Making the Move to St. John: This Couple Did & You Can Too

From time to time, we post about businesses that are for sale here on island. And oftentimes many of you comment about how you’re ready to make the leap to island life. Well today we want to tell you about one couple who recently did just that. Meet Ben and Jen Steed.

Like many people, Ben and Jen first came to St. John on a quick day trip during a cruise trip back in 2012. They only spent a few hours on island, but at the time they knew they were destined to return. Less than a year later, just after Ben’s first deployment to Afghanistan (Ben was a Marine pilot for six years with a total of nine years serving on active duty in the Marine Corps), they came back to the island for a whole week.

During that trip, Ben and Jen hopped on Dolphin Water Taxi and spent the day over on Jost Van Dyke. While they were there, they met a group of fellow Texans and Aggies (Ben and Jen both went to Texas A&M for college). The group had a great day together over on Jost and even decided to do a second boat trip that week – this time on Born to Rhumb. They met then-owners Shane and Andi and had a fantastic time.

Fast forward to early 2015. Ben and Jen decided to get married on the island. Jen started following News of St. John to keep tabs on what was happening on island while they were living out in San Diego. (Great decision if you ask me! 🙂 ). It was then that Jen first saw a posting about how Born to Rhumb had just listed for sale. Like a ton of you have probably said to your husbands, wives, girlfriends, boyfriends, friends or family, Jen said to Ben, “We should buy it!” She was teasing, but Ben decided to contact Andi anyway to get some details. For the next few months, they went back and forth about whether or not they were ready to make such a big move … well they decided to.

“If it weren’t for the fellow Texans we met on the Dolphin Water Taxi, as well as seeing the company for sale on News of St John, who knows where we would be now!” Ben recently told us.

Ben and Jen moved to the island permanently last December and have been running Born to Rhumb ever since. For those of you not familiar with Born to Rhumb, it’s a 15-passenger, Coast Guard-inspected charter boat that’s been operating on St. John for the past 11 years. It’s a large, comfortable and well maintained boat that can bring you to a variety of destinations in both the US and British Virgin Islands.Check out a few pics:

For more information on Born to Rhumb, go and check out its website at www.borntorhumb.com You can also follow it on Facebook here, on Twitter here or on Instagram here.

So folks, if Ben and Jen can do it, so can you. 🙂