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TR Part II Salt Pond, Maho, shopping, & BVI daysail on White Wing.

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TR Part II Salt Pond, Maho, shopping, & BVI daysail on White Wing.

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 jmq
(@jmq)
Posts: 117
Estimable Member
Topic starter
 

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.

 
Posted : April 12, 2005 1:54 pm
 Deb
(@Deb)
Posts: 1
 

You have a great report and I can't believe you haven't gotten a response by now. It takes a lot of effort to make a detailed report. That's why I have not done one. Keep it coming.

 
Posted : April 13, 2005 7:06 pm
(@cincykid)
Posts: 1
 

JMQ- Curious to know what you did with your valuables since you had an open top Jeep. We are renting a Jeep and want to visit a lot of the beaches but not sure what to do with camera's,etc when we are in the water away from shore.

Great trip report, btw.

AJ

 
Posted : April 14, 2005 9:46 am
 jmq
(@jmq)
Posts: 117
Estimable Member
Topic starter
 

Not a big concern 96% of places you go.
Had one of those small waterproof boxes hung around my neck for keys, drivers license, and some cash and credit card, so leave wallet and pocketbook back in room. Can get these in various sizes on line or at a surf shop.
Had an AquaPac (google it if curious) for my digicam so had that with me in water also (didnt work too well for underwater picture taking but thats another story).
Others have suggested bury stuff in ziplock bag in sand, hang in bag from tree you can see from water, or ask friendly beach co-habitants to keep an eye on stuff while in water.

 
Posted : April 14, 2005 12:04 pm
(@nasus)
Posts: 4
New Member
 

cincykid-

Jeep Wranglers have a lockable box between the driver's and passenger's seats. There is plenty of room to put a camera, wallet. etc in it.

I speak from experience - my DH and I own 2 Wranglers and go topless all summer here 🙂

Susan

 
Posted : April 14, 2005 12:10 pm
 jmq
(@jmq)
Posts: 117
Estimable Member
Topic starter
 

Good one - I forgot about that.

 
Posted : April 14, 2005 1:16 pm
(@cincykid)
Posts: 1
 

Thanks guys. Had a jeep back in school (95). Forgot about that one. Thanks!

 
Posted : April 14, 2005 1:34 pm
(@InLoveWithStJohn)
Posts: 1
 

JMQ

We also booked a day trip on the White Wing. We are heading to JVD and we have the boat to ourselves. ANY advise?? We've never been on that boat. Where is the dock? We are staying in the Coral Bay area. Thanks.

 
Posted : April 14, 2005 1:59 pm
 jmq
(@jmq)
Posts: 117
Estimable Member
Topic starter
 

The "dock" is that hunk of concrete sticking out into water behind Skinnys where all the dingys are tied up. One of the dingys is for White Wing. Park anywhere in that area between Skinnys and the dock.

Climbing up over or sliding under the rear rail of the sailboat to get off and on White Wing and up from or down to the dingy or rear ladder not a problem for 95% of population, but something to consider for the very big, elderly or very shaky.

If you try to slide under, Clark will no doubt tell you the story of the woman who got her skimpy bottom caught on the cleat there and snapped it like a rubber band.

He seems flexible enuff to tailor the day and vibe to your tastes. He says he has had groups who are asking for drinks before they are finished motoring out of Coral and others who want the family thing (thats why we didnt stop at the Willy T, although it seemed pretty tame that day.)

As first timers, it was a true toss up for us between the JVD thing and the Indians/Caves trip. Glad we took his advice on conditions being best for the latter, but now I really want to hear back from you on the JVD trip.

 
Posted : April 14, 2005 2:32 pm
(@InLoveWithStJohn)
Posts: 1
 

Thanks for the Heads-up. I chose the JVD trip because the Indians seemed TOO far. My faince does not have "sea legs" even though we live at the Jersey shore and are on the water often in the summer. I'm glad to hear you had a great time....I'm looking forward to our trip.

 
Posted : April 15, 2005 6:31 am
 jmq
(@jmq)
Posts: 117
Estimable Member
Topic starter
 

Regarding the "sea legs" concerns, the only time on White Wing that you really feel it is when you go down and use the head and cant see the water. Don't close both doors (you'll know what I mean when you see it) and/or wait til you approach harbor if you are really susceptible to the motion thing.

Actually, I believe the JVD trip may be similar overall sail time as the Indians (?) Pull up a map and check it out.

Would appreciate any input on on this from actual boaters or sailors out there - I am only guessing here (or better yet, give Clark a call in the evening).

Our Indians/Caves trip went from Coral Bay to Roadtown, then straight across to Indians and Caves, then he sort of circled wide to the south on the way back looking out for whales, but that could be cut short with a straight shot back.

The waters in Drakes Passage in between Tortola and Norman Island are famous for their excellent sailing because they are sort of protected by the islands on the north and south.

Now look at what it takes to do JVD - out of Coral Bay, then sort of north/northwest to probably do customs check in at Westend of Tortola instead of Roadtown, continue around Tortola to JVD.

Depending on wind/swells that day, conditions could differ as you round Tortola, altough then it is only a very short hop up to JVD.

And actually, you may WANT a little action on the water and/or favorable tides to do that hike out to the Bubbly Pool, which seems like it would be a hoot.

Clark actually said that conditions were good for a sail to the Baths on the day we went, but that is a long hike for a sailboat and I thought the crowds would be significant there being it was Easter break time.

Having the boat to yourselves in real nice - with a full "six pack" on board there would be more climbing over people to move about.

 
Posted : April 15, 2005 9:04 am
(@InLoveWithStJohn)
Posts: 1
 

Thanks again...I really appreciate all the info. I'm loving this board!

 
Posted : April 15, 2005 11:58 am

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