10 more days in paradise, part 2

[liamsaunt]

Day 3

Up at 7 AM for a breakfast of toast and fruit on the deck while watching another beautiful start to our St. John day:

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/28539958@N00/1753095022/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2224/175 ... a45780.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="toast and fruit"></a>

Today we snorkeled Waterlemon. We were the only car in the lot when we arrived. The hike out was really nice, breezy and shady. It's was much cooler now than it was in June! I loved it.

I've done this hike/snorkel every trip, but never noticed the ruins on the trailside! How did that happen? I am serious. Is there foliage concealing these ruins in the summer? Or am a just a dunderhead (always a possibility). We stopped for a while to poke around, checking out the hermit crabs in the walls, and the land crabs in the holes around them.

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/28539958@N00/1753083590/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2171/175 ... 0e9d6f.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="leinster runis 3"></a>

Continuing on our hike, we noticed that the tide was higher than we are used to, and we had to scramble over some rocks in the water-we still were not able to get out to where we usually enter the water. There were lots of pelicans hanging out:

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/28539958@N00/1753081532/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2142/175 ... 32d751.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="leinster pelican close up"></a>

In for our snorkel, we got in the water wearing our sandals and then threw them up on the rocks after we put our fins on. One of my shoes landed pretty close to the water, but it was above the waterline, so I thought it would be fine...

Right away we found a small turtle, then two turtles swimming together. Cool!

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/28539958@N00/1753112160/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2040/175 ... 4faf75.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="waterlemon turtle pair"></a>

Lots of fish-more banded butterflies, loads of gray angelfish, bar jacks, and ceros. At one point, a big barracuda came shooting up from the depths to check us out! He went away in short order though. Lots of fry:

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/28539958@N00/1753104640/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2327/175 ... 30f981.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="waterlemon fry 2"></a>

We also found two HUGE dog snappers on the right side of the Cay, grasbys and groupers, plus a large southern stingray:

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/28539958@N00/1752260597/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2301/175 ... 0cc2fa.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="waterlemon stingray"></a>
and another small turtle.

We went looking for the starfish forest, but they were not really around. I did find a few in deep water.

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/28539958@N00/1752238219/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2208/175 ... 3ce2d6.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="leinster starfish"></a>

Overall, a very nice snorkel.

Back to shore, gear off, packing the bag, shoes on...um....shoe on. Where is my other shoe?? Gone!! Oh no!! We got back in the water to try and find it. No shoe, but I did find a bunch of baby barracuda.

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/28539958@N00/1753080698/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2281/175 ... d26998.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="leinster mini barracuda"></a>

Finally, I decided to float my other shoe to see what direction it would go in. We watched it for a while and then John scrambled around the rocks in the direction of the current. What luck! He found my shoe, still floating, a ways down the shoreline. Walking back from Waterlemon in bare feet would NOT have been fun. A pact was made that John will be doing all shoe throwing for the remainder of the trip.

Back into town for bug patches from St. John Spice (no Ruth or Ron). Then we had lunch at Woodys. OK, I did not like Woodys. It was the atmosphere-it reminded me of a frat party or something. It was just kind of...tacky. A painted toilet seat on the wall proclaiming "everybody get shitty?" Not my style. The conch fritters were not good-they were still raw dough in the center. BUT, the mahi sandwiches were very fresh and tasty, so I will give them that. Oh well, not everything can be just the way I like it, right?

Back to Gallows for a nice siesta, then off to Trunk Bay for a sunset snorkel. First sighting was a school of palametto fish:

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/28539958@N00/1752250709/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2175/175 ... 0ab30f.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="trunk palmettos"></a>

Lots of parrotfish, blue tang, and snappers here too. Hey, are you looking at me, Mr. Snapper?

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/28539958@N00/1752252253/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2022/175 ... 3f63b5.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="trunk snapper"></a>

We also found another turtle:

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/28539958@N00/1753101790/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2168/175 ... 13d76e.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="trunk turtle"></a>

Around the back of the cay it was quite choppy and the visibility was not great either. We had to push kind of hard against the current to get all the way around. I actually ended up enjoying just floating in the water more than the actual snorkel, a first for me.

John floating at sunset:

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/28539958@N00/1753096652/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2187/175 ... 7cd841.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="trunk floating 2"></a>

Trunk Bay sunset:

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/28539958@N00/1753096042/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2105/175 ... 943119.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="trunk bay sunset 5"></a>

Dinner tonight was at Zozos. They all remembered us from June, which was nice but also a little weird! The food was very good-we split the antipasto plate, and then I had the same dish I had in June-the seared fish on arugula with polenta croutons and goat cheese, and John had the special of the evening-caribbean lobster tail with a fra diavlo sauce and spaghetti. He loved it! Another great meal in paradise.

Day three bug bite tally: zero!

Day four

Heavy rain showers during the night woke us up early to find a cloudy day-we had planned on going to Francis but were afraid that the rain would have brought out the bugs (I love Francis but it is buggy sometimes), so we changed plans and decided to go someplace new to us: Yawzi Point. Lots of huge cacti frame the trail to this beach:

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/28539958@N00/1752274007/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2387/175 ... 3ec55d.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="yawzi trail"></a>

The entry is via a small cove:

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/28539958@N00/1752271625/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2232/175 ... 8cd5d4.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="yawzi point entry"></a>

Then you go out to the right and snorkel along, investigating the areas between the rocks. This was a really different snorkel-lots of canyons to explore with interesting coral formations:

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/28539958@N00/1752268127/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2280/175 ... 09cdee.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="yawzi elkhorn"></a>

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/28539958@N00/1752270779/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2146/175 ... c72a24.jpg" width="441" height="500" alt="yawzi pillar coral"></a>

and crusting sponges:

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/28539958@N00/1752266793/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2125/175 ... b18333.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="yawzi cliff coral 5"></a>

We found some good fish also-schools of seargant majors and blue tang, snappers, and parrotfish.

After going along for a while, I made the very bad mistake of looking above the water. Yikes! It was scary looking, with waves crashing on the rocks all around us and no way out of the water. I panicked a little bit, so John said "head back in the water, and let's turn around!" Once I had my head back underwater I was fine, so we continued to explore, investigating the outside of the cliffs this time. Absolute coolest sighting was a bright green sea anemone attached to what was either a slipper lobster or a crab. On the anemone we found a cleaner shrimp!

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/28539958@N00/1753112832/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2276/175 ... 2a84d4.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="yawzi anenome and shrimp"></a>

After Yawzi, we decided to snorkel Little Lameshur:

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/28539958@N00/1752240211/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2361/175 ... 9f52b7.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="little lameshur beach"></a>

This was a good snorkel too, with lots of schools of small fish:

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/28539958@N00/1752241901/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2358/175 ... b7cbc8.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="little lameshur french grunts"></a>

a flounder:

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/28539958@N00/1752240865/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2345/175 ... 0814d7.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="little lameshur flounder 2"></a>

and even another turtle:

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/28539958@N00/1752244877/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2312/175 ... f7a527.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="little lameshur turtle"></a>

We had to end early though, because John's snorkel was leaking badly.

We had lunch at the Beach Bar, splitting the tuna down now and a mahi sandwich. The tuna was pretty good. The mahi sandwich was excellent. While there I popped into Low Key Watersports to buy John a new snorkel and get myself a rash guard. The woman working there was so rude! She was the only person I met all trip that was rude to me. Somebody must have planted a palm tree up her butt because she sure was stewing on something.

So, that afternoon we snorkeled Frank Bay, where we found a lobster, a baby spotted drum, lots of goatfish, all lined up on a rock:

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/28539958@N00/1752225119/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2058/175 ... 8320b5.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="frank goatfish"></a>

trunkfish, tang, damselfish, an arrow crab:

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/28539958@N00/1753071032/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2401/175 ... adcbd1.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="frank arrow crab with urchin 3"></a>

and loads of other things, including some squid:

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/28539958@N00/1753075736/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2035/175 ... 2e89d4.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="frank squid"></a>

It was an excellent snorkel, no currents to fight at all.

I made dinner while John watched the Patriots. The oven was not working, just the range, so I was a little limited in what I could make. We ended up having spaghetti with arugula, tomatoes, and parmesean cheese, and sautéed garlic bread. Here's dinner:

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/28539958@N00/1752221503/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2090/175 ... a640a0.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="arugula pasta"></a>

We ended the evening with a glass of wine out on the deck, watching the lights of Cruz Bay:

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/28539958@N00/1752221709/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2360/175 ... 9e9bd6.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="cruz bay deep night 4"></a>

Day 4 bug bite tally: one

[alw1977]

Ugh, you're killing me with these pictures! I want to go back, and now I'm hungry.

Seriously, nice job and I can't wait to read the rest.

As an aside, I noticed on your Part I that you had a bad flight down. That "sudden drop" thing once happened to us on a flight to FL. We were in the back and I watched a girl waiting in line for the bathroom go up and then onto the laps of the people in the seats beside her. My cheddar cheese pretzel Combo's went flying and we were a bit shaken up. Our pilot's called it "convective air." I guess that's why they tell you to leave your seatbelts fastened at all times in case of "rough air," huh? Learned my lesson that day. Glad you guys are okay and it's fortunate there were no injuries on your flight.

[augie]

Great report - you guys certainly seem to make the most of your days there!

I know we were on island at the same time, or at least our stays overlapped. Was the big rainstorm you mentioned Wednesday night/Thursday morning by chance?

[Jerseyboy]

Another great installment and awesome photos as usual. You and John find the coolest things when you snorkel. Thanks for sharing.

[mbw1024]

great report. do we call you turtle queen now?

[Kentuckygirl]

Yawzi point sounds like an interesting place to snorkel. We might have to try that next time. I liked your Trunk Bay sunset picture too. Thanks!

[flip-flop]

Ok the Snapper photo is amazing.

And I agree w/ you about woody's. I just don't get it. And I am always tempted to run over someone's foot when they are standing in the street I am a bad person.

[Wolfhound]

I love your reports and pictures. Thanks for posting them. We have never gone to Woody's. Never really wanted to. Now, you have reinforced the decision. When we want drinks, we head straight to the Beach Bar.

[jayseadee]

Another great installment.

I'm constantly poking my head up when I snorkel and see things I don't like:)

Hmmm. I've never been to Woody's either and your assessment isn't getting it to the top of the list. Here's hoping just the truck gets seized and not the Beach Bar!

thanks again,

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[jmq]

Great stuff. You guys must really take your time on your snorkels which is the key to seeing more.

Also, amazing turn around time on photos and text. Thanks for the effort.

[designbyroe]

This Q has probably been asked..........but how do you know all the sea life below?
I went out with Captn Phil a bunch of times just to learn more about what was down there when I snorkel and heck I lived there for 2 yrs but I do not even know 1/2 of what you do......
Your TR are very educational and the pics are always beautiful
Rosi

[naturegirl]

All the picures are amazing but the snapper picture was my fav! Great shot!

[Pia]

Great, great, great

Pia

[Gromit]

Awesome Awesome Awesome-- also love the fact that you actualy know what all these sea creatures are--I'm a cavewoman in that respect: "Duh dat looks pretty..."

Looks like that makes three of us on Woody's. We went there once for food late at night after the crowd died down and got something to eat, which was decent.

But all the frat boyz hanging out around that place and spilling into the street, with the "FU" attitude their patrons seem to have for people actually trying to get by always pisses me off. As a result I choose not to spend my money there.

I'm sure it's a nice place and all, but not my kind of crowd.

I'm with FF, with the temptation to run them down if they are standing in the middle of the street.