Underwater in St. John

May 22, 2022

The two weeks that we spent in St. John were magical. We hiked, snorkeled and just enjoyed the solitude. The water was crystal clear, the sea creatures were abundant and relatively unafraid. Because the majority of the island is National Park, anchoring is very limited as a step to protect the coral and the bottom. As an alternative, mooring balls are placed in the various anchorages. We enjoyed staying in three anchorages and taking our dinghy to several others.

The sea creatures were abundant
Angelfish
Nurse shark with a Remora underneath
Parrotfish, the keepers of the reef
This beautiful Green Sea Turtle was busy eating and didn’t mind that we stopped by for a picture!

This Eagle Ray had the longest tail! We estimated him to be 7′
Spotted Trunkfish
Sometimes we snorkeled deserted bays and other times there were beautiful homes surrounding us
We enjoyed taking our dinghy in to Cruz Bay and seeing the sights
St. John has a very colorful past
We even found a local barber to cut Ken’s hair (he had money)

We waited for our weather window to venture toward Sint Maarten. The Anegada Passage is notorious for big seas and winds. We knew that we would have a difficult 24+ hour passage and wanted to make it as smooth as possible. The opportunity to go had arrived, so the day before departure we took our dinghy into Cruz Bay, tied it to the dinghy dock and boarded the ferry for St. Thomas. There we would take a cab into town and visit a lab for a COVID test in order to be admitted into Sint Maarten. Some islands have eased restrictions, but Sint Maarten has decided to maintain stricter entry requirements for now.

Off to St. Thomas a 30 minute ferry ride away
And we are off…

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