usvi-on-line
Oh what a (fort)night! October 2011 Trip Report Part VIII
Oh what a (fort)night! October 2011 Trip Report Part VIII
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 III: http://www.virgin-islands-on-line.com/f ... hp?t=21748
Link to Part IV: http://www.virgin-islands-on-line.com/f ... hp?t=21762
Link to Part V: http://www.virgin-islands-on-line.com/f ... hp?t=21283
Link to Part VI: http://virgin-islands-on-line.com/forum ... hp?t=21974
Link to Part VII: http://virgin-islands-on-line.com/forum ... hp?t=22574
Wednesday, October 12
Today we had another first planned - snorkeling in Frank Bay. The one time Leslie and I had tried to before, it was much too rough and we had kind of let it slip off of our "list". At the Happy Hour we'd had on Sunday, Barb and Chet's friend Frank, who now manages Coconut Coast Studios with his wife, told us that he snorkels there every day that conditions allow, so he got us interested in trying again. We drove down by the bay to find it cloudy and rainy, but no too badly.
Frank joined us shortly, gave us a shoreside briefing of the bay, and went back to work. We figured we'd get wet anyway, and there was no lightning to be seen, so we geared up and got in!
We entered and made our way to the left side of the bay to begin making our way out to the point. While this isn't a "wow" snorkel site in terms of spectacular coral formations, if you take your time there is a lot of neat stuff to see.
I was poking along and Leslie was probably fifty yards or so ahead of me when I heard a squeal coming from her direction that could only mean one thing:
I kicked like a madman to catch up to her, and got there just in time to see the magnificent creature scoot out of sight, but he had been around long enough for Leslie to take that picture just above.
When we were more or less adjacent to where we'd entered the water, we headed in to take a break, and saw these little guys just a couple of feet off of the beach.
By now the rain and clouds had moved on and it was turning out to be a beautiful day!
For the second snorkel here we decided we'd go to the right, towards/to/past Gallows. Barb and Chet opted to take the sea kayaks that belong to Coconut Coast out for a spin instead.
We ended up doing a very nice, fairly long snorkel that took us to the fringes of Cruz Bay. Some of the underwater highlights:
We took the short drive back to the villa and hung out for the afternoon. Leslie took the opportunity to take pictures of some of the villa and the surrounding grounds:
We had another "list" item to try and check off later on - namely, to hike out to Ram Head to watch the full moon rise. We allowed ourselves plenty of time to make the drive, hike down the path to the beach, and then on to the Ram Head Trail!
Eventually, we all made it up to the top.
Unfortunately, the weather wasn't going to cooperate, as clouds obscured the eastern horizon. At the precise moment we were hoping to see the harvest moon peeking it's way into view, here's what we actually saw:
Not that it's too terrible to find yourself at the southern tip of the island as sunset nears:
We hiked back, and made it to the jeep just as it got "really" dark, and noted the time, for future reference (teaser alert!).
We took advantage of the relative proximity to town to finish the day with food and drink from an island institution:
Thursday, October 13:
It was raining when we woke up this morning, and we were soon treated to this:
Leslie and I were ready to go fairly early, while Barb and Chet decided to hang out and get a little private time at the villa. We headed down North Shore Road with no particular destination in mind, until the empty parking spaces at Jumbie were too good to drive by!
I don't mind this short hike...
....especially when it leads to this!
We had only been to Jumbie once before, and on that occasion we were looking for, and thought we were at, Gibney. The water had been choppy and murky on that previous occasion, but was anything but today! We really weren't sure where to go, but that's never stopped us before!
As we were heading into the beach we were a little surprised to see Barb and Chet hauling chairs down the trail. Seems as though the lawn crew had interrupted their villa gravity day, so they figured they way as well head to the beach! About the time they got settled in the rain returned, and Barb retreated to the car with her book to wait it out. Chet was more familiar with Jumbie than we were, so he took on the role of guide for our second snorkel, and we avoided some of the dead coral sections we'd swum over earlier. We had a nice long snorkel that even took us around the point to the left over to Denis Bay!
Once we were finished snorkeling, we just couldn't tear ourselves away from that beautiful, virtually deserted beach, so we hung out for awhile and just played in the water.
We started getting hungry so Leslie and I headed ito town. After a quick water refill stop at St. John Ice, we went back (again) to Sun Dog for lunch, then headed back to the freshly manicured grounds at Allesandra.
Leslie made some of her famous chocolate chip cookies and the smell was driving me crazy! Luckily, there was a diversion planned that would get us away for a little while. We were all going for another first - a night snorkel! We chose Maho as the location due to our familiarity with the place as well as the ease of entry into the shallow sandy bottom there. We knew from our previous night's adventure that it would be good and dark by 6:15, so we planned to get in the water by 6:00 for a twilight entry.
Once in, we slowly made our way over to the right side of the bay, taking time to get used to our underwater flashlights, and generally getting our bearings. It was really different. Barb and Chet were a good bit further towards the point from us when they were brushed by an eagle ray "the size of a Buick!". Understandably, Barb got a little spooked by that and decided to head in.
It was cool seeing the reef at night. Picture taking was kind of tricky. I finally figured out that the flash firing at the subject that I was pointing my light at caused the picturesto be washed out, so I would sight the shot using the flashlight and point the camera at it, then turn off the flashlight and shoot. There were some really "interesting" looking pictures as a result, but here are some that turned out OK.
When we got out of a water it was a mad dash for the jeep to avoid getting eaten alive by nosee'ums and mosquitoes, but what fun!
Back to the villa, we feasted on grilled tri-tip, zuchinni, and oven roasted potatoes, and topped it off with a chocolate chip cookie (or two)!
Link to Part II: http://www.virgin-islands-on-line.com/f ... hp?t=21727
Link to Part III: http://www.virgin-islands-on-line.com/f ... hp?t=21748
Link to Part IV: http://www.virgin-islands-on-line.com/f ... hp?t=21762
Link to Part V: http://www.virgin-islands-on-line.com/f ... hp?t=21283
Link to Part VI: http://virgin-islands-on-line.com/forum ... hp?t=21974
Link to Part VII: http://virgin-islands-on-line.com/forum ... hp?t=22574
Wednesday, October 12
Today we had another first planned - snorkeling in Frank Bay. The one time Leslie and I had tried to before, it was much too rough and we had kind of let it slip off of our "list". At the Happy Hour we'd had on Sunday, Barb and Chet's friend Frank, who now manages Coconut Coast Studios with his wife, told us that he snorkels there every day that conditions allow, so he got us interested in trying again. We drove down by the bay to find it cloudy and rainy, but no too badly.
Frank joined us shortly, gave us a shoreside briefing of the bay, and went back to work. We figured we'd get wet anyway, and there was no lightning to be seen, so we geared up and got in!
We entered and made our way to the left side of the bay to begin making our way out to the point. While this isn't a "wow" snorkel site in terms of spectacular coral formations, if you take your time there is a lot of neat stuff to see.
I was poking along and Leslie was probably fifty yards or so ahead of me when I heard a squeal coming from her direction that could only mean one thing:
I kicked like a madman to catch up to her, and got there just in time to see the magnificent creature scoot out of sight, but he had been around long enough for Leslie to take that picture just above.
When we were more or less adjacent to where we'd entered the water, we headed in to take a break, and saw these little guys just a couple of feet off of the beach.
By now the rain and clouds had moved on and it was turning out to be a beautiful day!
For the second snorkel here we decided we'd go to the right, towards/to/past Gallows. Barb and Chet opted to take the sea kayaks that belong to Coconut Coast out for a spin instead.
We ended up doing a very nice, fairly long snorkel that took us to the fringes of Cruz Bay. Some of the underwater highlights:
We took the short drive back to the villa and hung out for the afternoon. Leslie took the opportunity to take pictures of some of the villa and the surrounding grounds:
We had another "list" item to try and check off later on - namely, to hike out to Ram Head to watch the full moon rise. We allowed ourselves plenty of time to make the drive, hike down the path to the beach, and then on to the Ram Head Trail!
Eventually, we all made it up to the top.
Unfortunately, the weather wasn't going to cooperate, as clouds obscured the eastern horizon. At the precise moment we were hoping to see the harvest moon peeking it's way into view, here's what we actually saw:
Not that it's too terrible to find yourself at the southern tip of the island as sunset nears:
We hiked back, and made it to the jeep just as it got "really" dark, and noted the time, for future reference (teaser alert!).
We took advantage of the relative proximity to town to finish the day with food and drink from an island institution:
Thursday, October 13:
It was raining when we woke up this morning, and we were soon treated to this:
Leslie and I were ready to go fairly early, while Barb and Chet decided to hang out and get a little private time at the villa. We headed down North Shore Road with no particular destination in mind, until the empty parking spaces at Jumbie were too good to drive by!
I don't mind this short hike...
....especially when it leads to this!
We had only been to Jumbie once before, and on that occasion we were looking for, and thought we were at, Gibney. The water had been choppy and murky on that previous occasion, but was anything but today! We really weren't sure where to go, but that's never stopped us before!
As we were heading into the beach we were a little surprised to see Barb and Chet hauling chairs down the trail. Seems as though the lawn crew had interrupted their villa gravity day, so they figured they way as well head to the beach! About the time they got settled in the rain returned, and Barb retreated to the car with her book to wait it out. Chet was more familiar with Jumbie than we were, so he took on the role of guide for our second snorkel, and we avoided some of the dead coral sections we'd swum over earlier. We had a nice long snorkel that even took us around the point to the left over to Denis Bay!
Once we were finished snorkeling, we just couldn't tear ourselves away from that beautiful, virtually deserted beach, so we hung out for awhile and just played in the water.
We started getting hungry so Leslie and I headed ito town. After a quick water refill stop at St. John Ice, we went back (again) to Sun Dog for lunch, then headed back to the freshly manicured grounds at Allesandra.
Leslie made some of her famous chocolate chip cookies and the smell was driving me crazy! Luckily, there was a diversion planned that would get us away for a little while. We were all going for another first - a night snorkel! We chose Maho as the location due to our familiarity with the place as well as the ease of entry into the shallow sandy bottom there. We knew from our previous night's adventure that it would be good and dark by 6:15, so we planned to get in the water by 6:00 for a twilight entry.
Once in, we slowly made our way over to the right side of the bay, taking time to get used to our underwater flashlights, and generally getting our bearings. It was really different. Barb and Chet were a good bit further towards the point from us when they were brushed by an eagle ray "the size of a Buick!". Understandably, Barb got a little spooked by that and decided to head in.
It was cool seeing the reef at night. Picture taking was kind of tricky. I finally figured out that the flash firing at the subject that I was pointing my light at caused the picturesto be washed out, so I would sight the shot using the flashlight and point the camera at it, then turn off the flashlight and shoot. There were some really "interesting" looking pictures as a result, but here are some that turned out OK.
When we got out of a water it was a mad dash for the jeep to avoid getting eaten alive by nosee'ums and mosquitoes, but what fun!
Back to the villa, we feasted on grilled tri-tip, zuchinni, and oven roasted potatoes, and topped it off with a chocolate chip cookie (or two)!
Come see us!
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ColumbiaSCTraveler
- Posts: 528
- Joined: Mon Apr 18, 2011 9:33 pm
- Location: Columbia, SC
WHAT is that zebra-striped fish (below school of blue tang)?!? Never seen one of those!
GORGEOUS floral shots!
I have NEVER been to the Beach Bar! Looks like trip #4 is THE YEAR.
Y'all are brave to night snorkel. I'm too chicken! What AWESOME shots!
THANK YOU for taking the time to share your trip reports with us!
GORGEOUS floral shots!
I have NEVER been to the Beach Bar! Looks like trip #4 is THE YEAR.
Y'all are brave to night snorkel. I'm too chicken! What AWESOME shots!
THANK YOU for taking the time to share your trip reports with us!
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EagleRayLover
- Posts: 1474
- Joined: Sat Feb 12, 2011 8:56 pm
- Location: St. John -WooHoo!!
Leslie does NOT squeal when having an Eagle Ray out-of-body experience.
I had witnessed the rapture last year when a ray was spotted at Waterlemon, and now swan like a man posessed towards the commotion. The current was in my favor as I dove to ear-busting depth to get a photo of the ray. A grand day at Frank Bay.
I had witnessed the rapture last year when a ray was spotted at Waterlemon, and now swan like a man posessed towards the commotion. The current was in my favor as I dove to ear-busting depth to get a photo of the ray. A grand day at Frank Bay.
When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.
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msgcolleen
- Posts: 1497
- Joined: Thu Oct 05, 2006 8:33 am
- Location: Allen, Texas
Your pictures are incredible! Thanks so much for 
"finally" finishing up your report & thanks for taking us with you . . . 
"finally" finishing up your report & thanks for taking us with you . . . I've got 2 tickets to paradise~Pack your bags we'll leave tonight!
[url=http://www.TickerFactory.com/]
[url=http://www.TickerFactory.com/]
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Capn Dan and Ruby
- Posts: 1006
- Joined: Sat Sep 05, 2009 10:08 pm
- Location: PC Florida
