Jost Van Dyke, BVI - Foxy's

On Thursday we made the quick 13 mile jump from Christmas Cove in the US Virgin Islands, over to the island of Jost Van Dyke in the British Virgins. Great Harbour is where the world-famous Foxy's bar is located, so we wanted to anchor there and check it out. We got into the harbor around one in the afternoon and most of the boats had left. The anchorage is pretty deep and doesn't have great holding so we dropped our anchor in 35 feet of water, let out plenty of scope, and backed down pretty well so that we wouldn't drag. Then Kevin headed ashore to check us in with customs and immigration, and came back for us so that we could go to the bar. We sat down and ordered two Foxy's microbrew beers for Dad & Kevin, and a painkiller (rum drink) for me, then we sat back and looked around at all the old T-shirts, hats, business cards, flags, bras, and other random memorabilia that people on boats have left hanging up in the bar. We've seen lots of little bars with this type of decor, but this one by far had the most of any we'd seen. After our drinks we headed back to the boat to watch the entertainment...

The British Virgin Islands is probably the premier spot for charter boats. This is where people rent a boat for a week or so and sail it around the islands. Sometimes these people are experienced sailors. And sometimes not. (We chartered a few years ago and we'd only had a week's experience sailing. We were amazed that the charter company allowed us to take their boat out with no supervision whatsoever.) Two dead giveaways that a boat is a charter boat vs a cruising boat: 1) the people aboard are pasty white, and 2) the boat is packed to the gills (the whole family plus grandma and grandpa). Charterers usually pick up moorings, since that is the easiest way to "anchor" the boat -- you pick up a line already anchored down and tie it off to your boat. But Great Harbour doesn't have any moorings so charterers are forced to anchor. It's entertaining to watch because they never put out enough scope and you watch them repeatedly drop the anchor, let out a little chain, and then drag back; when they realize they aren't set, they pick up the anchor and start again. We watched one guy make no less than 8 attempts to get his anchor set.

As the afternoon wore on, the anchorage filled up and of course a brief squall blew through. We watched helpless as one boat dragged down almost hitting another boat, Kevin blasted the air horn and luckily the guy peeked his head out of his boat and started the engine right away. Some of our friends we met in Luperon (on the boat Tusen Takk) showed up in the late afternoon and anchored right in front of us, which was a relief since we knew they'd anchor themselves properly. Later we all met up for happy hour at Foxy's and they mentioned that the charter boat next to them (Cala Mia) only had 60 feet of chain out. 60 feet of chain in 30 feet of water is only 2:1 scope (most people will advise you to have 7:1!). Basically the anchor is sitting on the bottom but won't be able to bite into the bottom to get a good set. Of course the next morning the wind shifted and we ended up so close to Cala Mia my dad had to fend them off with the boathook. We explained that if we have 170 feet of chain out and if they only have 60 feet, when the wind changes around they are right in our swing circle. The lady said "well, we aren't that big of a boat", and I patiently tried to tell her that you don't let out anchor scope based on how big the boat is, but how deep the water is. Luckily we were leaving anyway, since I'm not sure they really understood what we were talking about.

Where we are:
Location=Jost Van Dyke, BVI
Lat=18 26.479
Lon=64 45.083