Long trip report...

Tuesday we decide to go out to Salt Pond and work our way back to Estate Lindholm. Stop at Maho on the way out to look around as it is pretty stunning in the morning light. See photo link at end of report.

Enjoy views of Coral Bay on the ride out and then the views riding down 107 towards Salt Pond. Parking already a little tight and the advice posted on the boards and on the signs there about leaving valuables in the vehicle seem appropriate based on observations made when leaving and upon return.

The hike down and later back up is not too bad but could be somewhat of a challenge if you are significantly out of shape and/or as the signs say outside of some coasters and the Mummy ride at Universal, it might not be appropriate for “persons of certain dimensions”.

We get down to the beach and settle in for some limin and snorkeling time. Groups are sprinkled every 15 or 20 yards or so along the beach, which isn’t crowded in my book.

Ease and quality of snorkeling is very good to our newbie eyes. If (more like when) we go back to St. John we’ll have to hump over to Blue Cobblestone to check that snorkeling out.

Head up to Miss Lucy’s for lunch. Great view right on water for lunch, good food and drinks too. We had conch fritters, jerk chicken sandwich, and my daughter had a surprisingly good hot dog with cheese. Had to shoo those cute but pesky goats away, but that’s part of the charm.

Stop and settle down to relax at Maho for a while before heading back and enjoying another beautiful sunset from our room at Estate Lindholm. Head into Cruz Bay for some shopping and to eat at any of the places we’ve read good reviews on.

My wife is not big into jewelry and doesn’t want stuff that will sit in a box (thank you Lord). When she buys it, she wears it to death so has to look good and be durable. We stop in Palm Jewelers. They had some items that caught her eye. I had seen the Caribbean bracelets on line before we came down and was unimpressed, but even I had to admit some of the bracelets they had were very nice and looked to be of very high quality.

She winds up getting a beautiful gold hook bracelet. It cost more than she had in mind, but when you factor in what the price of gold has done in the past year or so, it was not unreasonable.

We had some trepidation about pulling the trigger on something like this without more shopping to make sure we were getting a good deal, especially since we were going to St. Thomas in a few days.

Wound up many of the jewelry stores in St. Thomas had a lot of gaudy stuff and maybe we could’ve gotten something of similar quality for a little less, but we think it would’ve taken a lot of searching to find the quality that is featured at Palm and to get the same comfort level we got with Palm.

Besides, there is the sentimental side to seeing something on your wrist everyday that you bought on a beautiful evening in St. John vs. haggling with some salesperson in a crowded jewelry store in St. Thomas (no offense).

This is not meant to diss St. Thomas. Au contraire. You sometimes see comments (especially on the USVI board) that totally dismisses STT “unless you are into shopping” giving the impression that St. Thomas is a dump and the shopping would be all cheesy and only worthy of brain dead cruise people.

We shopped there later in the week in the historic section of Charlotte Amalie. A lot of the shops are actually very nice, good variety, some interesting architecture and people watching. Yes there are some other stores where you would have the combination of the hard sell/haggle thing going on - whatever floats your boat. Just don’t dismiss it out of hand like we almost did because of stuff we’ve read on some of these boards.

In my newbie opinion, it would make for an enjoyable half day to go into town for shopping in the morning and have a late lunch and drinks at some pretty place like Amici’s near AH Riise that has been recommended on the this board by Marty and others. Providing of course that there aren’t 5 cruise ships in port on that day. We had 2 and it was fine.

Again, I digress and opinionate too much. Pretty late after the St. John shopping, so we go to Fish Trap for great Mahi sandwiches, salad with shrimp, and really good chocolate cake desert special. Deserts are made daily and all sound wonderful so save room. Rest of the menu looks like a good value, relatively speaking, and have seen many others extol its virtues. Would definitely go again.

Wednesday is the highly anticipated daysail on White Wing out of Coral Bay. Major props to Deb on the this board for her enthusiastic recommendations on this one. She said that over the years she has day tripped with all of the usual suspects, but found her last trip with Capt. Clark to be just wonderful. We heartily concur.

On the early morning ride down into Coral Bay to meet White Wing is the only time I get bullied on the road by a VITRAN bus that fills up my rear view mirror. OK. I don’t like tailgaters – got enough of them at home in NJ. But by now I’m feeling pretty comfortable in the Wrangler so I say bring it and just concentrate on going into and coming out of the apex of the curves a little more sharply. Soon enough he sees that if he keeps on my bumper now, he’ll flip. He backs off.

We had the boat to ourselves because we had scheduled to do the Jost, Foxys Taboo (his newer joint on the east side near Diamond Cay), Bubbly Pool, and Sandy Spit trip, and for some reason, Clark doesn’t get many takers on that route. But after much deliberation with Clark as we motored out of Coral, we wound up doing the Roadtown, Indians, and Caves trip (which was actually the first choice we made a few months ago before we switched to Jost).

This was based on what he said would make for the best sail and snorkel that day based on the weather, waves, tides, etc. and we were flexible enough to go with it.

And he was right. After a 45 min. stop in Roadtown where we shopped while he did customs (my daughter and wife got to steer the boat on the way over – a huge kick), we snorkeled the Indians and the Caves, swung through the harbor on Norman Island around the Willy T., and took the scenic route back to Coral Bay through an area where whales are known to frequent (didn’t see any) and got back as evening fell. (We met Clark in Cruz Bay next day to check back into customs)

The sailing was wonderful. The White Wing is a clean, swift boat. And man, can he handle that boat – fun to watch. Clark makes good drinks and sandwiches, plays good music, and is interesting to talk to – turns out he grew up in New Jersey and learned to sail and fish here.

And the snorkeling - as we say here in Jersey, fugettaboutit. My daughter exclaimed that she thought the snorkeling was good at Salt Pond the day before, but this “blew it away” (apparently she is already an expert). Depth reader on boat said forty feet and you could see clear down to bottom. Fascinating variety of rock formations and coral at the Indians, more fish at the Caves.

Back on shore in the dark, we are deciding between Island Blues and Shipwreck Landing for dinner. Island Blues had given us a maybe better for lunch kind of vibe so went with Shipwreck. Very cool. Had good live music, with various patrons feeling no pain dancing or even singing with the band. Great blackened snapper, Mahi, and some of the best fish and chips I’ve tasted (go figure) for my daughter. Good bang for buck here.

Also had a blackout while waiting for food (band too loud? Maybe the guitar was turned up to 11). Caused much merriment in and around the bar. The speed with which the generator was fired up restoring power to restaurant gives the impression that this is not an infrequent occurrence.

We have to slow down for our first STJ donkeys on the drive back to Estate Lindholm. All in all, a pretty fantastic day.

Photo link:

http://flickr.com/photos/33027254@N00/

Next part: the crowds descend upon us at Trunk and “it’s just a flesh wound” at Waterlemon.