My party of 5 took the inter-island ferry on Friday, Feb 10th. It did leave Red Hook at around 8am, but stopped at St. John for about an hour before heading to Tortola and Customs check-in. We didn't have any issue with rudeness, but were disappointed in wasting such a block of time sitting at St. John. Customs took far too long on Tortola, as well. "Island time" is one thing, but it took another 45 minutes to move the 20 - 30 passengers through the customs line. All said, we left St. Thomas at 8:15am and didn't get to Jost Van Dyke until 11am. We did, however, have a GREAT time on Jost Van Dyke!

My trip was on the 3rd. I'm glad it worked out for you. I would just suggest that travelers make double sure on times. There was no one at the Red Hook dock from Inter-Island when we went. And you are right, Jost Van Dyke is well worth the bad service you have to endure to get there.

So the ferry boat on Fridays usually leaves from Red Hook- stops in St. John and then goes to Tortola before you go Jost Van Dyke? I thought that the ferry went straight from St. John to Jost Van Dyke and it only took about 45 minutes from St. John. I thought customs was on Jost Van Dyke.That ferry from Jost Van Dyke coming back must never leave at 9:15am. Did you leave Jost Van Dyke by 3:00pm?

I talked to InterIsland ferry a few days ago. The women I spoke with was pleasant and helpful. She said that I needed to be at the ferry dock on St. Thomas by 7:30am to catch the 8am ferry. She said nothing about having to go over to St. John first so I hope Larry's experience is not the norm.

To start at 7:30am and not get to Jost Van Dyke until 11am seems like a lot of wasted vacation time to me.

Does anyone know of a better way to go if you want to spend the a day on the island without having to rent your own boat?

I was under the same impression you were about the schedule. I didn't even know Tortola was part of the route until we pulled into customs there. I also spoke with a pleasant person the phone who told me the same thing you were told. But at 7:30am, there was no one at the dock and no one answering the Inter-Island phone.
The return did leave right around 3, and it went straight to St. John.

The return ferry arrived at the Jost dock at around 3:15pm. DON'T BE LATE! They loaded up passengers and were off again in about 5 minutes.

There is a customs office on Jost - but for some reason the ferry checks you in AND out on Tortola. The stop on St John is to get on a different boat. There is usually an InterIsland captain there so you don't have to pay the extra ferry ticket price to get to St John.

Definately be on the ferry dock on time as VILover said - or you will find yourself spending an unplanned night at Ivans 🙂