St. John, Day 3 - SHARK!!!

[Anthony]

Today was a little slower paced. Breakfast in again at Gallows, and in the morning I stopped by St. John Spice to visit with Ruth and Ron while the ladies went to Mongoose Junction. It was good catching up with them if not too brief - it has been 3 years since I have been here and we could probably have talked for hours. And yes - I met Curly!

I walked up to Mongoose to meet the family and we took off for Waterlemon with some sandwiches from Deli Grotto, but it looked a little rough and windy, so choose Francis instead - one of my favorite beaches anyway and a place we always seem to end up.

We had a family snorkel around the rocks towards Maho, where I almost "picked up" the tail of a stingray thinking it was a piece of a palm frond (or something - not sure what I wast thinking but it just looked like something in the water and not what it was). Anyway not until I swam right over did my wife tell me it was a stingray - totally buried except for the eyes and tail.

We had lunch, and then I took off again with the kids to other side of the bay. Walking down the beach Alice spied a turtle coming up for air so we got in the water and checked that out. The third one of our visit and again a small one. We continued to snorkel in the very shallow water along the rocks/reef there, when we ran straight into a shark! Really sorry I did not have a camera at that point. It wasn't a nurse shark - we think it was just a reef shark, but not a black tip either (the only other kind of have seen here). Really hard to say how big it was - 3 feet would be the safe small bet, but it could have been 4 or over. We were really close to it, then it moved away a bit, but then it circled back and was between us and the beach, at which point a little scare took over for the kids - so we decided to get out of the water. Of course that meant swimming back to a sandy break in the beach, where we came across the shark again.

On the walk back, we saw a big jelly too. A good snorkel -

After the beach the girls got some milkshakes and smoothies in town, and we picked up an AMAZING Red Snapper from the fish market at Fish Trap.

Back to Gallows for some relaxation and a swim before making dinner for friends. I guess it was another full day -

Here is a small barracuda I got a shot of from the beach:

barrucuda-francis.jpg (118.99 KiB) Viewed 2103 times

[lprof]

"Like" that full day!
And the pic is super cool!

[nothintolose]

I had the same thing happen at Cinnamon where a shark that wasn't a nurse shark swam by me then came back to check me out. That return check is what really freaked me out. Before that, I was okay with seeing something other than a nurse shark

[Joppa]

It is so Great to see a trip report of St.John from you. Enjoy your time with your family on the Rock.

[sail445]

I had the same thing happen at Cinnamon where a shark that wasn't a nurse shark swam by me then came back to check me out. That return check is what really freaked me out. Before that, I was okay with seeing something other than a nurse shark

Probably a Lemon, there a loads of Lemon sharks in the VI's they're one of the few like Nurse sharks that can stop and sleep.

[Florida Girl]

Another fun day! Glad you got to meet Curly...he's on my bucket list! Also glad you didn't end up as shark bait!!

[michigancouple]

It sounds like you're having a great time! I'm happy you got to see a shark. For me personally, I hope I never see a shark! Yikes Even seeing a baracudda makes me nervous.

[Anthony]

Yes I can definitely confirm now that it was a Lemon Shark. I should have known that after all these years...

[shoemak38]

love the report