beach

We awoke on the tenth to another beautiful Virgin day and after easing into the day via coffee poolside our adventure was to Watermelon Cay. Parking was by the Annaberg Plantation and to reach the Cay Beach there was an an .8 mile coastal walk on the Leinster Bay Trail- a more leisurely walk compared to the our more strenuous hikes. It was bordered with sea grape trees and mangroves instead of cacti and scrub vegetation.

Watermelon Cay is a rocky islet offshore and it is ringed by rock ledges and coral reef. From the beach it looked like a small green dome. I decided I was still a strong enough swimmer to access it and trotted off to the end of the beach trail in order to enter the water at the closet point for the swim to the Cay. It was rocky and wasn’t exactly the easiest entry but setting out felt almost surreal as I was” coasting “ across open slightly choppy turquoise waters. My goal was to swim around the cay and headed counter-clockwise negotiating the seaward side first.

This is the colder deeper and choppier side. The reward was exponential, feeling otherworldly, with layers of fish darting about (including yellow snapper and blue tangs), massive coral heads, and translucent moon jellies pulsing about. Fortunately when I cruised through the swarms of moon jellies, I didn’t get stung. Moon jellies I guess mean no harm and are the “goldfish” of the jellyfish world. This was by far the best snorkeling yet and I was quite disappointed that I had seemed to forget my underwater camera though upon rounding the other side, I discovered I had tucked it inside my swim bra under my sun shirt. Well, I thought, I probably would have taken another batch of bad photographs. Circling back around the reef to the front side felt less dynamic and colorful than the outer reef side though there was still quite an array of corals and tropical fish.

I decided to drift back toward the beach of Leister Bay over the sea grass beds looking for stingrays and turtles. While scanning for movement in the sandy sea gras beds, I spotted a Hawksbill Sea Turtle. It didn’t seem to mind my presence there and went about chomping on sea grass. I swam about with it, all the while bobbing around clumsily trying not to startle it. Shortly, I was able to flag Tasia down as she had the camera. Pretty good photo-ops for a couple of minutes but then with a few strong strokes it slipped away into the gras beds and I swam toward the beach .

Movie of Hawksbill Sea Turtle Swimming and Chomping

Having had an extremely satisfying snorkel, it was time to retrace our step back to the car and tour the Annaberg Sugar Plantation (Anna’s Hill in Danish). This decayed ruin of a once thriving producer of sugar, molasses, and RUM relied on slave labor to grow cane, crush the stalks, boil and export sugar. With the leftover molasses, fermentation, (probably know since Adam and Eve ate that fermented apple) magically turned the molasses into rum and thus these plantation became large Caribbean cocktail factories and the planters got rich, the slaves got exhausted and many a sailor got drunk. Annaberg thrived until the mid-1800’s until hurricanes, droughts, depleted soil, emancipation of slaves and competition resulted. By the end of the 19th century Annaberg was just ruins, the ruins we see today over looking Leinster Bay.

The centerpiece of the ruins is a cylindrical windmill tower (these towers can be seen dotting the island) and I kept trying to imagine what it would be like with the wind turning gears going full blast. I imagine a mini torture chamber that is cramped hot dizzying, sweaty, noisy. Moving onward to the boiling house ruins, which housed rivers of concentrated sugar and molasses running through it channels. My former drinking self would have been delighted to know that this would have been the area where the rum was distilled. Of equal fascination was the decaying walls made mostly of coral stone with stones varying significantly in size. Now vines and creepers crawl over the walls and grass, flowering plants and ferns sprout in the cracks and crevices., moss and lichen fuzzy up some portions.

After one of our express meals Nick and I opted to discover Trunk Bay, one of the closer reefs to Cruz Bay, popular with tourists, and and well developed beaches with food stalls, restrooms, showers, and an entrance fee. It is often ranked among the world’s most beautiful beaches etc. This evening, without a swarm of sunbathers, cruise ship crowds, snorkelers and any other variety of tourists, it was indeed beautiful. I had not intended to snorkel and just went along for the ride to keep Nick company but I did transport my gear down to the beach. And even though it was not on my agenda, it took only minutes to respond to the alluring vibrations of the turquoise water and decide to don the gear and the enter the calm bluish-green shallows and follow the underwater snorkeling trail. After a few minutes I determine this trail was designed for brand-newbies and most likely a more gimmick than a “real” snorkeling experience. It was underwhelming and in no way comparable to the one on St. Croix. So I ditched the trail and headed over towards the rocky outcropping just east of the trail, Trunk Cay. The upside of being here was the sun was beginning to set illuminating the sky to a pale yellow, the bay was calm, we were on a gorgeous beach and there were very few people. We enjoyed a leisurely snorkel admiring the giant boulders of brain coral along with the regular population of blue tangs, parrot fish, damselfish, angelfish, sea fans and corals.

Enroute back to our villa, Nick and I stopped at the National Park Sign at the entrance and snapped my obligatory sign photo, the tradition since my first park visit when I was in 6th graded at the Great Smokey Mountain National Park. This is the 62nd installment of many awkward photos next to the National Park’s brown wooden signs. Yes, everyone takes them but if I didn’t how else could I prove I actually went. Soon we were back at the villa and we enjoyed the pool, the starry night and twinkling lights of Chocolate Hole in the distance.

We had three more full days to explore St. John’s and the Virgin Islands National Park and I definitely wanted to fill them primarily with snorkeling and hiking. Our choice for Day #6 was the Salt Pond Bay Coral Reefs and the Rams Head hike, accessed from the beach on Salt Pond Bay. We had hoped for a more “private” snorkeling adventure and opted to head east and south to the Salt Pond Reef in the south west part of St. John’s betting that the the driving distance and the 1/2 mile hike in would deter any crowds.

We were greeted at the trail head by a couple of the permanent wild residents of St. John’s. – a couple of stubborn and unpredictable domesticated equines (aka burros and donkeys) sauntering down the trail to Salt Pond Bay. Eventually they veered off into the scrub along the trail but I kept my eye out unsure of where they might pop up again. We made our way down the full sun, rocky, dusty half mile trail to Salt Pond Beach. We came upon Salt Pond just before we approached the shoreline with a sandy strip separating the salt pond from the bay itself. Historically residents would harvest salt from ponds like this .

In that the day was heating up and it was already 9:15am, we opted to make our way east and across Salt Pond Bay and the sand beach. This section was easy until I reached “blue cobblestone beach, ” the nickname for the shoreline here of volcanic stones that have a bluish-gray tint. Now it was slow careful steps so as not to roll an ankle on these rolling shifting stones with each step a bit of a wobble and a clatter. But once back on firmer ground the trail began to climb up, mostly in full sun, through dry coastal scrub, a plethora of the very phallic Turk’s Cap Barrel Cacti, and views of the Caribbean’s turquoise waters.

This is windswept terrain was at its best and the wind sweeping across the trail at times tried its best to blow me over. Ram Head can best be described as a dramatic headland jutting into the sea and the reward for this close to one mile hike is a 360-degree view of the surrounding waters. Salt Pond Bay was sparkling with sapphire and ultramarine hues and the Atlantic sported a shimmering deeper blue color. It was an exhilarating experience standing atop the “ Ram” with the wind sweeping across the “Head” and the ways crashing below.

Our hunch was right and we were fortunate that we didn’t have to share this bay with an overdose of other snorkelers. It was now time for snorkeling and time to face the awkward task of entry into this underwater world. It should be easy from this sandy beach but donning the gear was not without its comedic side. Do I sit on the beach and don the fins? But I recollect that when walking in them previously, I waddled like a penguin. So I waded out into shallow water at the beach midpoint and plunked myself down. It seemed to be going well as I struggled to put on penguin shoe #1 until a small wave arrived and not only moved me around but swept the other one towards shore. I somehow eventually managed to secure both flippers on to my feet, secure the mask to my face, and get the snorkel into my mouth. I quite ungracefully tried a dolphin dive into the water resulting in getting a snorkel full of water and a mask that became an indoor pool for my face. Seems I forgot to push up the forehead hairs thus breaking the seal. But eventually success! I was cruising along toward the rocky ledges of shoreline and its coral gardens and reef fish. Parrot fish and blue tang abounded and I was enjoying the metronome of sea fans. It was exhilarating.

Exiting in the middle with its grassy beds, I was quite content with my adventure until I compared notes and my lame photos with Tasia’s and my few blue tang and blue parrot paled compared to her exquisitely captured images of a Longspine Squirelfish, a Threespot Damselfish, a Gray Angelfish, a Parrotfish, an Ocean Surgeonfish with an Foureye Butterflyfish, a school of Dwarf Round Herring, a Moon Jellyfish and a Hawksbill Sea Turtle. Clearly she is the expert photographer and I definitely qualify as the inexpert…though I am quite good at using Google Images to identify the fish she captured!

Following a very satisfying hiking and snorkeling adventure it was time to cruise on to Cruz Bay heading up route 107 to Coral Bay. I kept trying to film us traversing the road to hopefully capture a video and pictures of the road as it rises and falls along dry scrubby hillside replete with its uneven pavement, potholes and washed out edges as well as the occasional donkey or goats along the roadside. Not too captivating footage resulted. Passing through Coral Bay, a quiet village, we continued on route 10 twisting and climbing and dipping up and down the mountainside until we arrived in Cruz Bay and headed up to our villa for a chill afternoon and preparation for dining out.

Our dining choice was Morgan’s Mango Restaurant which features a Caribbean vibe as well as Caribbean food. They claim a bit of a mix of Creole, Bahamian, Cuban, Jamaican, Haitian, Puerto Rican and Mayan. I am not sure which cuisine inspired my “coconut panko encrusted fresh grouper sautéed in organic cold-pressed coconut oil until crisp on the outside & moist within— served with a white wine, coconut, lemongrass reduction a unique Caribbean blend of a potato/yuca mash & fresh seasonal vegetables.” Whichever island was the inspiration for our dishes , they were exceptional…and when sated it was then onward to the villa for a swim and relaxing poolside beneath a sky blanketed with stars.

Uniquely Theo

Salty Watermelon and Rum Fueled Ruins

A Jutting Ram and Domesticated Equines