We actually hadn’t intended to go to Jost Van Dyke at all, most of the crew had already been there at the Bubbly Pool on a forfeited race boat during race week at Nanny Cay, but we met a gentleman in the boat yard who changed our minds. Kevin Gray, the Project Director for The Endeavor II Island Sloop, Jost Van Dyke’s Preservation Society’s Maritime Heritage boat building project, saw our masts from the road as he was driving by and excitedly pulled into the yard for a chat.

He convinced us to make a side trip to Great Harbour, Jost Van Dyke, BVI to talk to his boat-building students while they were all there working during spring break. We both thought it would be great to have his kids talk to my kids about their mutual experiences at being apprentice shipwrights. Unfortunately the timing of our arrival didn’t quite work out (the students had gone back home the day before), but we got to see the project and talk about it with Kevin (go to www.sloopnews.org for more info on this fantastic project).

So the stay on the island ended up being all about relaxing after a month of work and intense activity at Nanny Cay. OK, the non-work activity was mostly partying, but it was still intense. The first order of business upon our arrival was to send the crew ashore for a “search and seizure” mission (finding everything of necessity on the island — dinghy dock, grocery store, laundry, internet, telephones, bank, etc.) But to their dismay, civilization on Jost Van Dyke consists of a few homes, lots of famous bars, a few rooms for rent and one really old church – the perfect place to put your feet up, Caribbean Style.

As a result, most of our days were spent wandering around Great Harbour, chatting up the locals, enjoying the company of new friends (and some old) and fellow travelers, skin diving off Pull And Be Damned Point, getting in some internet time at “the office” (Foxy’s), or lounging at the beach at White Bay.

Next stop, Charlotte Amalia, St. Thomas to provision for Haiti.