White Bay, Jost Van Dyke, British Virgin Islands

White Bay Rainbow

Rounding the east end of Great Thatch en route to White Bay

White Bay Jost Van Dyke BVI
White Bay was jumping yesterday, and will be probably even more so today. It certainly has become one of the biggest party places in the Virgin Islands. Big  power boats from Puerto Rico joined those from the US and British Virgin Islands, music blasting, people dancing, a real happening spot…

St. John Music Schedule Sunday April 24

Aqua Bistro – Lauren Jones – 3:30 – 6:30 – 776-5336
Concordia – Bo – 4:00 – 8:00 – 693 5855
Miss Lucy’s – Sambacombo – 10:00 am – 2:00 pm – 693-5244
Ocean Grill – David Laabs – 6:00 – 9:00 – 693 3304
Rhumb Lines – T-Bird – 7:00 – 10:00
Shipwreck – Hot Club of Coral Bay – 7:00 – 10:00 – 693-5640

See Weekly Music Schedule

Virgin Islands Photo of the Day

White Bay, Jost Van Dyke, British Virgin Islands

The above photo was taken from the washed out road that leads west and up from White Bay. I remember driving the full length of this road shortly after it was created. The road washed out and became unusable just a short time later.

St. John Music Schedule, Sunday April 10

Aqua Bistro – Lauren Jones – 3:30 – 6:30 – 776-5336
Concordia – Bo – 4:00 – 8:00 – 693 5855
Miss Lucy’s - Sambacombo – 10:00 am – 2:00 pm – 693-5244
Ocean Grill – David Laabs – 6:00 – 9:00 – 693 3304
Rhumb Lines – T-Bird  – 7:00 – 10:00
Shipwreck – Hot Club of Coral Bay – 7:00 – 10:00 – 693-5640

A word of caution: I’m doing the best I can to present an accurate music schedule, but to be sure, it would be a great idea to call the restaurant or bar beforehand to confirm.

Weekly Music Schedule

Ivan’s Stress Free Bar and White Bay Campground’s 20th Anniversary Celebration

Ivan Chinnery

White Bay, Jost Van Dyke, BVI
Ivan Chinnery and friends will be celebration the 20th anniversary of Ivan’s Stree Free Bar and White Bay Campground today. There will be food, drinks and music performed by the Fiddle and Chris Carsel.

Read the New York Times article about today’s event on Jost

Live Music on St. John Today, Sunday, February 13

Aqua Bistro – Lauren – 3:30 – 6:30 – 776-5336
Beach Bar – Inner Visions – 4:00 – 8:00 – 777-4220
Miss Lucy’s- Live Music – 10:00 am – 2:00 pm – 693-5244
Ocean Grill – David on Guitar -6:00 – 9:00 – 693 3304
Rhumb Lines – T-Bird – 7:00 – 10:00
Shipwreck – Hot Club of Coral Bay – 7:00 – 10:00- 693-5640
Westin Pool – Daddy Chin and the Wailers – 1:00 – 4:00 – 693-8000

Weekly Music Schedule

Sandcastle Hotel, White Bay, Jost Van Dyke, British Virgin Islands
The founders of the Soggy Dollar Bar and Sandcastle Hotel are George and Marie Myrick. They first came to the Caribbean and cruised the island- on the Water Lily, a 53-foot motor-sailer, which they ran as a charter operation and for the owners. They then leased Little Thatch and ran a hotel there. They built the Sandcastle in 1970 and ran it for ten years after which they returned to the America and toured the United States, Canada, Mexico, and Belize. The couple, now in their 80s, live in Florida. They wrote a book about their experience called Incredible Virgin Island Adventure (Which I’m having trouble finding.) and have at least one post on their blog.

More Soggy Dollar Bar 40th Anniversary Party videos:

Lets Have a Party

Conga Line

Soggy Dollar Bar, White Bay, Jost Van Dyke, British Virgin Islands
Saturday the owners of the Sandcastle Hotel and Soggy Dollar Bar celebrated the 40th anniversary of the establishment.

Originally built by George Myrick in 1970, the Sandcastle passed through two more hands, before evolving into it’s present incarnation.

The Soggy Dollar Bar is, among other notables, renowned for the drink invented there by George Myrick, the Painkiller

Anatomy of a Pain Killer:
Caribbean Travel and Life [April 2009]
PAINKILLER
4 ounces unsweetened pineapple juice
1 ounce orange juice
1 ounce Coco Lopez coconut cream
2 1/2 ounces Pusser’s rum or dark Jamaican rum
Powdered cinnamon
Ground nutmeg
Shake juices, Coco Lopez and rum with plenty of crushed ice.
Pour unstrained into a tall glass.
Dust with cinnamon and nutmeg.
Garnish with a pineapple wedge, cinnamon stick and orange wheel.
by George and Marie Myrick
Soggy Dollar 1971

Trish and Jerry, Owners of the Soggy Dollar Bar and Sandcastle Hotel

Liston DJ's

Gerald, Mario and Darth Vader

More Videos

Teri and Chin Dancing

Girls Just Want to Have Fun

White Bay, Jost Van Dyke, British Virgin Islands

White Bay, Jost Van Dyke, BVI
Yesterday I headed over to Jost Van Dyke, carrying with me two old friends, whom I haven’t seen in many years, and a copy of an book given to me by Joe Jackson, a book of photos of the Virgin Islands published in 1970, several of which were taken in Jost Van Dyke.

The mission of the day, besides just having a good time and enjoying a lobster dinner over at Abe’s in Little harbor, was to try to take photographs from  same positions as the 1970 photographer and present them side by side. Images changed only by some 38 years of time. (I was fairly successful and am working on a blog presentation of these photos – soon come)

The trip turned nostalgic as I presented the book to the Jost Van Dyke natives and residents all of whom were fascinated with the old studies of Jost Van Dyke. My friend, Steve Coakley, took us in his taxi to some of the spots that I need to access.

Ivan and Steve check out the 1970 Virgin Islands book

We drove up the road to the west of Great Harbour for one of the locations, and Steve decided to continue over the ridge and down into White Bay to check out Ivan at the campground. Heading down into the valley I shot the above photo of White Bay, which brought back memories of my first visit to that bay back in the same year that our book was published, 1970.

White Bay Nostalgia
My girlfriend at the time and I were over at Foxy’s when we first heard about the beautiful beach just over the hill to the west. We headed up the rugged jeep trail on the western side of Great Harbour, in the bright morning sunshine. At the top of the hill, a narrow shaded footpath led down through thick bush into the next bay. At the bottom of the trail there was a small opening through a thicket of sea grape trees. We stepped through and were greated by one of the most magnificent sights I have ever experienced. This long pristine white sand beach, backed by coconut palms and sea grapes was totally untouched. Not a soul or a house could be seen anywhere. The waters within the bay were crystal clear, with the characteristic mix of blues found in our shallow indented bays. Not far offshore were the reddish tints created by the coral reef that protected the bay from the open sea.

The beach extended to a rocky outcropping around which was another stretch of coral sand beach. We had passed through a portal into a tropical paradise more beautiful and romantic than even the imagination could conjur up.

I told Steve this story and he told me that he, although born and bred on Jost van Dyke, had the same feeling of awe when he first encountered that beach lying beyond the opening in the sea grape trees.

White Bay Today
Today, White Bay, is not quite the same. It’s still beautiful, but fairly well developed. Whereas a sailing publication advised mariners that there was swinging room behind the reef within the two bays for two or three vessels and if you encountered that many you were advised to head back to Great Harbor and anchor there, today that concept is a joke. In addition to the many, many more than three vessels one can find at any given time at anchor in the bay, mini cruise ships such as the five masted Club Med often anchor just outside the reef ferrying passengers back and forth to the shore. There are now bars and restaurants, campgrounds and guest houses and villas. In general it’s a bustling party atmosphere, still cool, just very different.