Collected Comments from our 2024 St John Blog

 

JuneBug commented on "Day 8, Sunday, April 28 - Planes, Trains, Automobiles and Boat."

May 2, 2024

Yes, another great vacation with family and friends. We hadn’t snorkeled in a few years and I am glad we were in such a beautiful part of the world to do that. I won’t miss the roads either Jean…

 

JuneBug commented on "Day 7, Saturday, April 27 - Cinnamon Bay, Dennis Bay/Oppenheimer Beach, Leinster Bay"

May 2, 2024

We started with a yummy breakfast and ended with a delicious dinner. Seeing an octopus was an added bonus for me, check! I was glad we had the puzzles to unwind in the evenings.

 

Jean commented on "Day 3, Tuesday, April 23 - Hauling Out....touring"

Apr 30, 2024

The hermit crabs - so interesting to watch! Not something I thought we'd see.

 

Jean commented on "Day 5, Thursday, April 25 - Crabby's Cat"

Apr 30, 2024

Captain Ray made our day - well worth it!!

 

Jean commented on "Day 6, Friday, April 26 - Chillaxing on Francis Bay Beach"

Apr 30, 2024

Another great day in paradise.

 

Jean commented on "Day 7, Saturday, April 27 - Cinnamon Bay, Dennis Bay/Oppenheimer Beach, Leinster Bay"

Apr 30, 2024

Seems like we pack a lot into a day. Never dull or boring. So much fun!

 

Jean commented on "Day 8, Sunday, April 28 - Planes, Trains, Automobiles and Boat."

Apr 30, 2024

Another great vacation! Great friends as guides, and some of our favorite family to stay a week with. Thanks for driving Fred. I will not miss the roads on St. John. Here's hoping for a great summer everyone!

 

JuneBug commented on "Day 6, Friday, April 26 - Chillaxing on Francis Bay Beach"

Apr 27, 2024

A very relaxing day with some good snorkeling. Island time!

 

Ed commented on "Day 1, Sunday, April 21-Travel"

Apr 27, 2024

4 wheel drive jeep is mandatory. Saying our road to the Villa is on a road that would be best described as an improved goat trail is probably a compliment. The girls like it a lot...not! Villa very nice with a great view of Coral Bay, so worth it.

 

Jean commented on "Day 4, Wednesday, April 24 - Snorkeling Leinster Bay around Waterlemon Cay, chilling at Francis Bay"

Apr 27, 2024

Thank you Fred for hauling me in, and Paul for the assist. It was scary, but I will snorkel again tomorrow.

 

JuneBug commented on "Day 5, Thursday, April 25 - Crabby's Cat"

Apr 26, 2024

What an awesome day sailing on the ocean. Captain Ray took us to 3 snorkeling bays and cooked apps on his grill! Doesn’t get much better. :)

 

JuneBug commented on "Day 4, Wednesday, April 24 - Snorkeling Leinster Bay around Waterlemon Cay, chilling at Francis Bay"

Apr 25, 2024

Again, the snorkeling was great. The day was almost perfect, minus the strong current …..we didn’t need that challenge. I also got to check off turtle on my must see list. All the drinks were yummy today. Thumbs up for me on my dinner choice.

 

JuneBug commented on "Day 3, Tuesday, April 23 - Hauling Out....touring"

Apr 25, 2024

Another good snorkeling day. The hermit crabs made our day, so cute, all of their shells are different.

 

JuneBug commented on "Day 1, Sunday, April 21-Travel"

Apr 25, 2024

We weren’t sure about the start of the day but all is well that ends well. The roads are terrifying. :(

 

JuneBug commented on "Day 2, Monday, April 22 - Salt Pond Beach...Island Time"

Apr 25, 2024

What a great first day. Good snorkeling, good food and good friends! I did enjoy the new full face snorkel mask!

 

Jean commented on "Day 1, Sunday, April 21-Travel"

Apr 22, 2024

Planes, ferries, and jeeps. The villa is great, time to relax!

 

JuneBug commented on "Thinking about St. John"

Apr 18, 2024

Can’t wait to see you!

In Response to a comment by Jean

 

Jean commented on "Thinking about St. John"

Apr 14, 2024

I'm ready!!

JuneBug commented on "Thinking about St. John"

Apr 14, 2024

Packing for an island trip while on the road was challenging…do we have everything?

Day 8, Sunday, April 28 - Planes, Trains, Automobiles and Boat.

Sunday we had to regrettably return to the real world, you know...where the temperature is not always in the low 80s, with a breeze, and even if it rains, a few minutes later it is sunny and beautiful. 

Paul and Lisa had earlier flights, so said our goodbyes Saturday evening. They will fly to JFK and then to BTV.

Jean, Ed, June and Fred were on the same 4PM flight from St Thomas to Atlanta. From Atlanta, Jean and Ed fly to Albany, where they left their car, and we fly to Pensacola, where we left our RV. 

Since we had an afternoon flight, the four of us planned to explore St. Thomas, just a little bit, before we turned in the Jeep rental. We left our villa around 8:15AM and took the long way to the Cruz Bay ferry. We made it just in time to get on the 9:30AM Big Red Barge car ferry. 

It was a nice ferry ride.

We are going to miss our Jeep.  After driving it for a week on roads that are sometimes 4WD only, I have a new 'appreciation' for the capability of a Jeep Wrangler. It is pretty impressive at rock and rut crawling.  

They are a little primitive for a modern vehicle, and ours had an annoying squeak. 

That being said, if you come to St. John, you should not rent anything but a Jeep...they are made for this environment

We landed in Red Hook and took a route that stuck to the coast on our way to Charlotte Amalie, the capital of the US Virgin Islands.

We stumbled into a very busy downtown since it was the start of their carnival week, we had no clue. Sunday was the boat regatta, there were fast boats, vendors (mostly booze) and police everywhere. We parked and walked the waterfront, it was still early so there was a lot of setup going on, but already getting busy. 

It is not a great picture, but there were vendors setting up for a 1/2 mile down the water front. 

We asked the police if they were going to enter their boat in the race, they said no "we just chase them".  This boat has three 450hp engines, that is 1350hp, I think they will catch them. 

One street off the water was a VW old car display, these beetles all came from different countries, and they were all mint!

We walked for a bit over an hour, as the sun got higher, it got pretty hot. 

"Wicked Hot" by June's standards.

We found a cool spot, the St. Johns Brewery Tasting room, on the water front. We opened the place up at 11AM, "it's five o'clock somewhere". 

Jean and June had an "R&R", rum with their homemade root beer and Fred had a flight.....all of us were happy!

After cooling down we made our way to the airport. We filled up the Jeep before returning it, fuel on the islands runs from about $4.50 to $5.50 per gallon but we only used 3/4 of a tank the entire week.  The mileage per gallon is poor but the distances are short. 

We arrived at the airport an hour before I told the car company we would be there, but an Amalie representative met me at the curb, inspected the car, and took the keys...it can't get any easier than that. I was told to keep them informed of my arrival time if I was going to be off by more than 30mins, I didn't, and got a call from Amy who runs things.  She said the Amalie rep was waiting for another car but had mistaken us for them.  I apologized and hope I did not make the other party wait.  Overall, renting the car and ferrying to St. John was very easy since it avoids finding transportation to the people ferry in Red Hook.  I would do it again. 

At the airport since it was carnival week, they had some demonstrations going on and were giving away free rum shots. The sign said help your self to one, two or three....I stopped at two. This dancer was putting on a show. 

We had over two hours before our flight boarded so we sat outside security and had our lunch, sandwiches and left over pizza...yum, (good enough).

After lunch and security we made our way to the gate.  The place was so packed we could not even find a place to sit.  I wandered off to one of the corners and found 3 chairs together. I was trying to wave the others over when someone patted me on the back..it was Paul, they were sitting in the the chairs to the back of the three chairs. What are the odds of that, we just can't get away from these people!!

Paul and Lisa left before we did, we got on our flights about 30mins behind, but the four of us had layovers in ATL.

At the gate we talked about watching Oppenheimer the movie on the plane since we had visited the beach he once owned. It was a good, but long, movie one that makes you really think about that time and the heavy decisions that were made.  I enjoyed the movie but more from an historical point than entertainment.  It is worth the view. 

When we landed in ATL, we found that Ed/Jean's flight was delayed. We had a 2 hour layover, so we took the time to have dinner together. For airport food, it wasn't too awful.

We got out of ATL about 40 mins late, Jean/Ed got out with less delay than earlier forecast and we got a text from Paul/Lisa that they were on their flight from JFK to BTV.  We landed at PNS 30mins behind schedule and took a Lyft ride to cousin Debbie's, arriving around 00:30AM, it was pretty much as planned. 

Jean & Ed got into Albany late, minus one bag, but made it back to Moriah around 04:30AM .  

Paul & Lisa got turned around in the air and sent back to JFK, they were to fly to BTV this morning. We hope they are home in VT before they read this.

Such is the state of air travel today, you really have to want to go to endure the process.  For June and I it was Auto, Boat, Auto, Plane, Train(airport), Plane, Auto.  That is "Planes, Trains, Automobiles and Boat"! The odds of all that coming off with out a hitch is pretty low, but somehow we got pretty lucky. 

There is no debate that the Virgin Islands are kind of pricy when it comes to a vacation, especially since the great economy reset we have experienced over the last few years. That being said, it was a great week, in a beautiful place, with great friends. If was even better to have friends (Paul and Lisa) who acted as tour guides since they have been to St. John many times. We really 'appreciated' them! 

Experiencing the Virgin Islands is not something you can put a price on, if you get the chance to visit the Virgin Islands, you should. We also "appreciate" the blog and pictures so we can relive the week whenever we want, we have to compensate for the "CRS" somehow. :)

This is the end of our St John's blog.  June and Fred will continue to make our way back to VT from Florida. We will pickup that blog where we left it off a week ago. 

You can read that blog here: 

https://fjjjmj2024rt.blogspot.com/

Day 7, Saturday, April 27 - Cinnamon Bay, Dennis Bay/Oppenheimer Beach, Leinster Bay

Saturday was our last full day on the island. It was also my Mom's 90th birthday. 

We started the day by going to the Cinnamon Bay Campground for breakfast.  Paul had camped here with is family in the 1990s, it was pretty different then.  

The place was very nice, big, outdoors and great food. I could only eat 1/2 of my steak omelet, so I have Sunday breakfast too. 

The setting is beautiful among some very large trees. 

The ladies before snorkel hair.

After breakfast we walked the beach and checked out the campground for a bit. The campground offers accommodations from cottages to tent platforms. It is very nice.

Something like this can be rented for a week at about $1300-$1500 per week. It is not much less than a villa in town but you are only a few feet from the beach. 

We stopped for a group photo. 

After Cinnamon Bay we set out to find Oppenheimer Beach. We took Peace Hill trail to see the view and an old Sugar Furnace. 

From there we hiked down to the beach, which we assumed was Oppenheimer Beach and swam. I also found a coconut which I had been looking for since we got here.  Either the tourist or the park service cleans them up before you can pick them up,  but on this secluded beach I found one. 

As we walked back to the trail head we met another group of tourists who informed us we were on Denis Bay beach, not Oppenheimer.....uncheck that box! It was a nice hike and swim anyway.  They told us how to get to Oppenheimer beach but there is only parking for a few vehicles so we drove on by towards Cruz Bay. Paul and Lisa needed to fuel up their vehicle. 

While we waited for the Saccos we stopped at a few stores to find June a pair of flip flops, she had a blowout at Denis Bay Beach.  While we were there we found the St. John Brewery Tap Room. It was on our list so we stopped for a beer, it was a very nice break. ...check that box.

As we headed back to Coral Bay, the parking area for Oppenheimer Beach had just enough room for two Jeeps, if you did not mind them rubbing a little bit, so we stopped and hiked to the beach. 

As we got onto the beach, we ran into a woman from Dorset, VT...crazy. She pointed out an Iguana going down the beach...he was a big boy....cool. 

It is a beautiful beach that was owned by the O family from 1957 to 1976. It is now maintained by the US park service but hurricanes have destroyed the buildings. The sand on the beach was some of the best on the island, it was a nice swim. Box Checked. 

After the O beach we returned to Leinster Bay to snorkel, when we went there the other day it was so colorful and full of fish we thought it would be a nice final snorkel.  

The fish and coral are so colorful, it was just amazing. 

There were huge schools of fish of many different colors.  

Paul even found an Octopus, he was well camouflaged and would change color as he moved. This was a rare treat.

As we returned to the beach, Ed was on shore and spotted a turtle coming up for air near shore and directed me to him.  

He was in shallow water for good viewing. They are fascinating to follow as they eat and come up for air.  

We even saw a beautiful starfish as we returned to the beach. 

It was a bit of a cloudy day but that made relaxing on the beach without getting scorched more pleasant. 

After beach time, we all returned to our villa for showers and some down time.....we even worked on the Star Wars Puzzle.

After showers we all went to Skinny Legs for our last dinner on the island. It was excellent. 

We returned to our villa and relaxed.  

I harvested our coconut. It was delicious.

Of course, we finished the puzzle but one piece could not be found....

Sunday Fred and June fly to Pensacola, Ed and Jean fly to Albany and Paul and Lisa fly to Vermont.  

We really appreciate the Island, the hospitality of the people and the beautiful weather for snorkeling!

It was the end of a great week on the island that none of us will forget soon. 

Day 6, Friday, April 26 - Chillaxing on Francis Bay Beach

 

Friday it was another beautiful sunrise. 

We decided to meet at Francis Bay beach to relax. 

We know the way, but every time we leave our place, google shows an alternate route to the left on King Hill Road, it is over a mile shorter. I said let's take it. Apparently google is not up to date, it seems it was a few hurricanes ago when it was passable. We were impressed with the rock crawling ability of a Jeep, they are a true off road machine. 

So we reset and went to Francis Bay and were pleasantly surprised that it was not crowed at all, easy parking and a prime spot with shade. 

We had 'Stumpfest' with Jimmy Buffet music coming from my phone under the stump.

We swam and played on the beach, it was quite relaxing. 

We even took about a mile walk/hike on the Francis Bay trail to the ruins of an Estate House and Sugar Boiling Factory. The trail goes around a large salt pond with much of the trail on elevated boardwalks making it an easy hike. 

This area is known for sea turtles so we donned our gear and set out in search of turtles. We were a bit disappointed that we did not find any. We did find a ray and it was a good snorkel.

As we were having a few refreshments on the beach, we noticed a few snorkelers hanging by one of the markers in the bay.  I asked one of them when they came in, sure enough there were turtles. We hit the water again.  

We got some prime Turtle Time. There were several large turtles feeding and they had Remoras that were feeding on their shells. It was cool to watch the Remoras switch from top to bottom of the turtle whenever the turtles came up for air.  We just hung out and watched them, very cool. 

After our beach day we stopped at Lucy's for a cocktail.  We arrived right about when they close, 4PM, but the owner served us with a smile. We had fried plantains, French fries and drinks. Lucy's has an awesome setting and it was a very nice place to have a drink. 

We stopped at the Love City Market and picked up frozen pizza for dinner. We were going to go to bed early but the girls started a Star Wars puzzle and we all got sucked in...we worked on it until 10:30PM.... It is fun when you can say things like "give me Chewbacca's left eye". 

Saturday is our last vacation day on the island, we plan to go out for breakfast at Cinnamon Bay Campground. 

Day 5, Thursday, April 25 - Crabby's Cat

Thursday we planned to go on Tuesday's sailboat tour...rescheduled.  

We were (I was)  treated to a nice sunrise, it was looking good for the boat ride.  

We booked with Crabby's Water Sports which is near our villas. Paul and Lisa have gotten to know the owners, Ray and Brenda, from previous visits here.

Crabby's is just a small building next to the market that they operate out of. They live on their 47 foot catamaran, do boat excursions, rent kayaks and run a B&B from a second boat they own. I asked Ray how he got here, he said "Never go to a Boat Show with your Checkbook" and laughed. Twenty years ago he and Brenda went to a show in Annapolis, MD and ended up ordering their boat from a company in France, it was built and delivered to St. John.  They went home to Texas and sold everything, they have been living on it since and survived multiple hurricanes on the boat, quite a story. Ray is clearly proud of being from Texas, he has stickers that read "Don't mess with Texas" in multiple places. 

We boarded the big Cat via Dinghy rides from Ray. 

Once underway we gathered on the front netting as we left out of  Coral Bay, it was a beautiful day. 

Ray has a pretty cool boat, he sails it entirely by himself. Everything is electric, main sails, front roller sail, all at the push of a button, very cool. 

As we got out of Coral Bay the swells got pretty big so we all moved aft, the sails went up, Ray killed the engines and we were sailing at over 10mph (per my phone app). We passed a single hull sailboat that was in the lean, we were not... :-). 

Our first stop was Flanigan Island. 

We snorkeled on the calm side of the island. There was plenty to see and a bit bumpy if you ventured out of the bay. 

After snorkeling Ray said, how about we move to calmer water. We ate lunch while Ray drove us to Pelican Rock, near Hanson Beach.  Ray said today it is Seagull Rock and joked that in a few weeks they will all leave and go up north where we live...probably true. 

It was cool snorkeling between the rocks.

When we boarded after snorkeling, Ray had prepared a snack of sausage and cheese on the grill....very nice. 

After Pelican Rock we moved to Hurricane Hole. This is where boats go to ride out hurricanes. Ray has ridden out two of them here. He said at the start of Irma, there were over 100 boats in the Hole, after, all but three were on shore.  He was one that survived. He started with 6 lines attached to a chain that the Park Service embedded into the bay bottom, each time a line broke he dove and secured another.  He said rain at 200 mph hurts. 

I found the fish very friendly in HH, this guy liked my red lanyard attached to my camera. 

I also saw a long fish that might be a barracuda.

He came to me and then I followed him a bit.

 

After the last snorkel stop we retreated to the front netting, it was too nice to be in the cabin. We all had had our fill of direct sun...but it was just too nice of a day. 

As we made our way back into the bay, we went by the Lime Out VI Taco Bar, accessible only by water.  We have not made it there yet..but you never know. 

 

We also saw several sailboats beached in the bay, apparently this is not an unusual thing here. 

We stopped at Paul and Lisa's villa after the sail for a Painkiller, Paul makes the best PKs. 

Paul and Lisa do have the best view.

Jean has yet to see a turtle but as we left for our villa, this guy was in the road...not what she was looking for. 

We got back to the villa pretty tired, it was a full day and we were all in bed a bit after 9PM.  

Friday we are going to try to take it kind of easy. 

Day 4, Wednesday, April 24 - Snorkeling Leinster Bay around Waterlemon Cay, chilling at Francis Bay

Wednesday we set out for Leinster Bay to snorkel around Waterlemon Cay, a small sandy island on top of a coral reef just off the shore in Leinster Bay.  Leinster Bay is considered the top snorkeling spot in St. John and did not disappoint.

We were to meet Paul and Lisa there around 9:30AM, however we got 'Googled' on the way there. Somehow the sound was off on my phone and I missed a turn, I looked at my phone, I was 7 mins away.  We drove for another 15 mins and it said I was 17 mins away....doh.....the sound was off and it was routing us places unknown. We got it sorted out and it took us on some pretty suspect roads that were 4WD only and we arrived at least 1/2 hour late. There was no cell coverage at Leinster Bay so Paul and Lisa were pretty worried...always an adventure. 

To snorkel around Waterlemon Cay it is about a one mile hike along the shore to get close to it. 

It is an easy hike. 

The Pelicans were not the least bit disturbed by us when we walked by. 

It is a short distance to the Cay from our launch point. 

In the bay on the way to the Cay we saw lots of Star Fish and Rays. 

The snorkel to the Cay is pretty easy, getting around the Cay required some team work. The currents along the shore of the Cay are quite strong. Jean needed a little help from Fred and Paul to make it around. All is well that ends well.  We were all pretty spent when we reached the other side of the little island. 

We all survived and will not forget this particular snorkel. 

We hiked back to our parking spot to sit in the shade and have lunch. Paul, Lisa and I decided to try snorkeling in the shallow waters of Leinster Bay. 

It was amazingly good snorkeling with lots of coral, colorful fish and Turtles.  

This turtle seemed to not even care that I was following him. 

After snorkeling we made our way to Francis Bay. We sat under shade trees and played on the beautiful sand beach. It was very relaxing. June snorkeled to the buoys and saw a turtle! 

Before we left Francis Bay we stopped at the Paddle-In Tiki Bar for Pain Killers and such. I would highly recommend their Banana Hammock!

We decided we would all go out to dinner so we set off for Skinny Legs. We had drinks there on Monday, but the menu looked good. Unfortunately, when we arrived they were closing because they had a cook fan failure, so we drove next door to the Surf Club Cantina.  We had a nice time, the food was good, albeit expensive, but the owner was a bit obnoxious. Maybe he was just trying to be funny by being rude, but we did not get a good vibe from him. 

While we were at our table, Paul and Lisa's new friend, Mike came by with his pet parrot Cookie.  They were very cute and Cookie likes Pina Coladas.  

The setting is very nice overlooking Coral Bay. 

After dinner we retired to our Villa for another spectacular moon lit night. 

On Thursday, we are hopeful that our rescheduled sailboat excursion happens.