Great Cruz Bay Rainbow

A light squall in the early morning placed a rainbow over Great Cruz Bay. It only lasted for a little while. I’m happy to have had my camera at hand.

St. John Live Music Schedule for tonight, Tuesday, January 24

Castaways – Karaoke Night -9:00 – 777-3316
High Tide – Erin Hart – 4:00 – 7:00 – 714-6169
Morgan’s Mango – Greg Kinslow – 6:00 – 9:30 -n 693-8141
Shipwreck Landing  – Chris Carsel – 6:00 – 9:30

See this week’s live music schedule

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

Westin Resort, St. John, Great Cruz Bay, US Virgin Islands (USVI) 10/15/2010

Westin pool drained once again - scheduled for cleaning & resurfacing

The Pool
Last week I came across the water trucks filling up the Westin Pool and reported that repairs were under way and that the pool would be ready in a day or two. Not so.

Either by mistake or by design, when the pool was filled to a level whereby the pumps could circulate the pool water through the filter system, the mud within the pipes, pump and filters were released into the pool. This resulted in a clean pump and filter system, but a dirty pool.

The pool has been draining and is almost dry and the mud and debris is being cleaned up. Apparently the Westin is taking this opportunity to resurface the pool, something that needs to be done periodically.

The long and the short is that the pool won’t be ready for a while, but my guess is that it will be competed before the Thanksgiving Holiday.

The Beach, Beach Bar and Beach Restaurant
The beach is being cleaned up and should look back to normal soon. The restaurant will need some time as it appears that the hotel may be taking this opportunity to make some improvements as well as repair the flood damage

Kids Club, Arcade and Ballroom
The gym is up and running, but the Kids Club, Arcade, ballroom and conference rooms have all suffered flood damage. At this point everything that got wet has been removed and is either being cleaned up or replaced. Again this might take a while, but again I suspect this too will be ready before the end of November.

Tennis Courts
The green surfaces have almost all been removed. They will either be replaced or there is talk that the hotel may opt to recover the courts with a hard surface.

Still Lookin' Good!

Tennis Court

Playground - Ready to Go

My Recommendations
I’ve been receiving a lot of e-mail asking my advice for people scheduled to arrive at the Westin this month. The following is my personal take on the issue:

Visitors should be coming to experience St. John, to me the accommodations are secondary with the caveat that they be comfortable.

The pool is nice, but the beaches are better. The best beaches by far are on the north side of the island, so missing out on the man made beach at the Westin is no big deal. The hotel is even offering a shuttle service to Hawksnest, Trunk and Cinnamon Bays.

The Westin rooms are indeed comfortable, so I would be happy to be on St. John even without all of the normal hotel amenities. The real fun is snorkeling, diving, hiking and the beautiful National Park Beaches – all still available after Otto.

So, I personally would not cancel my plans to come to St. John, with one exception. If you are bringing young children, kids too young to be turned on by snorkeling, hiking, beach going or diving, then no Kids Club, no arcade and no pool would be a big deal and I would reschedule my trip.

There is something for the kids, though, the playground is up and running.

I repeat, this is just me. Please make your own decisions and please continue to monitor the progress at the Westin

From the Westin Website:

Inclement Weather Update
Due to extremely heavy rain October 5-7, 2010, related to Tropical Storm Otto, the area around The Westin St. John Resort & Villas experienced heavy flooding resulting in damage to the property. The resort operations’ team is working quickly to return to normal operations. The resort is open and under limited operations; however, the hotel is waiving all cancellation fees as well as the Resort Charge from now until November 14, 2010.

A resort update:
• Beach Café Restaurant is scheduled to reopen October 27, 2010.
• Snorkel’s Bar & Grill is closed & is scheduled to reopen November 14, 2010.
• The resort is utilizing Cruz Bay Prime as its main restaurant.
• The Pool is closed for repairs & is scheduled to reopen November 14, 2010. Our customers will be able to use the pools located in the Virgin Grand Hillside villas. The resort will also be offering complimentary round trip shuttles at three set times per day to St. John’s most beautiful beaches: Trunk Bay, Cinnamon Bay and Hawks Nest Beach.
• The Kids Club & Arcade are closed but are anticipated to reopen November 10, 2010. Our Activities Department is providing babysitting service as well as activities for all ages around the resort.
• The Tennis Courts are closed & are scheduled to reopen October 27, 2010
• The government has issued an advisory of “swim at your own risk” for all Virgin Islands beaches until the water quality can be tested and deemed safe. For the most up to date information please visit www.dpnr.gov.vi/notices.htm *
• The Westin Work Out Facility & Spa are open.
If you would like to reschedule your upcoming reservation to a later date please contact our Reservations Team at 888 627 7206 or email STJon.01098@Westin.com.

*DPNR update 12:00 noon 10/15/2010
The following beaches meet water quality standards and are safe for swimming or fishing:

St. John

Westin Resort, St. John US Virgin islands

It’s been raining quite hard here on St. John for the last day or so causing significant flooding. I’ve heard reports from Coral Bay about rock and mud slides and other flood related problems. On St. Thomas, I heard that Crown Mountain Road is all but impassible.

But here closer to home I’ve seen quite a bit of damage in the area around the Westin where Guinea Gut overflowed. Flood waters ran through the resort and undermined the bridge over the gut and for several hours vehicles could no longer pass between the Westin on the east and the St. John Market on the west. The causes of  it all are two areas of stormy weather, one now a named storm, Subtropical Storm Otto and another referred to by the meteorologists as Invest 97.

At the Westin some rooms were flooded, as was the pool and the beach area. Large breaking waves caused a sailboat anchored in Great Cruz Bay to was up on the Westin Beach adding it to the other unfortunate craft brought ashore by Hurricane Earl.

Bridge over Guinea Gut

Tennis Courts

Sailboat is washed ashore by breaking seas

It’s Wednesday night and still raining, hopefully the rain will stop soon.

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.