Spring Break 2011 on STJ - Part II
Posted: Tue Apr 12, 2011 2:28 pm
(Link to previous installment at bottom of the page):
Ahhh...waking up on St. John - nothing in the world like it!
Since we'd had such a long travel day the day before, and since it was, after all, his spring break, we opted not to drag Jason out of bed at the crack of dawn, which is when Leslie and I are normally up when we're on St. John. This not only gave us time for a leisurely breakfast, but also to take some pictures of the villa, Mill Ridge. ( For those interested, here's a link to what I wrote for this site's villa review section: http://www.virgin-islands-on-line.com/s ... 2119.shtml )
At the end of the final installment of the TR there will be a link to the on line photo album, where you can see more of them, and of our trip in general.
Anyhoo...here's the view looking out to Coral Bay from the pool area:
Here's one of the long covered porch that runs the length of the house:
This is from the driveway up to the steps that lead to the entranceway:
And the opposite view - looking down toward the driveway:
And here's one of the locals, enjoying our hospitality!:
When we couldn't stand it any longer we woke Jason up, made him eat some breakfast, grabbed our snorkel gear and hit the road. First stop - Leinster Bay, and the three mooring balls - the spot where Leslie and I had hit the eagle ray jackpot last November.
As seen from the Annaberg parking lot, the water looked beautiful!
Just a short walk down the trail, we made it to the point adjacent to the first mooring ball, geared up, and got in that water!
Leslie had the camera, took this shot, then handed if off to me:
The LCD monitor on the camera went dark as soon as I got my hands on it, so I pushed the shutter button to awaken it from the power saving mode. Only nothing happened. So I pressed the on/off button. Same result. Rut-roh. We've seen this before. Leslie's first D10 died in an identical fashion the previous July, also in Leinster Bay, but at least that was on our last full day on island, not our first. And I still hadn't taken my Olympus C5050, that I dropped on the tile floor last fall, to get fixed yet. So we were without a camera. Crap! Very disappointing, but far from disastrous, so we just continued to snorkel - after all, that's why we were here!
No eagle rays this time, unfortunately. The water was fairly clear but not excellent in terms of visibility. Leslie, who is prone to getting cold in the water, was a trooper, but her chattering teeth betrayed her when she tried to convince us that she was perfectly fine staying in longer. And honestly, if the sun had been out more, and if we'd had a little better luck seeing things, we might have stayed in longer. But Jason, as he was looking for a path into shore that was clear of coral/urchins/etc. saw a shark in about four feet of water, but it didn't hang around long enough for Leslie or I to see it.
This was our first trip in high season. Every trip prior has been in October/November, with the single exception of the trip last year, with Jason, which was in July. We noticed that the water was discernibly colder. Not frigid, but I found myself getting chilled after 30-45 minutes, which was unusual. Another thing we noticed was how many boats there were in Leinster Bay - we'd never seen so many! So, with the dark cloud of the broken camera still hanging over our heads a little, we headed back to the now overflowing parking lot at Annaberg.
We can't remain disheartened on St. John for very long, and as soon as we were back in the jeep, tooling down the left lane, mp3 player belting out tunes, the warm wind drying us off, our spirits were lifted. Where to next? Francis is close by - why not? We parked in the little lot by the trail to the beach, walked past the ruins, through the woods, and onto that gorgeous stretch of white sand bordered by that turquoise water - that's what I'm talking about!
After hanging out on the beach for a while (and getting our core body temps back up!) we got in the water and hugged the shoreline heading north. We had challenged ourselves to snorkel all the way out to Mary Point - for whatever reasons, we had never gone that far before. We saw a lot of the little creatures that we like, such as arrow crabs, and a lot of reef fish, but nothing spectacular. When we got out to the point we did see something unusual - the Sea Tow boat was rounding the point coming from the direction of Leinster, with a client on the line!
We made a stop about halfway back to the beach to rest from swimming against the current as well as to warm up a bit again, then completed our trek back to where we had entered. We hung out for a while, just enjoying the sand and sun, talking to the folks that happened to wander down to where we were, and just being on vacation!
Eventually thoughts turned to lunch, so we hiked back to the jeep, and took North Shore road (our first venture onto it this rip) towards town. We picked up a gal hitchhiking on the road in front of Maho. She moved to STJ from Oklahoma and was working at the Maho camps. We parked in the Mongoose Junction lot and wished her well, then decided on Sun Dog Cafe as our lunch spot of choice. After we ate we took a quick walk over to St. John Spice to try and see Ruth but she wasn't in - I think that was the day her Mom was leaving. Back at Mongoose we bought a loaf of freshly baked bread at Deli Grotto, then we hit Pine Peace for a few more items on our list before taking South Shore/Gifft Hill back to Centerline for the ride back to Coral Bay.
We rinsed our gear, there was some swimming in the pool, a cold drink or two, grilled pork tenderloin for dinner, some VIOL and Facebook updates, then, as is not unusual for me when I'm down there, hitting the hay fairly early (considering that there's nowhere I have to be the next day) for some wonderfully rejuvenating sleep!
Part I: http://www.virgin-islands-on-line.com/f ... hp?t=19951
Ahhh...waking up on St. John - nothing in the world like it!
Since we'd had such a long travel day the day before, and since it was, after all, his spring break, we opted not to drag Jason out of bed at the crack of dawn, which is when Leslie and I are normally up when we're on St. John. This not only gave us time for a leisurely breakfast, but also to take some pictures of the villa, Mill Ridge. ( For those interested, here's a link to what I wrote for this site's villa review section: http://www.virgin-islands-on-line.com/s ... 2119.shtml )
At the end of the final installment of the TR there will be a link to the on line photo album, where you can see more of them, and of our trip in general.
Anyhoo...here's the view looking out to Coral Bay from the pool area:
Here's one of the long covered porch that runs the length of the house:
This is from the driveway up to the steps that lead to the entranceway:
And the opposite view - looking down toward the driveway:
And here's one of the locals, enjoying our hospitality!:
When we couldn't stand it any longer we woke Jason up, made him eat some breakfast, grabbed our snorkel gear and hit the road. First stop - Leinster Bay, and the three mooring balls - the spot where Leslie and I had hit the eagle ray jackpot last November.
As seen from the Annaberg parking lot, the water looked beautiful!
Just a short walk down the trail, we made it to the point adjacent to the first mooring ball, geared up, and got in that water!
Leslie had the camera, took this shot, then handed if off to me:
The LCD monitor on the camera went dark as soon as I got my hands on it, so I pushed the shutter button to awaken it from the power saving mode. Only nothing happened. So I pressed the on/off button. Same result. Rut-roh. We've seen this before. Leslie's first D10 died in an identical fashion the previous July, also in Leinster Bay, but at least that was on our last full day on island, not our first. And I still hadn't taken my Olympus C5050, that I dropped on the tile floor last fall, to get fixed yet. So we were without a camera. Crap! Very disappointing, but far from disastrous, so we just continued to snorkel - after all, that's why we were here!
No eagle rays this time, unfortunately. The water was fairly clear but not excellent in terms of visibility. Leslie, who is prone to getting cold in the water, was a trooper, but her chattering teeth betrayed her when she tried to convince us that she was perfectly fine staying in longer. And honestly, if the sun had been out more, and if we'd had a little better luck seeing things, we might have stayed in longer. But Jason, as he was looking for a path into shore that was clear of coral/urchins/etc. saw a shark in about four feet of water, but it didn't hang around long enough for Leslie or I to see it.
This was our first trip in high season. Every trip prior has been in October/November, with the single exception of the trip last year, with Jason, which was in July. We noticed that the water was discernibly colder. Not frigid, but I found myself getting chilled after 30-45 minutes, which was unusual. Another thing we noticed was how many boats there were in Leinster Bay - we'd never seen so many! So, with the dark cloud of the broken camera still hanging over our heads a little, we headed back to the now overflowing parking lot at Annaberg.
We can't remain disheartened on St. John for very long, and as soon as we were back in the jeep, tooling down the left lane, mp3 player belting out tunes, the warm wind drying us off, our spirits were lifted. Where to next? Francis is close by - why not? We parked in the little lot by the trail to the beach, walked past the ruins, through the woods, and onto that gorgeous stretch of white sand bordered by that turquoise water - that's what I'm talking about!
After hanging out on the beach for a while (and getting our core body temps back up!) we got in the water and hugged the shoreline heading north. We had challenged ourselves to snorkel all the way out to Mary Point - for whatever reasons, we had never gone that far before. We saw a lot of the little creatures that we like, such as arrow crabs, and a lot of reef fish, but nothing spectacular. When we got out to the point we did see something unusual - the Sea Tow boat was rounding the point coming from the direction of Leinster, with a client on the line!
We made a stop about halfway back to the beach to rest from swimming against the current as well as to warm up a bit again, then completed our trek back to where we had entered. We hung out for a while, just enjoying the sand and sun, talking to the folks that happened to wander down to where we were, and just being on vacation!
Eventually thoughts turned to lunch, so we hiked back to the jeep, and took North Shore road (our first venture onto it this rip) towards town. We picked up a gal hitchhiking on the road in front of Maho. She moved to STJ from Oklahoma and was working at the Maho camps. We parked in the Mongoose Junction lot and wished her well, then decided on Sun Dog Cafe as our lunch spot of choice. After we ate we took a quick walk over to St. John Spice to try and see Ruth but she wasn't in - I think that was the day her Mom was leaving. Back at Mongoose we bought a loaf of freshly baked bread at Deli Grotto, then we hit Pine Peace for a few more items on our list before taking South Shore/Gifft Hill back to Centerline for the ride back to Coral Bay.
We rinsed our gear, there was some swimming in the pool, a cold drink or two, grilled pork tenderloin for dinner, some VIOL and Facebook updates, then, as is not unusual for me when I'm down there, hitting the hay fairly early (considering that there's nowhere I have to be the next day) for some wonderfully rejuvenating sleep!
Part I: http://www.virgin-islands-on-line.com/f ... hp?t=19951
