There is a small amount of sargassum seaweed in Coral Bay currently.
For those of you who have flown into the islands recently, you may have seen what looked like an oil slick out of the airplane window, clumps of a rust-colored mass floating throughout the water. What you’re seeing is sargassum seaweed, and it’s pretty common to see more and more of it during this time of year.
Sargassum is a type of seaweed that floats in large masses in the ocean. It’s a brownish, copper-like color, and it has air-filled bladders which helps it stay afloat on the water’s surface. Sargassum affects St. John every year, and we typically see more of it as the water starts to warm up prior to the summer months. I started noticing it a bit more over the past week, but, luckily, it has not been affecting any of St. John’s most popular beaches.
St. John’s winds typically blow from east to west. Most of St. John’s most popular beaches – Caneel, Hawksnest, Trunk, Cinnamon and Maho – face either north or west. This means that the sargassum usually blows right by these beaches. It rarely piles up on any of them. St. Thomas, however, has more of a problem with the sargassum clogging up its beaches, as the Ritz Carlton, Margaritaville and Sapphire all face east. The sargassum floats right onto those beaches, and when it dries up, it can get quite stinky.
There is currently quite a bit of sargassum in Fish Bay, and I saw some over in Coral Bay this week, as well. Other than that, we’re looking pretty good here in St. John.
Fish Bay
If the sargassum becomes problematic, I will definitely let you all know. But as of today, our beaches remain beautiful and seaweed-free. 🙂
Want to learn more about St. John? Take an island tour with me!
See the island of St. John with a longtime resident. See the nooks and crannies that many visitors miss. Explore the beaches, historical sites, perhaps a tiki bar or two, and much more. Full & half days available. Rated “Excellent” on TripAdvisor.
Today is Gifft Hill Gives Back day here in St. John. Students from kindergarten through high school will be conducting community service projects throughout the island in an effort to give back to this island that we all love. If you are lucky enough to be on island today, you may see some of the kids and hopefully you can support some of our efforts!
Here is a list of today’s Gifft Hill Gives Back projects:
Our kindergarteners will be walking around Cinnamon Bay with posters that educate vacationers anbout beach safety, reef safe sunscreen, conserving water, and recycling.
Our first grade students will be collecting food for the Catholic Curch, which operates a food pantry in Cruz Bay. Furst graders will be collecting food at Midway, Dolphin Market near the Westin and new Starfish Market.
Our second grade students – my son Dalton is one of them – will be a beach clean up in Cruz Bay. They will also hand out posters to restaurants to educate people to be good stewards of the islands. The fifth graders will join our second graders for this project.
Our third graders are going to stay on campus where they will package cracked corn for St. John Wildlife Rehabilitation.
Our fourth graders will be holding a walkathon fundraiser at the ball field near the Visitor Center in Cruz Bay.
Our Upper Campus students (middle and high school) will do a variety of projects, including:
Trail maintenance at Leinster with Friends of VINP
Brown Bay trail and beach cleanup with Friends of VINP
Coral Bay mangrove cleanup with kayaks donated by Crabby’s Watersports
Bake sale in Frank Powell Park benefiting the Love City Pan Dragons
Car wash at St. John Rescue to raise funds for their nonprofit
Lionfish removal with CORE in non-NPS waters
Coral restoration and beach cleanup with CORE at Leinster Bay
Barge dock wall mural with VIWMA
Gifft Hill dumpsters mural with VIWMA
Bake sale at Skinny Legs benefiting KATS
There are so many great things happening today! It makes me love this community even more!
Want to learn more about St. John? Take an island tour with me!
See the island of St. John with a longtime resident. See the nooks and crannies that many visitors miss. Explore the beaches, historical sites, perhaps a tiki bar or two, and much more. Full & half days available. Rated “Excellent” on TripAdvisor.
The island is busy, busy, busy with many people looking for lunch offerings when visiting St. John’s beautiful beaches. Here is a quick rundown of which St. John beaches have food and drinks available for purchase.
Honeymoon Beach
Honeymoon Beach is the home to the Caneel Bay Beach Club. The beach club serves a variety of snacks, and they also have a full bar. You can access Honeymoon Beach by taxi or via the Lind Point Trail. If you choose to taxi to Honeymoon, you can park or take a taxi to the entrance of the Caneel Bay resort. From there, you would hop on a second taxi that will drive you from the entrance to Honeymoon Beach, approximately a five-minute ride. The cost of that taxi is $6 per person or $12 roundtrip. You can opt to walk in and taxi out, or vice versa. Chair rentals are available too. There is a small retail shop, bathrooms, and showers, as well.
Trunk Bay
Happy hour starts in the morning at Trunk Bay! You have to love that! Trunk Bay has a snack shack and a full bar where happy hour happens daily from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. There is an area that serves a variety of hot and cold items for lunch daily from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Trunk Bay is one of our busiest beaches, and the parking area is rather small, so I suggest you take a taxi when visiting Trunk Bay. If you prefer to drive, you should get there by 8:45 a.m. to ensure you get a parking spot.
Trunk Bay has chair rentals, snorkel gear rentals and life vests too. There are also showers and restrooms.
Cinnamon Bay is a great spot that serves breakfast, lunch and dinner daily. Breakfast is served from 7:30 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. in the Rain Tree Cafe, which is the large restaurant near the reception area and camp store. Lunch is served beachside out of a food truck from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Dinner is served daily at the Rain Tree Cafe from 5:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. You can purchase beers and seltzers from the camp store daily beginning at 10 a.m. The food truck also has some canned alcoholic drinks and a few cocktails available for purchase too.
Because there is a campground at Cinnamon Bay, there are restrooms and a spigot to wash the sand off of your feet. Showers are available to campers only. There are also chair, snorkel gear and watersports rentals at Cinnamon Bay.
There are two large parking lots at Cinnamon Bay. Those lots have been filling up pretty quickly over the past several weeks. I suggest getting to Cinnamon Bay by 9:30 a.m. to ensure you get a parking spot. You can also taxi to Cinnamon.
Maho Bay has two businesses that sell food and beverages – Maho Crossroads and Reef2Peak’s food truck next door. (This was recently updates. sop stay tuned for more info on this!) The bar at Maho Crossroads is open daily from 10:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. The food truck is open from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. The food truck has a variety of items like hot sandwiches, burgers, salads, and more. Maho Crossroads has a full bar; however they do not have a blender. If you want a frozen drink, just wander next door to Reef2Peak.
Reef2Peak is a rental outfit that serves cocktails and other drinks. Reef2Peak rents chairs, snorkel gear, kayaks and paddle boards. They even offer guided kayak trips. Reef2Peak is open daily from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Reef2Peak’s food truck at Maho Bay.
Maho Crossroads has a restroom available for patrons only. There are two National park restrooms across the street on the beach for beachgoers.
Want to learn more about St. John? Take an island tour with me!
See the island of St. John with a longtime resident. See the nooks and crannies that many visitors miss. Explore the beaches, historical sites, perhaps a tiki bar or two, and much more. Full & half days available. Rated “Excellent” on TripAdvisor.
Easter Rock is located on North Shore Road between Gibney/Oppenheimer beaches & Peace Hill.
I can say with 100 percent certainty that Easter Rock was indeed wet this morning, proving that the legend is true!
It’s that time of year! Time for the annual story about Easter Rock!
For those of you who are not familiar with Easter Rock, it’s a large boulder that’s perched on the side of North Shore Road above Hawksnest Bay. Legend has it that every year on the night before Easter, Easter Rock makes its way down to Hawksnest Bay where it takes a drink of water and then rolls back up to its perch on North Shore Road. This all happens before the sun rises over the hill, according to the legend, so no one is around to actually witness it. So even during the driest of droughts, Easter Rock will still be wet on Easter morning.
Legend aside, here is the geological backstory straight of Easter Rock. The following is courtesy of SeeStJohn.com:
Although geologists have not yet succeeded in explaining Easter Rock’s propensity to go down to the sea on Easter Sunday for a drink of water, they can tell us about the origin of this massive boulder, which is the only one of its kind in the valley.
The outer crust of the Earth consists of large masses of slowly moving rock called tectonic plates. About 100 million years ago, one of these plates, called the North American plate, which was moving towards the west, encountered another tectonic plate called the Caribbean plate, which was moving in the same direction.
Life in the Caribbean has long been classified as slower moving than in the fast-paced world of continental America. This phenomenon apparently has a historical and geological foundation because a significant factor in the creation of many of the Caribbean islands, including St. John, is the fact that the Caribbean plate happened to be moving at a slower pace than its continental counterpart.
Consequently, when the North American plate overtook the slower moving Caribbean plate, the American plate, being denser and heavier, slid under the Caribbean plate and pushed it up. The friction from the two giant masses of solid rock grinding against one another produced a heat so intense that it melted some of the rock between the two plates. The fiery, liquefied rock, called magma, built up in enclosed pockets, called magma chambers, and exerted an ever-increasing pressure on the surrounding rock. When that pressure became so great that it could not be contained any longer, the magma broke through its rocky chamber and spewed forth violently into the ocean. This event is called a volcano.
Normally, when super-hot magma comes in contact with cold ocean water, the magma explodes and is dispersed over a great area. In this case, however, the eruption occurred at a depth of 15,000 feet, or nearly three miles, below the surface of the ocean. At this great depth the water pressure is nearly 7,000 pounds per square inch, a pressure that was sufficient to keep the magma from exploding on contact with water and instead causing it to be deposited on the ocean floor in giant solid sheets.
Coinciding with this volcanic activity and the laying down of rock, the action of the American plate sliding under the Caribbean plate caused the latter to bulge at the edges. The combination of these events resulted in the beginnings of a mountain range that was to become the islands of the Greater Antilles. This process of volcanic activity and uplifting continued for millions of years and caused the newly formed mountains to move closer to the surface.
It was during the next period of St. John’s development that Easter Rock was born. A series of volcanoes erupted in the area of what is today called Pillsbury Sound. This time the water was relatively shallow and the volcanoes erupted explosively. The shower of rocks, solidified volcanic ash, and molten lava added substance and height to the older solid sheets of rock and, in conjunction with the continued uplifting of the area, eventually brought parts of the rocky underwater mass above sea level to form islands.
The awesome power of these violent eruptions also served to break off huge chunks of the older rock, heaving them into the air. One of these massive fragments ended up just above what was to become Hawksnest Bay. That majestic boulder, now known as Easter Rock, not only goes down to the sea every Easter for a drink of water, but also serves as an enduring reminder of the fiery beginnings of the island of St. John.
Love it!
Happy Easter everyone!
Want to learn more about St. John? Take an island tour with me!
See the island of St. John with a longtime resident. See the nooks and crannies that many visitors miss. Explore the beaches, historical sites, perhaps a tiki bar or two, and much more. Full & half days available. Rated “Excellent” on TripAdvisor.
Today’s post is for all of my readers who enjoy indulging a bit while on vacation.
For those of you who will be in the US Virgin Islands or over in the British Virgin Islands this Friday, liquor sales will be restricted due to the Good Friday holiday. Beer, wine and champagne are still permitted.
Here in the US Virgin Islands – St. John, St. Thomas and St. Croix – there will be no liquor sales throughout the day and until 4 p.m. on Friday, March 29th. This means you cannot purchase liquor in the grocery stores, convenience stores, restaurants or bars until 4 p.m. that day. At that time, the restriction is lifted. Again, beer, wine and champagne sales are permitted during this time.
Over in the British Virgin Islands – Jost van Dyke, Tortola, Norman Island, Cooper Island – Virgin Gorda, etc. – all alcohol, beer and wine sales are prohibited until 6 p.m. on Good Friday. This means no Painkillers at the Soggy Dollar Bar, no beers at Willy T and no wine at Pirate’s Bite (just a few examples) throughout the day on Friday only. Again, that restriction will be lifted at 6 p.m. Friday night.
Want to learn more about St. John? Take an island tour with me!
See the island of St. John with a longtime resident. See the nooks and crannies that many visitors miss. Explore the beaches, historical sites, perhaps a tiki bar or two, and much more. Full & half days available. Rated “Excellent” on TripAdvisor.
Tuesday, March 31st marks the 109th anniversary of Transfer Day in the United States Virgin Islands. This day commemorates the March 31, 1917 transfer of St. John, St. Thomas and St. Croix from Denmark to the United States. Denmark paid $25 million in gold. That gold, at today’s rates, would be worth nearly $6 billion. Wow.
Why Did the United States Want to Purchase the Virgin Islands?
The United States’ interest in the Virgin Islands was primarily for their strategic location, while any economic benefits were secondary. The islands represented a much needed foothold in the Caribbean for the American Navy, and later were looked toward as a base to guard the Panama Canal. American negotiations with the Danish government can be characterized as ones of strategic diplomacy. All offers of proposed purchase came on the heels of American military conflicts.
American interest in the Virgin Islands dates back to as early as the mid-1860s. At the eve of the Civil War, budding American imperialism and the need for a Caribbean naval base, prompted Secretary of State William H. Seward to begin to investigate the islands as a possible coaling station for U.S. naval and merchant vessels. On October 24, 1867, after nearly two years of extensive negotiation and a visit to the islands by Seward himself, the Danish government ratified a treaty in which Denmark would cede the islands of St. Thomas and St. John to the United States. The price was to be seven and a half million dollars in gold, provided the treaty received the consent of the islands’ population. Unfortunately, within a year, the islands were visited by a hurricane, an earthquake, a tsunami and a fire.
The tsunami was so severe that it left the steamer, the USS Monongahela, Commodore Bissel, and its crew, stranded on the Frederiksted wharf. However, for more than two years, the treaty failed to receive the ratification of the United States Congress in response to the wave of natural disasters, the imperialistic overtones of the treaty, and concerns over the possible impeachment of President Andrew Johnson.
By the end of the Spanish American War, Secretary of State John Hay expressed renewed interest in the Virgin Islands to the Danish government. Beginning on January 29, 1900, and over another two years, a new treaty was negotiated, in which the Danish government would cede the islands of St. Thomas, St. John and St. Croix to the United States for the sum of five million dollars. The treaty was ratified by the U.S. Congress. However, the Danes returned the thirty year-old diplomatic insult, and neither house of the Danish legislature ratified the treaty.
Negotiations Continued For Years
Subtle efforts to negotiate the purchase of the Virgin Islands by the United States continued after the failure of the Treaty of 1902. However, by 1915 American interest had become heightened by fears of the impending crisis in Europe. The General Board, headed by Admiral Dewey informed Secretary of State Robert Lansing, that the purchase of the islands would not be advantageous as the site of an American naval base in light of the recent acquisition of Puerto Rico, but that the purchase would be wise in order to deter any other power from gaining bases in the Caribbean. Dewey, felt that this tactical defense of the Panama Canal was just politically by the Monroe Doctrine and by increased German efforts to consolidate the islands through commercial, diplomatic or perhaps even military means.
In March of 1916, Secretary Lansing sent a drafted treaty to the Danish Ambassador in Copenhagen, Dr. Maurice Egan, offering twenty-five million dollars in gold coins for the islands with instructions to deliver the proposal to the Danish government. On August 14, 1916, at the Biltmore Hotel in New York City, a revised treaty was signed by Danish Minister Constantin Brun and Secretary of State Lansing. The US Senate approved the treaty on September 7, 1916 and by December 21, 1916 the Danish Rigsdag had approved the treaty as well. Finally, on January 17, 1917 the treaty ratifications were exchanged and the treaty finalized.
The official transfer of the Danish West Indies to the United States did not occur until 4 p.m. on March 31st, 1917, when a formal ceremony was held in the islands. At the State Department, a U.S. Treasury Warrant for twenty-five million dollars was given to Danish Minister Brun.
A copy of the Transfer Day certificate.
The American Flag First Raised on St. John
The American flag was first raised at The Battery, which is located in Cruz Bay. The Battery, which is located on a point between Cruz Bay harbor and the Creek, was originally used as a defense fort. It was built in the late 1700s to protect the harbor from ships and attacks. Today, it is used as government office space. The American flag still flies here alongside the US Virgin Islands flag.
More Info
The United States Virgin Islands had a centennial celebration back in 2017. At that time, we even received a visit from three Danish ships, including a tall ship, during this celebration.
This information is courtesy of the Royal Danish Consulate, which has a location on St. Thomas.
