Jost van Dyke Beach, BVI

Earlier today I promised my favourite pub landlady - Lesley Webber of the amazing Pig’s Nose at East Prawle - that I’d put some more sunshine photos up on this website….

I’d never like to disappoint Lesley - so here are some snaps I took on a beach in the Caribbean a couple of years ago.. Jost van Dyke Beach in the British Virgin Islands, to be exact.

We had sailed in the Star Clipper west around a peninsula of Tortola called Frenchman’s Cay, where we moored to take a moonlit tender into a place called Sopper Sole - which was probably a little harbour of great charm once but now has been converted to look and feel like a kind of St Moritz-by-Sea.  

Sometimes the Star Clipper does long voyages during the night as you dine in its large but cosy dining room on a multi-course meal that is served by waiters who could teach the average server in the UK many things about the art of blending efficiency with friendliness. 

I mention the overnight voyaging because our next port of call, Jost van Dyke island, is only five miles distant from Sopper’s Hole, and yet we hammered along under sail from dusk until dawn. The Star Clipper does that sometimes taking great tacks out to sea, not that it matters because being under sail keeps the ship on a much better even keel than lurching about at anchor. 

Jost van Dyke was a Dutch pirate who used to like to hang out on this remote island - and who could blame him? It has one of the best beaches in the BVI, albeit one that is now replete with many bars a little artisan shops in various shacks beneath the palms.