We bring the canned tuna and walnuts with us -- cheaper that way 1/2 cup shelled chopped walnuts (2 ounces) 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil 1 large onion, roughly chopped 1 ½ cups cherry tomatoes, halved 3 garlic cloves, minced 3/4 pound spaghettini 1/4 cup minced parsley freshly ground pepper 1/4 cu...

Here is what the trail bandit says about the red lines. "The “Other Trails” shown on the St. John Map 2010 as dashed red lines are not numbered on the printed version of the map. You can download a description of these trails from the Store section. GPS track files for these trails are availabl...

If everybody locks then the crooks don't get a clue. Locking is helping your neighbor.

Just to try a different idea -- why not stay on St Thomas? If you head for St. John you are going to eat up about four hours (over a third of your time on the island) just traveling. Grab a cab and head over to Magens Bay -- it has a restaurant, beach rentals, and is the favorite beach of locals. (i...

If you are at all interested in hiking, look at the maps done by the Trail Bandit. A great way to identify all the different bays. http://www.trailbandit.org/ I liked the maps so much that I did versions that I can save to my smart phone http://testbed.cis.drexel.edu/stj/ We wouldn't miss the mangro...

Here is a map. Coral Bay is in the upper right.
http://testbed.cis.drexel.edu/stj/0055SouthEast.jpg

Unless you are prone to cold, a sweater is probably not needed. The most versatile over-garment would be a light long sleeve cotton zip-up.

My problem with rashguards is that they are cold (evaporation) when you come out of the water.

The width of the part of the creature that is shown in the picture was about 20-30 inches across.

The photo was taken Dec 28. At first the creature just looked like a lump on a rock. We hung around for about 10 minutes to get this shot.

Octopus, west side of Waterlemon Cay. In about 12 feet of water.

Green Sea Turtle, Salt Pond Bay
(woops, a bit big)

We sailed with Captain Bob on the Spree II for $70 per person (7 people max) for a full day. He offers half days at $50pp. 340-771-3734, 340-626-5341

I did screen captures of the Trail Bandit's maps and downloaded them to my smart phone. Very useful.

The Daily News is running their annual vote for the best of the VI January 7, 8, and 9.

If you are on Facebook you can vote at

Facebook.com/BestOfTheVI

According to the U.S. Customs web site, passport cards MAY NOT be used for boarding airplanes

https://help.cbp.gov/app/answers/detail ... /related/1