EagleRayLover BD Trip Report Part VI
Posted: Sun Jul 22, 2012 4:25 pm
Link to Part I: http://www.virgin-islands-on-line.com/f ... hp?t=23472
Link to Part II: http://www.virgin-islands-on-line.com/f ... hp?t=23479
Link to Part III: http://www.virgin-islands-on-line.com/f ... hp?t=23493
Link to Part IV: http://www.virgin-islands-on-line.com/f ... hp?t=23525
Link to Part V: http://www.virgin-islands-on-line.com/f ... hp?t=23574
Wednesday, June 13 - This is, incredibly, our last full day on island. I never cease to be amazed at how quickly the days in paradise fly by!
Sunrise over Flanagan's Passage
Bananaquits taking advantage of Leslie's hospitality/generosity
When we reserved this villa I had envisioned spending a great deal of time at the beaches and bays on and around the southeastern part of the island. But - as is often the case, Mother Nature had other ideas. On this trip it was the strong prevailing winds that humbled the planner in me! In any event, we elected to visit Lameshure and to make, in essence, a day of it there. Shortly before 10:00AM our jeep completed the bumpy, mostly unpaved, patience testing road and we were pleased to be only the second vehicle in the parking lot. We parked near the picnic table at the near end of the lot, and unloaded snorkel gear, coolers, chairs, and various and sundry other accoutrements and established camp on and around said table.
That accomplished, it was time to begin execution of the primary objective, so we grabbed armfuls of snorkel and camera gear and hit the (Yawzi Point) trail!
We had a nice walk along the flat and easily followed path, stopping along the way to soak in those views that we'd soon be missing!
We finally made our way to the entry point on Great Lameshure Bay, aka Lost Snorkel Point, geared up and got in the water. Within seconds of our entry we revisited what seems to have become an unfortunate tradition for us on our STJ trips - camera failure! Let's see...last trip it was an Olympus that died in the water, so it must be Canon's turn. Sure enough, the D10 that Shane was carrying, has "left the building". Looking at the bright side, this was at the end, rather than at the beginning of our trip, we still had two functioning cameras with us, and the one that just failed was...only a couple of weeks old, so, still well within the warranty period. Anyway...let's move on and enjoy the snorkel!
We had scarcely floated away from the rocks by our entry point when we were greeted by this family:
Although we've been visiting Little Lameshure for some years now, this was only the second time that we've snorkeled from Great Lameshure around the point to Little Lameshure, and, conditions permitting, I really can't imagine coming here again and not doing it this way. The scenery and sea life out to, and around the point between the bays do not disappoint!
We eventually rounded the point and slowly made our way along the side of the bay, back towards base camp on the beach.
After a nice, long snorkel it felt good to let the sun dry and warm us up!
After warming up and having a bite, we all took the short walk past the other side of the bay to the ruins...
After scouting and scouring the ruins, we decided to take one last snorkel, out towards the exposed rocks toward the right side of the bay. By this time of the day the strong winds had the water here, which is primarily over sand, pretty stirred up and silty. Nothing makes an already melancholy snorkel more so than poor visibility. We probably weren't in the water for ten minutes when we opted to cut our losses and head back to shore. A planned final stop at the Tourist Trap was abandoned due to the realization that had plenty of food and drink back at the villa, and not much time left to finish them off! So back to Amarilla Villa it was. One last rinse of the gear, and it's officially happy hour!
Happy Hour - it's not just for humans anymore!
One final session of light-the-grill-in-the-shower later, and the steaks we didn't get to last night were well worth the wait! We were making impressive progress at deleting the rum stores, and as a part of that effort it was time for one more "first" for Leslie on this trip - a snorkel shot, with instruction from Jason (all of those college expenses are paying off!).
Thursday, June 14 - Departure day...
As time at the villa, and on the island, is running short, the sun was making its way into the sky altogether too quickly.
They're gonna miss their Sugar Momma...
The fact that the boys were still sleeping facilitated one more villa (and by extension, trip report) tradition...
Dude - if you're not gonna have sugar in that coffee can you send it up here?
We packed up, cleaned up, straightened up, and pretty much ran out of reasons to drag our feet any longer, so we loaded up the jeep and left. According to the instructions, we were to leave the keys inside and lock the door. Only two problems, you need the key to lock the door from the outside, and one of the keys closes the gate that's designed to keep the donkeys away from the landscaping. We weren't clever enough to come up with an elegant solution (too many snorkel shots perhaps?), and we had plenty of time, so we decided to just take the keys back to Windspree's office.
Is this look sadness, fatigue, or something else?
Before heading to the car barge, we had one last shopping stop to make in town, so we took a bittersweet drive down North Shore Road, found a parking spot on the waterfront by the ferry dock, and went to visit our favorite spice merchant!
We were pleased that Ruth and Curly happened to be in since we had missed them on our previous visits to town, so we took turns catching up with her and shopping. Shane picked out a nice Mayan calendar mirror (might as well get the last one, right?), and, restocked, we were soon on our way. The car barge was late leaving due to some interesting vehicle shuffling (Chinese fire drill?) going on, so we let Deb and Jay know that we might be a little late for our lunch date.
Why does it look so nice out when it's time to leave?
Eventually we motored out into the sound and took a longing look back at "our island"...
On STT, we drove to Frenchtown, and met Deb and Jay at Hook, Line, and Sinker for our last (this time) island meal. While I went to the little deli next door to buy sandwiches for the plane ride home, Leslie treated this fella to the lettuce from her sandwich...
Then it was off to the airport. We met Magdalena outside of the boarding area, and made sure that we were on her calendar for October (yay!), then began everyone's least favorite part of the whole experience - sliding into re-entry. Pretty uneventful remainder of the day - flight that seemed longer than the one we took heading the other direction, crowded terminal, crappy Miami traffic (people driving on the wrong, er, right side of the road!), rain on the three hour drive back home - standard post trip operations.
As usual we had an amazing time. A lot of firsts, a bunch of old favorites, some exciting new things, some sadness at some that are no longer around. As comfortable as we're getting to get and know our way around, the addiction shows no sign of abating, so we will have to find a way to keep feeding it!
Villa review, and a link to a comprehensive set of pictures and videos soon (island standard time) come!
Thanks for letting me revisit our trip through this report. It's the least I can do after all I get out of reading all of yours!
Link to Part II: http://www.virgin-islands-on-line.com/f ... hp?t=23479
Link to Part III: http://www.virgin-islands-on-line.com/f ... hp?t=23493
Link to Part IV: http://www.virgin-islands-on-line.com/f ... hp?t=23525
Link to Part V: http://www.virgin-islands-on-line.com/f ... hp?t=23574
Wednesday, June 13 - This is, incredibly, our last full day on island. I never cease to be amazed at how quickly the days in paradise fly by!
Sunrise over Flanagan's Passage
Bananaquits taking advantage of Leslie's hospitality/generosity
When we reserved this villa I had envisioned spending a great deal of time at the beaches and bays on and around the southeastern part of the island. But - as is often the case, Mother Nature had other ideas. On this trip it was the strong prevailing winds that humbled the planner in me! In any event, we elected to visit Lameshure and to make, in essence, a day of it there. Shortly before 10:00AM our jeep completed the bumpy, mostly unpaved, patience testing road and we were pleased to be only the second vehicle in the parking lot. We parked near the picnic table at the near end of the lot, and unloaded snorkel gear, coolers, chairs, and various and sundry other accoutrements and established camp on and around said table.
That accomplished, it was time to begin execution of the primary objective, so we grabbed armfuls of snorkel and camera gear and hit the (Yawzi Point) trail!
We had a nice walk along the flat and easily followed path, stopping along the way to soak in those views that we'd soon be missing!
We finally made our way to the entry point on Great Lameshure Bay, aka Lost Snorkel Point, geared up and got in the water. Within seconds of our entry we revisited what seems to have become an unfortunate tradition for us on our STJ trips - camera failure! Let's see...last trip it was an Olympus that died in the water, so it must be Canon's turn. Sure enough, the D10 that Shane was carrying, has "left the building". Looking at the bright side, this was at the end, rather than at the beginning of our trip, we still had two functioning cameras with us, and the one that just failed was...only a couple of weeks old, so, still well within the warranty period. Anyway...let's move on and enjoy the snorkel!
We had scarcely floated away from the rocks by our entry point when we were greeted by this family:
Although we've been visiting Little Lameshure for some years now, this was only the second time that we've snorkeled from Great Lameshure around the point to Little Lameshure, and, conditions permitting, I really can't imagine coming here again and not doing it this way. The scenery and sea life out to, and around the point between the bays do not disappoint!
We eventually rounded the point and slowly made our way along the side of the bay, back towards base camp on the beach.
After a nice, long snorkel it felt good to let the sun dry and warm us up!
After warming up and having a bite, we all took the short walk past the other side of the bay to the ruins...
After scouting and scouring the ruins, we decided to take one last snorkel, out towards the exposed rocks toward the right side of the bay. By this time of the day the strong winds had the water here, which is primarily over sand, pretty stirred up and silty. Nothing makes an already melancholy snorkel more so than poor visibility. We probably weren't in the water for ten minutes when we opted to cut our losses and head back to shore. A planned final stop at the Tourist Trap was abandoned due to the realization that had plenty of food and drink back at the villa, and not much time left to finish them off! So back to Amarilla Villa it was. One last rinse of the gear, and it's officially happy hour!
Happy Hour - it's not just for humans anymore!
One final session of light-the-grill-in-the-shower later, and the steaks we didn't get to last night were well worth the wait! We were making impressive progress at deleting the rum stores, and as a part of that effort it was time for one more "first" for Leslie on this trip - a snorkel shot, with instruction from Jason (all of those college expenses are paying off!).
Thursday, June 14 - Departure day...
As time at the villa, and on the island, is running short, the sun was making its way into the sky altogether too quickly.
They're gonna miss their Sugar Momma...
The fact that the boys were still sleeping facilitated one more villa (and by extension, trip report) tradition...
Dude - if you're not gonna have sugar in that coffee can you send it up here?
We packed up, cleaned up, straightened up, and pretty much ran out of reasons to drag our feet any longer, so we loaded up the jeep and left. According to the instructions, we were to leave the keys inside and lock the door. Only two problems, you need the key to lock the door from the outside, and one of the keys closes the gate that's designed to keep the donkeys away from the landscaping. We weren't clever enough to come up with an elegant solution (too many snorkel shots perhaps?), and we had plenty of time, so we decided to just take the keys back to Windspree's office.
Is this look sadness, fatigue, or something else?
Before heading to the car barge, we had one last shopping stop to make in town, so we took a bittersweet drive down North Shore Road, found a parking spot on the waterfront by the ferry dock, and went to visit our favorite spice merchant!
We were pleased that Ruth and Curly happened to be in since we had missed them on our previous visits to town, so we took turns catching up with her and shopping. Shane picked out a nice Mayan calendar mirror (might as well get the last one, right?), and, restocked, we were soon on our way. The car barge was late leaving due to some interesting vehicle shuffling (Chinese fire drill?) going on, so we let Deb and Jay know that we might be a little late for our lunch date.
Why does it look so nice out when it's time to leave?
Eventually we motored out into the sound and took a longing look back at "our island"...
On STT, we drove to Frenchtown, and met Deb and Jay at Hook, Line, and Sinker for our last (this time) island meal. While I went to the little deli next door to buy sandwiches for the plane ride home, Leslie treated this fella to the lettuce from her sandwich...
Then it was off to the airport. We met Magdalena outside of the boarding area, and made sure that we were on her calendar for October (yay!), then began everyone's least favorite part of the whole experience - sliding into re-entry. Pretty uneventful remainder of the day - flight that seemed longer than the one we took heading the other direction, crowded terminal, crappy Miami traffic (people driving on the wrong, er, right side of the road!), rain on the three hour drive back home - standard post trip operations.
As usual we had an amazing time. A lot of firsts, a bunch of old favorites, some exciting new things, some sadness at some that are no longer around. As comfortable as we're getting to get and know our way around, the addiction shows no sign of abating, so we will have to find a way to keep feeding it!
Villa review, and a link to a comprehensive set of pictures and videos soon (island standard time) come!
Thanks for letting me revisit our trip through this report. It's the least I can do after all I get out of reading all of yours!
.
