USVI-On-Line

Details on Day 7 of our intermittent trip reports....

Arrived at Little Lameshur at about noon or a little after. About 12-15 other souls on the beach. I had guessed that today would be a good day for snorkeling at L Lameshur, and it turns out I was right. When we first went in, the water was, as CapnKirk so brilliantly said, "gin clear". The bay was completely calm and flat as a pancake. Selected pictures from our day at L Lameshur are here:

https://picasaweb.google.com/awardb/Lit ... MPokoGHlAE

Again, click "Slideshow" on the upper left to see them full-screen and in a slideshow format.

The pictures are of two hour-long snorkels each. The first set of pictures are taken heading out to the right off the beach, stopping at the rocks then onward toward the right-hand shoreline. After many visits to Lil Lameshur, we've found that the best snorkeling by far is far out on the right-hand side. It gets better the further out you go. Best fish and coral are as you go around the point that separates L Lameshur from Europa bay. That water can be a little rough, but not today. Calm as could be, and as you can see from the pics, excellent fish and coral to admire.

The shots of Little Lameshur beach itself separate snorkel trip 1 from snorkel trip 2. After resting and some soda/beer and pretzels, we headed out for another long snorkel along the left side, all the way out toward Yawzi point. Coral is not as abundant as on the right side of the bay, nor are there as many fish. However, we saw a lot of fish, including a Lionfish -ack! Also saw Cuttlefish, and a 5' brown nurse shark (drats! - no pics). My favorite pic is the 4 lizardfish in the vase sponge! L Lameshur has quite a collection of vase sponges (I believe that's what they are) on both sides of the bay. As we finished up the final snorkel, Sylvia saw 3 (!) rays, and I followed one and took those last pictures. What a great snorkeling day!!

It was probably the best water, fish, coral, weather-day we've ever had in many trips to that beach!

We stayed until about 6:30, then went to Shipwreck Landing for a delicious dinner. We were the last people to leave the beach that day.

Even though we don't really want the word to get out about how great Little Lameshur can be, it's just one of our top two beaches on STJ - the other being Honeymoon. Both beaches share the "deserted" factor on most days, LL more than Honeymoon. On LL, you can stand out in the water, and look back toward the shoreline, and you'll see NO houses or man-made structures, save the ruin on the right side of the beach. If there have ever been 25 people there at one time, I'd like to hear about it. The bay is almost always calm. The sandy bottom goes for yards and yards and it's still not over your head. The water can be cloudy sometimes, see Coden's report a few days ago. It's a pain to get to, both in time and taking your life in your hands just to drive there.

But you're rewarded with one of the best-kept secrets in the Caribbean, methinks. It's got an awful lot of good things going for it. We'll go back there at least once more this trip.

The drive to it is daunting but we love it too...

it's my first go to-- love that beach. hoping to see it tomorrow1

That's the best word for the drive: daunting!

I note that the VI road dept. or someone paved one of the worst stretches, right at the beginning of the unpaved road, in concrete last year. They paved the "tear-out-your-transmission-casing-or-your-oil-pan" portion of the very rocky road, right where you had to litterally scrape the telephone pole on your left to get by, all the while praying about the above-mentioned parts on your vehicle. Why in the world they didn't just finish the paving between the new section and the existing concrete a little further on is beyond me.

Hey Ward - looks like the water was clearer than the day we went - fantastic pictures! Good for you! We'll be going back out there in a few day as it is one of my fav beaches.

Great photos, I agree with Caribert. That looks like a Lionfish to me.

Should have marked it so they could come round it up.
At least let the VI park guys know that you saw one out there.

Great photos! We had a great time the first trip to LL 3 years ago, but this year it was cloudy and we did not see much. You know that crowd you were talking about, they came on the day we went . I know that beaches change all the time though, so we will go back. I think we all need to start carying lion fish markers. This picture just lets me know that I need to have one on me every time I snorkel or dive. Isn't ashame they are so bad for the environment there, they are really beautiful!

bevm wrote:The drive to it is daunting but we love it too...

It is SOOOOOoooooo much better a drive than when first visited Lamshurs on our first visit to StJ. At that time the road over the ridge was gravel and very narrow. Now it's a walk in the park especially after a rainfall.

Well, we just had dinner last night (again!) at one of our faves, The Fish Trap, and were talking to the owner, Aaron. He pointed out that we should report it to the Park Service, and we were unaware of this. So we'll make a report, probably today. We can describe to them quite accurately where we saw it in the bay. And, to be exact, we saw TWO Lionfish at LLameshur. One was very small, looked like a juvenile. The other one was pictured in our upload.

Yikes!