Skyflower 2013 Trip Report - Part 1 (Getting There)
Posted: Fri Jul 26, 2013 7:29 pm
WEDNESDAY - travel day
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Up at 4am, and off to St John! Both flights right on time (has that ever happened before on American? I don't think so!) Arrived at 3:25, but missed 4pm ferry by a mile due to huge crowds at taxi stand. Let a porter take our bags at the ferry terminal and had painkillers at the bar: best decision of the day.
To StJ Spice for coffee, grill rub, wristbands. Spent $2 on a bag of genips on the street sold by a gentleman named Lion, who was also kind enough to show me how to eat them. Interesting fruit. Checked in to Boutique Hotel, then met up with Eagle Ray Lover (and canine friend Patches) @Beach Bar. Had nice chat, drinks and appetizers. Tuna bites were spectacular. But then, our first meal in the USVI always tastes spectacular, so my judgement may be suspect here. Leslie, thanks SO much for greeting us to the island! It made me feel really at home. R was getting a cold, and was exhausted and grumpy. However he pulled himself together enough to shower and shave off his 'stache (for snorkeling, y'know). He felt a little happier after a bushwacker or two.
THURSDAY - into the villa
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7:00 am. Continental brkfst on patio. Beautiful day, but even the locals were calling it hot. I got up early so I could hike around Cruz Bay, checking out the whereabouts of some of the rental properties I've looked at online (because, you just never know). R let me drag him to an early breakfast, but decided to skip the hike and nap in the air-conditioned room until they kicked us out. I walked up, over and down to Frank Bay, up and down a couple of other hills, then back up Seagrape Lane. Frangipani (my favorite of the Star Villas) turns out to be close to the Battery Hill Condoplex, very walkable to town. Aqua Bay is halfway down the hill to Frank Bay from Battery Hill. Took pictures of various villas, Frank Bay, and every cemetery I passed (more than you might expect).
2:10 PM We arrive at Skyflower! On our own, as greeter flaked out on us. Magnificent villa - even better than the online pictures. Many places claim to have the "best view on St. John" but this one may actually be it. Wow. Minor crisis when we couldn't find the blender, but R located it in a pantry and created a new drink to christen the place: the Coconut Skyflower.
4:00 pm or so: 1st snorkel @ Maho. Successful but not outstanding. I decided to start simple, leaving my weight belt and camera behind (thus no pictures). R's new equipment worked great. I'm not so sure about my new fins. Water was murky & coral on right side in terrible shape. But R found a huge green turtle almost immediately. A few colourful reef fish (queen angelfish, French parrot, and some of those black & white angels). Another snorkeler found a moss encrusted conch shell inhabited by the world's biggest hermit crab. That was cool. I dropped it when it suddenly snapped at me. 
Dinner: Dreamshark Sandwiches, fresh apricots and more rum drinks on balcony.
A few issues with the house, which is gorgeous and well designed but sort of complicated to operate. And I knocked down the post holding the keypad for the donkey gate. Oops. I'll have to call somebody about that tomorrow.
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FRIDAY - first full day in villa
5:45: Sun comes knocking on our bedroom window. I grab my iPhone from the bedside table, take a picture of the dawn, and bury my head in the pillow for another hour of sleep. Then I get up and make coffee and eggs Florentine, using that as an excuse to drag R out of bed. Small disappointment when we realize that if you get up this early the sun is still coming under the roof of the splendiferous 40-foot balcony and shining in your eyes, so we end up having breakfast inside at the kitchen island. You can still see the view, but you have to turn your head. Hmff.
Somehow it takes another half day to get settled. I call caretaker Roy with some questions about the house and the bad news about the keypad post. Then we head down into Coral Bay to look for Josephine's Greens, stock up on rum and ice cream, and pick up sandwiches at Pickles. By the time we get back to the villa Roy has come and gone, remounting the keypad and helpfully connecting my iPod to the inscrutable Home Entertainment Center via a mysterious cable he fished out from behind something.
Then we sort our gear, reassigning pieces of our carefully packed carryon-only luggage to serve as beach bags. Sometime in mid-afternoon we finally head out for a snorkel at Haulover South. I have a great time, starting right out with a couple of sightings of our mascot Lucky Trunkfish, and nice coral and reef fish up the left side of the bay. Starting to get the hang of the new Aqualung fins. They are awesome for free diving, but I'm finding them cumbersome for ordinary surface snorkeling. They seem to be angled wrong for that, keep popping out of the water. Richard still loves his new Tusa travel fins, but has a lot of trouble with his mask fogging up. This is because we have forgotten the lessons that Cap'n Phil taught us 4 years ago, and we haven't gotten to the part of our trip where we relearn it (foreshadowing!).
We are unable to get the grill to work, but the gourmet kitchen includes a huge stainless steel skillet which R uses to whip up a stir-fry with pork and fresh vegies from Josephine's served with rum ice-cream drinks. Delish. We wrap up the evening hot-tubbing under the perplexing southern stars. I vow to look up that strange checkmark-shaped constellation on the Internet, but then I forget.
----------------------------
Up at 4am, and off to St John! Both flights right on time (has that ever happened before on American? I don't think so!) Arrived at 3:25, but missed 4pm ferry by a mile due to huge crowds at taxi stand. Let a porter take our bags at the ferry terminal and had painkillers at the bar: best decision of the day.
To StJ Spice for coffee, grill rub, wristbands. Spent $2 on a bag of genips on the street sold by a gentleman named Lion, who was also kind enough to show me how to eat them. Interesting fruit. Checked in to Boutique Hotel, then met up with Eagle Ray Lover (and canine friend Patches) @Beach Bar. Had nice chat, drinks and appetizers. Tuna bites were spectacular. But then, our first meal in the USVI always tastes spectacular, so my judgement may be suspect here. Leslie, thanks SO much for greeting us to the island! It made me feel really at home. R was getting a cold, and was exhausted and grumpy. However he pulled himself together enough to shower and shave off his 'stache (for snorkeling, y'know). He felt a little happier after a bushwacker or two.
- Cruz Bay Boutique Hotel
-------------------------------------------
7:00 am. Continental brkfst on patio. Beautiful day, but even the locals were calling it hot. I got up early so I could hike around Cruz Bay, checking out the whereabouts of some of the rental properties I've looked at online (because, you just never know). R let me drag him to an early breakfast, but decided to skip the hike and nap in the air-conditioned room until they kicked us out. I walked up, over and down to Frank Bay, up and down a couple of other hills, then back up Seagrape Lane. Frangipani (my favorite of the Star Villas) turns out to be close to the Battery Hill Condoplex, very walkable to town. Aqua Bay is halfway down the hill to Frank Bay from Battery Hill. Took pictures of various villas, Frank Bay, and every cemetery I passed (more than you might expect).
- Frank Bay
- Approaching Skyflower
- The Coconut Skyflower
Dinner: Dreamshark Sandwiches, fresh apricots and more rum drinks on balcony.
A few issues with the house, which is gorgeous and well designed but sort of complicated to operate. And I knocked down the post holding the keypad for the donkey gate. Oops. I'll have to call somebody about that tomorrow.
_______________
FRIDAY - first full day in villa
- First Dawn
Somehow it takes another half day to get settled. I call caretaker Roy with some questions about the house and the bad news about the keypad post. Then we head down into Coral Bay to look for Josephine's Greens, stock up on rum and ice cream, and pick up sandwiches at Pickles. By the time we get back to the villa Roy has come and gone, remounting the keypad and helpfully connecting my iPod to the inscrutable Home Entertainment Center via a mysterious cable he fished out from behind something.
Then we sort our gear, reassigning pieces of our carefully packed carryon-only luggage to serve as beach bags. Sometime in mid-afternoon we finally head out for a snorkel at Haulover South. I have a great time, starting right out with a couple of sightings of our mascot Lucky Trunkfish, and nice coral and reef fish up the left side of the bay. Starting to get the hang of the new Aqualung fins. They are awesome for free diving, but I'm finding them cumbersome for ordinary surface snorkeling. They seem to be angled wrong for that, keep popping out of the water. Richard still loves his new Tusa travel fins, but has a lot of trouble with his mask fogging up. This is because we have forgotten the lessons that Cap'n Phil taught us 4 years ago, and we haven't gotten to the part of our trip where we relearn it (foreshadowing!).
We are unable to get the grill to work, but the gourmet kitchen includes a huge stainless steel skillet which R uses to whip up a stir-fry with pork and fresh vegies from Josephine's served with rum ice-cream drinks. Delish. We wrap up the evening hot-tubbing under the perplexing southern stars. I vow to look up that strange checkmark-shaped constellation on the Internet, but then I forget.
