BVI Sailing Adventure 2026 - Day 9
We won the Boatyball lottery for Diamond Cay on the eastern most tip of Jost van Dyke. This is home to Bubbly Pool and Foxy’s Taboo bar.
We spent the morning in Cane Garden Bay watching surfers catch huge waves entering the east side of the harbor. They were riding some waves up to six feet tall. One surfer has an electric foiling surfboard. He could stand up on it and ride out to catch the waves. That looks like the future of surfing.
It is always difficult to get pictures of waves that does them justice.
Oscar and Jack took the dinghy to shore to rent a jet ski. They were gone for over an hour but we never saw them come by us on the jet ski. It turns out the waves were too large for the jet skis so no rentals that day.
They swam from the beach for a while and returned to the boat.
It was a short cruise to Diamond Cay. We could easily see it from Cane Garden Bay. Most of the navigation in the BVI is by line of sight. We picked up Boatyball number 8. Most of our Boatyballs have been number 8. We decided it is our Boatyball lucky number.
It is only 4 miles to Diamond Cay from Cane Garden Bay.
Diamond Cay is a lovely harbor between Jost van Dyke and Little Jost van Dyke. I wonder if Jost van Dyke is related to Dick van Dyke?
We jumped in the dingy and headed to Sandy Spit. Sandy Spit is a tiny sandbar island with three palm trees in the center. It is the consummate tropical paradise. As we approached Sandy Spit we could see waves crashing on the far side and wrapping around entire island. That is a no go. If we attempted to land on the island the waves would crash over the stern filling the dingy with water. This would make the dingy too heavy to pull up on the beach. The waves would continue to fill the dingy which would maroon us on that desert island. It was supposed to be a three hour tour.
The other group had five men that could pick up their dingy and get it out of the surf. We did not have that advantage.
We continued in the dingy to a safe and secluded beach all to ourselves on Little Jost van Dyke. We all swam and Priscilla created seashell artwork.
Priscilla enjoying a relaxing time on her private beach.
Alison enjoying a relaxing time on her private beach.
Priscilla’s beachscape artwork.
Our next stop is the Bubbly Pool on the north side of Jost van Dyke. Sailing is a sedentary activity for the most part so the round trip mile hike up and down a steep hill was welcomed. We had to ford a stream as well as climb a rocky trail. It was well worth the effort. We arrived at high tide which is the perfect timing. The waves were crashing into the pool over the huge rocks on the shoreline. Every third or fourth wave was massive and sent a sea of foam into the pool and onto the swimmers.
The Bubbly Pool did not disappoint. We arrived at the right time for the best waves.
On the way back to the dingy we stopped at Foxy’s Taboo bar. This is an annex of the famous Foxy’s bar in Great Harbor. We cocktailed and had appetizers in a tropical setting.
We returned to the boat and enjoyed another fabulous meal cooked on the charcoal grill. Each night we have a tradition to play dice games called ship, captain, crew and another one called farkle. Very fun games for the entire family. The only thing better would be our friend Stacy onboard to keep score.
Spoiler alert - we will not be participating in the Boatyball lottery tomorrow morning.
