As an occasional poster and reader of this forum, I thought I’d post some information on our most recent trip to STJ May 19-31. Our last trip to STJ had been in 2005.

We flew Delta through Atlanta and were on the later flight so we didn’t make it to STJ by 5:00 p.m. Though the plane was early, the baggage seemed to take forever. Not to worry, the rum punch was cold and refreshing. After we asked, the taxi drivers were kind enough to put a group of us together for a straight drive over to Red Hook. We prefer the downtown CA ferry, but we didn’t want to wait and opted for the longer taxi ride.

Rented Jeep Liberty (7,000 miles on it with good tires) from Spencer’s—it got good fuel mileage compared to the Cherokees of previous years. Although we got in late, Spencer’s came through and had it waiting for us.

Exhausted, starving from a long travel day, and feeling lazy, we got in the Jeep and headed to Coral Bay to get dinner. We topped off the fuel in the Jeep at the gas station in Coral Bay. The attendant sold us his “2000 Miles from Nowhere” CD. Great island music! Just ask for it at the Coral Bay gas station. Then, on to Island Blues for sustenance. We were happy that Ken was still there making his awesome bushwackers—a tasty potent drink that’s a lot like a chocolate milkshake. Island Blues has great food and a view. It’s our favorite hangout. If you don’t drink alcohol and are thirsty, ask for “swampwater”. It is a mix of iced tea & lemonade and is very refreshing. Island Blues is a good place to visit with local residents.

We stopped by Love City Mini Market to pick up some items, and then headed towards East End. On the way, we saw a deer and the donkeys. Arrived at the villa, unpacked, and crashed. We bring many of our provisions with us in soft-sided collapsible coolers that we put inside our suitcases--steaks, salmon, etc.

The days become a blur of snorkeling, diving, stopping for lunch and midday beverages. Every a.m., I’d have a bowl of fresh mango, papaya, bananas, and OJ. The tropical fruit is so fresh and tasty. It’s like the difference between homegrown tomatoes and store tomatoes. We can’t get good, fresh tropical fruits at home.

The island was as lush and green as we have ever seen it. Because of all of the rain and lack of trade winds, the bugs were especially fierce.

Our favorite Coral Bay area dining spots—in no particular order--are Miss Lucy’s, Shipwreck, and Island Blues. For local cuisine, we love Julettia’s rotis at Sputniks (Wed. & Friday only) & Jewel’s Kitchen in an old bread truck. Jewel’s pates are the best! Jewel was only open 2 of the 12 days we were on island. There was also a guy selling food by Jewel’s some days. Look for where the local islanders are gathered about 11:00 buying their lunches and you can usually get some excellent West Indian food. We did try Sweet Plantains one evening. Many people rave about it—we did not care for the food. Skinny’s is still serving up burgers, but Jean has retired and they got rid of the ice cream freezer.

The “mall” in Coral Bay was under construction on our last trip. Lilly’s Gourmet Market has a good selection and we bought a few items from them. Love City is less expensive, but their selection isn’t as good. If you drive down the road past Love City Mini Market, about ½ mile down the gravel, you will find Coral Bay Garden Center on your left. Josephine grows fresh greens and sells them by the bag, including micro greens. She sometimes has home grown tomatoes. We bought several bags of fresh salad greens during our stay. Her greens are also sold in most of the grocery stores on STJ. She’s usually open Tue-Sun daytime hours. The mixed salad greens were fresh & delicious.

After years of doing intro dives with Colette of SixPaq Scuba, we finally decided to become certified open water divers. So, we spent much of this trip studying and doing bookwork and less time hanging out drinking our favorite adult beverages. (For those of you that do want to try diving, you can take an intro at most any of the scuba diving facilities, and usually dive with them the remainder of your stay without being certified.) We opted to do our entire open water diving certification process on STJ in the beautiful water. Many choose the certification diving option of doing bookwork and basic skills at home in a swimming pool or a quarry and finish certification with a few open water dives on a referral basis. There were several divers competing their open water certifications with Colette during our stay.

Our big day was renting the SixPaq Scuba boat for a sightseeing day (no diving) with Colette and heading over to Virgin Gorda for the day. The ocean was unreal during our stay. It was almost as flat as glass, and even the Atlantic only had about 2’ swells. Most of the sailboats had to use their motors. We made fast time over to VG and went around the south side to check out a South Sound Villa. It was better than the pictures. We’d made previous arrangements with the owners and they were kind enough to give us a tour. It’s on our list for a future trip. In hindsight, we should have gone completely around VG with such calm water. We stopped to admire the Baths and learned that they are so named because that was where the slave traders first stopped after leaving Africa to give their cargo a bath--not a very appealing history for such a pretty spot. The Baths are strewn with large round boulders. We took a few pictures and headed back towards STJ, stopping at a couple of islands along the way for a drink. We also made a quick stop to snorkel the Rhone. You have to be back at Cruz Bay to clear US Customs by 4:30 p.m. (Warning: Watch out for Captain Nautica yellow rubber boat from St. Thomas if you rent a boat and are trying to get back into Cruz Bay to clear Customs. The captain drives crazy and will ram your boat if he thinks you’re heading for the Customs dock. He passed several boats and almost capsized us when we were returning to the Nat’l Park Dock.)

There are several boats that do day trips to the Baths on VG and other BVI islands. All individuals on them seemed to be having a good time. All of them do pickups on STJ at the National Park Dock most mornings. You do need to book them at least a day ahead of time.

Our other adventure was going out with Nina on Serena Sea. She took us over to snorkel Flanagan (USVI-east of STJ—close to Indians, but you don’t have to hassle with Customs) and to the Mangroves of Hurricane Hole. We love the colors in the mangroves and all of the small fish. If you love to snorkel, and are good at snorkeling in shallow water (3’ or so), you’d love the mangroves. We saw the biggest starfish we’d ever seen—it must have been 18”. Go in the a.m.—the light is better. The Serena Sea is a spectacular old wooden picnic yacht with diesel engine. Not fast, but beautiful with good shade and head. Another option to see the mangroves would be to rent a dingy from Crabby’s and do it yourself.

Snorkeling all over the island was excellent during our stay because of the calm seas. We saw all of the usual beautiful hard & soft corals, brightly colored fish, and we saw our first black finned reef shark—about 6’ long on the north side of the island on the East End. It was neat! The corals are looking better than they did a couple of years ago. We saw only a few turtles during our stay.

Captain Phil of Wayward Sailor taught us how to snorkel on our first trip. Well worth it if you really want to learn how to snorkel.

If there is something you want to do or schedule on STJ, call or stop by “Connections”. There is one in Cruz Bay and one in Coral Bay. They can arrange all kinds of activities for you during your stay.

The hiking trails in the Nat’l Park are excellent. Just remember to take plenty of water and bug spray. This trip we didn’t do much hiking.

For villas, contact one of the island agencies listed on accommodations above. Or, contact Terry Witham or Marie Naisby. Both are listed in the VI phone book. Terry & Marie both live on island, are caretakers as well as own villas.

The island is changing and while some might call it progress, it seems frightening. It’s getting too pricey for island families to afford housing or for kids to come live on for a few months while seeing the world. It’s just not the same laid back pleasant place it was before all of the high dollar construction. We saw a lawn sprinkler service truck on STJ. There’s not enough water for people to drink. When will the madness stop?

Please, no need to respond to my grumblings. We love STJ and just want it to be the same as it was on our first trip. Much of the old island charm that we fell in love with is disappearing at a rapid pace.

Thankfully, most of the island is National Park, so they’ll only be able to concrete 1/3 of the island. Peace!