Tourism commissioner, was also aboard the flight.
"It was a real thrill to meet the man and it was certainly unexpected," Magras said of Cronkite.
Magras said Cronkite expressed concern about the rules regulating boat traffic between the U.S.V.I. and the B.V.I.
Magras said Cronkite told him the current rules hindered flexibility in his sailing schedule.
The acting commissioner says he is exploring a plan that would allow pleasure vessels to clear Customs and Immigration one time instead of the two-fold, time-consuming procedure now in place.
The Marine Committee of the St. Thomas-St. John Chamber of Commerce, in a position paper presented in the spring of 1997 to former Gov. Roy L. Schneider, asked the governor to work with the delegate to Congress to establish a “free sail zone” within the waters of the British and U.S.
Virgin Islands.
Magras was excited about the new seaplane service, which will save untold hours for many local business people. The flights take 15 minutes as opposed to a 45-minute ferry ride and the wait for the afternoon return trip.
It will also be possible now for the Crucian business person to make the trip easily in one day. This will be a boon for the economies of both islands, Magras noted.
Seaborne plans to initiate Tortola service Monday, Feb. 8. It will offer flights three days a week — Monday, Wednesday and Friday, at 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. There will be through service from St. Croix on all flights.
The fare will be $80 round-trip from St. Thomas and $130 from St. Croix. All
service is to the West End ramp in Tortola.