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Hi,
Just got back from St. John (Westin Timeshare Villas - May 21 - May 28) and wanted to give some of you snorkelers a summary of the places I snorkeled and some of the underwater wonders I was lucky enough to see. Below is as good of a summary I can remember now until I look at all my underwater pics. If you have any questions, email me at [email protected].
Cheers,
Steve
Day Date Beach Highlights
Sunday 21-May Arrived
Monday 22-May Leinster / Waterlemon (great spot) Starfish, Turtle, Stingray, Parrot Fish, Bluehead wrasse and many more.
Monday 22-May Francis Bay
Nurse Shark, Queen Angel, lobster, Parrotfish lots of beautfiful small fish, shallow reef
Tuesday 23-May Trunk Bay (go early, real nice) Thousands of feeder fish, Tarpon, 5 foot baracuda, stingray, turtle, gray angelfish, parrots and etc.
Tuesday 23-May Jumbie Bay (not my favorite)
Lots of nice coral, not a lot of fish.
Tuesday 23-May Honeymoon / Solomon Bay (10 minute hike) beautiful beach, turtle, stingray, crab, flounder school of blue tang and etc.
Wednesday 24-May Little Lameshure (Coral bay)
Conch, few fish….not great
Wednesday 24-May Salt Pond (great spot)
Eagle Ray, Stingray, squid, turtle, sanddollar, lots of fish.
Thursday 25-May Indians (charter)
awesome coral formation, crevices, small eel, big sanddiver, schools of tang, trumpet fish feeder fish, queen angel and lots of other fish.
Thursday 25-May Caves (charter)
Cool caves, 5 foot barracuda, jellyfish and small fish.
Thursday 25-May Carvel Rock (charter)
Turtle, Tarpon, schools of feeder fish, parrots, barracuda and etc.
Friday 26-May Hawksnest
not a great reef, shallow. Had great luck - squid, turtle with remora, lobster and lots of small fish like bluehead wrasse, grunts, fairy basslet.
Saturday 27-May Jost Van Dyke Trip (Cruz Bay) Lots of Parrots, octopus, barracuda, scrawled filefish, big sanddiver and lots of other nice fish. Can't remember snorkel spot, close to STJ.
Sunday 28-May Depart
Steve,
Thanks for the conscise overview of many of the great snorkling places in the VI's. In my opinion, this is one of the best overviews of St. John snorkeling I've seen.
Snorkeling never ceases to amaze me. Steve liked Salt Pond, and when I was there 9 months ago, it seemed as if Salt Pond was nothing but bleached coral. Also, I always count Jumbie and Little Lameshur as favorites, and Steve didn't seem to like them.
A bit of advice to anyone using this trip report. Remember that snorkeling is a completely individual experience that varies by the time of day, the weather, and the season. If you use Steve's list as an initial guide, you can't go wrong. However don't forget to do your own exploring, who knows, you might find something that Steve overlooked.
JFP
John,
I agree, snorkeling depends on the individual as well as the weather and the underwater life. For me, all the places were fun. Some better than others.
I put this summary together to help out our fellow snorkelers. I know before I left for my trip I was looking for a list and couldn't find a complete one.
Anyways.
Cheers,
Steve
Thanks Steve. We'll be there in two weeks snorkeling many of the same spots. One question... at Francis, did you snorkel all over or is there a specific area you would recommend?
You will have a great time, so many great snorkeling spots. We had a jeep so we went to as many as possible.
Francis was a very easy to snorkel relatively shallow reef (deeper in some areas), but was really nice for taking pictures. Lots of beautiful fish, queen angels, parrots, bluehead wrasse, look in the crevices (lobster) and I lucked out and saw a nurse shark swimming right towards me.
We snorkeled primarily the rocky north shore (left side of the beach when you are facing the ocean). We followed the rocky / coral area as far as it went. There are some deeper areas you can go as well to see maybe some larger fish (Tarpon). You can probably also test the middle of the beach which may have turtle grass, but I can't remember to look for Turtles / Rays.
If you have any other questions regarding snorkeling, restaurants and etc. send me an email at [email protected].
Have a great time. Steve
At Francis, I always enjoy sitting on the beach and watching for turtles to pop up for air in the center of the bay. Then I swim out and try to find them - this always works for me! We have also snorkeled along the right hand shoreline (when facing the ocean) with pretty good luck. Enjoy!
Thanks Steve and Tracy.
We usually rent our snorkel gear at Hurricane Alley, but this year we just decided to buy our own and schlep it down with us. Wish we had done that years ago, it would've saved us a lot of money on rentals during our last few trips.
We're doing Waterlemon for the first time and are very excited about that. I'll post a report when we get back.
Lisa in CT
If there is not much wind, head out to the East End of STJ and try Haulover North because just like Feet, Fins and 4WD says, there is “some super snorkeling here if it’s a calm day.” I suppose that would be due to choppy wave action that would be kicked up. Combine this with rocky urchin entry and some narrow entry spots in between lots of very shallow coral and it could be tricky if windy and choppy.
If you are heading out to east end anyway for lunch at Vies it is a very worthwhile snorkel. Nice coral not badly affected by the bleaching seen elsewhere.
Here are some photos I took there in April. It was a pretty calm day.
JMQ
I like chocolate hole for the most consistant sea life. But any place I can snorkle is fine with me
Those photos are gorgeous. Was it a disposable or do you have an underwater camera?
UW casing for Canon Powershot A80 digital.
At Francis Bay, I snorkled from the parking lot to the highway at Maho Bay. It was one of my favorite snorkles, so good that last year we did it 2 or 3 times during the 2 weeks I was there. You do snorkle through a sandy bay at Maho Campgrounds, but other than that, just stay next to the rocky shorline and you'll see turtles, tarpon, clouds of feeder fish, stingrays, and just about everything else.
JFP
