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~ the St John Adventures ~
Friday 6/11/2010
Another fabulous day here in St John. Here is the morning view:
I did it from a slightly different angle today, which makes it a little bit brighter, since I am not shooting directly into the sun. We slept in a bit today - getting up at 8am, which is still considered quite early on St John. We had a squall come thru this morning at 5:40am (yes, I looked at my watch), and it was pouring down cats & dogs. They tend to not do rain half way in the tropics, and the first thought I had when my eyes opened was that the cistern just got topped off! It was an impressive rain. But like most of those sorts of rain here, it lasts an hour or less, and then goes away to be forgotten as the sun comes out. Today's beach was Leinster Bay Beach, and an island known as Waterlemon (yes, lemon, not melon) Cay. This is one of the more remote beaches on the island, not only because it is located on the northeastern tip of the island, but because you have about a mile walk to get to the beach itself. Luckily, it is a flat walk, although most of it is pretty rocky, so if you walk and take in the sights (and it is a pretty walk), you will trip, potentially split your head open, and then you will have to carried out by whoever you came with, since EMS is quite a way away. Reminds me of when I went backpacking with my father, and I was walking and looking at the pretty lake that we were going by, and I tripped, ate the rock on the ground in front of me, my head bounced into the backpack frame before I ate the rock a second time. As I recall, my father was not particularly sympathetic, although I don't recall him laughing (too hard). Part of the walk is thru a mangrove swamp, which thankfully, the path is not swampy. It is neat to walk thru, though.
Thanks to the heat and humidity (as well as the gear you are bringing in), you will work up a decent sweat, but the view at the other end is worth it:
You may have noticed that someone beat us to the beach (the gear in the second shot is not ours). Actually, there were quite a few chairs and such on the beach when we got there, but only 4 teenagers were the only ones you could see on the whole stretch of beach - which incidentally is about 3/4 of a mile long (very pretty). They were all snorkeling. This beach is known for having some good snorkeling. There were also a number of boats tied to the National Parks Moorings there, which quite frankly is probably the best way to get to this bay and enjoy the water.
That is, naturally the view from the beach chairs - and here they are!
As you get into the water, you are quickly in an area of sea grass, which is not particularly pretty, but it does attract turtles, which is one of the things I still wanted to see. So we were headed to the far side of the bay, across a sea of sea grass. There were some fish out there, the usual collection of jacks, and a bunch of these long nosed guys that are about a foot long, and skim just beneath the surface of the water. The are neat, but really hard to shoot because they are fast, and focusing on something just below the surface is incredibly hard. I think that they know this, and are teasing me! As we start to get close to the far edge of the bay, I spot the target of my search - a green sea turtle! Its a decent sized guy, hugging the bottom, hoping that we didn't see him. Sea turtles really don't like the attention of people. Its probably because most of the people they encounter are snorkelers, hanging out on the surface, and the turtles know that they can only stay down about 15 minutes or so before they have to broach the surface, and we are between them and that oh, so precious air! So he sits there for a couple of minutes, and we sit there watching him.
Then he starts to move off.
Now, the detail oriented of you may have noticed that he is missing his front left flipper. I am sure that because of this he knows he is at a relative competative disadvantage in the whole swimming game. So now we have a decision to make - follow him at a discrete distance, and get to see him at the surface when he comes up for air, or let him go. I figure we have stressed him enough, so we say via con dios to him, and head off in the opposite direction. We decide to swim along the shoals, and head over to Waterlemon Cay, where the snorkeling is supposed to be pretty good. We were swimming along, there is not too much to see - at least compared to our previous adventures. Carol decides she needs to adjust her mask and snorkel, and just happens to do it right over another juvenile baracuda!
Naturally, I shoot the shot before I warn her of our friend, but it is deep enough that she is well clear of it. Not that the knowledge made her feel much better. Honestly, it is amazing all the things you have no idea are watching you as you swim thru the water. But maybe its better that way. We get to the channel between Leinster Bay and Waterlemon Cay. The gap is about 200 - 300 yards, drops off to about 40 feet deep, and the seas pick up a little because you are no longer protected by the bay. Another factor that we had heard about is that there is an offshore current that is supposed to be rather stiff during the new and full moon. Now, in the week we have been here, I have yet to see the moon, so I have no idea what phase it is in. The plan is that if we get caught by the current, we ride it around the island, and cut back in on the back side. Failing that, we flag down a boat, and pray we don't get run over! Just as we get into the channel, I see 2 large shadows headed our way. They are a pair of Spotted Ray, cruising the bottom. They are about 4 - 5 feet across each.
They are beautiful, and yet another first for this trip. And while I have seen Spotted Rays in aquariums, and even swum with them at Discovery Cove in Florida, this is the first time I have seen them wild. And then off they glide. We swim across the channel and get to the shoals of Waterlemon. There is a pretty wide shallow area, with some coral, but nothing too fabulous (yeah, you get a little fussy over what you want to expend energy swimming to see). We swim a little way around it, and are not overly impressed. So we decide instead of swimming the island, we would head back, taking a deeper tack (away from theedge of the bay). There should be more sea grass that way, and maybe we'll see some more turtles. That also takes us into the are where boats can come and tie up at the mooring balls, so that is a new thing to keep an eye out for (in reality, I am watching for boats generally, but there is a greater chance of coming across either a power or sail boat, or one of their dinghies). So, we swim the channel, further in, and as we come into the bay itself, we see this fella.
Thanks to the depth, it is murkier than I would like, but you can see in the second picture that this guy has both front flippers - which means we have seen 2 individuals! Things are going pretty good! Then we come across a stingray, with a fish in attendence.
Further along, I see a starfish. Now, I have seen plenty of starfish before, but this is the first time on this trip, so I shoot it.
Then as we go, we see more starfish.
And then more! Its Starfish City!
I had read about someplace where starfish seem to appear in great numbers, and then disappear. It seems noone has an idea why it is they show up or leave, or where they go when they are gone - and yes, starfish do move. I guess they are in at the moment, and we were lucky enough to see them. As we get a little closer to the shore, another stingray, along with one of our blue striped guys from the other day (the blue striped guys are all over the place).
Once we get close to the beach, we just hang out in the water. It really is quite beautiful, and there is so much salt in the water that you float along pretty easily. So, of course I take a picture of Carol floating.
And she shoots one of me (why did I ever give her the camera...???)
And then, as we take another sweep pf the seagrass, I get a little creative, and take a self-portrait
Being out on the water reminds me of a verse in one of Jimmy Buffet's songs, called Beautiful Swimmers. It goes like this:
Now If I was as rich as the agacon Anyway, I had that thought out there today. We got in, and sat in the beach chairs to dry off and relax. I looked out towards Waterlemon, and shot this one.
And, of course, you have to share the beach with the locals!
We walked out to the car, and started back to Cruz Bay. The first part of the trip is thru mangroves, so I shot one from the window of the car - it is amazing how dense that stuff can get! The roots are amazing!
On the drive back, another sun shower came thru. Found out the windshield wipers on the Jeep work (sort of) - although the one on the back window works the best! Lunch today was at Jake's - where we'd had breakfast that first day (damn, that seems like ages ago). It was a good meal of steaks and chicken wraps (Carol got the chicken wrap, and that was the better of the two!). This was the view from up there - not that I really like this picture, but it will give you an idea (again).
It really wasn't that dark there. Oh well, next time I will get a better shot! I had heard there was a good bakery in town, and there is one downstairs from Jake's, and today it was open. So we stopped in. They had some yummy looking things, and an area with ice cream (or ices, I am not sure, but they were in those 5 gallon containers in a display case). The lady comes out from the back, and Carol asks her what one of the pastries was - and she doesn't speak English! Spanish only! So, we're stuck with my pidgeon Spanish, but we get by (this is not my first "I don't know what the hell they're saying" conversation, after all!). Then back to the villa, and here we are. Enjoying sea breezes, and the sound of the ocean crashing on the rocks. There is also some idiot who must be planning to have a reggae/rap party tonite, and they seem to be testing the sound system. Maybe they will go out tonite. Maybe we will..... It is really clear out here today, and for the life of me, I can't see St Croix. Carol assures me that I will. I have my doubts. I guess we'll find out! I hope everyone is planning on having a fabulous weekend! We shall see you soon!
Keep Smiling!!!
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