On Tuesday, based on several recommendations, we bypassed the tourist-overrun Trunk Bay and instead hit the adjacent Hawksnest Bay. Here I found relatively little marine life of note (beyond the ubiquituous colorful reef fish), but was impressed by many commanding stands of elkhorn coral:
There were also many stands of finger fans:
On Wednesday, we stuck close to home in Cinnamon Bay. Rather than revisit the reef near our cottage, I decided to swim out to a small cay a few hundred yards out in the bay. Despite the distance, the water depth was never more than about 10 feet. Here again there were clouds of tiny baitfish. I noticed a pair of large tarpon about five feet long circling slowly amid the baitfish:
And yet more denizens of the reef:
On Thursday, we took a taxi to the Annaberg ruins, the remains of a colonial sugar mill. Liz painted here while Alex and I walked a mile along a shoreline trail at Leinster Bay to reach a spot where I could swim out to Waterlemon Cay, a spot known for interesting marine life. Here I found a sea turtle giving a ride to a large remora called a sharksucker that attaches to animals like sharks and turtles via a sucker on the top of its head:
I was glad that Alex decided to stay on shore here, as the water got a bit deep on the swim out to the cay; on the way back a strong current started running which called for some careful course-plotting to avoid being swept out to sea.
On Friday, we took a charter trip in a motor catamaran to the British Virgin Islands. Motoring up the scenic west side of Tortola, we docked at Spanishtown on Virgin Gorda and took a taxi to the celebrated Baths there. This boulder field of mystifying geologic origin is a standard tourist stop. We enjoyed poking around in the caves, although heavy swell rolling in on the beach made it difficult to swim here.
After an onboard lunch of cold cuts, the boat motored up Sir Francis Drake Channel to Norman Island, where we anchored at a spot known as the Caves. Here Liz and I had the infrequent pleasure of snorkeling together, while Alex regaled the crew onboard the charter boat. I then poked around a bit in the trio of caverns:
I'd been thinking earlier in the day that one of the few species of marine life said to be common here that I hadn't seen was moray eels. Nature, however, obliged:
It had only a limited appetite for large lenses being thrust into its face:
Soon after we returned to Cruz Bay on St. John, where after passing U.S. Customs we had dinner and watched the sunset:
The next morning, Saturday, we checked out of the campground, took an early ferry to Charlotte Amalie on St. Thomas for a shopping excursion, and then began the 11-hour odyssey returning to California (this time taking a nonstop to Miami, followed by another nonstop to LAX).
Having freedived and snorkeled in a few parts of the world (Southern California, Hawaii, Mexican Yucatan, Mediterranean), I have to say that I was very impressed by the diversity of marine life on St. John's shallow reefs. We'll be back.
P.S. It's no doubt apparent by now that I never got around to slinging a tank of compressed air on my back on this trip. There's some fairly good scuba diving in the British Virgin Islands, though, including the well-known wreck of the Rhone (stern at 20 or 30 feet, bow at something over 100) and a neat site called Alice in Wonderland.
Return to Virgin Islands Trip Report, Part 1
Return to Virgin Islands Trip Report, Part 2