On the third day of our cruise we docked in Tortola, BVI (another place we had both been to before). This time we were going to do something quite different and take a shore excursion to the island of Jost Van Dyke. It is the smallest of the four main islands of the British Virgin Islands, and with a population size of a few hundred people it is very remote. It is only accessible by a private boat or ferry service and we wound up swimming to shore.
The boat that took us out pulled up near White Bay where the Soggy Dollar Bar was located. Before we even went on the tour it was explained to us by the crew members that we needed to be able to swim to be able to participate in the tour. I was expecting a little bit of a distance, however, the water was so calm we docked twenty feet from the shoreline. When we jumped in the water was almost up to our neck so it was more like walking then swimming.
We were given four hours at this location and it was by far our favorite and most relaxing shore excursion. We also played ring toss- Chris was a lot better at it then I was, but I got the ring around the hook a couple of times. Most of the time however was spent laying out in the sun, exploring the surrounding area, and swimming in the ocean.
We did have one major hangup while we were there that is worth mentioning. While I was taking some more photos an hour into our stay the camera went black and powered off. Just for background info, this was Chris' new waterproof Olympus camera that he had purchased specifically for the ship. We had been using it as the primary camera for the shore excursions, and so far it held at least 100 photos on the camera that were to some extent irreplaceable. When I went to power it back on I got the message no camera owner wants to see: Power Off or Format Card. Basically, our memory card had malfunctioned and the only way to fix it and have it available again would be to re-format it by deleting every picture we had taken. I was not up for this, and neither was Chris so we decided to end the picture taking festivities for the day and wait to sort it out when we got home. I was told though that there was a 99% chance all the pictures we had taken on our vacation so far would not be recovered. I was pretty upset at this point, but as you can see they all were recovered...more on that later. We did enjoy the rest of our stay despite this problem- how can you not when you are on one of the most beautiful and secluded islands?
On the way back to port we were treated to a variety of island music intermixed with Jimmy Buffett(this happens on every tour) and just enjoyed the beautiful scenery- it was really was a great day to be out!
Jost Van Dyke is one of those places that we are definitely going to have to go back and re-visit in the future. I still can't get over how clear the water was and how peaceful it was. It really was the essence of a vacation.
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