July 24 – I enjoyed a quiet coffee on the bow while watching the sun come up. I was savoring the fact that I was about to see some of my favorite locals, while also realizing our time on Jost was too short. After all, Jost is where our love affair with the BVI began. We motored over to Great Harbor early and got a ball where we thought we’d have a nice breeze. David from Foxy’s Water Taxi came out and got our passports and paperwork to check us out, so we wouldn’t have to mess with it the next day. Very convenient!

We then went ashore and called Greg Callwood from Perfect Pineapple to come taxi us to White Bay. He’s such a great guy. We always stay at his place when we are land based on Jost, and I cannot imagine a stop on Jost without visiting him. He is building a place for Gertrude up far above White Bay, and he drove us up to see it. The view is magnificent! He’s proud of his work, and rightfully so. The amount of effort that goes into building there is incredible. We stopped at the office at Perfect Pineapple so I could pop in and surprise Greg’s wife, Hilda and give her a big hug. So good to see her too!

While we were waiting for Greg to pick us up in Great Harbor, we ran into some friends we had met on Jost about 4 years ago. Just by coincidence they were there at the same time. Later, down on White Bay, I recognized the boat of some friends we had met last winter. And, it turned out that these two sets of people know each other through the acquaintance of yet another person we met on Jost a few years back. Such a small world, and so many connections made on Jost. We also met a couple of TTOL people (Hi Kris & Mary!) on JVD.

We went to Hendo’s for lunch and spent a while talking with the owner. He’s a nice, young guy with a great vision for what he wants to accomplish there. He said he’s received a lot of encouragement from locals (even from SDB). The food was excellent (try the fish & chips!), the service was friendly and quick enough. They have a great little gift shop, and the place just seems so classy, it’s like a totally different world from Soggy Dollar. Although, SDB is still a great place and is still thriving!

We finished up the afternoon down at One Love, hanging out with friends, drinking beer and watching all the shenanigans in the bay. The locals were out in their go-fast boats today, making a full spectacle of themselves. Two boats were rafted up and trying to move in tandem, apparently trying to actually leave together (?) when one of them caught the anchor line of a third boat. They seemed surprised that this had happened, but quickly freed themselves somehow without any damage to anyone or anything (visibly, at least).

Greg taxied us back to GH and we cleaned up for dinner. We caught Corsair’s last night of the season. Vinnie was off island already, but Deb and the crew were welcoming as ever and put out a great meal. They were out of a few ingredients, but that didn’t stop them from making an awesome pizza, and those steamed mussels are always the best!

With full bellies, it was time to go back and think about packing away all our dirty clothes and our shiny-new memories.

We enjoyed a quiet night on the boat, and a nice breeze…for a while. Somewhere around 2 am the breeze just died and I found myself standing on the deck, butt naked, just trying to cool off. I figured if someone wanted to arrest me, maybe the jail would be air conditioned. <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Grin.gif" alt="" /> The breeze picked back up after a while and we slept as best we could for the remainder of the night.



July 25 – One last cup of coffee in the solitude of a beautiful Great Harbor morning, admiring the island I so dearly love, and thinking of the next time I’ll see her. Then we were off to return Island Fun. We met up with Brent outside Nanny Cay and he motored us in to refuel and then back to Manuel Reef Marina to debrief, clean up and disembark.

David from Foxy’s picked us up right on time and had us back on St. Thomas in time for lunch at Tap & Still; hands-down the best cheeseburgers in the islands! We stayed the night at Mafolie, as usual, and enjoyed a great dinner there.



July 26 - Leaving these islands is always bittersweet. I miss my dog, I miss my pillow, but can’t we just bring them here and stay forever? One of these days…this will happen!!

Next time always seems so far away, but the countdown has already begun!