Day 6: Thursday, June 11 - St. John!

I had been looking forward to our St. John day all week.  The only thing that made me a bit sad about it is that 3/4 of the island is National Park, which means Adam cannot detect those beaches.  But he was genuinely okay with not detecting for the day and was looking forward to the snorkeling, hiking, shopping and spending the day with me.  I had a lot I wanted to pack in to the day, so got up for the earliest car ferry (6:15, but were told to get there at least 20 mins early), and left on the last car ferry (7pm).  The ferry didn't really leave on time, but I'm glad we had time to spare and got on it without a problem.  I had never been on a car ferry before, so that was kinda cool.  It's a short 20-30 minute trip over, with great shots of the sailboats, harbors and islands on the way.  Actually, it was really cool to look back at St. Thomas as we passed right by our resort.  We could literally pick out our balcony!

The morning was a bit overcast with some misty sprinkles off and on, which had me down in the beginning.  I was looking forward to the snorkeling and the sun makes a big difference as the vibrancy of the colors underwater, plus more fish are out when it's sunny.  Upon arriving in Cruz Bay (the main town on St. John), we realized we were on E and needed a gas station fast!  The roads in Cruz Bay are rather maze-like and we must have went through the same intersection a dozen times and asked directions from a couple people before finding only one of two gas stations on the entire island!  (One on the west end and one on the east end!)  After that, we headed over to the National Park Welcome Center, found some parking and... it was closed.  Grrr.  Didn't open until 8am.  So we looked for a trail I wanted to hike that was supposed to start somewhere behind the Welcome Center.  But behind the center was... the bay. Eh? After wandering a bit, a worker helped us by pointing out the rather hidden sign by a trailhead behind the parking lot that basically went straight up the cliff!  By this point, it was 10 til 8, and a woman was there to open the Center.  I begged for an outlet to plug my camera battery in (can't believe I forgot the night before!), and she reiterated that indeed that was the trailhead we were looking for.  So off we went.  After that initial climb, it actually was a pretty easy hike up to a very pretty overlook with great views of Cruz Bay and St. Thomas in the other direction.

After our hike (and reclaiming my camera battery!) we took off on Route 20, the main road the beaches are on, and stopped at every scenic overlook we came to.  Great pullouts for stunning views of the picturesque bays on St. John.  Being in the Park, it was more natural than St. Thomas, untouched beauty.  Aquamarine waters in a myriad of blue and green hues, sandy palm-lined beaches, yet with green mountain and brown cliffs in the backdrop.  Postcard views. Travel magazine glossies.  Gorgeous.

We found our way to Trunk Bay, the most famous beach on St. John.  Truly a beautiful beach. The prized possession of Trunk Bay is the underwater snorkel trail, which I had been looking forward to.  There is a little island right off the beach, and to the left is a buoy marking the start of the trail. Underwater plaques contained information on coral and sea life, different fish we were seeing and the ecosystem in general.  Pretty cool, but for some reason I was disappointed in it.  I don't know why really... thought it would be longer... more detailed... more signs... better coral and reef life there?  Not sure.  But we continued around the island after the trail ended, and the snorkeling definitely got better.  The backside, and deepest side had the best snorkeling, with great coral formations, lots of color and schools of fish.  As good as Coki on St. Thomas.  The sun finally began breaking through the overcast skies and it was crazy to see the colors come to life as they were touched by the sun's rays!

We finished up our snorkel, took some pix on the beach, then headed back out on Route 20 for what was to be THE HIGHLIGHT of the trip – Waterlemon Cay and Leinster Bay!  I had done quite a bit of reading online - trip reviews, tips, recommendations, etc. - and Waterlemon Cay is a less-traveled snorkel site, but by all reviews, a killer knock-out punch for snorkeling!  The reason it's not as visited is because you first have to hike to get to Leinster Bay, then swim to get out to Waterlemon Cay to snorkel around the island.  We parked at the end of the designated road, then started the hike.  It wasn't bad at all!  It was about a mile, maybe a tad over, but on a clean (albeit rocky), well-marked path that wound around the edge of the bay, giving us a pretty view of Leinster Bay as we walked along it.  A little over halfway through, we came to the sandy beach, and saw the wild donkeys (yes, Adam, donkeys LOL!) sitting in the shade along the edge of the beach.  I of course had to stop for pictures. Adam and his donkeys. Anyway, the path then split, and I thought we were to go right, but it went uphill away from the bay, so we backtracked and went left, which was correct.  The hike took us all the way around the bay to be just across from the point of the island - the shortest swimming distance to it.  Some people swim to the island from the beach, which is probably 3x that distance.  I could do it, as I'm a pretty good swimmer, but I think Adam would have gotten tired if we had gone from the beach.  The point we came to was very rocky, but there were other people there, so we kept all our bags together, got our snorkel gear on and got in the water... and entered underwater paradise.

This was just too amazing for words. Seriously. I've never snorkeled anything like it. Imagine the most beautiful, colorful underwater pictures in a glossy coffee table book. Multiply that, magnify it and encircle yourself in it, swimming through it... that's what it's like and more. Amazing technicolor corals and sea fans and plant life. Huge, massive schools of silver fish so thick you literally can't see in front of you. Giant schools of "dory" (Finding Nemo) fish, parrot fish, yellowtail snapper, more varieties of fish than I can name. And the best part for me... something I've never done... sea turtles everywhere! On this day I only saw one, but (spilling the beans here) on our second trip I saw several. I swam alongside it, and noticed it had a gimpy left front fin. For some reason, that made me like him more.  I talked to a guy in the Park store later and he said several people have seen him out there and he's not a tagged turtle so he has survived without assistance and may have been attacked as an infant.  Made me happy he was my first sea turtle I snorkeled with.  We also saw an octopus! He was so cool! And barracuda, tarpon, snapper, it's all there. We spent a couple hours in the water. I absolutely could have sat there happy as a clam all day, I am so madly in love with this place.  Leinster Bay itself was supposed to have starfish beds lining it, and lots of turtles and rays and more coral formations.  But on this day I didn't have time to do the Bay, but Waterlemon Cay had me deliriously happy!

After hiking back to the car, we took just the camera and walked over to the Sugar Mill ruins. This was a cool historical site with the ruins of the windmill and processing plant and some other buildings.  It was neat to see that they had built them out of coral as well as stone - you could see the patterns of brain coral and such.  Since it was up on a hillside, we were rewarded with beautiful views of  the British Virgin Islands. The ruins were cool, up the Adam's historical-minded alley, and I got photo-happy! I love the bright orange flowering trees that were all over the islands, so I took pictures of those, as well as some other flowers and plant life, and of course the interesting shapes and textures of the ruins. 

After this, we drove the island for about an hour, taking lots of pictures, then wound up back in Cruz Bay with a few hours left to shop and eat. We enjoyed Mongoose Junction, (did I mention we saw mangoose on St. John?!), a shopping center with a maze-like multi-level layout. There were some good art galleries  and I bought a turtle photo from Waterlemon at the Friends of the Park store. We bought a few other souvenirs as well, then went in search of food. Cruz Bay is a nightlife hotspot, so most restaurants on don't serve dinner until 6 or 7. If you're leaving on the 7pm car ferry, that's not very helpful! But we found High Tide over next to the people ferry dock (different dock than the car ferry) that started dinner at 5. Adam got a hamburger, I got jerk chicken and the best Miami Vice I had anywhere (perfect texture, no ice chunks!), and great conch fritters.  We had a bit of time left to shop a little more in Wharfside Village, right next to the ferry dock, then get in the car and drive back to the car ferry.

I just kept raving about Waterlemon and how much I loved it, how I wanted to see the starfish and more turtles... and Adam kept saying, well, let's go back.  But I felt so bad taking more of his detecting time away, so I kept saying no.  At this point, we didn't plan to go back, and I fell asleep that night with visions of purple sea fans and turtles swimming in my head.  The best day yet!