usvi-on-line
McPenguin5 discovers Salt Pond beach
-
mcpenguin5
- Posts: 114
- Joined: Wed Nov 01, 2006 8:05 am
- Location: Maryland
McPenguin5 discovers Salt Pond beach
Wednesday
When we woke up, the power was still out. I was surprised, as I thought that surely, by now, they would have fixed it. We had our breakfast and talked about where to hit today. After the experience at Frances yesterday, we decided to go to a south shore beach where the northern swells wouldn't affect the snorkeling. Salt Pond was one we had planned to hit, and we decided that today was the day.
After packing up the car again, we headed on out, eager to see Salt Pond. We have never gotten there on our other trips, so we couldn't wait to see if it lived up to what we had read in our St. John books. When we got there, we grabbed the last parking space open in the little parking area. We unloaded our stuff and started walking. Someone had written previously that the 5 minute walk proclaimed in "Feet, Fins And Four-Wheel Drive" was overly optimistic. Jim, never one to be inaccurate, checked his watch as we set out.
It was a 4.5 minute walk till we hit the beach, and another 4 minute until we found a spot that was uninhabited by other beach goers. Everyone had headed down to the south shore with all the rough water on the north side of the island. We still had plenty of room, and the beach looked gorgeous.
We settled our stuff into a spot with some shade, and headed in. The water was so clear, and we were seeing lots of little fishies. Soon after we were in, everyone called out that there were rays to be seen, and we headed over to see them. I finally saw a ray! He wasn't very big, and he didn't seem to mind that everyone was staring at him. We finally got bored with looking at him, he wasn't really doing much, and we started snorkeling around elsewhere.
Helene suggested we try snorkeling around the rocks on the far right side of the beach. We walked around as far as we could and went into the water to swim over. It was fascinating, and lots of beautiful coral. We came up to the beach where there was a lot of rounded blue stones, and sat for a while to talk about what we had seen. The current really pulled here, and the rocks were slippery, so we didn't sit there long.
We snorkeled back through the center of the bay, over lots of sea grasses. We saw turtles as we went, and found our way on in to our spot. We went up on the beach again, looking at all the stuff that was washed up on the sand. Pieces of old coral, strange rocks, a HUGE tree branch bleached out by the sun, and various odd pieces that looked like small sponges. We hit the water a bit more before we decided it was time to go back to the house.
There were people just arriving when we were leaving, and we realized that this beach is a perfect spot to watch a sunset. People were grouping up to do just that, wine bottles in tow.
We found the walk back to the car was a bit more difficult, it is up an incline that didn't seem very important when coming down. We took a bit longer than 5 minutes going back to the car. JJ noticed that there was a cactus at the entrance to the trail that had a Presidente beer bottle in it. He kept laughing about the cactus that grows Presidente beer.
We headed off up the road and soon found the Tourist Trap we had read so much about was open. We had no need to say anything, John pulled in and parked. We all tumbled out of the car, eager to find what this notorious place had to offer us. All the seating was at tables out on the lawn.
There was only one other table of customers when we arrived, and I was amazed to see it was the lady I saw working at St. John Spice when I had been there on Monday (we were killing time before the Reef Bay trail hike and went there to see what we might want to pick up.) She and her husband were eating and playing a game of Scrabble on a miniature board. Every table had a game of some sort on it.
We looked over the menu and ordered. Jim and John both got the Lobster Rolls. The owner actually catches his own lobster to make these, and he doesn't make them unless he has caught some. Helene and I had the meatball sub. He makes his own meatballs and sauce from scratch, and he isn't stingy with the meat! It was delicious, and very satisfying.
The talk was friendly and fun, everyone in good spirits. A pickup truck drove by and the driver waved to everyone. A young fellow pulled up, got out and fetched a beer for himself from the cooler (all the bottled beer is kept buried in ice in a cooler) and sat down to chat. He was hysterically funny, and we were having so much fun, we stayed longer than we needed to to finish our dinners.
We topped off our meals with frozen Snickers bars! I can't imagine a more delightful way to finish our day of snorkeling at Salt Pond beach. We all talked about where we were from and what we were doing on St. John. We watched the antics of the dogs and a cat.
Jim wandered around and found that their house has a gorgeous view out over the water from the side.
We talked about the power outage, and were told that power had been mostly restored. We had our hopes high as we headed back to the house.
Lo! We had lights again. We could shower again. We didn't need to dip buckets of water out of the pool to flush the toilets now! Happiness is having the power restored.
We all carried out stuff back in from the car and proceeded to go around putting things away. Helene and I set to getting some laundry done. We had packed lightly, planning a mid-week laundry to get us through, and some of us had run out of clean clothes. The house has a wonderful Whirlpool front loader, huge capacity and a matching dryer. Oh joy, clean clothes.
We sat around the pool while the laundry churned, waiting for time to switch loads. One time when I went to check the progress of our laundry, I got out of the pool and, dripping wet, slid on the tile walkway. Everyone came rushing over, but I was okay. I had only scraped my ankle on the edge of the tile on the way down and came up a nasty bruise on the inside of my right foot where it hit. Nothing broken or sprained.
Every time I walked down that way while we were there after that, everyone felt compelled to tell me to be careful.
Laundry done, we all headed inside. Jim got on the computer. We had discovered the day before that the leather jacket he had worn on the plane from home had been left behind when we packed up at the Point Pleasant Resort. I had hung it in the closet because it is so heavy, and forgot to get it when we left. Jim emailed them and asked if they had found it. With the power out, we hadn't been able to use the computer, and we didn't know their phone number.
We got an email from them right back saying yes, they had found it, and would be glad to mail it to us if we would give them an address. He emailed them our home address. I couldn't believe they were willing to pay the postage and take the trouble for people who had only stayed there one night! I really like that place, we will be back. (When the coat arrived on the Monday after we arrived home, we saw they had paid $5 in postage, and packaged it very nicely. )
We all decided that it was time to head in to bed, and sleep we did. Snorkeling is hard work, I was exhausted.
Snore......
When we woke up, the power was still out. I was surprised, as I thought that surely, by now, they would have fixed it. We had our breakfast and talked about where to hit today. After the experience at Frances yesterday, we decided to go to a south shore beach where the northern swells wouldn't affect the snorkeling. Salt Pond was one we had planned to hit, and we decided that today was the day.
After packing up the car again, we headed on out, eager to see Salt Pond. We have never gotten there on our other trips, so we couldn't wait to see if it lived up to what we had read in our St. John books. When we got there, we grabbed the last parking space open in the little parking area. We unloaded our stuff and started walking. Someone had written previously that the 5 minute walk proclaimed in "Feet, Fins And Four-Wheel Drive" was overly optimistic. Jim, never one to be inaccurate, checked his watch as we set out.
It was a 4.5 minute walk till we hit the beach, and another 4 minute until we found a spot that was uninhabited by other beach goers. Everyone had headed down to the south shore with all the rough water on the north side of the island. We still had plenty of room, and the beach looked gorgeous.
We settled our stuff into a spot with some shade, and headed in. The water was so clear, and we were seeing lots of little fishies. Soon after we were in, everyone called out that there were rays to be seen, and we headed over to see them. I finally saw a ray! He wasn't very big, and he didn't seem to mind that everyone was staring at him. We finally got bored with looking at him, he wasn't really doing much, and we started snorkeling around elsewhere.
Helene suggested we try snorkeling around the rocks on the far right side of the beach. We walked around as far as we could and went into the water to swim over. It was fascinating, and lots of beautiful coral. We came up to the beach where there was a lot of rounded blue stones, and sat for a while to talk about what we had seen. The current really pulled here, and the rocks were slippery, so we didn't sit there long.
We snorkeled back through the center of the bay, over lots of sea grasses. We saw turtles as we went, and found our way on in to our spot. We went up on the beach again, looking at all the stuff that was washed up on the sand. Pieces of old coral, strange rocks, a HUGE tree branch bleached out by the sun, and various odd pieces that looked like small sponges. We hit the water a bit more before we decided it was time to go back to the house.
There were people just arriving when we were leaving, and we realized that this beach is a perfect spot to watch a sunset. People were grouping up to do just that, wine bottles in tow.
We found the walk back to the car was a bit more difficult, it is up an incline that didn't seem very important when coming down. We took a bit longer than 5 minutes going back to the car. JJ noticed that there was a cactus at the entrance to the trail that had a Presidente beer bottle in it. He kept laughing about the cactus that grows Presidente beer.
We headed off up the road and soon found the Tourist Trap we had read so much about was open. We had no need to say anything, John pulled in and parked. We all tumbled out of the car, eager to find what this notorious place had to offer us. All the seating was at tables out on the lawn.
There was only one other table of customers when we arrived, and I was amazed to see it was the lady I saw working at St. John Spice when I had been there on Monday (we were killing time before the Reef Bay trail hike and went there to see what we might want to pick up.) She and her husband were eating and playing a game of Scrabble on a miniature board. Every table had a game of some sort on it.
We looked over the menu and ordered. Jim and John both got the Lobster Rolls. The owner actually catches his own lobster to make these, and he doesn't make them unless he has caught some. Helene and I had the meatball sub. He makes his own meatballs and sauce from scratch, and he isn't stingy with the meat! It was delicious, and very satisfying.
The talk was friendly and fun, everyone in good spirits. A pickup truck drove by and the driver waved to everyone. A young fellow pulled up, got out and fetched a beer for himself from the cooler (all the bottled beer is kept buried in ice in a cooler) and sat down to chat. He was hysterically funny, and we were having so much fun, we stayed longer than we needed to to finish our dinners.
We topped off our meals with frozen Snickers bars! I can't imagine a more delightful way to finish our day of snorkeling at Salt Pond beach. We all talked about where we were from and what we were doing on St. John. We watched the antics of the dogs and a cat.
Jim wandered around and found that their house has a gorgeous view out over the water from the side.
We talked about the power outage, and were told that power had been mostly restored. We had our hopes high as we headed back to the house.
Lo! We had lights again. We could shower again. We didn't need to dip buckets of water out of the pool to flush the toilets now! Happiness is having the power restored.
We all carried out stuff back in from the car and proceeded to go around putting things away. Helene and I set to getting some laundry done. We had packed lightly, planning a mid-week laundry to get us through, and some of us had run out of clean clothes. The house has a wonderful Whirlpool front loader, huge capacity and a matching dryer. Oh joy, clean clothes.
We sat around the pool while the laundry churned, waiting for time to switch loads. One time when I went to check the progress of our laundry, I got out of the pool and, dripping wet, slid on the tile walkway. Everyone came rushing over, but I was okay. I had only scraped my ankle on the edge of the tile on the way down and came up a nasty bruise on the inside of my right foot where it hit. Nothing broken or sprained.
Every time I walked down that way while we were there after that, everyone felt compelled to tell me to be careful.
Laundry done, we all headed inside. Jim got on the computer. We had discovered the day before that the leather jacket he had worn on the plane from home had been left behind when we packed up at the Point Pleasant Resort. I had hung it in the closet because it is so heavy, and forgot to get it when we left. Jim emailed them and asked if they had found it. With the power out, we hadn't been able to use the computer, and we didn't know their phone number.
We got an email from them right back saying yes, they had found it, and would be glad to mail it to us if we would give them an address. He emailed them our home address. I couldn't believe they were willing to pay the postage and take the trouble for people who had only stayed there one night! I really like that place, we will be back. (When the coat arrived on the Monday after we arrived home, we saw they had paid $5 in postage, and packaged it very nicely. )
We all decided that it was time to head in to bed, and sleep we did. Snorkeling is hard work, I was exhausted.
Snore......
-
chicagoans
- Posts: 1586
- Joined: Thu Jan 18, 2007 2:51 pm
- Location: IL
We did the same thing as you, headed south along with the rest of the Island. Salt Pond they were lined down the road so we headed for Little Lamshure must have been at least 15 cars they were lined up there too 
at least it was calm though.
Just caught up on your great report. Sounds like a wonderful time. Thanks for sharing.
Congrats on conquering the Reef Bay Trail. Be glad that you took the guided tour all the way down and didn't climb back up to the top. Twice is enough for me. I've decided that is just a tad more work than I am willing to do on vacation....even with the promise of a medicinal recovery rum punch or two on the Chateau Bordeaux porch afterward.
Congrats on conquering the Reef Bay Trail. Be glad that you took the guided tour all the way down and didn't climb back up to the top. Twice is enough for me. I've decided that is just a tad more work than I am willing to do on vacation....even with the promise of a medicinal recovery rum punch or two on the Chateau Bordeaux porch afterward.