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Visit Pizza Pi, the USVI Pizza boat – Open for new Season

UPDATE: Pizza Pi has just re-opened for the season. They will now be there 7 days a week 11am - 6pm. Rain or shine

 

Day Trips, Half Day Trips and Sunset Cruises in St. John waters are great because you save the time, money and hassle of checking into BVI customs (they have just increased the fees once more). However, the downside so far has been that there are not really any restaurants or bars with docks in the St. John waters.

 

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Not any more, there is a Pizza Pi, a food boat (a 100% customized 37 ft. G.L. Watson design built in 1996 in Sheffield, England) that has taken the familiar food truck concept to the water where it prepares and serves delicious pizza at Christmas Cove, just off Great St. James Island, a short ride from St. John.

 

Sasha and Tara Bouis are serving fresh baked pizza served on delicious made-from-scratch slow-fermentation New York style crust. Each pizza is made to order with fresh local ingredients. They offer a gluten-free menu and they have even partnered with a local ice-creamery, Scoops and Brew, to serve the best ice cream in the islands! On top of that they provide Wifi Access.

 

You can check out their menu here. Stay tuned, we hear they will be announcing an exciting new menu next week. Read the full story of Pizza Pi here.

 

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Pizza Pi USVI Hours of Operation:

  • 7 days a week 11am - 6pm. Rain or shine

So, how about a day trip "Best of St. John" with a stop at Pizza Pi or a sunset cruise, eating delicious pizza while the sun goes down?

 

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Pizza Pi Pizza Boat Photogallery

 Check out our Pizza Pi Photogallery here and here.

Book your unforgettable boat trip to Pizza Pi here:

We can visit Pizza Pi on the day trips and half day trips St. John or on the way back from Jost van Dyke.

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B-Line Beach Bar – Day Trip St. John – Jost van Dyke

 

A day trip St. John - Jost van Dyke on our 32 FS Regulator Powerboat can be so much more than just Soggy Dollar. We can for example stop at B-Line at Little Jost van Dyke. It is a charming, low-key bar, that has great drinks, friendly staff on a beautiful beach.

 

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B-Line Beach Bar - Little Jost van Dyke

Their signature drink is the "Passion Confusion" is a mix between a painkiller and a rum punch, with lots of rum soaked pineapple, stop by and try one!

 

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They are open from 10am-10pm daily serving ice cold beer and rum drinks. On weekends they serve up the freshest locally caught mahi, tuna, and wahoo. Hot off the grill items include fish tacos, spicy tuna wrap, veggie burgers, kosher beef hot dogs, and their signature dish fish n foil. You can check out their website here.

 

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You won't get bored. You can play cornhole, board games and there also is great snorkeling on the reef that is right around the corner. Oh and don't forget to leave your name on the wooden roof of the bar. Feeling lazy? They also have a soft white sand beach for laying around and doing nothing at all.

 

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From there we can head over to Sandy Spit for your personal perfect postcard shot. After a lot of erosion what is left of Sandy Spit is tiny, so make sure you visit it before it is gone!

 

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From there we can head to the bubbly pools and then our last stop usually is White Bay, Jost van Dyke. Tired of the Burgers at Soggy Dollar Bar? Try out the other places: One Love, Jewel's and Getrude's have really great meals.

 

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Pirates Bight, Norman Island, BVI

Pirates Bight sits on the hauntingly beautiful Norman Island, which is said to be the inspiration for Robert Lewis Stevenson’s “Treasure Island.” The restaurant and bar opened in 2002 and has since become a destination of choice for the sailors and visitors who flock year-round to the British Virgin Islands for its renowned sunshine, seas and beaches. The bar and restaurant earned its reputation as a family place of relaxed afternoons, legendary parties into the night, and the famous cannon shot at happy hour each night.

Now, when the yachts, sailboats and other vessels arrive at this historic spot, they will find a transformed destination. Led by Lane Pettigrew, described by Architectural Digest as “the Caribbean’s architect laureate,” a team of designers, construction crews from Meridian Construction and hospitality experts re-imagined and rebuilt the Pirate Bight experience.

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A revamped food menu includes a fresh takes on Caribbean classics like fried conch and barbequed ribs, while also extending into freshly caught local fish and locally sourced produce. You can check out their menu Pirates Bight Norman Island Menu.

While much has changed, the spirit of fun and adventure remain at the heart of the experience. Pirates Bight is a great stop on a day trip to the BVIs.  You can relax and have lunch there on the way back from the Baths (Virgin Gorda Day Trip) or after snorkeling and before having drinks at Willy T. if you are doing the Norman Island Day Trip.

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If you are taking a paddleboard on your day trip, you can also paddle from Willy T. over to Pirates. It takes about 10 minutes, it is mostly upwind but on the way back to Willy T. you will usually have downwind. The beach is flat, sandy and easily accessible. With food or drinks you can use the comfortable beach chairs for free. Aside from the beach, food and drinks there are also restrooms of course and a little souvenir shops with some nice T-Shirts and Cover-Ups for sale.

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"The Club" on Norman Island

the temporary structure that hosted Pirate's after the original burned down now is home to a new bar / restaurant called "The Club" which serves great food, check out their menu here.

More information on Pirates Bight, Norman Island:

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Day Trip St. John – Cooper Island (BVI)

 

We have quite a few repeat guest and returning St. John visitors who have been to Virgin Gorda and Jost van Dyke and are asking for something new. Cooper Island is a lesser known, small, isolated island and can only be accessed by private boat.

 

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Where is Cooper Island, BVI?

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It is on the South Side of Tortola and about half way between Norman Island and Virgin Gorda.

 

It hosts a small, eco-friendly (75% of their power is solar generated), beautiful resort which has just undergone major renovations. There is great fresh food (it is famous for the chicken roti), awesome cocktails, a beautiful beach and good snorkeling. There are even some tables in the water.

Day Trip St. John - Cooper Island

Here is a quick write up and a few pics and a video from a day trip from St. John to Cooper Island last Tuesday. We met our guests at High Tide at 9:00 AM, filled out the customs forms and checked into the BVI at Tortola Westend. From there we headed straight to Cooper Island.

 

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We arrived there before the rush, beating the bigger boats and went for some snorkeling right off the beach where we saw Barracudas, squid and lots of colorful fish.

 

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We spent some time wandering around the resort, checking out the shop and the coffee bar and then sat down in the comfortable loungers for lunch.

 

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 Lunch at Cooper Island Beach Club

We had some excellent Chicken Roti in the beautiful and relaxed setting and then left to snorkel some of the famous but also the lesser known snorkeling spots in the area.

 

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After the snorkeling we went to famous Party Boat Willy T. for some cocktails and of course jumped of the deck. Our jumps were quite stylish compared to the lady after us, who landed flat on her belly.

 

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From there we went along the South Shore of St. John, passing impressive Ram's head and stopped for another snorkel at Tektike, which can only be accessed by boat.

Snorkeling Tektike

The Tektite snorkel is one of the absolute best snorkeling spots on the island of St. John. The name, Tektite, refers to a research project conducted at Beehive Bay a small cove on the southeastern tip of Great Lameshur Bay. The Tektite Project was conducted in 1969 in a cooperative effort by the U.S. Department of the Interior, the U.S. Navy, NASA and the General Electric Co. The purpose of the study was to investigate the effects on human beings of living and working underwater for prolonged periods of time. More information on the Tektite Project is here.

 

You will see a very wide variety of fish and amazing coral formations.

 

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We saw some moving sand and after a bit of patience spotted the beautiful ray.

 

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After a great day on the water, we arrived back in Cruz Bay, St. John right in time for a beautiful sunset. Here is what our guests had to say about the trip:

 

5* "Absolutely fabulous!! Had a fabulous time with Captain Steve!" M.H., April,2015

5* "Great day in the BVIs with Captain Steve and Lucy. They will totally customize your trip to what you would like to see and do for the day. We have chartered from other companies in the past and Rockhoppin Adventures is by far the most professional, well run of any that we have used in St. John", E.H. April 2015

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Day Trip St. John Cooper Island Video

Send Booking Enquiry Day Trip St. John - Cooper Island

Ready for a great time on the water? You can fill out the form below or send an email to info(at)rockhoppin.com or rockhoppinusvi@gmail.com. We will get back to you within 24 hours, usually faster. We get tons of emails with weird business proposals through the contact form and it does sometimes happen that a booking enquiry lands in the spam folder (or our response lands in your spam folder). You can also text us on 340-514-5527 to make sure it went through.

 

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Sandy Spit

Another great stop on your powerboat charter to Jost van Dyke is Sandy Spit. A tiny unihabited Cay like Sandy Cay, surrounded by a picture perfect, 360° white sand beach, boaters and visitors from all over the world love sun bathing, excellent snorkeling, picnics and watersports there. Naturally as unihabited cays go, there is no dock, so prepare to get wet and swim to shore.

UPDATE: Since this article was posted, a lot of the beach has been eroded. So go and visit Sandy Cay while it is still there.

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The sun always shines on this tiny little island. It lights up the Caribbean Sea like a lighthouse. The picture-perfect tiny little island has a few rocks, green vegetation and two lonely coconut palms, you will not find much shade, so bring a hat or sunbrella. If you are lucky, you might have Sandy Spit to yourself for a few wonderful hours.

Activities on Sandy Spit

It will only take a few minutes to walk around Sandy Spit – if you walk slowly (it measures less than half and acre in size)! Other than that, you can go paddleboarding and it is also very popular with kite surfers, it can get a really nice wind. On calm days you will also find great snorkeling there.

Sandy Spit Island BVI

Where does the name Sandy Spit come from?

It is said to come from the fact that it is in spitting distance of Jost van Dyke. It is of course also in spitting distance to Sandy Cay (in the West). To the East you can see Tortola, and to the west you can see Little Jost Van Dyke and Jost Van Dyke. Sandy Spit is also know as

"Corona Island"

Sandy Spit in the BVIs is often also dubbed "Corona Island", some of the famous Corona Beer Commercials are said to have been filmed there. Well, we really love the "Dump your cellphone" one, but if we did that, we could not answer your call to book a powerboat charter to Sandy Spit 🙂

 

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Day Trip St. John – Virgin Gorda – Jost (video)

Here are some photos and a video from this weeks powerboat charter trip  St. John - Virgin Gorda - Jost van Dyke. It was quite a rough day with 5ft swell at 10seconds and 25knots of headwind, but the guests were happy and head a great time. We left Cruz Bay at 9:00 AM, passing beautiful Stade Amsterdam and checked into the customs at Tortola Westend. We pulled out of Soper's Hole but were hitting some hard waves on the North Shore, so Captain Tyler decided to the take the route South of Tortola which was more comfortable.

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Arriving at Virgin Gorda we went straight to the word famous Baths, first having some drinks on board, then going for a swim to the shore and a hike around the boulders. From there we went straight to Jost van Dyke to finish off the day with painkillers at Soggy Dollar Bar. Check out the video below.

Day Trip St. John - Virgin Gorda - Jost van Dyke Powerboat Charter Video

Photos Day Trip St. John - Virgin Gorda - Jost van Dyke

Review Day Trip St. John - Virgin Gorda - Jost van Dyke

5*

We had such a great time yesterday in spite of pretty rough waves. Virgin Gorda in the morning and most in the afternoon for Soggy Dollar adventure.

Paulette, March 5th, 2015

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Ivan’s Stress Free Bar Reopening

Friday the 13th was a good day on Jost van Dyke, BVI. Ivan's Stress free bar celebrated their 24th (!) anniversary and their reopening after a makeover, which was more like a complete rebuild. It went from this:

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to this:

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That's an awesome party deck upstairs, no? Also all the rooms and cabins are really nice now. Come on a day trip to Jost van Dyke with us and check out the new Ivan's. Here is a video one of our charter guests took on Friday.

Ivan's Stress Free Bar Reopening

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Breakfast @ Bitter End Yacht Club, BVI

We had breakfast at Bitter End Yacht Club, Virgin Gorda the other day. They describe themselves as "an island retreat where love of the water, family tradition, welcoming staff and the generous Caribbean spirit matter most" and they have been selected a World's Best Resort by the readers of Conde Nast Traveler!

Yes, it is a great place and the breakfast buffet is the best I have seen in the Virgin Islands so far. You can choose from a wide variety of food, truly English Breakfast with sausages, you can have a freshly made omelette with ingredients of your choice (e.g. salmon, spinach, peppers), eat fresh fruit, cereal, a wide variety of bread and jam, fruit juices etc.

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Check out the photos from our visit at Bitter End Yacht Club below.

 

Shared Day Trip St John – Virgin Gorda Dec 14th

day trip st. john virgin gorda the baths

Would you like to go on a day trip to Virgin Gorda from St. John or St. Thomas to see the truly magical boulders at The Baths but don't have a party of 6? We will have a shared trip on December 14th. We have 3 guests so far and are looking for up to 3 more. The price is 390$ per couple or 200$ single incl. Captain and fuel, excl. BVI customs and mooring fees. Read More