USVI-On-Line

Vol.1: http://www.virgin-islands-on-line.com/f ... hp?t=16907

Some system came through and brought rain and currents. The currents stirred up the waters. Even after the system passed, the visibilities at some beaches were terrible for a few days.

Featured beaches/bays:

Gibney
Maho (via Salt Pond)
Hawksnest (via Cinnamon)
Leinster/Waterlemon
Great Lameshur
Little Lameshur


----- Gibney -----

Upon our arrival at deserted early morning Gibney, we walked to the Oppenheimer side and sat around for a long while. We always love this part of our visit to Gibney. The shade was long on the sand and we just stared at the pale blue green water. Eventually, we got in the water and were off to snorkel. By the time we came back to the shore, it was well past noon and there were many folks (relatively speaking) out on the beach having a good time. Shady pale Gibney was much brighter and crisper then. We hung out at the beach until mid afternoon and left before the prime bug time arrived. Once we are at Gibney, we don't ever want to relocate or leave... until we have to. Does that sound familiar to some of you?

The Oppenheimer side (the right side) of the shoreline towards the point, which separates Gibney from Denis, offers very good snorkeling, in my opinion. It seems that we find something new there every visit.



School of Tangs & Surgeonfish


Barred Hamlet


Found partially exposed Spotted Moray. Wanted to meet her but she never moved while we watched.



Flamingo Tongue & Hydroid


I have to say... it was more like a Flamingo infestation there. We saw them at almost every spot we snorkeled around St. John, but I thought it might've been the worst at Gibney - Gorgonians there had been eaten pretty badly. We noticed the increase in the population of Flamingo Tongues last year and there were more of them this year.

Banded Butterflyfish


Southern Stingray and Bar Jack duo – couldn't really tell if the ray was irritated or not.



Nimble Spray Crab


I said to my husband, "Wanna come back here before we leave..."


----- Maho (via Salt Pond) -----

Looked to be an overcast day. As we were hiking down to Salt Pond, at about mid way, I could already hear the surf louder than usual. When we got down to Salt Pond, we saw a lot of sea grass washed up high on the beach. The water appeared all churned up and opaque blue. Whatever the system was that came through, it certainly brought some currents with it.



After seeing the water conditions at Salt Pond, we simply turned around and went to Maho where the water should surely have been calm. The surf was slightly up even at Maho. Since we are primarily off-season visitors, we don't know the winter North Shore swell. This is actually the roughest we've seen at Maho.



Since we had explored the right side the other day, we decided to snorkel in the middle of the bay in search of turtles and rays. We found some Green Turtles right away.



And there are some Cushion Sea Stars.


This Southern Stingray was large.




We swam towards the west to see the left side of the bay. Compared to the right side, there wasn't much to see there.

Barracuda


The day got brighter in the afternoon. We waded for a while in the warm water. There were 11 boats moored out there. Some of them were playing music pretty loud. It wasn't exactly pleasant to hear different songs being played at the same time. We really didn't need any music, to be honest with you. We do love music, but out at the beach, we are happy just listening to the surf and birds.




----- Hawksnest (via Cinnamon) -----

When we drove past Maho that morning, the surf seemed to be calmer than it was the day before. We quickly came to the conclusion that the currents must've been gone. But no. We found that out when we stood on the beach at Cinnamon. The clear crystal blue we saw last year there was opaque blue that day... plus the surf was up. We decided to relocate. Parking for Jumbie and Gibney was full, so we ended up at Hawksnest. Turned out that the surf was rather up there also.



We tried snorkeling but the visibility was just terrible. We quickly gave up. I took a photo of whatever that appeared brightest around me before getting out of the water. I swear the visibility was worse than what you see in this photo. I could see all those dense tiny particles right in front of my eyes and couldn't see much through them. Hawksnest usually offers good snorkeling, so it was too bad.



We lounged around at the beach for a while but decided to return to the villa early for some afternoon pool time. By then we had moved from Bordeaux Mt. to Seagrape Hill in Coral Bay. We were staying at the villa where we

Thanks!

Nice shot of the lemon shark - I saw one that looked just like that one (I guess all lemon sharks do!) at Waterlemon two years ago, but it swam by before i could get a picture of it.

We love the little shallows in the corner at Leinster - we call it the nursery!

Beautiful shots! Lot's of stuff I'm going to look for this year. Thanks for the great post! Just Awesome!

I have been waiting for this report!

Thanks, another set with great photos. I would love to see the checkered puffer. It's beautiful.
How big was the lemon shark?

Sorry about the murky water. Since we were there the same time, I know how bad it was.

Btw, the Scrawled fish is a filefish

Maggy

Nice shots Pickle. Looks like LiamsAunt has some competition in the finding stuff category.

These are your usual great reports. Thanks

I think we were there around the time you were. The weather and beach conditions sound like ours. When was your trip?

JIM

Killer photos Pickle! Especially the tarpon & shark!
Is a Lemon Shark a good shark or a bad shark? I think I would have freaked either way!
*More please*

Such great photos! Love the lemon shark and the puffer that you found at Leinster.

I had some issues with my canon housing fogging up last time (I think it was just used too much), and since it has been discontinued, I went ahead and got us both D10s based on your photos in the last installment.

really awesome underwater photos!

Thanks for sharing another set of awesome photos with us! They were great, even if the waters were murky...I couldn't tell, photoshop will be my friend I am sure!

Family's first trip to STJ in less than a week!!!
Jo

Really great pictures! I love how you organized them. I think the new moon had something to do with the currents. In Kauai the Captain mentioned it. I am sure it has been mentioned somewhere but what camera are you using???

Gina

Maggy, the lemon was a 4-footer. Leinster is where I see them most often. Thanks for the "filefish" correction. I try to re-read before posting but always miss something.

msgcolleen, I'm fine with baby to juvenile Lemons, but would like to avoid meeting an adult. Locals have told us (in the Caribbean and the South Pacific) they can be a bit nasty...

Jim, we were on St. John from 5/22 to 6/8 – the longest we've ever stayed. Hope you had a great trip.

Gina, I use the Canon D10.

liamsaunt, with the combination of the D10 and Photoshop, I'm sure you'll be happy. I met some folks who were pleased with the camera while on the island (it's easy to spot the D10 because of its "blue") despite the fact that they'd heard about the problem with leaking. Any underwater cameras will start leaking sooner or later. How soon that happens really is the luck of the draw... and how often you use it/how well you care for it, I think.

Finally, Steve - no... no competition!

Thank you very much everyone!

Thanks for the wonderful trip report and pics. You sound a lot like us when it comes to snorkeling and stuff. We were in the BVIs May 30 - June 11 and had several days of strong waves and murky water. Fortunately we also had a lot of days with calm and clear water since we love to snorkel.

I always wish for a calm day at Waterlemon so we can snorkel the backside of the cay without being sloshed around. Excellent coral and fish there, but usually very choppy when we are there in April or May.

We also noticed many flamingo tongues, both last year at STJ and this year in the BVIs. I didn't realize they were a "pest" of sorts. Great pic of the tarpon - we saw a lot when we were on Peter Island. They were big enough to startle me when they show up.

We are with you on this - even though we love music, we really hate when people are blasting music because we also just enjoy the sounds of the beach. So relaxing to hear the little waves, the trees rustling in the breeze and the birds chirping.

Regarding the D10, let me clarify one thing.

I took a LOT of photos - average of 100 shots per snorkeling. What you see here are the "chosen ones". I took plenty of poor quality photos, which you don't see here. The D10 is not a magic camera. However, as I've mentioned, it's a very good camera for a point-and-shooter, in my humble opinion. When things go well, it takes excellent photos. I love my D10.

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B&J, every living thing needs something to feed on... so, I can't fault them for eating Gorgonians. I just hope it won't be out of control. By the way, you do sound kinda like us.

Pickle wrote:Regarding the D10, let me clarify one thing.

I took a LOT of photos - average of 100 shots per snorkeling. What you see here are the "chosen ones". I took plenty of poor quality photos, which you don't see here. The D10 is not a magic camera. However, as I've mentioned, it's a very good camera for a point-and-shooter, in my humble opinion. When things go well, it takes excellent photos. I love my D10.

That's how it is with every camera, I think. I come home with literally thousands of photos, and end up discarding about 90% of them! Underwater is tricky because it is hard to see the viewfinder, and you cannot tell if the shot is blurry until you get back and load up the pics. One of our canon housings is still tight so we are planning a "shoot-off" contest between our old camera and the D10. I was really happy with my old setup, so we will see!