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Pic's Pics & Report - August 2015
Pic's Pics & Report - August 2015
This trip was not expected to happen - but it happened in the end and was planned at the last minute. We found a great August/September deal on accommodations with VIVA. They were offering a 25% discount on some of their properties so we took advantage of it and reserved Sapphire Breeze. Here is the link to the photos of Sapphire Breeze if anyone is interested: https://www.flickr.com/photos/80473236@ ... 8066399411
It is an older house but well maintained. The photos on VIVA's website seem to be a bit outdated. We noticed some updates including the new floors. (Note: we did not use the lower level so can't speak of it.) Although the view is not the best we've had (we have been spoiled), we thoroughly enjoyed our stay at Sapphire Breeze.
----- Arrival Day -----
We landed on STT on time but soon found out our checked bag did not. When we went to the United counter, there were already a few folks in line wondering about their checked luggage. As we waited in line, that number increased, and it was apparent that a lot of luggage for the same flight (non-stop from EWR) did not arrive with us. Even the lady at the United counter looked a bit amazed about it. We had a small carry-on that fortunately contained our bathing suits so we knew we could survive all right. We did the paperwork, got in Rachel's (who offers a private taxi service) suburban and were on the way to St. John. When we got off the ferry without luggage, I experienced unaccustomed feelings of uncertainty, lightness (literally) and liberation (in a way). And we were happy to step onto the "wet" ferry dock.
Due to the delayed luggage, we ended up buying toothpaste and one T-shirt. We wore our bathing suits all day, except when we went into town, until we reunited with our bag.
----- Jump to the Next Day -----
Woke up to a gray looking sky. We called United and found out that our bag would be arriving around 1:30 p.m. on STT. We thought about going to the beach in the morning but the sky turned even grayer and it began raining with lightning and thunder. We stood on the deck and happily watched the island getting soaked.
By the time the sky cleared in the early afternoon, our bag was about to land on STT so we decided to wait for the call that would've let us know which ferry it would be on. The bag ended up on the 6 p.m. ferry. Despite the liberating feeing that I had the day before, I was relieved when I saw our bag being rolled over to me by a baggage person. The big reason was that the bag contained some of our snorkel gear. Now we had our full set so we could snorkel. At this point we had 5 full days left on island and intended to enjoy every minute of it.
I hope you all are not tired of my trip report always being snorkeling-heavy… because this one is no exception.
----- Maho Day -----
This is where we always end up on our first full day on St. John. Look how inviting…
We snorkeled the left side towards the point that separates Maho from Cinnamon. Just this past June I saw 10 octopuses along the way to the point. I was ready to say hello again.
I ended up seeing (only) several. I looked into some of their dens that I remembered but most of them were empty. Was I fortunate enough to come across one that was out and about? Yes (thank you!).
She was weary of my presence and tried to dart back to her den.
A second after she swam into a hole under the rock, she jumped out of it being chased by a medium-sized Green Moray. Apparently, it was not her den and she barely escaped being breakfast for the eel. It happened in a matter of seconds so I wouldn't have had time to take photos but, frankly, I was feeling bad about causing her to swim into that hole and wanted to make sure she would return to her den safely - which she did.
Highhat
Half way to the point there was an army of about 40 medium-sized squid roaming around. I could only fit half the army in the frame.
Jellyfish
Blenny
We can't talk about Maho without her turtles, can we?
Maho was so relaxing that when we returned to the villa we could not snap out of the Maho mode. We never got motivated to go out for dinner and just lazed around the deck until we finally ate whatever we had in the fridge.
----- Francis Day -----
This is our all-time favorite beach. Even though we knew the water was filled with jellyfish and sea lice, we could not resist coming here.
The beach was deserted in the early morning. While walking along the shore towards the right side of the bay, I spotted a Nurse Shark swimming along in the shallow water. We were carrying our stuff and weren't ready to snorkel so just walked along with the shark until we came to our usual spot to settle. I saw a Nurse Shark while snorkeling as well but that shark was larger than the one swimming along the shore.
We braved our way through dense floating creatures and snorkeled towards Mary Point. We were wearing Safe Sea but I knew I would most definitely get stung. And I did… about 10 times (lost count, actually) while my husband received no stings as usual (lucky guy). I have to say that those floating creatures took my focus away a bit from snorkeling, not to mention often appeared in my frame as unwanted blurry cameos.
Black Point Sculling Crab
Another crab
Sea Perl - this one was particularly shiny like a cat's eye gem
Checkered Puffer - well camouflaged... except for those glittering green eyes
Nurse Shark
Orange Cup Coral (thank you, liamsaunt, for identifying it)
Scrawled Filefish
Blenny - wondering what I was doing (I give him credit. I took time with him and he never swam away. Just looked perplexed.)
Spotted Scorpionfish
One of the few octopuses that we saw
Less-than-an-inch long baby Scrawled Cowfish - floating in very shallow water
When I was taking photos of this cute baby, a sea louse got me good on my lip and it was hurting for several hours. I was wondering if I would look like a duck at ZoZo's where we had a dinner reservation for that evening.
Thankfully I did not turn into a duck and the pain had subsided by the time we sat at our table at ZoZo's. We had a wonderful dinner and the sunset from our table was not bad either.
----- Great Lameshur Day -----
All the stories of recent Manta sightings at this bay drew us out here. It was such a bright and sunny day.
Was I hoping to see a Manta? Very much. Was I expecting to see one? Actually no. I might be a pessimist but I just had a feeling that we would not meet any Mantas that day. Well, I wanted to be wrong and was looking around our surroundings more intensely than I usually do, which led me to pay less attention to what was in front of my eyes. I ended up with no Manta, as well as no eels or octopuses that I often see there. I did see a Reef Shark swiftly swimming away (I could not get photos) but, all in all, I saw less than usual. Lesson learned. Try not to be so wrapped up in one thing.
Sergeant Majors around Fire Coral
Whitespotted Filefish - being cleaned by Gobies
Grunts around Staghorn Coral
Caribbean Spiny Lobster
Redlip Blenny in Sponge
We had a late lunch at Aqua Bistro, picked up some sandwiches at Pickle's for light dinner later and returned to the villa. The rest of the day was spent lazing around the deck again.
Some of the wonderful tile work on the deck at Sapphire Breeze.
----- (Back to) Maho Day -----
We were not sure where we wanted to go… and once again, ended up at Maho. This time we stayed and snorkeled on the right side.
Balloonfish - I had a feeling this was the same Balloon that I saw back in June. I compared the photos and they had the same markings. Well, hello again. I thought I knew you.
Caribbean Reef Squid
Goby
Porcupinefish duo - hanging together, around the point
Schoolmaster duo - chasing each other in circles
Nassau Grouper
Moon Jelly
Green Moray
Beach Iggy
We had our dinner at Rhumb Lines. It's not that I love their Pad Thai (too wet/too much sauce for me) but that is what I always have there. I am Asian and sometimes long for comfort Asian dishes while on St. John but there aren't many (what I consider as) options. My husband enjoyed his usual Mango Gazpacho and Mahi entrée.
----- Hawksnest Day -----
We toyed around with the idea of snorkeling Waterlemon but felt lazy and went to Hawksnest instead. Snorkeling there was okay. This was our last full day on island and I kind of wished that we had gone to Waterlemon. I just didn't feel like hiking even though the trail is mostly flat. My husband didn't look like he was thinking about Waterlemon at all, though.
Southern Stingray accompanied by Bar Jack
School of Surgeonfish and Tangs
Coney trio - playing around (?) for a while
Social Feather Dusters
Underwater Hawksnest
We had a late-lunch date with EagleRayLover (Leslie) at Waterfront Bistro so packed up and headed into town. She was the only St. John friend that we saw on this trip. One week (with a luggage mishap) is way too short on this island.
We were too full from lunch so just snacked and cleaned out our fridge that evening. As you can probably imagine, it is completely different to pack your bag for vacation and to pack your bag to go home. I was dragging and it felt like it was taking forever. I had to quit at one point and just do it in the morning. The deck was pleasantly breezy and we sat around the rest of the night.
----- Departure Day -----
Yes, departure is inevitable since we are visitors. My husband enjoyed one last splash in the pool and then we took the 11 a.m. ferry for the 2:25 p.m. flight out of STT. I couldn't help wondering when we could return to St. John. We are facing a possible big transition in our lives and are unsure about our annual June trip for next year. All I know is we will try hard to make it happen. On the way to the airport on St. Thomas, we stopped at our friend's house to see her sweet puppies. It really cheered me up and I was feeling better after that.
Francis has always been our favorite but, for some reason (perhaps because of those dense floating creatures at Francis), we really loved spending time at Maho on this trip. It just felt so good to be there... and we are looking forward to our return whenever that will be.
Maho palms
Thank you very much for reading!
May you all be back on island soon... or sooner… or eventually!
Pickle
It is an older house but well maintained. The photos on VIVA's website seem to be a bit outdated. We noticed some updates including the new floors. (Note: we did not use the lower level so can't speak of it.) Although the view is not the best we've had (we have been spoiled), we thoroughly enjoyed our stay at Sapphire Breeze.
----- Arrival Day -----
We landed on STT on time but soon found out our checked bag did not. When we went to the United counter, there were already a few folks in line wondering about their checked luggage. As we waited in line, that number increased, and it was apparent that a lot of luggage for the same flight (non-stop from EWR) did not arrive with us. Even the lady at the United counter looked a bit amazed about it. We had a small carry-on that fortunately contained our bathing suits so we knew we could survive all right. We did the paperwork, got in Rachel's (who offers a private taxi service) suburban and were on the way to St. John. When we got off the ferry without luggage, I experienced unaccustomed feelings of uncertainty, lightness (literally) and liberation (in a way). And we were happy to step onto the "wet" ferry dock.
Due to the delayed luggage, we ended up buying toothpaste and one T-shirt. We wore our bathing suits all day, except when we went into town, until we reunited with our bag.
----- Jump to the Next Day -----
Woke up to a gray looking sky. We called United and found out that our bag would be arriving around 1:30 p.m. on STT. We thought about going to the beach in the morning but the sky turned even grayer and it began raining with lightning and thunder. We stood on the deck and happily watched the island getting soaked.
By the time the sky cleared in the early afternoon, our bag was about to land on STT so we decided to wait for the call that would've let us know which ferry it would be on. The bag ended up on the 6 p.m. ferry. Despite the liberating feeing that I had the day before, I was relieved when I saw our bag being rolled over to me by a baggage person. The big reason was that the bag contained some of our snorkel gear. Now we had our full set so we could snorkel. At this point we had 5 full days left on island and intended to enjoy every minute of it.
I hope you all are not tired of my trip report always being snorkeling-heavy… because this one is no exception.
----- Maho Day -----
This is where we always end up on our first full day on St. John. Look how inviting…
We snorkeled the left side towards the point that separates Maho from Cinnamon. Just this past June I saw 10 octopuses along the way to the point. I was ready to say hello again.
I ended up seeing (only) several. I looked into some of their dens that I remembered but most of them were empty. Was I fortunate enough to come across one that was out and about? Yes (thank you!).
She was weary of my presence and tried to dart back to her den.
A second after she swam into a hole under the rock, she jumped out of it being chased by a medium-sized Green Moray. Apparently, it was not her den and she barely escaped being breakfast for the eel. It happened in a matter of seconds so I wouldn't have had time to take photos but, frankly, I was feeling bad about causing her to swim into that hole and wanted to make sure she would return to her den safely - which she did.
Highhat
Half way to the point there was an army of about 40 medium-sized squid roaming around. I could only fit half the army in the frame.
Jellyfish
Blenny
We can't talk about Maho without her turtles, can we?
Maho was so relaxing that when we returned to the villa we could not snap out of the Maho mode. We never got motivated to go out for dinner and just lazed around the deck until we finally ate whatever we had in the fridge.
----- Francis Day -----
This is our all-time favorite beach. Even though we knew the water was filled with jellyfish and sea lice, we could not resist coming here.
The beach was deserted in the early morning. While walking along the shore towards the right side of the bay, I spotted a Nurse Shark swimming along in the shallow water. We were carrying our stuff and weren't ready to snorkel so just walked along with the shark until we came to our usual spot to settle. I saw a Nurse Shark while snorkeling as well but that shark was larger than the one swimming along the shore.
We braved our way through dense floating creatures and snorkeled towards Mary Point. We were wearing Safe Sea but I knew I would most definitely get stung. And I did… about 10 times (lost count, actually) while my husband received no stings as usual (lucky guy). I have to say that those floating creatures took my focus away a bit from snorkeling, not to mention often appeared in my frame as unwanted blurry cameos.
Black Point Sculling Crab
Another crab
Sea Perl - this one was particularly shiny like a cat's eye gem
Checkered Puffer - well camouflaged... except for those glittering green eyes
Nurse Shark
Orange Cup Coral (thank you, liamsaunt, for identifying it)
Scrawled Filefish
Blenny - wondering what I was doing (I give him credit. I took time with him and he never swam away. Just looked perplexed.)
Spotted Scorpionfish
One of the few octopuses that we saw
Less-than-an-inch long baby Scrawled Cowfish - floating in very shallow water
When I was taking photos of this cute baby, a sea louse got me good on my lip and it was hurting for several hours. I was wondering if I would look like a duck at ZoZo's where we had a dinner reservation for that evening.
Thankfully I did not turn into a duck and the pain had subsided by the time we sat at our table at ZoZo's. We had a wonderful dinner and the sunset from our table was not bad either.
----- Great Lameshur Day -----
All the stories of recent Manta sightings at this bay drew us out here. It was such a bright and sunny day.
Was I hoping to see a Manta? Very much. Was I expecting to see one? Actually no. I might be a pessimist but I just had a feeling that we would not meet any Mantas that day. Well, I wanted to be wrong and was looking around our surroundings more intensely than I usually do, which led me to pay less attention to what was in front of my eyes. I ended up with no Manta, as well as no eels or octopuses that I often see there. I did see a Reef Shark swiftly swimming away (I could not get photos) but, all in all, I saw less than usual. Lesson learned. Try not to be so wrapped up in one thing.
Sergeant Majors around Fire Coral
Whitespotted Filefish - being cleaned by Gobies
Grunts around Staghorn Coral
Caribbean Spiny Lobster
Redlip Blenny in Sponge
We had a late lunch at Aqua Bistro, picked up some sandwiches at Pickle's for light dinner later and returned to the villa. The rest of the day was spent lazing around the deck again.
Some of the wonderful tile work on the deck at Sapphire Breeze.
----- (Back to) Maho Day -----
We were not sure where we wanted to go… and once again, ended up at Maho. This time we stayed and snorkeled on the right side.
Balloonfish - I had a feeling this was the same Balloon that I saw back in June. I compared the photos and they had the same markings. Well, hello again. I thought I knew you.
Caribbean Reef Squid
Goby
Porcupinefish duo - hanging together, around the point
Schoolmaster duo - chasing each other in circles
Nassau Grouper
Moon Jelly
Green Moray
Beach Iggy
We had our dinner at Rhumb Lines. It's not that I love their Pad Thai (too wet/too much sauce for me) but that is what I always have there. I am Asian and sometimes long for comfort Asian dishes while on St. John but there aren't many (what I consider as) options. My husband enjoyed his usual Mango Gazpacho and Mahi entrée.
----- Hawksnest Day -----
We toyed around with the idea of snorkeling Waterlemon but felt lazy and went to Hawksnest instead. Snorkeling there was okay. This was our last full day on island and I kind of wished that we had gone to Waterlemon. I just didn't feel like hiking even though the trail is mostly flat. My husband didn't look like he was thinking about Waterlemon at all, though.
Southern Stingray accompanied by Bar Jack
School of Surgeonfish and Tangs
Coney trio - playing around (?) for a while
Social Feather Dusters
Underwater Hawksnest
We had a late-lunch date with EagleRayLover (Leslie) at Waterfront Bistro so packed up and headed into town. She was the only St. John friend that we saw on this trip. One week (with a luggage mishap) is way too short on this island.
We were too full from lunch so just snacked and cleaned out our fridge that evening. As you can probably imagine, it is completely different to pack your bag for vacation and to pack your bag to go home. I was dragging and it felt like it was taking forever. I had to quit at one point and just do it in the morning. The deck was pleasantly breezy and we sat around the rest of the night.
----- Departure Day -----
Yes, departure is inevitable since we are visitors. My husband enjoyed one last splash in the pool and then we took the 11 a.m. ferry for the 2:25 p.m. flight out of STT. I couldn't help wondering when we could return to St. John. We are facing a possible big transition in our lives and are unsure about our annual June trip for next year. All I know is we will try hard to make it happen. On the way to the airport on St. Thomas, we stopped at our friend's house to see her sweet puppies. It really cheered me up and I was feeling better after that.
Francis has always been our favorite but, for some reason (perhaps because of those dense floating creatures at Francis), we really loved spending time at Maho on this trip. It just felt so good to be there... and we are looking forward to our return whenever that will be.
Maho palms
Thank you very much for reading!
May you all be back on island soon... or sooner… or eventually!
Pickle
Re: Pic's Pics & Report - August 2015
Thanks for taking the time to post your report. Great underwater photos as always. I really hope we have the chance to snorkel together someday 
It's like looking in your soup and finding a whole different alphabet.
Re: Pic's Pics & Report - August 2015
Great pictures thanks for the trip report
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Stella7474
- Posts: 26
- Joined: Mon Jan 20, 2014 3:20 pm
Re: Pic's Pics & Report - August 2015
Just Love your trip reports and all the snorkeling pictures. Thank you once again!
Re: Pic's Pics & Report - August 2015
Great report! Loved the underwater pictures!
Re: Pic's Pics & Report - August 2015
your reports are always such a pleasure to read (and look at!) -- thank you for sharing!
< leaving on the 22nd of march...but too lame to figure out the ticker thing again!>
Re: Pic's Pics & Report - August 2015
Sapphire Breeze is one of my favorite villas. There are no photos of the downstairs bathroom. Is it still beautifully bizarre?
Re: Pic's Pics & Report - August 2015
mls10 - Yes, it still is. We wished the master bedroom upstairs had that wonderful downstairs bathroom. I regret that it slipped my mind to take photos of that bathroom!
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Wanda Creech
- Posts: 345
- Joined: Sun Nov 04, 2007 7:47 pm
- Location: Raleigh,NC
Re: Pic's Pics & Report - August 2015
Wow - what an enjoyable trip report and beautiful pictures. My hubby and I are "snorkel-a-holics", so we love looking at people's snorkeling pictures. Those pictures of Maho are so inviting - they beckon us to consider a fall trip.
Thank you for taking the time to post!
Thank you for taking the time to post!
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ArkieLovesSTJ
- Posts: 111
- Joined: Fri Jul 19, 2013 2:34 pm
- Location: Conway, AR
Re: Pic's Pics & Report - August 2015
Very nice trip report and some really great pictures! We are definitely started getting excited about out end of October trip!
Re: Pic's Pics & Report - August 2015
I love your pictures, beautiful as always. I hope it as ok I copied your Maho picture and sent it in an email to my travel family to remind them of our upcoming trip. I always have the best of intentions BEFORE the trip to take special pictures and write notes about out trip then I get caught up in the relaxed, island vibe and just don't get it done. I' m really going to try it for our upcoming trip!
Re: Pic's Pics & Report - August 2015
Great TR and pics! We had 1 checked bag not make it from the EWR non stop in March? What the heck??
I saw a baby scrawled cowfish a couple years ago but my husband had the camera. It was so cute! Love your pic!
I saw a baby scrawled cowfish a couple years ago but my husband had the camera. It was so cute! Love your pic!
