By Carol M. Bareuther, RD

Jost Van Dyke feels like the Caribbean a half century ago. The permanent population numbers less than 200, electricity didn't arrive until 1997, and 'Main Street', in Great Harbor, is still a sandy beachside street that takes only 15-minutes to walk unless you stop for a cool one at each of the half-dozen beach bars along the way. One reason for this paradise preserved is that to reach Jost you need a boat: a ferry from the neighboring British Virgin Island of Tortola or U.S. Virgin Islands of St. John or St. Thomas; a rented or chartered yacht; or your own boat. Another explanation, and likely the biggest draw to this 8-square-mile island, is one of its most famous residents - Foxy Callwood.

Philicianno "Foxy' Callwood, a seventh generation Jost Van Dyker, holds court at the far eastern end of Great Harbour at his Foxy's Tamarind Bar. Here, amidst the sand floors, ceiling beams stuffed with T-shirts and business cards, and open-air walls that let the cool sea breezes waft through, Foxy strums his guitar and sings Calypso ditties that have visitors roaring with laughter.at the ribald lyrics. Tom Cruise, Steven Spielberg, Kelsey Grammer. They've all been in the audience. In fact, it's the ultimate laid-backness of the place, and Foxy's iconic wit and humor, which makes the famous feel comfortable, ordinary folk welcome, and everyone return to this wisp of an island again and again.

At no time is this atmosphere more apparent than on December 31, Old Year's Night. Over 300 boats - everything from outboard go-fasts to megayachts - cluster into Great Harbour to ring in the New Year. The heavy-duty partying actually starts much earlier, on December 26th's Boxing Day, and spans to every beach bar. "It's the quantity of people and the quality of the party," Foxy explains as the reason for the attraction. "You can dance on the tables and sleep on the beach. No one is going to bother you."

Foxy didn't grow up planning to be proprietor of a bar that the New York Time's named one of the three best places to ring in the Millennium. He started out a fisherman. Soon, however, the surrounding seas and people that sailed them changed both his personal and professional life. He cast off with a charter captain who regularly brought his guests to visit. So the story goes, the charter captain grew so tired of Foxy chasing all his calmly cooks that he took the island boy on a near round-the-world cruise in search of a wife. The trip paid off in the calypsonian's meeting of a young Brit named, Tessa, in Gibraltar, who sailed back across the Atlantic with him and the rest is history. It was another woman, this time a charter chef, who persuaded Foxy to keep open the little beachside food and drink stand that he built for a one-day harvest festival back in 1968. The chef soon sailed off, but the bar and restaurant remained and grew into the party place it is today.

Foxy is an entertainer bar none, but this bright man is also a thinker. He's the fuel behind the Jost Van Dyke Preservation Society, a non-profit corporation dedicated to conserving the island's land, seas, living creatures and culture. Foxy's work in preservation and tourism earned him an audience with the Queen of England in 2009, where he received a medal honoring him as a Member of the Order of the British Empire. Foxy wear's his new title of 'Sir' with a smile. You'll still find him living in his little island paradise and barefoot on the beach and singing for his supper.

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