Yacht Charter Jost Van Dyke

Yacht Charter in Jost Van Dyke

Jost Van Dyke is one of the smallest inhabited islands in the British Virgin Islands — covering just 9 square kilometres and home to fewer than 300 permanent residents — but its reputation in Caribbean sailing circles is entirely disproportionate to its size. This is the island that gave the world the Painkiller cocktail (rum, cream of coconut, pineapple juice, and orange juice, topped with grated nutmeg) and the Soggy Dollar Bar, where the drink was invented and is still served in extraordinary quantities each summer. Jost Van Dyke is also home to White Bay, one of the most beautiful beaches in the Caribbean, and Great Harbour, a picturesque anchorage that is the social hub of BVI sailing culture.

White Bay and the Soggy Dollar Bar

White Bay is a perfect crescent of white sand on the southern coast of Jost Van Dyke, sheltered from the open sea by a shallow reef that prevents direct dinghy access from the anchorage — leading to the tradition of anchoring offshore and swimming to the beach with your cash held above your head, hence the name Soggy Dollar Bar. The bar, which sits at the western end of the beach under a canopy of sea grape trees, serves Painkillers and other tropical drinks with infectious Caribbean hospitality. During the peak winter season, White Bay fills with charter yachts at anchor, and the beach becomes one of the most social spots in the Caribbean, with music, laughter, and the scent of sunscreen and rum defining the atmosphere from mid-morning until the sun sets behind the hills.

Great Harbour

Great Harbour, on the southern coast of Jost Van Dyke, is the island's main anchorage and the location of its customs and immigration office — making it the official port of entry for visiting yachts. The harbour is large and well-sheltered, and the waterfront village has a handful of bars and restaurants whose proprietors are fixtures of BVI sailing culture. Ivan's Stress Free Bar, Corsair's Beach Bar, and Ali Baba's are among the establishments that have hosted generations of charter sailors and built reputations that extend far beyond the Caribbean. The atmosphere in Great Harbour on a summer evening — boats rafted together, music coming from several directions simultaneously, stars blazing overhead — perfectly captures what Caribbean charter sailing is all about.

Sandy Cay and Sandy Spit

Just offshore from Jost Van Dyke lie two of the most beautiful small islands in the BVI: Sandy Cay, a tiny uninhabited island of extraordinary natural beauty with a perfectly circular beach and a small interior forest of gumbo limbo trees, and Sandy Spit, an even smaller sand bar that extends for about 100 metres above high tide with nothing on it but a few palm trees and the most impossibly perfect Caribbean beach backdrop imaginable. Anchoring off Sandy Spit and swimming ashore with a cold drink is the quintessential BVI sailing experience.