usvi-on-line
STJ Fall 2010 Trip Report - Day 11
STJ Fall 2010 Trip Report - Day 11
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
Link to Day 8 - http://www.virgin-islands-on-line.com/f ... hp?t=18567
Link to Day 9 - http://www.virgin-islands-on-line.com/f ... hp?t=18589
Link to Day 10 - http://www.virgin-islands-on-line.com/f ... hp?t=18657
Sunday, November 10 - our last full day on island. The weather didn't look like it was going to do us any favors, but we'd made up our minds that we would drive to Salt Pond Bay to see if it was possible to get a snorkel in there, as we hadn't been there all week, which just doesn't happen.
We loaded up and hit the road. When we got to the section of Centerline where you can stop and take pictures of Coral Bay in the background, I couldn't believe the low hanging clouds that engulfed the top of Bordeaux Mountain. We had never seen this sight on St. John before!
We continued on down to Coral Bay, took the right hand turn at the triangle, and headed out towards Salt Pond Bay. In the parking lot, and on the trail there, we had company!
Once we made it past the welcoming committee and down to the beach, we took a few minutes to come to the realization that we weren't going to be able to snorkel. Not only were there waves that would have made for a bumpy swim, they also had the water all stirred up and murky (Chet, who also made the trek down there that morning, described it as "milky").
So, with the thought in our heads that the day before at Maho may have been our last snorkel of the trip, we had to come up with a plan B. We've never been to the Annaberg ruins, we had time on our hands, so we thought "why not?" and headed in that direction. Just before we got to the intersection where you head towards either Leinster or Francis we saw Pia walking her dogs along the road. We quickly recounted our morning, and our plans to her, and wished her farewell in the (likely) event that we wouldn't see her again this trip.
As we got close to the Annaberg parking lot, we noticed that the water didn't look *too* bad at what we could see of Leinster, at least not from this vantage point. So we talked ourselves into taking a short exploratory hike with our gear bag, "just in case" it looked like decent conditions here to get wet.
Much to our surprise (about as much as it is to yours I'd venture), it looked "good enough" for us to take a chance at having one last snorkel. It did look like there was some heavy weather in the distance that could be moving towards us, so in deference to that we opted to not walk all of the way adjacent to Waterlemon Cay as is our norm here, but rather to go in across from the three mooring balls, as suggested by Captain John Brandi, and as we'd done earlier in this trip. Leslie looked longingly out towards the red dinghy mooring ball where we'd been three days earlier - on the day of the famous spotted eagle ray sighting, and joked (at least I think she was joking) that she might need to swim out there to make sure that "Cooper" was OK.
As compared to that previous venture here, the water was quite a bit clearer. As we made our way away from shore we were seeing fish and coral life right away, as soon as we entered the water. We made our way out to the edge of the wall, checking out some of the marine life that was on display.
All of a sudden, out of the corner of my eye, some twenty or so feet below us, what do we see? A spotted eagle ray!!
We followed him around for several minutes before he took off, then met on the surface, where Leslie was absolutely beaming! What a great stroke of luck that Salt Pond wasn't doable today! I asked her a silly question - "shall we continue cruising up and down this wall?"
We had no sooner put our faces in the water when...we saw another one!
Almost as soon as that one was out of sight - another.
And just a couple of minutes after that - one more!
Unbelievable - after waiting for what seemed to be an eternity (especially for Leslie) to see a single spotted eagle ray in these waters, we had just now seen four of them after being in the water for no more than fifteen minutes!
You may find this hard to fathom, but the decision was made to hang out in this area a while longer. An hour later we had experienced spotted eagle ray visits four more times, for a total of eight visits on the day - at one time there were two of them in sight at the same time - they swam towards each other as if they were playing an underwater game of "chicken", then, at the last possible second they both turned sharply upward, then executed simultaneous backflips that were so in sync they could have been mirror images of each other.
We couldn't get close enough to get a good pictures of the dueling eagle ray show, but we did manage to take some videos of a few of the day's encounters.
<embed width="600" height="361" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowFullscreen="true" allowNetworking="all" wmode="transparent" src="http://static.photobucket.com/player.swf" flashvars="file=http%3A%2F%2Fvid161.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Ft216%2Faugiegator%2FPix%2520from%2520STJ%2520Fall%25202010%2FMVI_2306.mp4">
I was surprised when, after an hour and a half, Leslie agreed that we should get out before she got too much colder. Even though we knew that this was certainly our last snorkel of the trip, there was no hint of sadness as we doffed and stowed our gear in the bag, just a sense of amazement! Fittingly enough, the rain that we had seen off in the distance arrived as soon as we began the walk back towards the jeep - slowly at first, then, by the time we made it to the parking lot it was coming down hard enough to give us a good fresh water rinse.
It was a happy, if not dry, drive back to Fish Bay. After getting cleaned up and having some leftovers for lunch we headed out, back in the direction of Coral Bay. Barb and Chet had invited us to come and visit them at the villa they were staying at, Mystic Ridge, which is near the Bordeaux overlook. The rain wasn't letting up - as a matter of fact it seemed as though it was coming down harder and harder.
We made it to Mystic Ridge, which is a beautiful villa, with a view that even this lousy weather couldn't sully! We spent a nice couple of hours chatting and relaxing, and waiting for the rain to let up. Only, apparently, no one told the rain. Even though we expected the weather to have an adverse effect on the turnout for the Beach Bar forum get together, after waiting in vain for a letup as long as we felt we could, we began the soggy trek to Cruz Bay.
We were pleasantly surprised to see everyone that had braved the weather to make it to the Beach Bar - maybe there wasn't much else to do! All the water made plugging in amplifiers a bad idea, so there would be no live music today - but at the end of the bar, where the stage is usually set up for the band was, appearing one night only - the SOTB gang!
Ruth and Larry had made their way down from La Papaya, St. John Ruth and Ron were in attendance, Russ and Jeff ("the Bongo Bongo Boys")were there, Mr. and Mrs. Random of course, as were a number of others - Big Cheeze, Kirk, and some that I've surely forgotten.
We all had a great time making new acquaintances, renewing old ones, and trying to stay dry! Eventually, as the rain wound down and the hours went on, the crowd began to thin little by little until it was time for an important decision to be made. Will be eating bar food for dinner tonight, or do we want to have something more substantial. The nearby Banana Deck beckoned and our minds were made up. Leslie and I joined Barb and Chet for a great last night meal there, and all too soon we were exchanging good byes and hugs in the "ha-ha" parking lot, then it was back to Fish Bay for one last night's sleep on our favorite little island in the world...
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
Link to Day 8 - http://www.virgin-islands-on-line.com/f ... hp?t=18567
Link to Day 9 - http://www.virgin-islands-on-line.com/f ... hp?t=18589
Link to Day 10 - http://www.virgin-islands-on-line.com/f ... hp?t=18657
Sunday, November 10 - our last full day on island. The weather didn't look like it was going to do us any favors, but we'd made up our minds that we would drive to Salt Pond Bay to see if it was possible to get a snorkel in there, as we hadn't been there all week, which just doesn't happen.
We loaded up and hit the road. When we got to the section of Centerline where you can stop and take pictures of Coral Bay in the background, I couldn't believe the low hanging clouds that engulfed the top of Bordeaux Mountain. We had never seen this sight on St. John before!
We continued on down to Coral Bay, took the right hand turn at the triangle, and headed out towards Salt Pond Bay. In the parking lot, and on the trail there, we had company!
Once we made it past the welcoming committee and down to the beach, we took a few minutes to come to the realization that we weren't going to be able to snorkel. Not only were there waves that would have made for a bumpy swim, they also had the water all stirred up and murky (Chet, who also made the trek down there that morning, described it as "milky").
So, with the thought in our heads that the day before at Maho may have been our last snorkel of the trip, we had to come up with a plan B. We've never been to the Annaberg ruins, we had time on our hands, so we thought "why not?" and headed in that direction. Just before we got to the intersection where you head towards either Leinster or Francis we saw Pia walking her dogs along the road. We quickly recounted our morning, and our plans to her, and wished her farewell in the (likely) event that we wouldn't see her again this trip.
As we got close to the Annaberg parking lot, we noticed that the water didn't look *too* bad at what we could see of Leinster, at least not from this vantage point. So we talked ourselves into taking a short exploratory hike with our gear bag, "just in case" it looked like decent conditions here to get wet.
Much to our surprise (about as much as it is to yours I'd venture), it looked "good enough" for us to take a chance at having one last snorkel. It did look like there was some heavy weather in the distance that could be moving towards us, so in deference to that we opted to not walk all of the way adjacent to Waterlemon Cay as is our norm here, but rather to go in across from the three mooring balls, as suggested by Captain John Brandi, and as we'd done earlier in this trip. Leslie looked longingly out towards the red dinghy mooring ball where we'd been three days earlier - on the day of the famous spotted eagle ray sighting, and joked (at least I think she was joking) that she might need to swim out there to make sure that "Cooper" was OK.
As compared to that previous venture here, the water was quite a bit clearer. As we made our way away from shore we were seeing fish and coral life right away, as soon as we entered the water. We made our way out to the edge of the wall, checking out some of the marine life that was on display.
All of a sudden, out of the corner of my eye, some twenty or so feet below us, what do we see? A spotted eagle ray!!
We followed him around for several minutes before he took off, then met on the surface, where Leslie was absolutely beaming! What a great stroke of luck that Salt Pond wasn't doable today! I asked her a silly question - "shall we continue cruising up and down this wall?"
We had no sooner put our faces in the water when...we saw another one!
Almost as soon as that one was out of sight - another.
And just a couple of minutes after that - one more!
Unbelievable - after waiting for what seemed to be an eternity (especially for Leslie) to see a single spotted eagle ray in these waters, we had just now seen four of them after being in the water for no more than fifteen minutes!
You may find this hard to fathom, but the decision was made to hang out in this area a while longer. An hour later we had experienced spotted eagle ray visits four more times, for a total of eight visits on the day - at one time there were two of them in sight at the same time - they swam towards each other as if they were playing an underwater game of "chicken", then, at the last possible second they both turned sharply upward, then executed simultaneous backflips that were so in sync they could have been mirror images of each other.
We couldn't get close enough to get a good pictures of the dueling eagle ray show, but we did manage to take some videos of a few of the day's encounters.
<embed width="600" height="361" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowFullscreen="true" allowNetworking="all" wmode="transparent" src="http://static.photobucket.com/player.swf" flashvars="file=http%3A%2F%2Fvid161.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Ft216%2Faugiegator%2FPix%2520from%2520STJ%2520Fall%25202010%2FMVI_2306.mp4">
I was surprised when, after an hour and a half, Leslie agreed that we should get out before she got too much colder. Even though we knew that this was certainly our last snorkel of the trip, there was no hint of sadness as we doffed and stowed our gear in the bag, just a sense of amazement! Fittingly enough, the rain that we had seen off in the distance arrived as soon as we began the walk back towards the jeep - slowly at first, then, by the time we made it to the parking lot it was coming down hard enough to give us a good fresh water rinse.
It was a happy, if not dry, drive back to Fish Bay. After getting cleaned up and having some leftovers for lunch we headed out, back in the direction of Coral Bay. Barb and Chet had invited us to come and visit them at the villa they were staying at, Mystic Ridge, which is near the Bordeaux overlook. The rain wasn't letting up - as a matter of fact it seemed as though it was coming down harder and harder.
We made it to Mystic Ridge, which is a beautiful villa, with a view that even this lousy weather couldn't sully! We spent a nice couple of hours chatting and relaxing, and waiting for the rain to let up. Only, apparently, no one told the rain. Even though we expected the weather to have an adverse effect on the turnout for the Beach Bar forum get together, after waiting in vain for a letup as long as we felt we could, we began the soggy trek to Cruz Bay.
We were pleasantly surprised to see everyone that had braved the weather to make it to the Beach Bar - maybe there wasn't much else to do! All the water made plugging in amplifiers a bad idea, so there would be no live music today - but at the end of the bar, where the stage is usually set up for the band was, appearing one night only - the SOTB gang!
Ruth and Larry had made their way down from La Papaya, St. John Ruth and Ron were in attendance, Russ and Jeff ("the Bongo Bongo Boys")were there, Mr. and Mrs. Random of course, as were a number of others - Big Cheeze, Kirk, and some that I've surely forgotten.
We all had a great time making new acquaintances, renewing old ones, and trying to stay dry! Eventually, as the rain wound down and the hours went on, the crowd began to thin little by little until it was time for an important decision to be made. Will be eating bar food for dinner tonight, or do we want to have something more substantial. The nearby Banana Deck beckoned and our minds were made up. Leslie and I joined Barb and Chet for a great last night meal there, and all too soon we were exchanging good byes and hugs in the "ha-ha" parking lot, then it was back to Fish Bay for one last night's sleep on our favorite little island in the world...
Come see us!
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michigancouple
- Posts: 609
- Joined: Wed Feb 04, 2009 5:37 pm
- Location: West Michigan
. I know the feeling, it is fantastic! Now that eel video on the previous trip report, well, he would've freaked me out a little bit LOL. Great trip report. Thanks for sharing.
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Pete (Mr. Marcia)
- Posts: 1471
- Joined: Mon Aug 07, 2006 4:48 pm
- Location: Madison, Wisconsin
So sorry to see your trip come to an end ( I'm sure not as sorry as you both were). I have loved sharing in your trip through your awesome reports. I have to laugh when I look at the picture of the Moray eel, it looks like someone has their arm in a sock puppet. Thanks so much for sharing your trip and photos with us. Take care and have a wonderful Christmas and New Year!
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Marcia (Mrs. Pete)
- Posts: 1576
- Joined: Mon Aug 07, 2006 9:40 pm
- Location: Madison Area, Wisconsin
Great report and pictures - I'll have to catch up on your other reports. Can't belive you saw that many rays - you have the luck of the Gods. We'll have to try to get over on your coast somtime - maybe after the holidays. Take care and I'll be in touch.
FlaGeorge
"Swim Against The Current - Even a Dead Fish Can Go With The Flow"
"Swim Against The Current - Even a Dead Fish Can Go With The Flow"