7/1

We flew to St. John’s to spend a week over the fourth of July.  We love to snorkel and hadn’t yet been to the Virgin Islands so we thought we’d check it out.  I had some trouble getting out of Chicago and ended up losing a day and flying through Puerto Rico instead of Miami, but Jenn’s flight from San Fran went ok.  It did mean that she had to navigate the ferries and find our rented apartment alone.

St. John’s reminded me of Ecuador and Belize; except the main buildings in town looked like they adhered to an american building code.  The town felt underfunded.  I found prices for food and groceries on the high side.  We walked/taxied the first couple days then rented a jeep for the remainder, and stayed in a place we found on VRBO.com.  It was a good way to save a few bucks, making this a relatively inexpensive trip.

There were peacocks on the island!

For the first snorkeling site we went out at Trunk Bay.  There was an underwater snorkeling trail that was slightly informative but over-touristed.  To the west there was a less crowded area where we saw a shark, some rays and a turtle.

The next place we went was Frank Bay.  It was very close to where we were staying and we hoped to do a night dive there one evening. We saw flamingo tongue, rays and a pretty good-sized octopus.  Our whole goal for night diving is to see octopus, but here at Frank Bay, Jenn find one right away!

Waterlemon Cay was a fantastic snorkel.  The island had a ton of large, beautiful coral.  The hike back to the car from the site however, was much less fun.

We went in at Haulover North but it was too rough, so we walked back to Haulover South.  It was much calmer but there wasn’t as much to see here.

Next we visited Salt Pond.  It was quite a swim out to the reef here but it was another healthy reef.

After Salt Pond we rested then went out for a night snorkel at Frank Bay.  It was spooky but a great spot for evening dip!  Jenn found 5 octopus on this trip.  Most of the time we are lucky to have seen one!

At Cinnamon Bay we snorkeled a wrecked plane.  In the nearby rocks, Jenn found another octopus.  The guidebook said to hike to certain spot to snorkel the wreckage but we both thought it would have been easier to swim it.  I offered to hike our stuff out while Jenn swam back.

On our last snorkel we went to Little Lameshur Bay and swam around Yawzi Point to Great Lameshur Bay.  It was really rough out there but we were amazed at the water clarity and quality/health of the reef.  It was fantastic to see so much life on the reef.

The USVI was a great place to snorkel.  Overall there was little coral rubble and a great deal of fish, rays and turtles.  We also saw more octopus here than any other place we’ve been.  Of course, we are more experienced now and that may be a factor.