Muhaha trip report Days 5-6 (1/26/11-1/27/11)
Posted: Wed Feb 02, 2011 6:09 pm
Link to Days 1-2: http://www.virgin-islands-on-line.com/f ... hp?t=19212
Link to Days 3-4: http://www.virgin-islands-on-line.com/f ... hp?t=19214
Day 5:
Another morning up at 6:15am. This time the wifey joins me and we enjoy our coffee and a special concocted french bread and cinnamon breakfast out on the deck.
Today is Dinghy Day and we are super excited, but it is also our first and while looking out the deck we can't help but notice that the swells breaking over Johnson's Reef are looking fairly ominous. But, no sweat...I'm an experienced Wave Runner "captain" used to the 5-6 footers on Lake Michigan. Full of myself, we confidently drive down and park at Slimmans and march over to Noah's beachside kiosk for orientation. But wait, after my bad day with the sunburn on Francis, the good wife points us to Low Key to stop in and grab a big floppy hat for me. The kind that I thought I would never wear, with the string that holds it on your head...the whole nine yards. I'm a baseball cap kinda guy, but I suck it up and yield to her insistence. She is of course correct here, I think I would have been well done without the hat.
So, off we go. We decide to head over to Waterlemon first. We're cruising past Caneel when we hit the swells - up one, down another and you can't see over the next kind of swells. We plow on and fortunately things get a little better after passing Trunk. By the time we pass Francis things are much better...until turning the corner at Mary's Point. At this point it turns from relative calm to downright scary. We get about halfway down the point when we decide Waterlemon just isn't in the cards and turn back. We tied up on the mooring bouy at the far point of Mary's Point, between the point and Whisling Cay. Things are calm, but the water is quite cloudy. Not any better at Whistling Cay either, which is a bummer because I really wanted to go there for a snorkel.
Customs House ruins on Whitling Cay
The waves at Trunk were too high to beach the dinghy so at this point we are questioning the wisdom of renting the dinghy. We decide to head over to Honeymoon which looked calmer on the way out. As we approach we notice that a "certain Cay" (unnamed out of respect for Big Cheezes paranoia of ruining a private paradise) looks calm on the backside. We tied up and jump in for the swim to the cay and are rewarded with an unbelievable swim. I carried our backpack cooler on the swim and we spent some time eating a late lunch and taking in the sights of the cruise ships between STT and STJ, before heading into the water for what would be an amazing snorkel. The underwater landscape was amazing and the coral healthy. I ended up taking mostly video on this snorkel, but here are a couple of pics.
This is an incredible Elkhorn, about 15 feet across
Do I look happy after this snorkel? Note: my hat, buy one on dinghy day
We then sail off happily after salvaging Dinghy Day in a big way over to Honeymoon and just chill on the beach before heading back to Cruz Bay and dropping off the dinghy. This is the most critical part of Dinghy Day, believe me there is more pressure than Tiger Woods' gallery on the first tee when you are tyring to gracefully get beached and out of the dinghy in front of a couple of dozen patrons at the Beach Bar. All eyes are upon you, judgemental and in need of humor. Fortunately no accidents to report here.
We head back to the villa for a shower and some hot tub time. It's my honey's night for Lobster at Lime Inn, and that was delicious. It never fails that I order the wrong thing, in this case I got the all you can eat shrimp. It was quite tasty, but a lot of work...all that peeling. Picked up some ice cream at the Dolphin market on the way back to the villa and once again enjoyed the stars from the hot tub, while eating ice cream. Heaven on earth.
Day 6:
You may have guessed by now what time I woke up. It's weird, I know.
A picture of one of my morning friends
This morning the swells were much lower, but still there. We had zero plans, so we packed up all the stuff we could think of and headed out on the North Shore and wind up at the Annaburg ruins totally expecting to spend about 30 minutes there. We came across a "Friends of the Park" volunteer, Weldon, who we spent the next hour enjoying stories of the island and descriptions of how the mill was run back in the day. His knowledge was amazing and we were very thankful to spend the time talking with him. We toured the ruins and came across this really cool charcoal drawing scrawled into the wall of the DUNGEON(!). Now, I am peaked. This is cool, as in History Channel cool. This picture of the masters house was made by a detained slave by looking out the only window up the hill towards the house on the next mountain.
After the tour we get summoned over to the garden by Charles, the tender of the garden area. He takes us on a walk thru the plants that he is growing and chops off samples of sugar cane and coconut for us to taste. Awesome and once again I surprise myself by learning a lot about the native plants. Well, sugar cane is not native, but you know...
After that we head over to Skinny Legs for a burger and then off to the Mangroves for a truly weird and fascinating snorkel.
My bride had a bit too many margaritas at Skinny Legs so I thought that this snorkel in shallow water would be good and safe. We found a relatively clear area in which to enter the water and proceeded to snorkel in 2-3 feet of water along the mangroves. She quickly sobered, but was way to creeped out and elected to wait out my snorkel on shore. I saw many baby fish, from small barracuda that could fit in your palm to a small (nurse?) shark. I didn't have the camera ready to snap a shot of the shark and it was well gone before it booted up. But here are some pics of the snorkel. This is a very interesting thing to do and I recommend it to anyone who is curious. The lighting was a real challenge here so I apologize for the darkness of the pics, but that's how it was.
Then, it was off to Haulover north for an excellent snorkel.
Another sunset at the villa followed by carryout Ronnie's pizza on the deck, some hot tub soaking, and stargazing before off to bed.
Next is an unbelievable day at Francis Bay....
Link to Days 3-4: http://www.virgin-islands-on-line.com/f ... hp?t=19214
Day 5:
Another morning up at 6:15am. This time the wifey joins me and we enjoy our coffee and a special concocted french bread and cinnamon breakfast out on the deck.
Today is Dinghy Day and we are super excited, but it is also our first and while looking out the deck we can't help but notice that the swells breaking over Johnson's Reef are looking fairly ominous. But, no sweat...I'm an experienced Wave Runner "captain" used to the 5-6 footers on Lake Michigan. Full of myself, we confidently drive down and park at Slimmans and march over to Noah's beachside kiosk for orientation. But wait, after my bad day with the sunburn on Francis, the good wife points us to Low Key to stop in and grab a big floppy hat for me. The kind that I thought I would never wear, with the string that holds it on your head...the whole nine yards. I'm a baseball cap kinda guy, but I suck it up and yield to her insistence. She is of course correct here, I think I would have been well done without the hat.
So, off we go. We decide to head over to Waterlemon first. We're cruising past Caneel when we hit the swells - up one, down another and you can't see over the next kind of swells. We plow on and fortunately things get a little better after passing Trunk. By the time we pass Francis things are much better...until turning the corner at Mary's Point. At this point it turns from relative calm to downright scary. We get about halfway down the point when we decide Waterlemon just isn't in the cards and turn back. We tied up on the mooring bouy at the far point of Mary's Point, between the point and Whisling Cay. Things are calm, but the water is quite cloudy. Not any better at Whistling Cay either, which is a bummer because I really wanted to go there for a snorkel.
Customs House ruins on Whitling Cay
The waves at Trunk were too high to beach the dinghy so at this point we are questioning the wisdom of renting the dinghy. We decide to head over to Honeymoon which looked calmer on the way out. As we approach we notice that a "certain Cay" (unnamed out of respect for Big Cheezes paranoia of ruining a private paradise) looks calm on the backside. We tied up and jump in for the swim to the cay and are rewarded with an unbelievable swim. I carried our backpack cooler on the swim and we spent some time eating a late lunch and taking in the sights of the cruise ships between STT and STJ, before heading into the water for what would be an amazing snorkel. The underwater landscape was amazing and the coral healthy. I ended up taking mostly video on this snorkel, but here are a couple of pics.
This is an incredible Elkhorn, about 15 feet across
Do I look happy after this snorkel? Note: my hat, buy one on dinghy day
We then sail off happily after salvaging Dinghy Day in a big way over to Honeymoon and just chill on the beach before heading back to Cruz Bay and dropping off the dinghy. This is the most critical part of Dinghy Day, believe me there is more pressure than Tiger Woods' gallery on the first tee when you are tyring to gracefully get beached and out of the dinghy in front of a couple of dozen patrons at the Beach Bar. All eyes are upon you, judgemental and in need of humor. Fortunately no accidents to report here.
We head back to the villa for a shower and some hot tub time. It's my honey's night for Lobster at Lime Inn, and that was delicious. It never fails that I order the wrong thing, in this case I got the all you can eat shrimp. It was quite tasty, but a lot of work...all that peeling. Picked up some ice cream at the Dolphin market on the way back to the villa and once again enjoyed the stars from the hot tub, while eating ice cream. Heaven on earth.
Day 6:
You may have guessed by now what time I woke up. It's weird, I know.
A picture of one of my morning friends
This morning the swells were much lower, but still there. We had zero plans, so we packed up all the stuff we could think of and headed out on the North Shore and wind up at the Annaburg ruins totally expecting to spend about 30 minutes there. We came across a "Friends of the Park" volunteer, Weldon, who we spent the next hour enjoying stories of the island and descriptions of how the mill was run back in the day. His knowledge was amazing and we were very thankful to spend the time talking with him. We toured the ruins and came across this really cool charcoal drawing scrawled into the wall of the DUNGEON(!). Now, I am peaked. This is cool, as in History Channel cool. This picture of the masters house was made by a detained slave by looking out the only window up the hill towards the house on the next mountain.
After the tour we get summoned over to the garden by Charles, the tender of the garden area. He takes us on a walk thru the plants that he is growing and chops off samples of sugar cane and coconut for us to taste. Awesome and once again I surprise myself by learning a lot about the native plants. Well, sugar cane is not native, but you know...
After that we head over to Skinny Legs for a burger and then off to the Mangroves for a truly weird and fascinating snorkel.
My bride had a bit too many margaritas at Skinny Legs so I thought that this snorkel in shallow water would be good and safe. We found a relatively clear area in which to enter the water and proceeded to snorkel in 2-3 feet of water along the mangroves. She quickly sobered, but was way to creeped out and elected to wait out my snorkel on shore. I saw many baby fish, from small barracuda that could fit in your palm to a small (nurse?) shark. I didn't have the camera ready to snap a shot of the shark and it was well gone before it booted up. But here are some pics of the snorkel. This is a very interesting thing to do and I recommend it to anyone who is curious. The lighting was a real challenge here so I apologize for the darkness of the pics, but that's how it was.
Then, it was off to Haulover north for an excellent snorkel.
Another sunset at the villa followed by carryout Ronnie's pizza on the deck, some hot tub soaking, and stargazing before off to bed.
Next is an unbelievable day at Francis Bay....
