Trip Report Day 10 - another beach
Posted: Fri Aug 12, 2011 11:15 pm
Day 9 was spent at our villa, Cloud 9, relaxing, as we were both pretty tired from 2 days in a row of serious snorkeling.
So on Day 10, it's off to Jumbie Bay we go. Luckily, there was a parking spot left for us. Jumbie only offers 7 parking spaces total, so you can be pretty sure that you're going to have a beach day that's never too crowded. We've always liked Jumbie, and have been there many many times over the years. I find people all of the time that have visited STJ, but yet never have been to Jumbie. That's a shame,as it's a beach that's well worth your time to visit.
Positives are it's small, intimate size, plenty of shade, decent sand and good but not great snorkeling. Negatives are that it can be windy and choppy on some days, as it's exposed directly to the prevailing winds, unlike most North Shore beaches. Due to the way the wind blows everything right into the bay, it can also be (at times) a "trashy" beach, with all kinds of seaweed, driftwood, and all kinds of floating debris blown in towards the beach. But it's not always that way, and it was clear and clean today.
There is a large reef, out at the entrance to the bay, made up of mostly older dead coral, that's built up in a semi-circle that protects most of the inner bay. There is new coral growth in most places, growing on this large "wall" of old, dead coral. Fish life is decent but not great.
There were a LOT of moon jellyfish all along the coral reef, and some other small jellyfish-looking things that actually had small tentacles hanging underneath. Not sure what they were, but I swam right thru all of them with no ill effects.
The jellyfish invasion, however, deterred Sylvia from snorkeling today. So the first time I went in, I did NOT take the camera. Within 15 minutes, I spy a 4' brown nurse shark sleeping near the base of the coral wall! I had to swim back to shore, ask Sylvia to grab the UW camera, and I swam back out to get a picture of the shark. As soon as I headed back out, I see a solitary barracuda that swam away slowly enough to allow some good pics.
I managed to get some great pics of the shark as well, along with the opening pictures of a shore bird walking up and down the shore eating his lunch. Anyone know what species he is? The pictures we took finish up with some great sand crab pictures, as they came out to play late in the day.
Jumbie Bay has some great views of nearby Trunk Bay, and it's popular enough that while people came and went all day, there were just as many people there when we left at 5:30PM as there were when we arrived shortly after 11AM.
All in all, it was a great relaxing day on yet another beautiful STJ beach. The pictures below tell the story!
https://picasaweb.google.com/awardb/Jum ... qYj6yuf6Sw
So on Day 10, it's off to Jumbie Bay we go. Luckily, there was a parking spot left for us. Jumbie only offers 7 parking spaces total, so you can be pretty sure that you're going to have a beach day that's never too crowded. We've always liked Jumbie, and have been there many many times over the years. I find people all of the time that have visited STJ, but yet never have been to Jumbie. That's a shame,as it's a beach that's well worth your time to visit.
Positives are it's small, intimate size, plenty of shade, decent sand and good but not great snorkeling. Negatives are that it can be windy and choppy on some days, as it's exposed directly to the prevailing winds, unlike most North Shore beaches. Due to the way the wind blows everything right into the bay, it can also be (at times) a "trashy" beach, with all kinds of seaweed, driftwood, and all kinds of floating debris blown in towards the beach. But it's not always that way, and it was clear and clean today.
There is a large reef, out at the entrance to the bay, made up of mostly older dead coral, that's built up in a semi-circle that protects most of the inner bay. There is new coral growth in most places, growing on this large "wall" of old, dead coral. Fish life is decent but not great.
There were a LOT of moon jellyfish all along the coral reef, and some other small jellyfish-looking things that actually had small tentacles hanging underneath. Not sure what they were, but I swam right thru all of them with no ill effects.
The jellyfish invasion, however, deterred Sylvia from snorkeling today. So the first time I went in, I did NOT take the camera. Within 15 minutes, I spy a 4' brown nurse shark sleeping near the base of the coral wall! I had to swim back to shore, ask Sylvia to grab the UW camera, and I swam back out to get a picture of the shark. As soon as I headed back out, I see a solitary barracuda that swam away slowly enough to allow some good pics.
I managed to get some great pics of the shark as well, along with the opening pictures of a shore bird walking up and down the shore eating his lunch. Anyone know what species he is? The pictures we took finish up with some great sand crab pictures, as they came out to play late in the day.
Jumbie Bay has some great views of nearby Trunk Bay, and it's popular enough that while people came and went all day, there were just as many people there when we left at 5:30PM as there were when we arrived shortly after 11AM.
All in all, it was a great relaxing day on yet another beautiful STJ beach. The pictures below tell the story!
https://picasaweb.google.com/awardb/Jum ... qYj6yuf6Sw
Maybe next year!