USVI-On-Line

Monday, July 5, 2010: Today we left the house fairly early, around 8:30 I think, and we drove to Annaberg Sugar Mill parking lot. We parked and walked the Leinster Bay trail. We walked past the beach to the rocks across from Waterlemon Cay. As we were getting in, we talked to a man and his son who had just snorkeled around the Cay. He said it was great and there was very little current, so away we went. We saw hundreds of sea stars. Greg discovered these little purple fan-shaped things on the sandy bottom. When we swam near them, the fan would very suddenly disappear. The girls had a lot of fun with this. We snorkeled around the back side of the Cay. It was the most amazing coral that I have ever seen. Then we stopped at the little beach on the cay. We did not step on any coral to get to the beach. It was possible to swim over the rather shallow reef until we got to the sandy part. The girls wrote in the sand. Then we took off, swam back over all of the starfish and reached our stuff. I was really glad that we had done this since it was something that I had wanted to do and it was really great snorkeling, probably the best I have ever experienced. And the girls liked it to and had no trouble. We walked back to the beach and ate our lunch and played on the beach for awhile. I snorkeled some more hoping to see the huge eagle ray that the man had told me he had seen earlier, but I didn’t see it. Then we came home and swam in the pool for the first time. There seem to be less bugs today, but still pretty fierce. We retreated inside and took showers. We left for Cruz Bay around 4:00. As we got into town, we got gas and went to look for a place to park. It was pouring rain, and the parade was still going on, so we could not find any parking. There were cars coming and going as people were getting out of the rain. It was crazy. We got back on Centerline and headed for home. We talked about what to do and decided to take the North Shore Road back to town and try again. By the time we got there, the parade was over. We parked and ate at Hercules Pate. It was pretty good, but we were still not feeling great. We walked around, did some shopping, and found where to take the ferry to Virgin Gorda. We parked the car up by Asolare and waited for the fireworks to start. They started at 9:00 and were great.

Tuesday, July 6, 2010: today we got kind of a late start. I think it was 10:30 by the time we left the house. Our destination today was Salt Pond Bay. We parked and started the walk down. The mosquitoes were bad, really bad, and by this time we were getting pretty sick of mosquitoes and we were all badly bitten. So that was not welcome news. We got to the beach and immediately got in the water to snorkel and to get away from the bugs. We snorkeled both sides of the bay. It is good snorkeling, but we didn’t really see anything that we hadn’t already seen. But E did spot a pretty big lobster. We also saw a big yellow and blue fish that we had not seen before. We did see a few small, almost clear jellyfish and I did feel a sting on my arm, but the sting did not last very long. Then we got out and had lunch and swatted bugs. We sprayed ourselves with bug spray and decided to hike to Blue Cobblestone Beach. We all snorkeled there. There was huge elkhorn coral which I think is really beautiful, so I enjoyed seeing that. As E and I were getting ready to get out, I was telling her to keep her feet up and swim in as far as she could because some of the coral was kind of shallow. M came up beside us with huge eyes. She didn’t say anything. When I said, ‘What?’, she said, ‘Huge barracuda’. I didn’t see it but judging from the size of her eyes, it must have been big. We got out and hiked back to Salt Pond to pick up our stuff and then we walked back to the car. With the hike from Cobblestone and the hike to the car, we were very hot and sweaty. We wanted to stop at the Tourist Trap but all we could think of was jumping in the pool at home. So, we passed on the Tourist Trap, made a quick stop at Colombo’s for smoothies and went home to the pool. That night, we were both finally feeling well enough to have some rum drinks. We covered up a little for protection from the skeeters and sat on our lovely porch with our drinks. This is what I have been imagining for the past few months. We had take-out from Skinny Legs.

Wednesday, July 7, 2010: Today, we decided to take it easy since tomorrow we were planning to take the ferry to Virgin Gorda. We decided to go to Trunk Bay. We arrived around 10:30. Yes, I know that is late to expect to get a spot in the parking lot. The lot was full, but we got a spot off the road, closest to the lot. We carried our stuff in and set up in the shade. There did not seem to be a lot of skeeters. We got in the water. There were a ton of people snorkeling, so we decided not to snorkel yet. We floated in the water for awhile. There were a lot of people there, but it is still a beautiful beach, and I love to go there. Around 12:30, we decided to snorkel. Just as we were swimming out, the lifeguard announced that they were ticketing and towing cars not in the parking lot. So, Greg got out to check out the situation. When he got out there, he talked to the guy who was parked right behind him. They decided that they were off the road and not blocking traffic, so they were probably ok. Greg waited awhile and then decided to walk back to the beach. As he was walking, he turned around and the guy parked behind him had hopped in his car and gotten a space in the parking lot. Psych! Greg laughed at himself for falling for it. Then he decided to try for a spot. It took awhile, but he finally scored a space. While he was struggling with this, we were snorkeling. After awhile, we got out and read for awhile. Then we showered off (another reason I like Trunk), got dressed and went into Cruz Bay. We went to ‘I Scream’ and had strawberry lemonades (for the girls), a pina colada for Greg and a painkiller for me. They were very strong and good. We shopped a little and then had JJ’s BBQ for dinner. This time I was feeling well enough to partake. It was delicious. After dinner, our drinks had worn off, and we drove home.

To be continued...

i'm liking your reports! that's nice you got to go around waterlemon with your kids. i'm dying to go, last year it was too choppy. this year we are going during the new moon when the currents are supposed to be strongest, so i'll have to see if its too bad. fingers crossed.

Thanks for the report! It sounds like you hit Waterlemon on a great day. I'm glad you started to feel better eventually!