Day 2 - Jumbie

Like I said before, the worst thing about going to the Caribbean is the 12 hour redeye flight that it takes to get from Seattle to Charlotte Amalie. To deal with the jet lag, on the first day, we had planned on finding a Northshore beach that allowed people to choose between lying on a beautiful beach or snorkeling, based upon how much energy they had.

So I get out of bed at 9:00 am and get lunch prepared and packed and ready to head to the beach. Then I wait for the rest of my party to wake up. Well, jet lag got the better of me, and I fell asleep on the couch and we didn’t leave the house until about 12:30. (Hey, this is the Caribbean and we quickly slipped into Island Time and limin’.)

We get to the Jumbie parking lot and it is full. Fortunately, there was a wide part in the road where we were able to park. We walk down the trail and voila, there it is, - tropical paradise. Jumbie is one my favorite beaches and a favorite snorkel.

It has been blowing hard all day, probably in the 18 – 25 mph range and it’s a bit wavy in Jumbie Bay. This is where the snorkel vests came in really handy. You could’ve snorkeled without the vests, but in the waves the little bit of additional buoyancy made you feel more secure.

Snorkling Tip 1: Jumbie is a great snorkel with some of best coral formations on the island, but you’re going to have to work to find the snorkeling. I’ve watched people head straight out from the shore for 5 minutes, turn around and come back to the beach only to declare, “there’s nothing there.” That’s not snorkeling, that’s a quick swim.

Snorkling Tip 2: Snorkel the sides of the bays where there are rocks and coral. Very few fish inhabit the sandy bottom that is in the middle of most bays.

My son and I snorkeled down the right side of the bay on the reef that separates Jumbie from Trunk. The reef is pretty shallow in places, but there are times that you can cross from Jumbie to Trunk (my wife and my daughter did). I wouldn’t try crossing the reef when there are breaking waves rolling across the reef from the Johnson’s Reef area. There’s just too much chance of getting dropped on the coral.

My son and I snorkeled all the way out to the red nun buoy that marks the dingy channel into the beach, and then retraced the reef back into shore. We saw all sorts of interesting fish and coral formations. For my son’s second snorkel, this was a really great place to go. This was the first time he got to snorkel through a cloud of minnows. If you get a chance to snorkel through the minnows – do it. You feel like Moses parting the minnows, because as you swim through them, the cloud parts to let you through.

Snorkling Tip 2: You snorkel in a very dynamic environment with fish that are constantly moving and conditions that change with tide, current and light. I try to snorkel a wall two directions, both out from the beach and then back to the beach. Try this, you’ll be amazed at how much things change just by the fact that you’re changing directions.

Next we snorkeled the left side of the bay. You sort of snorkel around the reef and out past the green channel marker. This side is always awesome. The coral here is still in good shape and you can see some really neat coral formations. The further away from the beach you get, the bigger the fish get. We snorkled out to where it started to get about 25 feet deep. On this day, there was so much wave action out that far that it made the snorkeling more difficult, so we decided to turn around.

I would say that we snorkeled for about 3 hours.

On the way back to the villa, we stopped by Maho for last hour of sunlight. Because Maho is on the Northshore Road, it seems like it should be facing north, but it doesn’t. Maho (and Francis) run more North/South and therefore face west. This makes it a pretty decent place to watch the sunset. So we floated in the shallows of the bay and watched a beautiful sunset. This is paradise!

On the way home, we had to avoid the land crabs on the road to Coral Bay. Somehow, nature didn’t equip land crabs with the ability to deal with oncoming cars. The crabs idea of how to deal with the oncoming car is to face it and get in a really menacing position with the pinchers open. SPLAT!!! (Actually, we never hit one.)

When we get home, there’s a message on our answering machine, “your luggage will be at the passenger dock in Cruz Bay.” We breathe a sigh of relief. My daughter’s clothes have arrived and the apocalypse has been averted. So we finish day off with a wonderful 1 ½ hour round trip drive to Cruz Bay to pick up my daughters luggage.