USVI-On-Line

Tragically, those large waves over the weekend claimed two lives. I was alerted to these fatalities over at Gerald Singer's St. John Life blog (http://seestjohn.com/st_john_life), with reporting from the Virgin Islands Daily News (http://virginislandsdailynews.com/news). Both deaths occurred on Saturday, when the swells and waves were peaking, but we had at least two days of public warnings before the large swells from the powerful nor'easter far away in the north Atlantic arrived in the VI. One swimmer was a tourist from Utah, visiting St. Thomas with his fiancé; another tried to swim with a friend from Coki Point to Thatch Cay; his friend made it; he didn't. Both deaths are tragic, and leave their family, friends, and loved ones in grief.

The lake-like conditions of VI beaches for much of the year can lull visitors into a dangerous complacence; for anything other than shallow, near-beach swimming, you really need to inform yourself about the water conditions before you set out. This especially applies if you are considering long, North shore snorkels to such exposed cays as Waterlemon, Whistling, Henley, or Ramgoat Cay. We get regular text and email alerts updates of dangerous sea conditions, earthquakes, tsunamis, etc. via the automated VI-Alerts system: http://www.vialert.gov/home.aspx. This would not be practical for many visitors, but real-time swell heights for a buoy north of St. John are available any time you want here:
http://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/show_plot.php? ... _label=AST
This is NOT to say that in the absence of large swells, longer range swimming or snorkeling will be safe; tidal currents change their direction every six hours, and their strength is sharply modulated with the phase of the moon. The following VIOL thread started by Minde notes that a number of drownings have occurred while attempting to snorkel Waterlemon Cay; it isn't clear if their cause was large swells from distant storms, or (as I suspect) strong currents due to a short-lived moon phase amplification of local tides.

http://virgin-islands-on-line.com/virgi ... =1&t=25087

Please don't take risks at sea.

All the best,

Kevin

NWS swell warnings started at least three days before. We were sailing, but turned the boat in before the swells hit. Nothing to play with.

In November 2001 we saw a bride to be get a facial fracture and lacerations the day before her wedding on Cinnamon Bay. We knew the beach and where the coral was, but 12' swells had me body surfing and looking down on coconut trees - one run and done. Trunk Bay had red flags up, but no other beaches. The Baths on Virgin Gorda put their red surf flags up routinely. No lifeguard, no flags.

Cheers, RickG

I grew up spending good parts of each summer on the east coast beaches and loved nothing more than swimming/body surfing in the big surf and in my experience, the VI big surf is a whole different experience.

During our first winter trip, I got in the surf at Cinnamon, got the snot knocked out of me and got out as soon as I could. I never experienced anything like thatm the waves kept me under as the current tried to pull me out. Absolutely nothing to fool around with.

Years back I remember reading a link that described why the VI surf break is so dangerous, something about the slope of the seabed and how the waves break.

There is a forum member (can't remember who) whose son broke his arm at either Cinnamon or Trunk when the waves were up.

Terrifying. Has it calmed down yet?

PA Girl makes a good point. Experienced east coasters may look at what others think is "big surf" in the VIs and chuckle to themselves, but its one thing to be experienced with what you are used to, and quite another to deal with a whole different set of wave actions and currents.

I imagine that what you get on STJ when those swells finally roll up to the beach is a “shorebreak” i.e. the wave breaks very close to the beach in shallow water, likely due to transition from deep to shallow water over the reefs.

Even waves that are "only" 2-3 feet that break in knee or waist deep water can pound you right down into the hard parked sand, and you never want to body or boogie surf those waves. You can't dive under those waves and you can't stand in the break zone, so you have to hustle out well past it.

Having said that, you may think you are OK being just on the other side of a shorebreak, but a “heavy” shorebreak (i.e. a fat or thick wave) can also have a very turbulent kickback on the back side of the wave.

One of the very few times I got genuinely scared in the water was in Cabo dealing with a heavy, frequent 3-4 foot break in waist to chest deep water that also had a powerful nasty kickback on the backside that could knock you off your feet. I underestimated that situation because I routinely played in, body surfed, and boogie boarded waves up to 5-7 feet here in NJ my entire life and never experienced a kickback like that.

When we went to Kauai, I probably over-respected the water because of the stories of all the tourist drownings they routinely have there (not to mention those stories of "rogue" waves that sweep people out of the tidal pools). The beach you reach at the 2 mile mark of the famous Kalalau Trail on the Na Pali Coast has a board nailed to a tree with a whole bunch of hash marks scratched into it denoting the number of folks that have drowned there. Of course there was a pasty white dude playing in the surf there that day who didn't seem like he had a clue about what he was doing, except maybe showing off to his girlfriend.

Regarding the power of water, here is an interesting factoid to consider: hold your arms apart and picture a box or a cube that is 3 feet wide x 3 feet deep x 3 feet tall. That’s a cubic yard. A Cubic yard of water weighs 1685 pounds.