Jost! We finally made it to Jost Van Dyke. Woohoo! We won the boatyball lottery and managed to secure a ball in the harbor. Boatyball is a mooring ball management service and at 7am reservations for the day open up. By 7:01 the balls are all reserved. I was thrilled to get a ball for the night. (There are also first come first serve balls, but there’s no way to guarantee one would be available and we wouldn’t have to leave and find another place to go for the night.) We got up and headed toward the harbor, but elected to take the big boat to the other side of the island instead of paying a taxi to take us to the baths. It was a very windy mooring ball catch! But a fun time for Wren at the bubbly pool. We stopped off at Foxy’s Taboo for sodas, and then back to the boat move to the harbor.

The next morning we decided to play the boat ball lottery again and were successful in getting the same ball (frankly I think it’s about the worst spot so that’s how we got lucky – no one else wanted it!). A local came in on a dinghy to ask if we needed ice, or someone to take trash, or if we wanted some homemade empanadas. Ummmm yes homemade empanadas! They were delicious! Chris did engine maintenance and then we went for a walk around town. We bought a tart and a cookie from Christine’s bakery, and then w got a super cute hoodie from the scuba shop. Then we took chicken tender (our dinghy) around the point to the other side of Jost for a visit to the Soggy Dollar – it was so crowded! But we got to try the famous Painkiller, a beer, and some strawberry ice cream! Plus swimming with other kids for Wren.

Our weather window to cross the Anegada Passage was in 2 days, with a night time departure, so in the morning we staged ourselves back at Benuers to try to get a good night’s sleep. We got up and sailed (yes, we actually sailed!) to Spanish Town to check out of the BVIs. After the few hours it took to check out, we moved down to The Baths as it was finally not red-flagged. What a neat place!

After dinner we left to cross the Anegada (oh-my-goda) Pass. It was so rolly and uncomfortable, and we were motoring straight into 15-20 knot winds. It was a relief to anchor in Simpson Bay, though we were surprised at all the private mooring balls in the anchorage. We checked in with immigration but customs was on break – immigration gave us permission to go through the bridge to anchor in the lagoon and then come back and check in with customs after their lunch break was over. Holy private mooring balls all over the place! We aren’t against mooring balls, but you do have to take them into account when anchoring in case the boat they belong to comes to tie up. Our windless jammed as we were dragging anchor through the ‘cozy’ anchoring/mooring field. Not fun what so ever. Once settled, we headed over to Buccaneers to try to meet up with some other boating families. We were unsuccessful, but Wren did find some other kids to play with so that was great. The wind was blowing with gusts up to 35 knots the next day so we stayed on the boat the next day in case she dragged (since we had dragged once already).