usvi-on-line
Umbrellas? We don't need no stinkin' umbrellas!(Pt. VI)
Umbrellas? We don't need no stinkin' umbrellas!(Pt. VI)
Link to Pt. I - http://virgin-islands-on-line.com/forum ... hp?t=17481
Link to Pt. II - http://virgin-islands-on-line.com/forum ... hp?t=17483
Link to Pt. III - http://virgin-islands-on-line.com/forum ... hp?t=17487
Link to Pt. IV - http://www.virgin-islands-on-line.com/f ... hp?t=17493
Link to Pt. V -http://www.virgin-islands-on-line.com/f ... hp?t=17586
Sunday, July 18 - Back to our routine. Up early(ish)? Check. Breakfast and coffee? Check. Snorkel gear packed up? Check. Cameras ready for action? Check. Wake up teenager? Check.
Time to go. But where? Maybe Haulover North? Nope - still too rough. Waterlemon? It's one of our absolute favorites, and where we normally go first on every trip, but the breakers I can see from the Annaberg parking lot don't sit too well with me.
Someplace new maybe? How about Cinnamon? Yes, it's true - we've never snorkeled at Cinnamon. As a matter of fact, apart from the time in 2002, when we led a min-caravan of rental jeeps from St. Thomas on a day trip to St. John while we were on a cruise, we haven't even set foot there.
My recollection from that trip was that we stopped very briefly, took some pictures from next to an old boarded up building, then continued our circumnavigation of the island. It certainly looks very different now. I'm pretty sure that all of the facilities, including the parking lot, have been put in since that short call all of those years ago. It's Sunday, the one day of our trip where there won't be any cruise ships calling on St. Thomas, so we deduced that it would be relatively "safe" to go to one of the north shore's most popular beaches.
It was still early, and it looked like other than the vehicles of the folks staying in the campground, we were the first ones in the parking lot. We walked to the beach, then down to the right, towards Cinnamon Cay. No one else was out snorkeling yet, although we had passed by a few early morning bathers splashing in the water as we walked down the beach.
The wind was blowing fairly hard, but the sun was out, so we geared up and made our way out toward the cay. We found a reef line that was a little to the right of the direct line to the cay, but we decided to take the scenic route over it.
When we made it out to the cay the wind was blowing in our faces and from right to left, so our circle around the back side ending up being rather quick since we were getting a push from the wind and waves. We had been told that the back side was the most interesting, being in deeper water and all of that. We did see a number of tarpon hanging out, which was cool, but perhaps the quick passage didn't allow us to appreciate it as much as we could have. But once we got on the protected side of the cay I was very impressed with all that we could see. Maybe I haven't been paying attention, but I'd say that this is a very underrated snorkel spot.
After we'd gone around the cay, and followed the reef line back to shore, we walked the length of the beach to the far west end. According to FF&4WD there is "excellent" snorkeling along the stretch from the west end of Cinnamon to Peter Bay. Based on that description we were a little disappointed at the lack of living, vibrant reef there, but we attributed that to the book being written before all or most of the development in that area. Still, even when you're mostly in patch reef and rubble there are cool things to see if you'll be patient and look for them.
Out near Peter Bay we saw this guy hanging out on the bottom:
I brought him up for a closer look;
As we turned to head back towards Cinnamon we encountered a very big school of fry that caught our collective eyes;
As we neared the place on the beach where we had got in the water I was just kind of relaxing, taking pictures of anything that looked remotely interesting.
Out over the sand I saw another squid - something I'd rarely seen before this trip, and now this was the third snorkel that I'd run across one;
I think he was threatening me - see how dark he got?
Maybe here he's flipping me off?
Then I saw why he was being so aggressive - he wasn't alone - he must have been the "scout" for the group!
The squid threat evaded, we got out of the water, and as we walked back along the beach towards the parking lot we could see that, despite the lack of a cruise ship in port across the sound, that it was turning into a very busy day at Cinnamon. I guess you put a larger than normal group of visitors on St. John (so I'd been told - this was our first trip that wasn't during the deep off season of late fall), add in the first really sunny morning in days, and the easy access/facilities of a place like Cinnamon, and I suppose you can expect a crowd!
The parking lot that had been virtually empty when we arrived was now packed! As we took our time drying off, drinking some water, and stowing our gear in the jeep, cars circled nearby waiting for us to vacate the parking spot like sharks zeroing in on their prey...
Back to the condo for grilled burgers and home fries for lunch, then a little nap.
I had forgot to take my phone with us when we went to the "north side" (we never had Verizon service out in Coral Bay so I had just got used to not bringing it with me), and I was afraid we'd might have missed a call from Deb and Jay, who said that if it was nice that they might bring their boat over from St. Thomas. Fortunately(?) it didn't turn out to be a good boat day after all, the morning sun notwithstanding. By the time we headed towards town to meet up with them for some pre-Beach Bar limin', the rain was back.
When we got close enough to town to get cell service we had a message to meet Deb and Jay at Spyglass (another first - we'd never even been upstairs when it was The Balcony). Bartender Nick was on top of things, and soon we were looking out over Cruz Bay, refreshing libations in hand...
We took advantage of a break in the rain to walk over to Mongoose Junction for a couple of beers at The Tap Room. While the guys were finishing our last round there the ladies went downstairs to do a little shopping. As we started to head downstairs to look for them someone called out "Augie". I turned to see a couple of guys that I didn't know and one of them introduced himself as Russ, then added "soxfan". Ahh, so it was true - he was on island! Some night time sandscript under the watchful eye of the St. John Spice Cam had some people wondering about that. I told him that we were headed to the Beach Bar for the forum meet and greet. He said that he wasn't sure if he should join in or not, but I told him that I hoped that he would.
As we got to the beach in front of the Beach Bar we saw Ruth and several others. When we told Ruth about Russ' presence, and his reluctance to join us she had us point him out to her, then went up to the bar to make sure that he knew that he (and Billy - his wife's cousin) were more than welcome to join us, and happily, she was able to convince him to do so.
augie and soxfan22:
Despite threatening skies and some intermittent showers, we had a nice gathering. In addition to the aforementioned soxfan22, it was a real pleasure to meet liamsaunt and her husband, hotrns and his wife (no - they are NOT nurses - funny story!). It was good to see sea-nile again and to meet her husband. At one point in time, a bunch, if not all, of us headed, en masse, down to the dinghy dock to form a welcome ashore party for Captain John! While Ruth was attempting to herd us together for a Spice Cam picture we saw Pia's husband, with a handful of shots, waiting to greet some incoming guests at the ferry dock (apparently Pia was at home furiously getting their home ready for company). This photo didn't get all of us that were there that night, but most of us made it in it:
About the time my thoughts started turning heavily to food Leslie let me know that Deb and Jay said they were headed to Cafe Roma and we were welcome to join them, but it had to be now! Great - that's one less decision I'd have to make...
We got seated at the bar - Jason and the ladies ordered a pizza, while Jay and I each ordered one of the specials, some kind of cajun spiced chicken and pasta.If you've ever been to Cafe Roma I don't need to tell you that we had leftovers to take home with us! After seeing Deb and Jay to the ferry terminal we headed back across the island to Coral Bay and a very welcome night's sleep!
Link to Pt. II - http://virgin-islands-on-line.com/forum ... hp?t=17483
Link to Pt. III - http://virgin-islands-on-line.com/forum ... hp?t=17487
Link to Pt. IV - http://www.virgin-islands-on-line.com/f ... hp?t=17493
Link to Pt. V -http://www.virgin-islands-on-line.com/f ... hp?t=17586
Sunday, July 18 - Back to our routine. Up early(ish)? Check. Breakfast and coffee? Check. Snorkel gear packed up? Check. Cameras ready for action? Check. Wake up teenager? Check.
Time to go. But where? Maybe Haulover North? Nope - still too rough. Waterlemon? It's one of our absolute favorites, and where we normally go first on every trip, but the breakers I can see from the Annaberg parking lot don't sit too well with me.
Someplace new maybe? How about Cinnamon? Yes, it's true - we've never snorkeled at Cinnamon. As a matter of fact, apart from the time in 2002, when we led a min-caravan of rental jeeps from St. Thomas on a day trip to St. John while we were on a cruise, we haven't even set foot there.
My recollection from that trip was that we stopped very briefly, took some pictures from next to an old boarded up building, then continued our circumnavigation of the island. It certainly looks very different now. I'm pretty sure that all of the facilities, including the parking lot, have been put in since that short call all of those years ago. It's Sunday, the one day of our trip where there won't be any cruise ships calling on St. Thomas, so we deduced that it would be relatively "safe" to go to one of the north shore's most popular beaches.
It was still early, and it looked like other than the vehicles of the folks staying in the campground, we were the first ones in the parking lot. We walked to the beach, then down to the right, towards Cinnamon Cay. No one else was out snorkeling yet, although we had passed by a few early morning bathers splashing in the water as we walked down the beach.
The wind was blowing fairly hard, but the sun was out, so we geared up and made our way out toward the cay. We found a reef line that was a little to the right of the direct line to the cay, but we decided to take the scenic route over it.
When we made it out to the cay the wind was blowing in our faces and from right to left, so our circle around the back side ending up being rather quick since we were getting a push from the wind and waves. We had been told that the back side was the most interesting, being in deeper water and all of that. We did see a number of tarpon hanging out, which was cool, but perhaps the quick passage didn't allow us to appreciate it as much as we could have. But once we got on the protected side of the cay I was very impressed with all that we could see. Maybe I haven't been paying attention, but I'd say that this is a very underrated snorkel spot.
After we'd gone around the cay, and followed the reef line back to shore, we walked the length of the beach to the far west end. According to FF&4WD there is "excellent" snorkeling along the stretch from the west end of Cinnamon to Peter Bay. Based on that description we were a little disappointed at the lack of living, vibrant reef there, but we attributed that to the book being written before all or most of the development in that area. Still, even when you're mostly in patch reef and rubble there are cool things to see if you'll be patient and look for them.
Out near Peter Bay we saw this guy hanging out on the bottom:
I brought him up for a closer look;
As we turned to head back towards Cinnamon we encountered a very big school of fry that caught our collective eyes;
As we neared the place on the beach where we had got in the water I was just kind of relaxing, taking pictures of anything that looked remotely interesting.
Out over the sand I saw another squid - something I'd rarely seen before this trip, and now this was the third snorkel that I'd run across one;
I think he was threatening me - see how dark he got?
Maybe here he's flipping me off?
Then I saw why he was being so aggressive - he wasn't alone - he must have been the "scout" for the group!
The squid threat evaded, we got out of the water, and as we walked back along the beach towards the parking lot we could see that, despite the lack of a cruise ship in port across the sound, that it was turning into a very busy day at Cinnamon. I guess you put a larger than normal group of visitors on St. John (so I'd been told - this was our first trip that wasn't during the deep off season of late fall), add in the first really sunny morning in days, and the easy access/facilities of a place like Cinnamon, and I suppose you can expect a crowd!
The parking lot that had been virtually empty when we arrived was now packed! As we took our time drying off, drinking some water, and stowing our gear in the jeep, cars circled nearby waiting for us to vacate the parking spot like sharks zeroing in on their prey...
Back to the condo for grilled burgers and home fries for lunch, then a little nap.
I had forgot to take my phone with us when we went to the "north side" (we never had Verizon service out in Coral Bay so I had just got used to not bringing it with me), and I was afraid we'd might have missed a call from Deb and Jay, who said that if it was nice that they might bring their boat over from St. Thomas. Fortunately(?) it didn't turn out to be a good boat day after all, the morning sun notwithstanding. By the time we headed towards town to meet up with them for some pre-Beach Bar limin', the rain was back.
When we got close enough to town to get cell service we had a message to meet Deb and Jay at Spyglass (another first - we'd never even been upstairs when it was The Balcony). Bartender Nick was on top of things, and soon we were looking out over Cruz Bay, refreshing libations in hand...
We took advantage of a break in the rain to walk over to Mongoose Junction for a couple of beers at The Tap Room. While the guys were finishing our last round there the ladies went downstairs to do a little shopping. As we started to head downstairs to look for them someone called out "Augie". I turned to see a couple of guys that I didn't know and one of them introduced himself as Russ, then added "soxfan". Ahh, so it was true - he was on island! Some night time sandscript under the watchful eye of the St. John Spice Cam had some people wondering about that. I told him that we were headed to the Beach Bar for the forum meet and greet. He said that he wasn't sure if he should join in or not, but I told him that I hoped that he would.
As we got to the beach in front of the Beach Bar we saw Ruth and several others. When we told Ruth about Russ' presence, and his reluctance to join us she had us point him out to her, then went up to the bar to make sure that he knew that he (and Billy - his wife's cousin) were more than welcome to join us, and happily, she was able to convince him to do so.
augie and soxfan22:
Despite threatening skies and some intermittent showers, we had a nice gathering. In addition to the aforementioned soxfan22, it was a real pleasure to meet liamsaunt and her husband, hotrns and his wife (no - they are NOT nurses - funny story!). It was good to see sea-nile again and to meet her husband. At one point in time, a bunch, if not all, of us headed, en masse, down to the dinghy dock to form a welcome ashore party for Captain John! While Ruth was attempting to herd us together for a Spice Cam picture we saw Pia's husband, with a handful of shots, waiting to greet some incoming guests at the ferry dock (apparently Pia was at home furiously getting their home ready for company). This photo didn't get all of us that were there that night, but most of us made it in it:
About the time my thoughts started turning heavily to food Leslie let me know that Deb and Jay said they were headed to Cafe Roma and we were welcome to join them, but it had to be now! Great - that's one less decision I'd have to make...
We got seated at the bar - Jason and the ladies ordered a pizza, while Jay and I each ordered one of the specials, some kind of cajun spiced chicken and pasta.If you've ever been to Cafe Roma I don't need to tell you that we had leftovers to take home with us! After seeing Deb and Jay to the ferry terminal we headed back across the island to Coral Bay and a very welcome night's sleep!
Come see us!
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Xislandgirl
- Posts: 4163
- Joined: Tue Aug 08, 2006 4:03 pm
- Location: Slightly left of center
Nice Augie!
Trip report 2009
http://www.virgin-islands-on-line.com/f ... highlight=
Trip report 2008
So good, so good, so good!
http://www.virgin-islands-on-line.com/f ... highlight=
http://www.virgin-islands-on-line.com/f ... highlight=
Trip report 2008
So good, so good, so good!
http://www.virgin-islands-on-line.com/f ... highlight=
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bayer40601
- Posts: 612
- Joined: Sun Oct 14, 2007 1:06 pm
- Location: Kentucky