Jost Van Dyke British Virgin Islands is one of everyone’s favorite islands to chill and lime!
No wonder with the number of beach bars serving those delicious beverages from one end of the island to another!
We have put together this information to help our guests who are bareboating their yachts. The crewed yachts will know precisely where to take you on Jost Van Dyke.
White Bay, Jost Van Dyke
Over the years, this beach has become very popular with day-trippers from St Thomas in the US Virgin Islands as well as the overnight yacht visitors.
With not a ton of room to anchor or moor, and a lee shore; it is easy to get yourself in trouble here.
White Bay Beach is stunning, with no shortage of beach bars. Soggy Dollar Bar, Ivan’s Stress-Free Bar, Gertrude’s, Hendo’s Hideout, and One Love Bar and Grill just off the top of my head.
At least after the day trips are over, it is relatively quiet overnight. Get there early in the day if you want to be comfortable anchoring in the bay. Realize that you may not be able to get out until all the day boats leave for the day.
Yachts pack themselves in tight here. Rules of anchoring and mooring be damned!
Jost Van Dyke British Virgin Islands
Pronounced Jost Van Dyke, this island is another one of those very sleepy islands in the British Virgin Islands. Jost Van Dyke has one of the most spectacular beaches called White Bay in the Caribbean and also home to the famous Foxy’s Beach Bar in Great Harbour.
Jost Van Dyke was a quiet place compared to its height in the mid-1800s when its population was about 1200 souls. There are many bars and restaurants in the bays with White Bay and Great Harbour being visited regularly by Kenny Chesney.
Great Harbor
Great Harbour is the largest harbor on Jost Van Dyke and is also the capital. It is also a port of entry with customs and immigration located in the middle of the beach.
To the western end of the beach is the ferry dock, there are regularly scheduled ferries to West End Tortola.
Regular being a loose term because not so many years ago before the newer ferries (also a loose term) were commissioned. The old girls were named “When” and “Sometime,” a good reflection of the laid back lifestyle on Jost Van Dyke.
Over on the eastern end of the beach is another small jetty that leads to Foxy’s. Foxy Callwood is a long known entertainer who would sit at his bar and sing to his guests, he was very topical and would ask where you came from then he would sing about your local politics or football.
It didn’t seem to matter what random little town in whatever part of the world; he knew the local gossip!
Tessa and Foxy have collected a huge worldwide following. New Year’s Eve at Foxy’s is legendary and voted to be in the top 10 places on earth to have spent new years for the turn of the century 2000. His restaurant serves mostly local Caribbean fare with regular band music and much dancing into the night.
Great Harbor Dining
Great harbor has many small restaurants and bars lining its shores. The main street is just a sand track. There are no provisions here, but ice is available, follow the signs from the customs jetty.
There are some overnight moorings in the harbor, the water depth just off the beach is very shallow, so be aware.
Anchoring is either in shallow on the sand in 10 to 15 feet or out deep in 70 feet.
In close to the shore, there always seems to be many boats anchored too close together, out deep the holding is crappy, in 70 feet I have on many occasions had trouble with 300 feet of chain holding.
The bottom here is oozing mud, so the anchor and first 50 feet of the chain can be deep in the dirt, but even a moderate blow can have you still dragging.
We have, on several occasions, re-anchored boats that have no one on board and have dragged to the shore. Not the best place to sit in a blow. This was back in our yacht crew days, though.
Little Jost Van Dyke British Virgin Islands
Little Jost Van Dyke. This is an exciting area of Jost Van Dyke. Little Jost Van Dyke sits on the northeastern tip of Jost separated by a small shallow channel.
This channel is shallow enough to walk over, and there are remains of a concrete landing craft dock on little Jost. You can pull your dingy up on the channel side of the pier and wander around. I am not sure if there is still any pier there since Irma.
Following the channel edge around there is the remains of an old brothel, I have on occasion seen turtle tracks on the beach here where turtles have come ashore and laid eggs.
On the Jost side of the channel, there is a bar and restaurant; there is also a small docking area. There are quite a few mooring balls in this area currently.
The area between Jost and Little Jost Van Dyke is always an excellent location to snorkel and spot turtles at!
Continuing along Jost Van Dyke British Virgin Islands
If you follow the channel toward the back end of the island you will come across the trail to the Bubbly Pool. The bubbly pool is a large pool of water that has waves come crashing into it when the north swell is large.
Be cautious around the Bubbly Pool, you do want to find yourself on the outside of Jost Van Dyke!
Please be very cautious on days when the pools are working hard. The Bubbly pool did sustain some damage in recent hurricanes and it is not as “bubbly” anymore.
Sandy spit is on the East End of Little Jost Van Dyke is another perfect picture place.
Corona and Playboy Swimsuit Edition has long used this island for commercials. If the seas are up, there can be much wave action on the beach that can make landing a dingy tricky. Unfortunately, Hurricane Irma in 2017 managed to take away the Palm trees, but everyone keeps on replanting and hoping!
Sandy Cay is a bit further south and is also a pretty spot, there are a few National park moorings at Sandy Cay.
There are some overnight moorings in front of the channel, between Jost, and Little Jost Van Dyke, you can anchor near the mooring balls but the holding is terrible.
A better place to anchor overnight is southwest of the cut between Little Jost Van Dyke and Green Cay, this area is usually mostly deserted overnight.
There can be good tarpon fishing here at night!
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