White Bay
Great Harbour
Little Harbour
Sandy Cay
Diamond Cay
Swim ashore to the Soggy Dollar Bar for a Painkiller
Snorkel the tidal Bubbly Pool inside Diamond Cay National Park
Dance until dawn at Foxy’s Old Year’s Night
Circle uninhabited Sandy Cay’s ring trail
Dine at Sidney’s Peace & Love in Little Harbour
Great Harbour
White Bay
Little Jost Van Dyke
Sandy Cay
Diamond Cay National Park
December through April brings the busiest, liveliest weeks, especially around Foxy’s Old Year’s Night party on December 31st, when the anchorages fill fast and early arrival matters. Quieter months from May to November offer the same clear water and beach bars with far fewer boats, though hurricane season runs June through November. White Bay’s exposed anchorage can turn uncomfortable in a north swell at any time of year, so captains keep an eye on the forecast.
Jost Van Dyke has no airport, so most guests arrive by boat, either sailing over from Tortola or the US Virgin Islands or taking a ferry from West End, Tortola, a crossing of about twenty minutes. Great Harbour is the island’s official port of entry for customs and immigration, so private yachts arriving from outside the BVI typically clear in there before moving on to White Bay or the other anchorages.
White Bay is the most popular overnight stop for its beach bars and clear, reef-protected water, though it can roll uncomfortably in a north swell. Great Harbour offers more consistent shelter and puts guests within walking distance of Foxy’s and the island’s customs office. Little Harbour, on the north coast, is a quieter alternative with its own beach restaurant, and Diamond Cay suits a shorter stop for the walk to the Bubbly Pool.
One to two nights suit most itineraries, enough for a swim at White Bay, dinner at Foxy’s or Sidney’s Peace & Love, and a morning walk to the Bubbly Pool. As the smallest of the BVI’s four main islands, Jost Van Dyke works best paired with Tortola or the Virgin Gorda side of a wider Sir Francis Drake Channel route rather than anchored as a week-long base on its own.
Held every December 31st at Foxy’s Bar in Great Harbour, Old Year’s Night has grown from a small local gathering into one of the best-known New Year’s parties in the Caribbean, drawing hundreds of yachts into the anchorage for live calypso and reggae that runs long past midnight. Foxy Callwood, who opened the bar in 1968, built its reputation over decades as a singer and storyteller before it became the sailing world’s favourite way to see in the new year.
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