This Earl character is giving me a tropical depression.
Presently a Tropical Storm, he’s forecast to become a Cat-1 hurricane later today.
Well it’s that time of year folks. St. John as well as the rest of the US and British Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico are officially under a Hurricane Watch, meaning that “Hurricane conditions are possible within the next 36 hours.”
Yuck, yuck and more yuck. There’s so much to be done and I feel like Maynard G. Krebbs … “WORK!” And I’d rather go snorkeling.
It was such a nice week so far, calm seas, perfect weather. But in the words of my friend from Jost Van Dyke, Foxy Callwood, “such is life.”
It’s still early though, and a sharp northward turn would be nice.
Both the fruit and the paddles of this commonly found St. John cactus are edible.
Nopales or nopalitos are the grilled paddles of the cactus. The fruit is also edible, but you have to be sure and get rid of all the spines.
A friend of mine, the Ghost, told me that he knew how to eat the fruit without peeling it first. He ended up with a tongue full of cactus spines and spent the next half hour plucking them out. I know you shouldn’t be laughing at the misfortunes of others, but I couldn’t control my laughter.
A St. John Waterfall
July is said to be one of the driest month on St. John, but not this year.
There has been so much rain this week that the there was a beautiful waterfall which could be easily seen right where the gut crosses the North Shore Road just east of Cinnamon Bay. Check out the video below.
When visitors come to St. John, they are ultimately expecting to take part in activities such as swimming, snorkeling, beaching and hiking. During these periods of prolonged and heavy rains with thunderstorms, however, the conditions for these activities are poor, to say the least.
For today’s rainy day blog, I’ve put together a list of activities to do in the rain. If anyone can think of more to add to the list, please let me know.
Things to do on a rainy day on St. John
1) Health and Fitness
There are several spas on the island where you can get massages and facials and manicures and pedicures – might be a good time to check it out.
Work out at the gym “Hardware Abs” at the St. John Marketplace
2) Watch a movies
Video rentals are available at Kaleidoscope at the St. John Marketplace
5) Shopping
There’s plenty of shops to browse and good stuff to spend your money on in both Cruz Bay and Coral Bay.
6) Kids of all ages
The game room at the Westin Resort
7) Culture and Educational
Check out some of the art galleries on the island
Bars
We have plenty of bars on St. John. Drink up, play pool, play darts people watch or watch the rain fall
9) Try your Luck
Check out some of St. John’s new casinos
10) Do Something Productive
Residents of St. John, who’s day off is a rainy one, might want to use that day to do something productive, clean the house, do a laundry, deal with the bureaucracy or take care of paperwork
St. John Virgin Islands: Lets talk about the weather…
I suspected that all this unsettled weather would evolve into something. In meteorologist speak it’s called Invest 97, which means that “this area of disturbed weather has the potential for tropical development.”
It’s been a rainy and cloudy weekend on St. John. Squall after squall with an occasional thunderstorms along with some unusually strong winds.
Today, however, there’s some sunshine peaking through and it looks like a decent day for swimming and snorkeling.
Scratch that!
Right now (2:00 pm Sunday July 18) there’s a monster thunder squall happening. I could see it coming out at sea in the east; the dark line of clouds, the sea boiling with white caps, (“sheep’s in the meadow,” say the old timers) and then the leading edge of the squall with violent blasts of wind and then the storm arrives with wind-driven rain so hard that it’s coming right in the house under the sliding doors. I had to line the bottom of the doors with towels so the whole place wouldn’t be flooded.
The cistern’s overflowing.
Lucky thing. There will be plenty of water to wash all those towels!
Green Turtle, Leinster Bay, St. John US Virgin Islands
When you look at a green turtle swimming about, one of the first things you may notice is that they are not green, but rather brownish in color. Their name comes from the green color of the layer of fat lying under their shells. Green turtles can get quite large, the biggest one ever found had a shell five feet long and weighed 871 pounds. Unlike many other species of turtles, green turtles cannot pull their heads back into their shells. Adult sea turtles are vegetarians eating mostly sea grass and algae, but the babies will eat small crabs, sponges and jellyfish. They mate in shallow water near the beach every two to four years and using their flippers, they dig a hole in the sand, where they lay their eggs. They then cover up the eggs with sand and return to the sea. When the eggs hatch the babies make the short but dangerous trip back to the sea. Those that survive the onslaught of predators like seagulls and crabs may live to be 100 years old.
Sunset from the overlook on north face of Caneel Hill
Viewing Tower at Caneel hill Summit
I usually don’t like the way photos come out on days when the Sahara dust makes the sky gray instead of blue and obscures the contrast between the white clouds and the background sky. Nonetheless, I brought my camera with me on a late afternoon hike up the Caneel Hill Trail.
I began the hike at the Caneel Hill Spur Trail to save a little uphill work and because it was getting late.
With all the rain we’ve had lately, St. John is as green as can be, but walking on the trail, I was still amazed at how much the bush had grown. The Guinea grass, in particular, had sprouted up to a height of more than three feet almost obscuring the trail in some areas; very lush and very beautiful.
Sunset from the overlook on the North Face of the Caneel Hill Trail
I arrived at the summit of Caneel Hill in less than a half an hour and shot some photos from the viewing tower, none of which amounted to anything worth saving. Returning down the trail, I stopped at the overlook a hundred yards or so down from the hilltop, where there’s a wooden bench and a north view comparable, if not even better, to the view from the tower, especially now that the overlook was cleared thanks to Jeff Cabot and his volunteer trail crew.
From this new angle I could get a clear shot of the horizon and as the sun sank lower I could see that even the Sahara dust was working in my favor, filling the late afternoon St. John sky some beautiful shades of red, yellow and orange.
When I returned home, I was happy to find some pretty nice sunset shots worthy of being shared with those who didn’t happen to be at the north face overlook just shy of the summit of Caneel Hill on the Caribbean island of St. John in the United States Virgin Islands, at sunset which included every single human being on the planet Earth … except for me.
Snorkeling Salt Pond Bay, St John US Virgin Islands (USVI)
The latest edition of St. John Off the Beaten Track includes a section called “Favorite Snorkels.” The Salt Pond Bay Snorkel, which I’ll discuss in today’s blog was not included, but it really should have been.
The reef that I snorkeled was around the big rocks that you see at the mouth of the bay. (See the Google Maps satellite image below)
This is an excellent snorkel experience involving a coral reef, surrounding several large boulders some of which extend past the surface and a healthy seagrass bed on the periphery.
Salt Pond Bay Snorkel
Blue Tang (Acanthurus coeruleus)
Pillar Coral (Dendrogyra cylindrus)
Yellowhead Wrasse at Salt Pond Bay Coral Reef
Sea Fan (Gorgonia ventalina)
Coral Reef Sponges
Caribbean Reef Squid (Sepioteuthis sepioidea)
Longspine Squirrelfish (Holocentrus rufus)
Google Maps Satellite Image of snorkel area
Video of squid swimming on the periphery of the reef
Atlantic Tarpon, Megalops atlanticus
These big silvery fish with what look like stainless steel scales and an overbite are generally five to eight feet long and weigh between 80 and 150 pounds. They are found throughout the Caribbean, the Bahamas and the Atlantic coat of the United States south of Virginia and can survive in estuaries, lagoons and rivers as well as in the ocean.
Although their bony meat leaves them undesirable as a food fish, their renowned fighting spirit makes them a favorite of sport fishermen.
Bars
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