usvi-on-line
STJ Fall 2010 Trip Report - Day 8
STJ Fall 2010 Trip Report - Day 8
Link to Day 1 - http://www.virgin-islands-on-line.com/f ... hp?t=18383
Link to Day 2 - http://www.virgin-islands-on-line.com/f ... hp?t=18387
Link to Day 3 - http://www.virgin-islands-on-line.com/f ... hp?t=18398
Link to Day 4 - http://www.virgin-islands-on-line.com/f ... hp?t=18434
Link to Day 5 - http://www.virgin-islands-on-line.com/f ... hp?t=18446
Link to Day 6 - http://www.virgin-islands-on-line.com/f ... hp?t=18454
Link to Day 7 - http://www.virgin-islands-on-line.com/f ... hp?t=18490
Wow - Thursday already! It's hard to believe that one week ago we were waking up at home, so anxious and excited about this trip! And so far, as we had expected, it hadn't disappointed. Today's adventure would be a first for us - a dinghy day.
The day before, when we were doing our post beach/pre-happy hour chores, the couple from Switzerland that we'd given a ride to earlier in the week were walking on the road past our villa, so I called out to them. While talking to them I learned that to this point they still had not rented a vehicle, but were getting around by walking, hitching rides, and taking what public transportation they needed and could find. I told them that we'd be leaving the villa at eight in the morning and going into Cruz Bay, and they could catch a ride with us if they'd like to. They eagerly agreed, and sure enough, as we walked outside to put our stuff into the jeep, they were there. We dropped them off by the ferry dock, where they were going to wait for the bus to take them out to Salt Pond Bay, then did a quick lap around town before opting to park for the day at Slimman's.
From there we walked over to Deli Grotto to buy sandwiches for lunch, then next door, to the prearranged rendezvous location in front of Margarita Phil's, where we met Wendy of Calypso Charters. We filled out the waiver forms and talked for a bit about her and her husband's journey to becoming St. John residents while we waited for the rest of our party (fellow forumite Chet and his wife, aka Mr. & Mrs. Random) to show up. Wendy thought it was interesting that we'd never met Chet and the missus, had no idea what he even looked like, yet had arranged to share a day on the water with them. Soon enough they arrived, and after introductions all around (Mrs. Random's real name is Barbara), we got the briefing and the dinghy checked out, and we were on our own.
The rough plan for the day was to head to Waterlemon to snorkel, then to Mary Point, then to wherever the conditions and our whims took us. On the ride out we were headed into a moderately strong headwind and accompanying chop, and as the passenger manning the bow, I got bounced around a good bit. I think after I caught air really good one time, Captain Random took pity on me and eased off on the throttle a little.
As we neared Denis Beach we saw a group hanging out in/by the water near the point and mentioned to the captain that the La Papaya gang planned to be there this morning. We motored in close enough to see that it was them, gave a loud whistle, then, once we had their attention, a wave.
It seemed to take them a second or two to figure out who these crazy folks in a dinghy waving at them were, but when they did, we got a hearty round of waves back!
Before too long, we were rounding Leinster Point and got a great view that I'd never seen before:
The good captain eased us up to the red dinghy mooring ball, tied us off, then there was nothing left to do but get into that water! Despite a somewhat stiff current that we were swimming into as we made our way to the cay, we could see that the water was a good deal calmer and much clearer than it had been when we were here just a few days earlier.
As we were completing our counter clockwise circumnavigation of the cay, and approaching the sandy point, I noticed that on this day there were a lot of starfish here in the shallows, as opposed to mostly being out in deeper water where we see them more often.
We noticed that Barb was back in the dinghy, so we swam over that way and she said that she'd had enough of this particular site for the day, and was content to hang out in the boat. She pointed out where Chet was, between the cay and the rocks, so Leslie and I decided to swim around in the deep area just a little beyond where the dinghy was tied off.
I observed that the starfish weren't confined to the shallows only - there were tons of them on the bottom in deeper water as well. I was trying to see how many of them I could count that were in my line of sight at any one time when all of a sudden I heard a very loud, very shrill, and very excited shriek!
Before I even looked up, I knew that this could only mean one thing - Leslie had, at long last, seen her much anticipated eagle ray!!! I looked up, spotted her in the water, and went in the direction of the screams emanating from out of the top of her snorkel. A quick glance topside towards the dinghy let me know that the commotion had attracted Barb's attention as well - and as she had already been briefed on the quest, she knew what was in the water with us also.
As I approached Leslie on the surface, her excitement was palpable. Fortunately this eagle ray (she later named him Cooper!), looked like he was in no hurry to move on. I was afraid that if and when this moment ever arrived, it might be a quick and speedy swim by, with little opportunity to enjoy and/or chronicle it, but we lucked out.
I realized that Leslie's camera was floating on the water next to her, tethered to her wrist, but not being put to use. Correctly surmising that she was just in too much of a state of awe to even think about that, I slipped the camera off of her wrist, positioned myself above the ray, er, Cooper, who was some thirty feet or so below us, took a big gulp of air, and propelled myself downward to attempt to get a picture of him that might possibly do the moment justice.
As you can imagine, I was pretty highly motivated to do the best that I could to capture this moment, and it's a good thing that I was. Frantically clearing my ears with one hand while I put every ounce of energy that I could muster into descending quickly before he got away, I managed to get reasonably close enough to try and take a picture, and pressed the shutter button on the camera just as I realized that the monitor on the back of the camera was dark! OK - no problem, it must have gone into sleep mode, so pressing that button should "wake it up". Nope - still dark - apparently the camera had been idle long enough to shut itself off, so I pressed the power button.
I'm sure that the Canon D10 turns on in a relatively short amount of time, but twenty feet or so underwater, almost out of breath, and worried that my subject would swim out of picture range at any second, it sure didn't seem that way to me! Once the LCD screen came to life I pointed, squeezed, and rocketed towards the surface and some air! And it was worth it!
"Cooper" hung around the area we were in for about ten minutes, then, either annoyed by the constant attention, or off in search of something he wasn't finding there, decided to leave. I don't know how long we had been in the water at this point, but I'm pretty sure that we had exceeded Leslie's normal time before she gets cold. We made it back to the dinghy and amid much excited chatter and maybe a few grateful tears, we untied and took off for the next stop, Mary Point.
We'd heard that the snorkeling around the back side of Mary Point was very good, and since it's relatively inaccessible, the reefs and coral would likely be close to pristine condition. Alas, we weren't to find out on this day. The way the boat strained against the bow line once we were tied off confirmed our suspicions that the current was just going to be too strong to try to snorkel here. The direction of the wind and shape of the cay didn't really provide any place that was in the lee of the wind, so we took one last long look then motored on.
Wendy had told us during our briefing that she didn't believe that there were any mooring balls to tie off to off of Henley Cay, but since we time and transportation we decided to go and find out for ourselves.
As it turns out, in fact, there are mooring balls here. The current appeared to be much tamer than what we'd seen off of Mary Point, so we tied off and went in. The water and the coral were beautiful here. Right next to the boat, and in the area that was just downcurrent from there that day, it looked like we were in a giant aquarium! Unfortunately, once in the water we could tell that if we drifted very far in that direction we'd likely have a hard time getting back to the boat, so we swam around in other directions looking for less current. There was a lot of patch reef, and several isolated coral heads teeming with life.
Barb, Leslie, and myself eventually made it back to the boat, but Captain Random swam to the beach and explored the island for a short while. Once he got back, we had lunch on board, then headed back in the general direction of Cruz Bay, via the north shore beaches. The decision was made to moor off of the point that divides Saloman and Honeymoon.
We got in and began the swim in towards the point, Chet in the lead, me trailing, and Leslie close behind. Or at least she was...
When I turned around to check on her she was heading in the wrong direction. As I made my way close to her she picked her head up out of the water, and once again had a look on her face that was a combination of a beaming smile and tears of joy. Eagle ray #2 had been spotted. This one was a fly by, and she was the only one of us that saw it, but if I'd have picked just one of us to see it...
We had a very nice snorkel around both sides of the point. Water was nice and calm, visibility was good, the coral was fairly healthy, especially considering how popular these beaches are, and there were some animals that were out and about underwater.
Back to the boat, then back to the National Park dock to return the SS Calypso to her berth there. Wendy checked her out, gave us the thumbs up, then the captain and crew made our way to The Beach Bar for a round of drinks (or two) to celebrate a great day on the water, making new friendships, and last, but certainly not least, the successful culmination of Leslie's long standing quest to see a spotted eagle ray in the waters off of St. John!
A dinner of grilled chicken and a Fish Bay sunset completed a fantastic day!
Link to Day 2 - http://www.virgin-islands-on-line.com/f ... hp?t=18387
Link to Day 3 - http://www.virgin-islands-on-line.com/f ... hp?t=18398
Link to Day 4 - http://www.virgin-islands-on-line.com/f ... hp?t=18434
Link to Day 5 - http://www.virgin-islands-on-line.com/f ... hp?t=18446
Link to Day 6 - http://www.virgin-islands-on-line.com/f ... hp?t=18454
Link to Day 7 - http://www.virgin-islands-on-line.com/f ... hp?t=18490
Wow - Thursday already! It's hard to believe that one week ago we were waking up at home, so anxious and excited about this trip! And so far, as we had expected, it hadn't disappointed. Today's adventure would be a first for us - a dinghy day.
The day before, when we were doing our post beach/pre-happy hour chores, the couple from Switzerland that we'd given a ride to earlier in the week were walking on the road past our villa, so I called out to them. While talking to them I learned that to this point they still had not rented a vehicle, but were getting around by walking, hitching rides, and taking what public transportation they needed and could find. I told them that we'd be leaving the villa at eight in the morning and going into Cruz Bay, and they could catch a ride with us if they'd like to. They eagerly agreed, and sure enough, as we walked outside to put our stuff into the jeep, they were there. We dropped them off by the ferry dock, where they were going to wait for the bus to take them out to Salt Pond Bay, then did a quick lap around town before opting to park for the day at Slimman's.
From there we walked over to Deli Grotto to buy sandwiches for lunch, then next door, to the prearranged rendezvous location in front of Margarita Phil's, where we met Wendy of Calypso Charters. We filled out the waiver forms and talked for a bit about her and her husband's journey to becoming St. John residents while we waited for the rest of our party (fellow forumite Chet and his wife, aka Mr. & Mrs. Random) to show up. Wendy thought it was interesting that we'd never met Chet and the missus, had no idea what he even looked like, yet had arranged to share a day on the water with them. Soon enough they arrived, and after introductions all around (Mrs. Random's real name is Barbara), we got the briefing and the dinghy checked out, and we were on our own.
The rough plan for the day was to head to Waterlemon to snorkel, then to Mary Point, then to wherever the conditions and our whims took us. On the ride out we were headed into a moderately strong headwind and accompanying chop, and as the passenger manning the bow, I got bounced around a good bit. I think after I caught air really good one time, Captain Random took pity on me and eased off on the throttle a little.
As we neared Denis Beach we saw a group hanging out in/by the water near the point and mentioned to the captain that the La Papaya gang planned to be there this morning. We motored in close enough to see that it was them, gave a loud whistle, then, once we had their attention, a wave.
It seemed to take them a second or two to figure out who these crazy folks in a dinghy waving at them were, but when they did, we got a hearty round of waves back!
Before too long, we were rounding Leinster Point and got a great view that I'd never seen before:
The good captain eased us up to the red dinghy mooring ball, tied us off, then there was nothing left to do but get into that water! Despite a somewhat stiff current that we were swimming into as we made our way to the cay, we could see that the water was a good deal calmer and much clearer than it had been when we were here just a few days earlier.
As we were completing our counter clockwise circumnavigation of the cay, and approaching the sandy point, I noticed that on this day there were a lot of starfish here in the shallows, as opposed to mostly being out in deeper water where we see them more often.
We noticed that Barb was back in the dinghy, so we swam over that way and she said that she'd had enough of this particular site for the day, and was content to hang out in the boat. She pointed out where Chet was, between the cay and the rocks, so Leslie and I decided to swim around in the deep area just a little beyond where the dinghy was tied off.
I observed that the starfish weren't confined to the shallows only - there were tons of them on the bottom in deeper water as well. I was trying to see how many of them I could count that were in my line of sight at any one time when all of a sudden I heard a very loud, very shrill, and very excited shriek!
Before I even looked up, I knew that this could only mean one thing - Leslie had, at long last, seen her much anticipated eagle ray!!! I looked up, spotted her in the water, and went in the direction of the screams emanating from out of the top of her snorkel. A quick glance topside towards the dinghy let me know that the commotion had attracted Barb's attention as well - and as she had already been briefed on the quest, she knew what was in the water with us also.
As I approached Leslie on the surface, her excitement was palpable. Fortunately this eagle ray (she later named him Cooper!), looked like he was in no hurry to move on. I was afraid that if and when this moment ever arrived, it might be a quick and speedy swim by, with little opportunity to enjoy and/or chronicle it, but we lucked out.
I realized that Leslie's camera was floating on the water next to her, tethered to her wrist, but not being put to use. Correctly surmising that she was just in too much of a state of awe to even think about that, I slipped the camera off of her wrist, positioned myself above the ray, er, Cooper, who was some thirty feet or so below us, took a big gulp of air, and propelled myself downward to attempt to get a picture of him that might possibly do the moment justice.
As you can imagine, I was pretty highly motivated to do the best that I could to capture this moment, and it's a good thing that I was. Frantically clearing my ears with one hand while I put every ounce of energy that I could muster into descending quickly before he got away, I managed to get reasonably close enough to try and take a picture, and pressed the shutter button on the camera just as I realized that the monitor on the back of the camera was dark! OK - no problem, it must have gone into sleep mode, so pressing that button should "wake it up". Nope - still dark - apparently the camera had been idle long enough to shut itself off, so I pressed the power button.
I'm sure that the Canon D10 turns on in a relatively short amount of time, but twenty feet or so underwater, almost out of breath, and worried that my subject would swim out of picture range at any second, it sure didn't seem that way to me! Once the LCD screen came to life I pointed, squeezed, and rocketed towards the surface and some air! And it was worth it!
"Cooper" hung around the area we were in for about ten minutes, then, either annoyed by the constant attention, or off in search of something he wasn't finding there, decided to leave. I don't know how long we had been in the water at this point, but I'm pretty sure that we had exceeded Leslie's normal time before she gets cold. We made it back to the dinghy and amid much excited chatter and maybe a few grateful tears, we untied and took off for the next stop, Mary Point.
We'd heard that the snorkeling around the back side of Mary Point was very good, and since it's relatively inaccessible, the reefs and coral would likely be close to pristine condition. Alas, we weren't to find out on this day. The way the boat strained against the bow line once we were tied off confirmed our suspicions that the current was just going to be too strong to try to snorkel here. The direction of the wind and shape of the cay didn't really provide any place that was in the lee of the wind, so we took one last long look then motored on.
Wendy had told us during our briefing that she didn't believe that there were any mooring balls to tie off to off of Henley Cay, but since we time and transportation we decided to go and find out for ourselves.
As it turns out, in fact, there are mooring balls here. The current appeared to be much tamer than what we'd seen off of Mary Point, so we tied off and went in. The water and the coral were beautiful here. Right next to the boat, and in the area that was just downcurrent from there that day, it looked like we were in a giant aquarium! Unfortunately, once in the water we could tell that if we drifted very far in that direction we'd likely have a hard time getting back to the boat, so we swam around in other directions looking for less current. There was a lot of patch reef, and several isolated coral heads teeming with life.
Barb, Leslie, and myself eventually made it back to the boat, but Captain Random swam to the beach and explored the island for a short while. Once he got back, we had lunch on board, then headed back in the general direction of Cruz Bay, via the north shore beaches. The decision was made to moor off of the point that divides Saloman and Honeymoon.
We got in and began the swim in towards the point, Chet in the lead, me trailing, and Leslie close behind. Or at least she was...
When I turned around to check on her she was heading in the wrong direction. As I made my way close to her she picked her head up out of the water, and once again had a look on her face that was a combination of a beaming smile and tears of joy. Eagle ray #2 had been spotted. This one was a fly by, and she was the only one of us that saw it, but if I'd have picked just one of us to see it...
We had a very nice snorkel around both sides of the point. Water was nice and calm, visibility was good, the coral was fairly healthy, especially considering how popular these beaches are, and there were some animals that were out and about underwater.
Back to the boat, then back to the National Park dock to return the SS Calypso to her berth there. Wendy checked her out, gave us the thumbs up, then the captain and crew made our way to The Beach Bar for a round of drinks (or two) to celebrate a great day on the water, making new friendships, and last, but certainly not least, the successful culmination of Leslie's long standing quest to see a spotted eagle ray in the waters off of St. John!
A dinner of grilled chicken and a Fish Bay sunset completed a fantastic day!
Come see us!
By the time you finish writing your trip reports, you may be on St. John again 
(wait, you don't have any more tickers?).
I remember my husband's shriek when he saw his first Spotted Eagle Ray. I thought he was drowning or freaking out about seeing a large shark. You definitely know your spouse better than me knowing mine. Great shot of Cooper and happy for Leslie!
(wait, you don't have any more tickers?).I remember my husband's shriek when he saw his first Spotted Eagle Ray. I thought he was drowning or freaking out about seeing a large shark. You definitely know your spouse better than me knowing mine. Great shot of Cooper and happy for Leslie!
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Marcia (Mrs. Pete)
- Posts: 1576
- Joined: Mon Aug 07, 2006 9:40 pm
- Location: Madison Area, Wisconsin
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Tracy in WI
- Posts: 1624
- Joined: Tue Aug 08, 2006 8:39 am
- Location: Wisconsin
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EagleRayLover
- Posts: 1474
- Joined: Sat Feb 12, 2011 8:56 pm
- Location: St. John -WooHoo!!
I was reminiscing about our fall trip and what a special day this was for me!! and I just have to declare - love how Steve writes- obviously- i knew exactly what was going to happen- duh! but i love it!!!! I had to go back and read all his past trip reports since I was not on the Forum!!! 
Love you babe!!
Love you babe!!Leslie, Kids Night In Babysitting
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grandpainin
- Posts: 62
- Joined: Mon Jan 26, 2009 10:38 am
- Location: Indiana
Nice report 
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