St. John Photos of the Day

Chocolate Hole

Great Cruz Bay

St. John Music Schedule Saturday March 19

Castaways – Kenny Floyd – 8:00 – 11:00 – 777-3316
Concordia – Inner Visions – 7:00 – 10:00 – 693 5855
Fatty Crab – Sambacombo – 11:00 am – 4:00 pm – 693-5244
Island Blues – Mojones  – 7:00 – 10:00 – 776-6800
Morgan’s Mango – Luba – Piano & Vocals – 6:30 – 9:30 – 693-8141
Rhumb Lines – Lauren & Bo – 7:00 – 10:00 – 776-0303
Skinny Legs – Hot Club of Coral Bay – 6:30 – 9:30 – 779-4982
Westin, Cruz Bay Prime – James Cobb – 6:30 – 10:00 – 693-8802

A word of caution: I’m doing the best I can to present an accurate music schedule, but to be sure, it would be a great idea to call the restaurant or bar beforehand to confirm.

Weekly Music Schedule

Dawn, St. John Virgin Islands

Chocolate Hole, St. John, US Virgin Islands, 6:15 am December 13, 2010
It’s a beautiful Virgin Islands dawn. The sky is clear. The seas are calm. The air is cool and crisp. It’s quiet and peaceful. The tree frogs have stopped their singing and the birds have not yet begun.

For us on St. John and in the Virgin Islands Hurricane Earl has come and gone. He was stronger and came earlier than expected. Although not predicted to effect us until late Monday afternoon, conditions deteriorated on Sunday night.

On St. John, boats at anchor suffered the worst of the storm. All the boats in Chocolate Hole were swept from their moorings, save one that later sunk. Several boats were also lost in Great Cruz Bay and Cruz Bay.

Westin Beach, Great Cruz Bay	Floating Dock from Great Cruz Bay Dinghy Landing	Chocolate Hole Beach

Trees were down all over the island and current was out, internet down and cell phones spotty.

Caneel Bay suffered some structural damage and the awning over the dock at the Westin was blown down.

On the BVI matters were worse. On Jost Van Dyke, Sidneys at Little Harbour was pretty much destroyed. Abe’s, also at Little Harbour lost much of their dock. In Great Harbour, Rudy lost his dock. Word from Tortola was bad reporting the loss of many boats. Anegada was the worst hit with widespread damage and flooding.

Rainbow
The rain keeps coming.  Not normal July weather here on St. John. Looks like our weather system has developed into a tropical storm, TS Bonnie, heading into the Gulf of Mexico.

Yesterday was clear most of the day and I did get to see a cool rainbow late in the afternoon.

Earthquake
21st July 2010 –An earthquake measuring a magnitude of 4.48 on the Richter scale was felt throughout the Virgin Islands at approximately 8:00 pm July 21st 2010.  The report indicated that the epicenter was located in the Virgin Islands Platform near 18.55 latitude and -64.96 longitude … read more

the following comes from some notes that I dug up last night:

Jost Van Dyke, British Virgin Islands Notes
In 1980 there was only one vehicle on Jost Van Dyke, a Jeep. There were no paved roads, no electricity, save for a few solar panels and generators, no phone except a radio phone at customs. The ferry, The blue Atlantic, was a hand-made wooden craft capable of handling about 10 people, tops.

Electricity came to Jost Van Dyke in 1990.

My First Automobile Ride In Jost Van Dyke
Saturday, April 15, 1995

It was a beautiful evening. The moon was full, the seas were calm and the sky was clear.

We left Chocolate Hole, on St John just after sunset. The moon rose over the mountains in back of Cruz Bay as we rounded Lind Point on our way to Abe’s in Little Harbour, on Jost Van Dyke in the British Virgin Islands.

Abe's

Abe’s was fairly busy. Bareboaters from Germany, a woman with high heel sneakers and short shorts, a couple from Tortola with a 40 foot Hattaras and some others. Steve, Abe’s son, was tending bar.

We had a big dinner. Lobster, conch, rice and peas, corn and cole slaw.

During dinner I saw a Suzuki Jeep leave from in front of Abe’s house. It got my attention because I never had seen a vehicle on this beach before.

Later, just as we were finishing dinner, the vehicle returned. I saw the driver for the first time. It was Steve. I asked him where he got the jeep, and was it his and where he was going.

It turned out that Kendrick, one of my old friend’s Etien Chinnery’s sons, was now in the business of renting vehicles. Kendrick, who was a former customs officer and bar tender at the Sand Castle in White Harbour had also began Jost Van Dyke’s first ferry business. He had one jeep for rent, this automatic transmission Suzuki Jeep for rent for $35.00 a day. Steve had rented it for three days.

I asked Steve if he’d take us for a ride and being the nice guy that he is, he consented. We went over the mountain to Great Harbour, around the bottom in back of the beach at Great Harbour, passed Rudy’s and then along the waterfront and back to Foxy’s where there was music and dancing.

Foxy had left for the evening and Tessa was closing up the store. Ivan was playing guitar with a local trio. The bar was fairly crowded and everyone was in good spirits. I saw some of the regulars there,  Godwin and Nippy and Melvin were dancing with the tourists. My friends, Etien Chinnery and Junie, Abe’s brother from Little Harbour, were over by the band watching the scene.

We were in for a treat, another first for me. Dean, one of Foxy’s sons, was going to do his famous fire dance. It was a great show. Dean was in costume and made up like an African warrior. The sound of drums from the drum machine. He danced with his fire sticks and blew fire out of his mouth like a fire breathing dragon. Then he broke up some liquor bottles in a cardboard box and placed the broken shards on the floor. He danced on the glass and then  he danced holding up the biggest man in the house, a 250 pound Brit, in his arms. Dean was quite the showman and I was duly impressed.

After the Dean Spectacular we got back in our rent-a-car and drove back to Abe’s for the moonlight trip back home to St. John.

Thanks Steve. Thanks Dean. Thanks to all my very special Virgin Islands friends!

GS 4/15/95

Amarat in Flower, Chocolate Hole, St. John Virgin Islands

Fig Banana Flower, Chocolate Hole St. John USVI

One of the most common trees in our “native dry forest garden” is the amarat. They are acacias, (casha bush) but do not have thorns likes most other varieties.

Lately they have been in bloom and their flower and new leaves are particularly attractive.

Our non-native (exotic) fig banana is also in flower. It should open up soon and well be enjoying figs in about six weeks.