Jost trip report....

[MIke R]

Well it's three hours until my flight leaves STT so I might as well do a trip report to make time go by......we were a little too conservative on our timing to get here ...better safe than sorry I guess...


Getting There........


After a fun filled decompression night in North End of Boston....Oystes at Union....Pizza at Regina.....Cannolis at Cafe Virtoria......we headed to the hotel with full belly and geared down ready for vacation....Delta for the second year in a row delivered an on time non stop flight to St Thomas ( last year was to SXM) .......my buddy who was letting me use his boat to get to Jost arranged for a friend to pick us up.....I asked him how will I know who she is and he assured me I would know....we laughed so hard.....we are NOT driver with name card people and he knows that, so he had some fun with it....image.jpgshe wisked us quickly to American Yacht Harbor where my buddy s boat was left for us to go to Jost ....he has a thriving charter boat business in St John and just like that I was hauling us out and over to Jost image.jpgimage.jpgimage.jpgthe Island was just as I remembered it.....not much changed at all......ol school Caribbean for sure...the real deal....


we checked into our beach side cottage and it was perfecto image.jpgimage.jpg


Our view

Our beach .....


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Our beach just a very short walk down a path

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[MIke R]

More later ..i need lunch

[amyb]

Love the hammock. Awaiting the next installment.

[cec1]

Looks like the start of a great time!

[MIke R]

BTW....Delta for whatever reason is marking all adults with children as PreCheck TSA on boarding passes ....in both directions...

dont know why but no one with kids was complaining!.....we flew through security ....no shoes off etc

[andynap]

Good stuff.

[MIke R]

WEATHER......90 degree almost cloudless days and 75 degree nights .....relentless breeze.....no rain.....perfect
a few days we got a Sahara SandStorn haze but not too bad......





BUGS .......nada.....more bats then I have ever seen in my life....due to bat houses put up every where......and mongooses were introduced to the island many years ago so no rat/mouse issue either.....but the combination of bats....a steady breeze and no rain ( the island looked parched) .....we never even put bug spray on ....




SMART COTTAGE BUILDERS

The cottage was real slick with solar panels running everything but refrigeration and back up generator which automatically went on during the numerous brown and black outs....all plugs surged protected.....water was cistern provided but a super on site filtration system made it safe to drink and it tasted great.....they even had a back up mini desalinazation plant on property for emergency .....


The SOGGY DOLLAR CYCLE.....

Pretty amazing bar.....super quiet in the morning.....I d walk down the beach...grab a coffee and Lay in a hammock......by 11 o'clock the parade of day trippers on boats began from St. John and Tortola.......by 2 o'clock it was at saturation level......by 530 the parade departed and by 6 it was a great mellow beach bar again .......

and these ducks are Soggys pets.....hilarious

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CAR ?....WHAT CAR?

very few cars in the island and just a handful of rental cars available.....the whole hub of the island is maybe a mile and a half in length.....two beaches with a jut of land separating them......the locals and live aboard boat people all use inflatables to get around......so our property manager founded a local to rent us his inflatable.....so we either walked everywhere or took the boat.....a few cabs will take you home or anywhere for five bucks in case you don't feel like walking

OUR CHARIOT.......

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and we used our chariot to explore these OUTSTANDING UNINHABITED spits and cays just offshore of Jost .....perfect!

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more coming ........boarding soon...

[Peter NJ]

Looks amazing!

[Bart -my real name-]

Looks amazing!

Agree!

Love the shot tilted, "our beach"

[MIke R]

White Bay is a gorgeous sugary white sand beach with crystal clear water......I haven't seen water visibilities like this (50 feet +) since Grand Cayman and South Caicos many years ago .....the beaches on the spits and cays we explored were something out of a movie .....beyond belief nice and the snorkeling around them was outstandingimage.jpgimage.jpg

The Food


good food with pockets of excellence ......no high end dining...just good fresh food done well and genuine Caribbean All bars and restaurants are on the beach ...either White Bay or Great Harbor ...there are virtually no businesses away from the beach ...the way they built them you can't even see them from a distance on the beach...they re all set back on the sand but in and amongst the sea grape trees and palm trees. That's a nice touch in preserving the look They also would have no chance of surviving a Cat 2 storm directly hitting them,.....these bars and restaurants would never hold up....all wood and no concrete at all..... everyone does conch fritters and Johnny Cakes, both of which we enjoyed immensely

Some highlight places:


Christine's Bakery - smelled wonderful in the morning as she baked her breads...cinnamon buns.....mango turnovers and banana breads

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One Love Beach Bar - truly amazing seafood from this fishing family run joint .....we had lobster quesadillas and Mahi tacos that were to die for good

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Gertrude's - the best Roti I have ever had.....a staple Caribbean meal which involves chicken or goat in this wonderful curry concoctionimage.jpg

Coco Loco - good pizza and very good fish tacos and salads

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FOXYS - good BBQ and pig roast .....great drinks .....and lo and behold,....this sign hanging in the bar ....this place like SoggyDollar is over run with day trippers from noon to 5 but then becomes a really chill joint with live music at nightimage.jpg

could not believe this sign was in the bar at Foxy s

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Beeline Bar - This place was SO COOL....its on Little Jost and it's the only thing on Little Jost ...only accessible by boat ....great drinks and BBQ

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Bobbi's Grocery - online ordering and delivered for free by ferry to Jost where for 20 bucks you can get the groceries delivered to your cottage and put away....we walked into a full refrigerator and full cupboards....sweeeeet.....we brought a lot of non perishables ourselves so we were good to go as far as some meals eating in wentBut wait......just when we thought no Cote de Provence or Pernod for this trip our driver in St Thomas told yes there was a huge liquor store by the marina we were going to and we could stop and see what they had .....and lo and behold they had both Whispering Angel and Pernod !.....score

The island

Just a super laid back non "chic" authentic Caribbean island.Zero glitz and glamor. The full time residents are roughly 180 people from essentially three families. The bulk of their business comes from day trippers and live aboard boat people staying in the harbors. There were less then fifty of us actually staying on the island itself. The demographic tourist is young professional Americans on boats they either own or charter for short term visits or middle aged live aboard boat people staying a longer time

And goats run wild and visited us every morning

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The beach is the epicenter......I went two days never even wearing flip flops....barefoot to everything because everything is literally in the sand....no bank....no grocery store other then a mini mart with staple items ...no school ( they go to Tortola) ..one Doctor, two policemen They seem happy with their lives and their business model and I saw very little in the way of development ....other then what looks like could be a newer and larger Soggy Dollar Bar next to the very small original bar. People were very friendly and welcoming everywhere

Tire swings and hammocks everywhereimage.jpgimage.jpgimage.jpgimage.jpg
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Going Home



My buddy was booked solid so no boat for us going home ....we had to go home like everyone else does using two ferries but it actually wasn't bad....first ferry left Jost for Tortola All the school kids going to school were on this ferry....Had a nice breakfast in Tortola ( last chance for Johnny Cakes) and then off to Cruz Bay St. John to clear immigration back to the USA.....From Cruz Bay we went back on our ferry having cleared customs where we took the very short ride over to Red Hook St Thomas where our wonderful driver who delivered us to our private boat 9 days ago was waiting for us and drove us to the airport ......nice

Will we go back?......Absolutely......we already booked 2017.....quite frankly Wendi and I loved it so much we were ready to put SBH in our rear view mirror and move on but asking Lena about it she says she loves both places for different reasons and really wants to alternate years between the two.....so that's what we re going to do......so next April will be SBH

[MIke R]

Random shots

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Every morning these were left on our deck

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[MIke R]

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[KevinS]

Looks great!

[JEK]

Looks like a great family trip!

[andynap]

It looks nice it's entirely too crowded for me.

[Peter NJ]

Mike is Mic still at Soggy?

[Peter NJ]

Did you go to the bubbly pool?

[MIke R]

Peter ...no clue about Mic....tried to go to Bubbly pool one day when we boated over to Taboo for lunch but it was low tide and the bubbly pool isn't very bubbly at low tide so we blew it off

[Peter NJ]

Mic was a bartender at Soggy....Looks like you had a great experience love all the pics

[Karen]

Nice report and pics! Makes me want to go! Looking for a change.....maybe? We gave up SXM but have been to SBH for 8 straight years. Love it and all, but this might be an option.

[MIke R]

Oh I can't leave out Ivan's Stress Free beach bar ....Ivan is a real character and makes a drink called a bushwhacker which tastes great but oh my God will this drink kick your ass

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[bto]

Nice report, Mike…omg, little Lena is little no more…all grown up! Darling.

[JoshA]

Nice trip report, Mike! The BVI have been on our regular Caribbean rotation for decades and your Jost report shows why. The other BV islands are different but each has their special charm.

[ccg]

Great pictures!! White Bay is one of the prettiest places I have ever been too and it was the family favorite stop during our sail in 2012.

C

[Theresa]

So glad you had an awesome time.....knew you would. All of the Sir Francis Drake Channel is about the most picturesque thing I've ever seen.

Ava misses her beloved Lena this year (and Lena's Mommy), but loved seeing your photos.

Johnny cakes? Roti? Yes please!! If an every-other-year trip is your new normal, we may have to join you.....

TC

[MIke R]

By all means join us.....we d love it


Lena s Jost video should be ready to post in here tonight

I was in school teaching this morning .....Lena s first day back....the poor thing looked like she was really struggling being in class instead of on a beach....lol

[Theresa]

the poor thing looked like she was really struggling being in class instead of on a beach....lol

All of us in this Forum know that feeling too well!

Looking forward to Lena's video, especially Ava!

[MIke R]

Looking forward to Lena's video, especially Ava!

She had too much homework to finish it tonight but she promised by tomorrow it will be done

[davesmom]

Wow, what a perfectly wonderful vacation! Reminds me of the old days in the 70s/early 80s at STT and St. John. Loved it then. Beautiful family, beautiful pictures! We love that area of the world and certainly took the ferries you mentioned back in the day. The food is exactly the type we love..I once had curried conch 5 out of 7 nights in a row, each a bit different and I can still remember it after 30 plus years. Primo trip. Thank you for the great and generous report!

[cec1]

Very reminiscent of early SBH.