USVI-On-Line

I thought I read on one of the posts that Villas with southern exposures tend to be windy. We are planning on renting Sol Inclination next June. We enjoy our pool time and wonder if that would be the case with Sol Inclination.
Nancy

Hi nancyr84, we were just at sol inclination in January and we did have a nice breeze up there, but it didn't bother swimming in the pool at all. The pool gets sun all day long and the sun in St. John is hot! We welcomed that breeze, plus it keeps the mosquitoes away. And besides, when you see the view from up there, all your worries fade away into island time....that villa really made our trip extra special.

The prevailing Tradewinds come from the East and NEast - a house can still be windy with a Southern exposure if it has no blockage to the East by mountains or ridges - the nice thing about S. facing decks and pools is the daytime sun.

I love windy/breezy villas, keeps the bugs, mosquitoes, noseeums away!!! We always try to get higher up so we WILL have a great breeze!

Nancy, you might be remembering some comments about southern-facing villas that get too hot in the afternoon because of the sun beating down on the windows. IMHO, any villa with southern or western exposure should have shaded porches to protect the interior from too much passive solar energy (and to provide a shady place to sit and look at the scenery).

But the only places where I have ever seen complaints about too much wind was (very occasionally) for mountain-top locations. In general, you want the tradewinds to hit your deck to cool you down and keep away bugs.

Dreamshark: "But the only places where I have ever seen complaints about too much wind was (very occasionally) for mountain-top locations."

The winds at a villa can be influenced by the local topography, much as buildings in a city can focus the wind. I recall renting Beit Hawa over in Boatman Point some years ago, which was within 50 feet of the water. The wind was really strong there most of the time, and there were actually loud howls bothering us in the house, which I traced to small chinks in the doors that were acting like whistles. Had I known Hebrew, I could have figured this all out before we rented; "Beit Hawa" literally translates as "House of Wind".

We had been looking at a home in Coral Bay long ago that was similarly inflicted; the shape of the hills near it led the normally modest east to west trades to focus in a way that made the deck a bit unpleasant to hang out on. Fortunately, cases such as these are the rare exception.

Kevin