Here’s a map showing the location of St John in the Caribbean. The North shore of the island faces the Atlantic Ocean and the South shore, the Caribbean Sea.
This is an aerial shot of the Island. Cruz Bay is the main population center and is located on the West coast of the island. This is where the ferry arrives and where the catamaran and scuba boats leave from. Coral bay is on the East end and our villa was in the mountainous area just west of it.
I arrived on Sunday evening and enjoyed steaks on the grill by Denny and Tom. Here’s a panoramic picture I took of the pool and deck of the villa.
On Monday we hiked into Leinster Bay on the North shore and swam about a half mile to a great snorkeling spot. In the afternoon we relaxed on Francis Bay just West of there. It was a lovely sandy, sheltered beach.
Tuesday took us to Hurricane Hole on the South East of the island. This was a private beach. You paid $2.50 to the lady at the snack shack to use the beach f
or the day. Very quiet and relaxing. Here’s a picture I took from my comfy beach chair. I’ve been practicing composing my photos with some vegetation foreground like Dad does.
Diana and Alicia arrived on Tuesday evening and so I rented a Jeep and picked them up from the ferry. It was my first time driving on the left hand side of the road with a steering wheel also on the left – very strange set up but not too difficult to get used to. The road down to the villa was a bit intimidating with steep drops and hairpin bends that required a three point turn.
Caneel Bay was our destination for the day on Wednesday and Alicia was introduced to snorkeling. She loved it until we body surfed into the beach and got slammed into the sand by a freak wave.
This map shows the various beaches and you can match up the beaches we visited with the aerial views in the picture up above (Cruz Bay is in the bottom right of the aerial view picture).
Here are the views we woke up to in the morning from the villa. These pictures were taken about 30 minutes apart as the sun came up.
Thursday was our day to sail in a catamaran called the “Kekoa” – picture below. The captain, Jamison, built it with his brother using wood and old school techniques. There was an album on board telling the story of how they sold the boat to some wealthy folks, who promptly got in trouble sailing the boat from North Carolina to the Virgin Islands. They had to be rescued by a coast guard helicopter and abandoned the Kekoa. Jamison hired a salvage team to help recover the boat, repaired it, and now operates the charter service out of St John.
Here’s a picture of Diana on board the Kekoa as we approached the British Virgin Islands. The crew had to take our passports to the British customs office and get them stamped before we could sail into British territory.
We anchored at Jost Van Dyke and swam ashore. You can see Diana mid swim to the beach for lunch. We tried to spend some pounds that I had left from Christmas but the restaurant on the British islands only took U.S. dollars – crazy!
Friday was scuba day. Diana and I did two dives in the morning and saw a beautiful eagle ray. Its tail seemed to be at least 15 feet long and it swam so gracefully. Denny, Anne, Mason and Alicia all did their first dives on Friday afternoon. Here’s a video of a sea turtle I made with Denny’s new GoPro.
Here’s Alicia’s first scuba experience.
On Saturday we had a full beach day at Salt Pond on the southeast part of the island. It was a bit of a hike downhill to the beach and of course uphill on the way back. Denny estimated it at 0.1 miles but it seemed longer on the way back with all the chairs and other gear.
We stopped for a late lunch on the way back and Anne got a flat tire on her Jeep as we left. Of course Denny and Tom had just driven off when it was discovered. Fortunately, two very nice gentlemen helped me change the tire. Counter to Denny’s observation, I’m actually turning the crank to jack up the Jeep and not solely in a supervisory role.
Then came Sunday and time to head home. You can’t beat the area where we waited to board the ferry back to St Thomas – chairs on the beach at Cruz Bay with some final rum based island drinks.
