Oh what a (fort)night! October 2011 Trip Report Part IV
Posted: Mon Nov 07, 2011 9:48 am
Link to Part I: http://www.virgin-islands-on-line.com/f ... hp?t=21721
Link to Part II: http://www.virgin-islands-on-line.com/f ... hp?t=21727
Link to Part II: http://www.virgin-islands-on-line.com/f ... hp?t=21748
Friday, October 7
TGIF - Oh wait, we're on St. John, and still have a number of days left, so who am I kidding - we're lucky if we even know what day it is (and even luckier that we don't care)!
By the time I woke up and got out of bed there was already a pot of coffee brewed, thanks to Chet (aka Coffee Boy, among other designations) - I could tell that this was going to be a great day!
Once we were all up and about, and all of the morning stuff had been taken care of, it was time to hit the road, and, of course, the water!
A brief weather survey from the deck at Allesandra yielded the conclusion that the north facing beaches would likely be the ones sheltered the most from the wind today, not that it was blowing a gale or anything, but calmer is better! The executive decision was made to head out to the east end of the island and see if the conditions were favorable for a snorkel at Haulover North. We made our way across the island to Haulover only to discover that the parking "spots" we'd always availed ourselves of in the past, where you backed in under the trees on the south side of the road, had been rendered unaccessible by traffic control devices (vertical poles). The biggest area off of the road was taken up by the unoccupied trailer full of Crabby's kayaks, so we drove past Haulover before turning around and finding a spot "mostly" off of the road on the north side. We found the trail, then made the short hike to the beach. We were greeted with just a slight wind chop on the water, and a thick blanket of seaweed cushioning most of the rocky shoreline. We walked down to the right side and set up base camp under the tree there.
We decided to snorkel the left side, so into the water we went...
Much like we'd seen at Maho, there were tons of baitfish/fry/silversides in the water:
Fry frenzy
And where there are baitfish...
Cruising for brunch!
The visibility here was spectacular at times, and the coral abundant and healthy looking.
The last time we'd snokeled here we also were blown away by the vibrance of the coral but didn't see a whole lot of fish - they were certainly out this time!
And not just the baitfish, either! This school of Blue Tang were amazing! I have some video of them that I'll share in another report, but here's just one of the many pictures of them we were able to take;
Just keep swimming...
Gray Angelfish
Elkhorn coral
Sea fans
It was turning out to be a beautiful day, both below and above the water!
Pelicans
As we made our way back to our entry point at the end of the snorkel Barbara was poking through the seaweed layer along the shore to see what she could find and Chet was off toward the right side of the bay on a under/over water surveying expedition. When he got back he reported that, for today at least, there wasn't enough sea life present on the right side to warrant making this a two snorkel spot. We decided that we'd find a north facing beach, and perhaps one with a sandy beach in case anyone wanted to do some chillin' out of the water. Barbara and Chet suggested Maho. What the heck - we'd been there just the day before, but can you ever really get too much Maho? I think not!
We were anxious to see if the hordes of baitfish we'd seen here yesterday were still around. To our delight we found that, if anything, they were here in even greater numbers today!
The fry clear a path around a southern stingray
The reaction of people on the beach was priceless - but who could blame them? This was just an amazing sight! In close to the beach, stretching across the width of the bay, the sandy bottom looked, from a distance, to be black. Here and there you could see "trails" of white sand - upon inspection these occurred where either stingrays or tarpon were making their way through the throngs of the silversides. Occasionally the water would boil as the tarpon worked as a group to herd the baitfish into shallow water and then began to feed on them! From time to time, pelicans would dive bomb into the fray as well. Leslie took some video that captured this really well - I'll add a link to that when I get a chance to do so.
Leslie jumped right in to get an "inside" look at the action!
Lesliefish
As incredible and mesmerizing as this was, eventually we were able to tear ourselves away from it, and make our way along the right side of the bay, out towards the point. The visibility wasn't quite as good on this day, although it certainly wasn't terrible. We saw some of our Maho favorites;
Christmas tree worms
Flowering coral? Not sure what it's called.
Bristleworm
And, a Maho classic;
Queen Angelfish
Leslie and I once again swam back in through the middle of the bay in hopes of seeing turtles, but once again came up empty handed in that regard. As I got closer to land I heard shouting from the beach and realized that it was Chet. I looked around and saw Leslie swimming hard, back in the direction of the rocks along the right side of the bay. I was too far away to catch up with her, so I just came on in, only to learn that Chet had been walking the beach when he saw a spotted eagle ray, swimming from one side of the bay towards the other, (uncharacteristically) in the shallows. Apparently, if we'd have started our swim in a couple of minutes earlier, there would have been a good chance that we would have crossed paths with it, but neither one of us got so much as a glimpse of it this time.
It had been a long morning/afternoon, so we headed back to Allesandra, rinsed off our gear, had some snacks for a late lunch, and went about the business of rinsing cameras, charging batteries, downloading pictures, you know - work!
After a long soak in the pool chilled us a bit, moving the party to the hot tub seemed like a good idea;
Not a bad way to spend the evening!
Tonight was steak night at the villa. We all enjoyed the meal, and the view...
Sunset over St. Thomas
Link to Part II: http://www.virgin-islands-on-line.com/f ... hp?t=21727
Link to Part II: http://www.virgin-islands-on-line.com/f ... hp?t=21748
Friday, October 7
TGIF - Oh wait, we're on St. John, and still have a number of days left, so who am I kidding - we're lucky if we even know what day it is (and even luckier that we don't care)!
By the time I woke up and got out of bed there was already a pot of coffee brewed, thanks to Chet (aka Coffee Boy, among other designations) - I could tell that this was going to be a great day!
Once we were all up and about, and all of the morning stuff had been taken care of, it was time to hit the road, and, of course, the water!
A brief weather survey from the deck at Allesandra yielded the conclusion that the north facing beaches would likely be the ones sheltered the most from the wind today, not that it was blowing a gale or anything, but calmer is better! The executive decision was made to head out to the east end of the island and see if the conditions were favorable for a snorkel at Haulover North. We made our way across the island to Haulover only to discover that the parking "spots" we'd always availed ourselves of in the past, where you backed in under the trees on the south side of the road, had been rendered unaccessible by traffic control devices (vertical poles). The biggest area off of the road was taken up by the unoccupied trailer full of Crabby's kayaks, so we drove past Haulover before turning around and finding a spot "mostly" off of the road on the north side. We found the trail, then made the short hike to the beach. We were greeted with just a slight wind chop on the water, and a thick blanket of seaweed cushioning most of the rocky shoreline. We walked down to the right side and set up base camp under the tree there.
We decided to snorkel the left side, so into the water we went...
Much like we'd seen at Maho, there were tons of baitfish/fry/silversides in the water:
Fry frenzy
And where there are baitfish...
Cruising for brunch!
The visibility here was spectacular at times, and the coral abundant and healthy looking.
The last time we'd snokeled here we also were blown away by the vibrance of the coral but didn't see a whole lot of fish - they were certainly out this time!
And not just the baitfish, either! This school of Blue Tang were amazing! I have some video of them that I'll share in another report, but here's just one of the many pictures of them we were able to take;
Just keep swimming...
Gray Angelfish
Elkhorn coral
Sea fans
It was turning out to be a beautiful day, both below and above the water!
Pelicans
As we made our way back to our entry point at the end of the snorkel Barbara was poking through the seaweed layer along the shore to see what she could find and Chet was off toward the right side of the bay on a under/over water surveying expedition. When he got back he reported that, for today at least, there wasn't enough sea life present on the right side to warrant making this a two snorkel spot. We decided that we'd find a north facing beach, and perhaps one with a sandy beach in case anyone wanted to do some chillin' out of the water. Barbara and Chet suggested Maho. What the heck - we'd been there just the day before, but can you ever really get too much Maho? I think not!
We were anxious to see if the hordes of baitfish we'd seen here yesterday were still around. To our delight we found that, if anything, they were here in even greater numbers today!
The fry clear a path around a southern stingray
The reaction of people on the beach was priceless - but who could blame them? This was just an amazing sight! In close to the beach, stretching across the width of the bay, the sandy bottom looked, from a distance, to be black. Here and there you could see "trails" of white sand - upon inspection these occurred where either stingrays or tarpon were making their way through the throngs of the silversides. Occasionally the water would boil as the tarpon worked as a group to herd the baitfish into shallow water and then began to feed on them! From time to time, pelicans would dive bomb into the fray as well. Leslie took some video that captured this really well - I'll add a link to that when I get a chance to do so.
Leslie jumped right in to get an "inside" look at the action!
Lesliefish
As incredible and mesmerizing as this was, eventually we were able to tear ourselves away from it, and make our way along the right side of the bay, out towards the point. The visibility wasn't quite as good on this day, although it certainly wasn't terrible. We saw some of our Maho favorites;
Christmas tree worms
Flowering coral? Not sure what it's called.
Bristleworm
And, a Maho classic;
Queen Angelfish
Leslie and I once again swam back in through the middle of the bay in hopes of seeing turtles, but once again came up empty handed in that regard. As I got closer to land I heard shouting from the beach and realized that it was Chet. I looked around and saw Leslie swimming hard, back in the direction of the rocks along the right side of the bay. I was too far away to catch up with her, so I just came on in, only to learn that Chet had been walking the beach when he saw a spotted eagle ray, swimming from one side of the bay towards the other, (uncharacteristically) in the shallows. Apparently, if we'd have started our swim in a couple of minutes earlier, there would have been a good chance that we would have crossed paths with it, but neither one of us got so much as a glimpse of it this time.
It had been a long morning/afternoon, so we headed back to Allesandra, rinsed off our gear, had some snacks for a late lunch, and went about the business of rinsing cameras, charging batteries, downloading pictures, you know - work!
After a long soak in the pool chilled us a bit, moving the party to the hot tub seemed like a good idea;
Not a bad way to spend the evening!
Tonight was steak night at the villa. We all enjoyed the meal, and the view...
Sunset over St. Thomas
.
They were not there last summer. We had one of our best mornings there! I am so disapointed! 
We wanted to go and take my 81 year old mom. She loves the beach, but long walks to the beach are out of the question.