STJ Fall 2010 Trip Report - Day 10
Posted: Tue Dec 07, 2010 8:03 am
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
Saturday, November 6. Really? It's Saturday again? Already? It's true - time flies when you're having fun, and it really seems to rapidly accelerate when we're on St. John and the end of the trip approaches.
The weather this morning was "iffy" once again, but since we didn't do any snorkeling yesterday we were bound and determined to do some today. Topside conditions were relatively unchanged - a good wind out of the east/southeast and intermittent sun and clouds. We figured north shore beaches would be a good bet, and we had made plans to be in Cruz Bay for lunch, so it was off to Maho again.
We parked in the little alcove just around the corner from the bend in the road, and made the short walk to the beach, which we had completely to ourselves. We walked down towards the right side, found a tree branch to hang our gear bag on, geared up, and were in the water.
The early morning tranquility of Maho, along with the intermittently cloudy skies, (not to mention the increasingly bothersome realization that the clock was running out on this trip), kind of set a melancholy mood as we made our way over towards the rocks that line the right side of the bay. But as the underwater world came alive for us, all of those thoughts were lost as we set about playing our favorite game of hide and seek with the critters that reside there.
Leslie spotted this lobster, who no doubt felt safe with his spiny bodyguards:
One of the things we always ask each other as we're getting ready to snorkel, is what we want to see this time (now that we'd seen one, we no longer had to add the "spotted eagle ray of course" disclaimer every time!). On this occasion I said that since we hadn't really seen very many this trip that I'd like to see some moray eels. About a third of the way out towards the point I saw one, but when I tried to get in close to take his picture he retreated back into his hiding place, and in the ten minutes or so that I hung around, he never afforded me a great shot of him, so after taking several mediocre ones we moved on.
Within a couple of minutes I saw another one - this time, he wasn't so shy!
That was more like it! After he got tired of posing for me, we left him alone and continued our swim. And lo and behold - here was another one! But as I approached he ducked into the rock pile he was using for shelter, but as I swam around it, he stuck his head out the other side. And stayed there!
Leslie, probably wondering where I was, swam back and found me taking picture after picture of the eel. Up to this time I has never used the video feature on her camera, but seeing how our subject was being so cooperative, I handed the camera to her and made a motion to indicate that she should take some video. As you can see, Mr. Moray was quite the show off:
<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_2203.mp4">
Eventually it was time to move on. As we neared the point we saw one of our favorite fish, and one that we are used to seeing at Maho, even though not so much here just a few days ago.
As we neared the point the sun broke through the clouds, and all of the colors of the reef were on display:
On our way back to shore we swam towards the middle of the bay and came back over the sand, just to see if we could find any thing of a different nature. Once we got fairly close to shore we found this guy, who probably wouldn't stop to ask for directions on the way to Leinster, in about 15 feet of water:
After getting out and looking around at Maho, for what would be likely the last time this trip (sigh) - we got back in the jeep and headed to Cinnamon, to shower and change before we headed into town.
We made the drive from Cinnamon along North Shore Rd.slowly, taking it all in, and before we knew it we arrived at Mongoose Junction. One of the underwater animals we had talked about, but hadn't seen on this trip, was a shark. Of any kind. No nurses, no lemons, no Caribbean reef sharks. None. Until we saw this in the parking lot:
We had been exchanging texts with Amy (since we were on the north side of the island we had service!) - she and her mom and aunt were going to have lunch somewhere at Mongoose Junction before they took their walk of woe at the ferry dock. To our surprise and delight, when we met up with them at the Sun Dog Cafe, they had talked St. John Ruth into joining them. So here is the group of lovely ladies that I got to have lunch with:
This fella, who I think belongs to one of the bartenders from the Gecko Gazebo, hung around to make sure that if any food got dropped that it wouldn't remain on the ground long enough to attract bugs...
After we'd all eaten we said our good-byes to the travelers and to Ruth, and we headed back towards Fish Bay. Since we had time on our hands we decided to stop and park on Klein Bay Rd. then take the short walk to Ditleff Point to check out some of the views from there.
In this one we can see our villa, Fish Beach, from across the bay:
It was very windy, and our legs were still feeling the Reef Bay Trail from the day before a little, so we didn't hike all the way out to the point, but most of the way. I could see how this would be a nice place to try and snorkel if the conditions were right, but, for this trip anyway, it looked like more of a surf spot than a snorkel spot. Still, beautiful views from up here.
We got back home, hit "pool beach" for a little while, then cleaned up and got ready for company. I drove down to the St. John Market, where I'd arranged to meet our dinghy mates from Thursday, Chet and Barb. They followed me back to the villa, and we had a nice evening of dining, listening to music, and sharing stories and pictures.
It was a great way to end another great day on St. John!
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
Saturday, November 6. Really? It's Saturday again? Already? It's true - time flies when you're having fun, and it really seems to rapidly accelerate when we're on St. John and the end of the trip approaches.
The weather this morning was "iffy" once again, but since we didn't do any snorkeling yesterday we were bound and determined to do some today. Topside conditions were relatively unchanged - a good wind out of the east/southeast and intermittent sun and clouds. We figured north shore beaches would be a good bet, and we had made plans to be in Cruz Bay for lunch, so it was off to Maho again.
We parked in the little alcove just around the corner from the bend in the road, and made the short walk to the beach, which we had completely to ourselves. We walked down towards the right side, found a tree branch to hang our gear bag on, geared up, and were in the water.
The early morning tranquility of Maho, along with the intermittently cloudy skies, (not to mention the increasingly bothersome realization that the clock was running out on this trip), kind of set a melancholy mood as we made our way over towards the rocks that line the right side of the bay. But as the underwater world came alive for us, all of those thoughts were lost as we set about playing our favorite game of hide and seek with the critters that reside there.
Leslie spotted this lobster, who no doubt felt safe with his spiny bodyguards:
One of the things we always ask each other as we're getting ready to snorkel, is what we want to see this time (now that we'd seen one, we no longer had to add the "spotted eagle ray of course" disclaimer every time!). On this occasion I said that since we hadn't really seen very many this trip that I'd like to see some moray eels. About a third of the way out towards the point I saw one, but when I tried to get in close to take his picture he retreated back into his hiding place, and in the ten minutes or so that I hung around, he never afforded me a great shot of him, so after taking several mediocre ones we moved on.
Within a couple of minutes I saw another one - this time, he wasn't so shy!
That was more like it! After he got tired of posing for me, we left him alone and continued our swim. And lo and behold - here was another one! But as I approached he ducked into the rock pile he was using for shelter, but as I swam around it, he stuck his head out the other side. And stayed there!
Leslie, probably wondering where I was, swam back and found me taking picture after picture of the eel. Up to this time I has never used the video feature on her camera, but seeing how our subject was being so cooperative, I handed the camera to her and made a motion to indicate that she should take some video. As you can see, Mr. Moray was quite the show off:
<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_2203.mp4">
Eventually it was time to move on. As we neared the point we saw one of our favorite fish, and one that we are used to seeing at Maho, even though not so much here just a few days ago.
As we neared the point the sun broke through the clouds, and all of the colors of the reef were on display:
On our way back to shore we swam towards the middle of the bay and came back over the sand, just to see if we could find any thing of a different nature. Once we got fairly close to shore we found this guy, who probably wouldn't stop to ask for directions on the way to Leinster, in about 15 feet of water:
After getting out and looking around at Maho, for what would be likely the last time this trip (sigh) - we got back in the jeep and headed to Cinnamon, to shower and change before we headed into town.
We made the drive from Cinnamon along North Shore Rd.slowly, taking it all in, and before we knew it we arrived at Mongoose Junction. One of the underwater animals we had talked about, but hadn't seen on this trip, was a shark. Of any kind. No nurses, no lemons, no Caribbean reef sharks. None. Until we saw this in the parking lot:
We had been exchanging texts with Amy (since we were on the north side of the island we had service!) - she and her mom and aunt were going to have lunch somewhere at Mongoose Junction before they took their walk of woe at the ferry dock. To our surprise and delight, when we met up with them at the Sun Dog Cafe, they had talked St. John Ruth into joining them. So here is the group of lovely ladies that I got to have lunch with:
This fella, who I think belongs to one of the bartenders from the Gecko Gazebo, hung around to make sure that if any food got dropped that it wouldn't remain on the ground long enough to attract bugs...
After we'd all eaten we said our good-byes to the travelers and to Ruth, and we headed back towards Fish Bay. Since we had time on our hands we decided to stop and park on Klein Bay Rd. then take the short walk to Ditleff Point to check out some of the views from there.
In this one we can see our villa, Fish Beach, from across the bay:
It was very windy, and our legs were still feeling the Reef Bay Trail from the day before a little, so we didn't hike all the way out to the point, but most of the way. I could see how this would be a nice place to try and snorkel if the conditions were right, but, for this trip anyway, it looked like more of a surf spot than a snorkel spot. Still, beautiful views from up here.
We got back home, hit "pool beach" for a little while, then cleaned up and got ready for company. I drove down to the St. John Market, where I'd arranged to meet our dinghy mates from Thursday, Chet and Barb. They followed me back to the villa, and we had a nice evening of dining, listening to music, and sharing stories and pictures.
It was a great way to end another great day on St. John!
