December 2021 - U.S. Virgin Islands
Part two of our excellent sailing trip to the Virgin Islands. In part one (right here) we sailed over and explored the north coast of St. John. In the sequel here, we sailed around the east end of St. John to explore new places we hadn't made it to in our earlier trip. We spent a night in Salt Pond Bay, which was really quite special. The bay was lovely, probably the best snorkeling we had in the trip, and then the hike to Ram Head was exceptional. It's difficult to reach without boat, so a fantastic opportunity in our sail. From there we sailed over to Christmas Cove, on a nice long sail via Frenchman's Cap. The anchorage was a bit crowded but still nice. The snorkeling was mediocre until we discovered that there was a sailboat wreck in the bay right next to our boat! Oddly there was nothing in all of the reading I'd done about Christmas Cove that mentioned the wreck. It seems to be fairly new. The next day we had a lovely tail breeze that carried us all the way back to the marina on St. Thomas.
Part two of our excellent sailing trip to the Virgin Islands. In part one (right here) we sailed over and explored the north coast of St. John. In the sequel here, we sailed around the east end of St. John to explore new places we hadn't made it to in our earlier trip. We spent a night in Salt Pond Bay, which was really quite special. The bay was lovely, probably the best snorkeling we had in the trip, and then the hike to Ram Head was exceptional. It's difficult to reach without boat, so a fantastic opportunity in our sail. From there we sailed over to Christmas Cove, on a nice long sail via Frenchman's Cap. The anchorage was a bit crowded but still nice. The snorkeling was mediocre until we discovered that there was a sailboat wreck in the bay right next to our boat! Oddly there was nothing in all of the reading I'd done about Christmas Cove that mentioned the wreck. It seems to be fairly new. The next day we had a lovely tail breeze that carried us all the way back to the marina on St. Thomas.
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| A turtle hanging out in Salt Pond Bay | A turtle while snorkeling in Salt Pond Bay | |
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| Really cool rock formations | A lot of coral! And really cool canyons cutting through the seabed | |
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| Not a great picture, but the best I could get of the shark that was swimming pretty quickly about 15 feet below | Always enjoy spotting these guys | On the boat at night |
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| Sunrise over Salt Pond Bay | Lighting up the hills that surround the bay | |
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| Complete with a small rainbow from a quick shower that passed through | At the anchorage in Salt Pond Bay | Relaxing in the early morning |
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| A beautiful sand beach, and water like a pool | Our boat at the mooring | |
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| Ram Head! | Hiking to the point | |
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| The cactuses in the arid south of St. John are really beautiful | ||
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| There are a lot of them! | Looking east from the point | |
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| Across the Drake channel to BVI. A future trip... | Out at the point of Ram Head | |
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| The incredible view of St. John from Ram Head | A rainbow adding some extra magic to the whole crew | A pot of gold in the ocean... perhaps a sunken Spanish galleon? |
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| Action shot! | The neck of land out to Ram Head | |
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| What a view! | ||
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| Getting the dinghy hooked back up, and ready for the day's sail | St. John, as Columbus would have seen it on his 2nd voyage | Frenchman's Cap |
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| It was an excellent sail out! | The underwater landscape at Christmas Cove | |
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| One of the most spectacular reef fish of the trip, a young Caribbean Jewel Damselfish | ||
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| Brilliant coral! | Puffer fish! | A really pretty conch shell |
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| A really beautiful coral | A large, pretty fish | A mean looking barracuda |
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| Swimming past the pizza boat! | A water portrait | Back at the boat after snorkeling, before heading back out once we heard there was a wreck in the bay |
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| The wreck of the sailboat in about 10 feet of water. Amazing! | A turtle swimming past the wreck. Amazing! | |
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| All sorts of new life starting to grow | ||
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| At the wreck! | Christmas Cove, back at the boat after snorkeling | Picking up our pizza delivery. By dinghy, how fun! |
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| The pizza delivery dinghy | Christmas Cove in the morning | |
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| Looking across the bay to St. Thomas | Hanging out before sailing back to the marina, and then on to the airport | Sailing back to the marina on St. Thomas in a lovely wind |
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| A great sail! | ||
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| Enjoying the front row view for part of the sail back | Coming back in to St. Thomas | |
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| Back at the marina! | Off the boat after a successful sail | |