St. John Photo of the Day

Nautical Twilight, Chocolate Hole, St. John US Virgin Islands

St. John Music Schedule, Monday April 11

High Tide - Steven Sloan – 7:00 – 10:00 – 714-6169
La Tapa – Sambacombo – 6:30 – 9:30 – 693-7755
Maho Bay Camps - Bo & Lauren – 8:00 – 10:00 – 715-0501
Ocean Grill – Chris Carsel – 6:30 – 9:30 – 693 3304

Note: 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

St. John Photo of the Day

Maho Flower

Free Film Screening

Maho Bay Camps is presenting a free film screening of “Green Fire” at 8:00 tonight at the Maho Bay Pavilion Restaurant.

Green Fire
“The first full-length, high-definition documentary film ever made about legendary environmentalist Aldo Leopold, Green Fire highlights Leopold’s extraordinary career, tracing how he shaped and influenced the modern environmental movement. Leopold remains relevant today, inspiring projects all over the country that connect people and land.”

St. John Music Schedule Friday March 25

Beach Bar – Coyote Love – 9:00 – 777-4220
High Tide – John Lee – 7:00 – 10:00 – 714-6169
Island Blues – Jeff White – 3:00 – 6:00 – 776-6800
Morgan’s Mango – Lauren – 6:30 – 9:30 – 693-8141
Ocean Grill – Luba – 6:00 – 9:00 – 693 3304
Shipwreck Landing – Jimmi Prime Time Smith – 5:00 – 8:00 – 693-564
Skinnylegs – Chris Carsel – 6:00 – 9:00 – 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

St. John Photo of the Day

Mario "Chin" Jackson with Musical Vibration at the St. John Arts Festival

St. John News

8 Tuff Miles Race Results

Live Music on St. John Monday, February 28

High Tide – Steven Sloan – 7:00 – 10:00 – 714-6169
La Tapa – Sambacombo – 6:30 – 9:30 – 693-7755
Maho Bay – Bo & Lauren – 8:00 – 10:00
Ocean Grill – Chris Carsel – 6:30 – 9:30 – 693 3304
Rhumb Lines – David Laabs – 7:00 – 10:00

A word of caution to my visitors: 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

Photo of the Day

St. John Virgin Islands National Park Beaches
Big Maho Bay

St. John News
The Cruz Bay Dinghy Dock has been repaired. From the blog, News of St. John, Frank Barnako reports:
St. John Dinghy Dock’s Done!

Live Music on St. John Today, Tuesday, February 8

Castaways – Steve & Friends – 7:30 – 777-3316
High Tide – T-Bird and Kenny – 7:00 – 10:00 – 714-6169
Island Blues – Bo & Lauren – 7:00 – 10:00 – 776-6800
Larry’s Landing – Classic Rock with John – 10:00 – 1:00 – 693-8802
Morgan’s Mango – Greg Kinslow – Classic, Contemporary & Jazz Guitar – “Lobster Night” – 7:00 – 10:00 – 693-8141
Shipwreck Landing – Chris Carsel – 7:00 – 10:00 – 693-5640
Weekly Music Schedule

Maho Bay

Want an easy shallow benign snorkel, then Maho Bay is a safe bet. It’s easy to get to, shallow, calm and although I wouldn’t classify it as spectacular, it’s just about guaranteed to be interesting. Snorkel the reef on the east or just snorkel over the grass just off the beach. The following photos were taken during the course of a fifteen minute easy snorkel.

Barracuda	Featherduster Worm	French Grunts
Queen Angelfish	Red Hind

I found a message on my cell phone today that arrived quite late for some unknown reason. It was from a friend in New York who mentioned having read my name in the New York Times and that surely I already knew about it. But, in fact, I didn’t. So I looked up the Times on the internet; checked it out and sure enough there I was:

From an article by By BENJI LANYADO, Published: December 6, 2009, Sunday Travel Edition
“…Guests here (Maho Bay Campground on Little Maho Bay, St. John US Virgin Islands) often compare notes on what they’ve done. Have you seen the glass-blowing room yet? Did you try a ceramics lesson? Or make jewelry in the workshop? But on our first day, we decided to do very little. Down on Little Maho Bay, reached by a cascade of steps from the camp’s main walkway, we watched as a beachcomber trotted up and down the sand, pecking at the tiny fish that washed up in the surf.

“Little Maho Bay, reached by a cascade of steps from the camp’s main walkway, we watched as a beachcomber trotted up and down the sand, pecking at the tiny fish that washed up in the surf.

“Lying stationary on sarongs pinned down with driftwood on a brochure-perfect strip of Caribbean beach, we couldn’t believe our luck. In a guidebook I purchased at the port, the excellent “St. John Off the Beaten Track” (Sombrero Publishing Company) by Gerald Singer, I read of another visitor who was equally captivated by the bay. Sailing past the beach on a sloop bound for Tortola in 1947, Ethel McCully, a secretary vacationing from New York City, leapt from the deck to swim to the “small, perfect beach backdropped by emerald green mountain valleys.”

“She eventually bought some land, which would abut the campground when it arrived three decades later, and built a small house primarily through the labor of six donkeys. She wrote a book about her experience, which was eventually published as “Grandma Raised the Roof” in 1954, after the publishers insisted that she change her original title from “I Did It With Donkeys.”… read NYT Maho Bay article

Dolphin at Maho Bay

Maho Dolphin entertains boaters at Maho Bay

Yesterday a pair of dolphins put on a show for boaters at moorings, kayakers and swimmers in the vicinity of Maho Bay. The pair cavorted around the spectators, blowing out air from their blowholes and bringing their tails, heads, and dorsal fins to the surface.

Getting good photos of these guys are not easy, especially without a telephoto lens and excellent timing, but I was able to capture two fairly decent shots of the dolphin surfacing while three girls, visitors from our neighboring island, Puerto Rico, swam after them as their mom followed in a kayak.

Maho Morning

Francis Bay

On Sunday mornings Chelsea O’Brien and I meet at Maho Bay for our weekly Sunday morning swim.

We’re doing a nice long swim. It used to be three miles, but we’re presently down to two and working our way up again.

Just about every Sunday morning we see the same St. John characters either here at Maho or running along the roadside; familiar exercise addicts like ourselves; serious runners and swimmers and bike riders; people like Miles Stair, Hank Slodden, Moe Chabuz and Pat Mahoney.

There’s no Sunday morning sleeping in for this crowd.

At sea, like on land, it’s the same story, we see the same  familiar characters, only here its fish and sea creatures instead of people.

There’s the one big turtle and the two little ones swimming over the seagrass in the middle of the bay, who I like to think of as the mama turtle and her two children.

There’s the schools of fry surrounded by jacks and Spanish mackerel in the shallow waters along the edge of the bay as we turn to swim towards the point between the two Mahos while pelicans await in the trees or circle above.

Green Turtle

When we reach the big rocks at the  point, you can bet that we’re going to see those same schools of yellow French grunts hovering above some submerged boulder.

Then nothing much as we pass by Little Maho and the beach at Francis  Bay, until we arrive at the northern end of the beach where the sand  gives way to the rocky shoreline and there’s that same big barracuda claiming his territory.

Sunday morning Maho with its familiar cast of characters. Check it out. We’ll all probably be there, at least for now, being as we are – creatures of habit.

Maho Bay

St. John Sunday Swim
Chelsea O’Brien and I have re instituted  our “St. John Sunday Morning Long Distance Swim.” Next week we’ll be at Maho Bay at 8:30 AM and the course will be from the Green Building on the west end of the beach along the Maho Bay shoreline to the end, then around the point to Little Maho and on to the northern extreme of Francis Bay and back. We believe the course is about a mile and half or maybe a little more. Today we were joined by Sam from Pond Bay. Anyone who wants to join us is welcome and can do as little or as much of the course as they want.

Sea Turtle

Maho Bay: The Place to Find Sea Turtles
On the first leg of the swim along the Maho Bay shoreline, we saw turtles, just like last week and the week before. And I mean lots of turtles, I counted twelve today. There are several small ones some medium sized and one big mama turtle. I believe she’s a mama because she has two little ones following after her most of the time. They are Green Sea Turtles and are most commonly are around the grassy areas just about ten yards off shore.

Anyway, I know a lot of visitors like to see turtles. If you do, Maho Bay is the place to find them know. You can’t miss. Just snorkel around the grassy areas around the middle of the beach and look around.

The Rocky Point Between Big and Little Maho
The large rocks around the point between the two Mahos are a good place to see fish, especially these large schools of bright yellow French Grunts. There’s also some nice sponges, sea fans and some coral.

Francis Bay

Francis Bay: An Active Hunting Ground
At the northern end of Francis Bay we are seeing a lot of activity. Fry of different sizes, some rather tiny, some sardine size and some larger sprat sized ones abound and all the usual suspects are ready for the feast. Lurking on the outskirts of the schools of fry are the predators, jacks, Spanish mackerel, barracudas and tarpons darting into the masses of fry while from the air pelicans swoop down grabbing mouthfuls of fish. None of these guys seem to pay any attention at all to the two big fish, Chelsea and I, swimming in the middle of all of this commotion.

Back to Maho
We return to Maho Bay good and tired after the swim. Feels good!

Strange Maho Bay Fauna
Sunday morning Maho Bay fauna almost always includes a sub species of human beings called physical fitness fanatics. Today, of course there were Sam, Chelsea and I and we saw Miles Stair taking a swim after his morning run. Last Saturday we bumbed into Hank Sloddin who does a cross country Sunday run starting at Maho, on to the Leinster Bay Trail, the Johnny Horn Trail over to Coral Bay and then up Kings Hill Road and back down to Maho. Talk about eight tough miles! Also last week we say Pat Mahoney, who was finishing up a twelve mile run. There’s always someone we know. Something about Maho Bay Sundays.

Yesterday was another spectacularly clear day, even more so than the day before. You could see as far as Vieques and Culebra in the west and St. Croix in the south. The horizon line was distinct, skies blue, hillsides green, clouds white and fluffy like its supposed to be. It was a day for photography. The following photos are images taken from some of the overlooks on the St. John roadways. Enjoy!

St. John Virgin Islands Overlooks

Caneel Bay Overlook	Cruz Bay	Coral Bay
Maho Bay Overlook	Margaret Hill	Trunk Bay