Can we bring a cooler with meats and veggies on the BVI ferry?

We did the same thing. I live in St. Croix and bought all our lunch meats and had cold veggies. We rented a boat in Tortola and some of the stuff I brought back through customs in St. Thomas. They looked at the meats and said I was lucky I bought the stuff in US because they would have had to throw it away. Don't know about the wine or Cruzan.
I have been through customs so much with bags of goodies to eat since we took lots of trips to BVI's while looking for boats and stayed overnight. I never remember them even noticing what we were carrying.

We have chartered from VIP/Compass Point Marina/St. Thomas many, many times over the last 20 years - including as recently as April 2010. We always stop at Pueblo (in the old days) or Cost-U-Less (more recently) for provisions. We've cleared BVI customs in Jost as well as Tortola. We've never had any problem clearing customs in BVI with regards to our provisions we purchased in the US/St. Thomas and are bringing into the BVI.

Now...........not sure about coming back into the US from the BVI. We do a pretty good job of planning our provisions and the last night we have a "drink the boat dry" party. So, generally, on the return, we get off the boat "hollywood style" - one bag in hand.

I agree with FL Barrier Islander. When bareboating, I never had a problem bringing any kind of food, meat or booze from USVI to BVI, and I declared everything.

Not so easy getting it back from BVI to USVI. Once, they told me to take the perishables to a burn site to have it destroyed. Another time they waved me in without issue.

We have brought meats and veggies into the BVI via ferry for years, no problem. I assume that is as per the rule; I dunno, we have come to know lots of the folks at the customs area.

Coming back to USVI with meats, problem: we once had several frozen uncooked steaks seized. At the last minute we had decided to fly to Beef Island (BVI) for a few days in Tortola before going on to St. John by ferry, and forgot all about the problem of fresh food. Aggravating! Somebody ate well that night. We have dealt with the problem by lightly cooking all foods before freezing and transporting them.

Best,

Islandlola