What an absolute blissful sail from Culebrita to Jost Van Dyke! Winds were North then continuing to almost full South making optimal conditions and almost 1 tack to St. Thomas. We hugged the N side of St. Thomas for some site seeing while sailing into all of the coves and bays for fun and scouting out future gunkholing possibilities as Savannah likes to say!

Arriving to Jost Jim paddled in on the inflatable to clear customs and called me later to say he was hitching a ride back since the inflatable blew up with a sizable hole.. gaping if you will!!! I mean how do you not laugh! Luckily he had all of our documents in the dry bag. We do have a dinghy but was not planning on splashing her until arriving to Anegada.  Jim hitched a ride back with a local about to “jaw” is way out of the boat. Local, “I need $20 dollar for da service”. Jim, “is this your boat??” Local, “No”. Jim, “Does the owner of the boat know you took the boat?”  Local, “No, dats why I need 20 dollar.. 10 for him and 10 for me.” Priceless…

Ok so about the hike! HOLY steep and hot.  We climbed to the top of Jost just over 1000 ft in elevation gain in 1 mile with only 3 long and steep switch backs. Views were amazing. We did a total of 6 miles and total elevation gain of over 2000ft and getting another surveyors mark find! Absolutely spectacular terrain, views and work out.  I have a thing for old rutted roads and love photographing them anytime I see them and these were off the charts! Jost by far takes the cake for trail trekking… Many other trails left to explore as well.. we will take our sore quads this morning for more exploring.

Savannah is continuing to enjoy her time in Bali. They were invited to meet the Prince of Bali and invited to dinner in the Palace where they were treated like royalty and given a private show after dinner. Savannah noticed that soccer was on and she asked if she could watch for a moment and the Prince told her that was for “Men” only.. women were not allowed to watch sports…. yep.. that went over well!!!! Savannah said the dinner was SO SPICEY!!..homemade habanero sauce. They returned back to base camp later than planned and she thanked me for sending her with tums..and asked about soccer results!!! lol

Savannah did not buy any Civet pooping coffee beans.. The cute little animals are known for being fed the beans and pooping them out for the most expensive coffee in the world. She didn’t want to support this as she learned many force feed these animals the beans..

After our hike and lunch aboard we motored over to Manchioneel Bay on the S side of Little Yost Van Dyke, where we spent the afternoon reading, making jewlery and just chilling out. Dinner was hamburger with sauce and veggies over gnocchi. yum!

Notes: The evening before we decided to eat on shore at Foxy’s. It was a limited menu and food was just fair for the price. However customer services was superb! We really love our evenings on the boat cooking and relaxing away from the “party scene” not to mention saves a lot of money.

Post hurricane notes on Yost Van Dyke: We saw a lot of upside down ATV’s, white military grade tents for housing and new construction beginning. Beach bars are open and restaurants with limited menus. All in all the island is hopping with charter boats and tourist!

Lifestyle notes: Not preaching.. just sharing some thoughts on alcohol. I’m not judging anyone who drinks more or less and it’s no comparison… For almost 8 months now Jim and I have limited our alcohol intake significantly. We have a 2 drink limit before dinner time. No day drinking or over indulging on the weekends, holiday, vacation or special events.  You would not believe how wonderful this is. In past, especially on boat trips and on the weekends, it was so easy to crack a beer with friends with lunch or while sitting in the water and chilling. The problem we found is for one it’s not healthy and the other it ruins the evening because you’ve probably had too much by then and you’re so tired that you keep drinking to re energize your buzz.., and then ruins the next day because you over indulged. So even if you over indulge just one time, life is too short to mess up a clear headed evening and the next day. I personally have a hang over with anything over 2 drinks. So 3 is max if the occasion warrants. Yesterday after our hike we stopped into a beautiful beach bar on white bay near soggy dollar bay. Talk about a perfect scenario to order a cold one after a long hike at high noon. It came easy this time to pass on the brew and order 2 sparkling waters and a local soda “ting”! The rest of the afternoon was pure contentedness and clear heads with no lingering tiredness that booze causes. We love our new lifestyle!!!!!! and much healthier.