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On the Road: Hawksnest to Maho Bay

Visit your favorite north shore spots including Trunk Bay with my latest GoPro video.

For those of you who know me, you know how much I love securing my GoPro to the Jeep and taking fun island videos for all of you. Well I did just that earlier this summer, and I’m excited to share it today. I labeled some of my favorite spots during the video too, so you can use this as a handy little guide to check out your favorite places along the north shore.

This video clocks in at just under 16 minutes, which is long, I know. Below the video is a quick reference list of some of your favorite places and the time they pop up in the video. You can save some time by checking it out that way if you prefer. Or you can grab yourself another coffee (or heck, make yourself a cocktail!), pop on your favorite island tunes, and enjoy 16 minutes of paradise. 🙂 Have fun!

You can find this video and all of my videos at www.explorestj.com/videos

  • Hawksnest parking area: :05
  • Gibney Cottages property: 1:31
  • Oppenheimer: 1:48
  • View across Hawksnest Bay: 2:13
  • Easter Rock: 2:23
  • Peace Hill parking area: 2:47
  • Jumbie: 3:21
  • Trunk Bay overlook: 4:28
  • Trunk Bay parking area: 5:38
  • Trunk Bay switchbacks: 6:11
  • Peter Bay: 6:53
  • Upper Peter Bay: 7:04
  • Road to Catherineberg: 8:26
  • Cinnamon Bay entrance: 9:39
  • Cinnamon Bay sugar factory: 10:42
  • Maho Bay overlook: 12:50
  • Maho Crossroads: 14:34
  • Reef2Peak: 14:52
  • Maho Bay (turtle side): 15:49
Go of the beaten path, visit beautiful beaches, explore St. John’s rich history & so much more.

 

The Cannon at the Ferry Dock

Hello friends! So as I mentioned last week, the purpose of Island Tidbits is to share stories about items on island I find to be very cool and/or interesting. So today we’re going to start by chatting about a cannon, which is located beside the ferry dock in Cruz Bay.

The bulk of people who visit St. John, or return to the island, do so via the Cruz Bay ferry dock. And as we do so, we pass an important element of our island’s history – a cannon that was previously located at Fortsberg in Coral Bay. The ruins of Fortsberg, an 18th century citadel fortress, are located on a hill above the eastern side of Coral Bay harbor. Fortsberg was the site of a successful slave rebellion in 1733.

This particular cannon was relocated from Fortsberg to Cruz Bay when the ferry dock was being built in 1838. At that time, it was placed with its muzzle facing downward and into the ground, a common practice during peacetime. The cannon was used as a hitching post for donkeys or horses. (The fort at Fortsberg was decommissioned in 1765.)

The cannon at the Cruz Bay ferry dock was originally placed muzzle down. Image source: Library of Congress

When the dock was remodeled in the 1990s, the cannon was placed pointing out to sea, which is culturally and historically inaccurate. The good news is that the ferry dock is set to be renovated once again, and local historians and residents are asking that the cannon be restored to its original position.

The cannon’s current position

In 2013, three additional cannons were uncovered on the beach in Cruz Bay. It is believed that they, too, were originally located at Fortsberg. The three cannons were removed at the time, and moved to a “secure place” according to a 2013 St. John Source article.

Three cannons were found on Cruz Bay beach in 2013. Image source: St. John Source

Pretty interesting stuff, right?

That’s all I have for you today. Thank you so much for reading! I’ll be back later this week. 🙂

Go of the beaten path, visit beautiful beaches, explore St. John’s rich history & so much more..

Best Sites to Monitor Our Weather

This morning’s view from The Beach Bar. They’re open today from 11 a.m. till they close. 🙂

Originally posted on Sept. 18, 2022: I know many of you are interested in the weather as Tropical Storm Fiona passes through. The following are the best sites (in my opinion) to monitor our weather. If there are any additional sites you think I should include in this list, please feel free to email me at jenn@explorestj.com.

Living Earth

This is an app that I follow more so during peak hurricane season. It shows a live look at the earth and its weather, including clouds and tropical storms. Another neat feature is that you can see where it’s light or dark in the world, and you can also see which cities are illuminated at night.

Living Earth app – Sept. 18, 2022 at 9:18 a.m.

Wunderground

I use Wunderground daily to see if or when we are getting rain, especially when I’m conducting Explore STJ island tours. It seems to have the most accurate weather for our region. You can pull up live radar too. You can check it out on the web at www.wunderground.com or download the app to your phone.

Wunderground app – Sept. 18, 2022 at 9:31 a.m.

Windy

This is another great app, which is also located on the web at www.windy.com. It’s pretty self explanatory – it shows us how windy it is in a particular place. But it also shows radar, thunder, temperature, clouds, rainfall amounts, wind gusts and more. All you have to do is drop a pin on the area that you are interested in to see information on that spot. You can also use the app to check out the weather for several days in advance.

Windy app – Sept. 18, 2022 at 9:50 a.m.

Weather.vi

This is a website created by the owners of Coconuts villa on Gifft Hill. It shows information compiled from its weather station including temperatures, rainfall, winds, wind gusts and more. You can find it online at www.weather.vi.

weather.vi rainfall totals – Sept. 18, 2022 at 10 a.m.
weather.vi wind speed & gusts – Sept. 18, 2022 at 10 a.m.

St. John VI Weather on Facebook

This is a very informative page for those of you who are on Facebook. Dan Boyd and crew post the weather daily. It is super accurate and a page that many of us rely on for local forecasts. You can find it by searching “St. John VI Weather” on Facebook.

St. John VI Weather page on Facebook – Sept. 18, 2022

And lastly, you can always pull up our webcam page at www.explorestj.com/webcams to see live images from across the island.

See St. John in Real Time – Island Webcams

La Jolla Caribe has a webcam located high above Cinnamon Bay.

Hi all! Well I have to be honest, when I launched this blog earlier this week, I never thought we’d be talking tropical storms on day two. But alas, here we are. For those of you who are stateside and are curious how Tropical Storm Fiona will be affecting St. John this weekend, please check out the webcams listed below.

Want to pull up these webcams each day just so you can see how beautiful this place is? You can do so by simply clicking this link: www.explorestj.com/webcams. You can also click the Island Webcams link at the top of the page (desktop) or in the menu bar (phone/iPad).

If I missed any of your favorites, please send me an email at jenn@explorestj.com, and I will add them to the list.

St. John Spice Cam – Overlooking the ferry dock & Cruz Bay

The Beach Bar – Bar Cam

The Bar Bar – Beach Cam

The Beach Bar – Stage Cam (This webcam is only online when The Beach Bar has live music.)

The Windmill Bar

Calichi at Picture Point – 360 degree views!

Coral Bay Views – Located at Coconut Hill cottage, high above Coral Bay

Grande Bay Resort – Overlooking Cruz Bay

Fish Camp – Overlooking Turner Bay, Little St. James & French Cap

Great Expectations villa – Overlooking Hart & Rendezvous bays

Great Expectations – Sunset cam

La Jolla Caribe – Located in Catherineberg, high above Cinnamon Bay

Lovango Resort & Beach Club

Maho Bay House

Soggy Dollar Bar – Located over in Jost Van Dyke in the British Virgin Islands 

Villa Calypso – Overlooking Klein Bay with views of Ditliff Point

Windsong Villa – Overlooking Fish Bay & beyond

Windswept Point Live – Located on a point between Trunk & Cinnamon bays 

Coconuts villa – Located in Gifft Hill with views toward Pillsbury Sound & St. Thomas 

https://www.weather.vi/webcam.php

Esprit villa – Located on Bordeaux Mountain, above Coral Bay

https://espritstjohn.com/live-webcam/

Mare Blu villa – Overlooking Rendezvous Bay

https://www.marebluvilla.com/stjohn-webcam.asp

Sunset Ridge Villas – Located above Cruz Bay with views toward St. Thomas 

http://208.84.193.93:88/popup.html

Introducing… Island Tidbits

Island Tidbits - Honeymoon Beach - St. John, US Virgin Islands
Honeymoon beach

Hi all, I’m back! Well I think I’m back… Let’s see how this whole blogging thing goes this go-round, shall we?? 🙂

For starters, thank you so much for taking the time to be here, and welcome to Island Tidbits!

TIDBIT * /ˈTIDˌBIT/ * A SMALL AND PARTICULARLY INTERESTING ITEM OF GOSSIP OR INFORMATION

For those of you who aren’t familiar with me, my name is Jenn. I’m a St. John transplant, mom to a ridiculously active four-year-old boy and the owner of Explore STJ island tours. I’m also the gal who published News of St. John from 2013 to 2020.

I’m a writer and creator, who decided back in 2020 that I needed a break from blogging. Well guess what? I miss it. So I thought, why not start this up again??

I pondered a bit about whether or not I should even do this. I wondered whether I should start my own site, or if it’d be easier to create content for other businesses on island. And if I did go ahead with this crazy idea – which clearly I did because here we are lol – what would I call it? Well, as you can see, I settled on Island Tidbits because that’s what I’m interested in – providing you all with little tidbits of information about St. John and island life.

I am excited to write about simple things that make me smile. I want to create fun videos that showcase the beautiful places here on St. John, as well as our amazing residents. I’d like to share stories about St. John’s rich history, while showing you all why this place is so special to so many people. I simply want to write and create while sharing my love of this place with all of you.

My plan is to write several  times a week when I have the time between raising my son, traveling and conducting my Explore STJ island tours. (Shameless plug… Sorry! 🙂 ) Don’t feel like checking out the site to see when I’m writing? No problem! Just go and click the “Subscribe” button at the top of your screen if you’re on a desktop/laptop to sign up to receive weekly updates to your inbox. Reading us on a phone? No problem! Click this link to sign up, or you can always click the three lines above to open the menu bar and click Subscribe there.

Island Tidbits is also going to be on social media, so feel free to follow me on your preferred platform by checking out the links below:

Want to reach out to me personally? Please feel free to contact me at jenn@explorestj.com at anytime.

Looking to take an island tour? Please check out www.ExploreSTJ.com to learn more. PS: I am super happy to share that Explore STJ island tours received TripAdvisor’s 2022 Traveller’s Choice Award … woohoo!

Well folks, I’m excited for this new journey we’re on. Thank you again for taking the time to read this today. Cheers!

 

 

My New Business Venture

Hi all! I am super excited to tell you all that STJ To Go is launching tonight! They say that all good businesses start in a bar, right?? Well STJ To Go is one of them! 🙂

I was sitting at The Tap Room last month with my friend Dan Frenette, and we were talking about the lack of restaurant delivery services here on island. We don’t have Uber Eats, Door Dash or any of those fancy companies you all have stateside. Many people have talked about offering this type of service over the years, but logistically it’s tough. As many of you know, Centerline Road is only 12.8 miles long, but the ride takes about 50 minutes. That’s a problem. The fact that we don’t have widely-known street addresses is tough too, although there is a current initaitive working to change that. So in order to pull this off, you really need to know this island well and know the location of several villas. Luckily for us, I drive these roads daily giving my island tours, and Dan cleans villa pools. So together, we feel confident that we can successfully offer this service to all of you. We pulled in Mike Hedy, who happens to be my other half, and together we are launching STJ To Go. Did I mention how excited I am??!!

We are doing a soft opening tonight, and then will launch officially on Tuesday, January 19th. We have to start small because we want to do this right. Therefore we are only delivering four restaurants at the get go. They are 1864, Banana Deck, Extra Virgin and The Tap Room. Our delivery zone initially is Cruz Bay to Gifft Hill and everywhere in between. We plan to expand both the number of restaurants and delivery zone in the near future.

The delivery/service charge is a flat $30 fee. That pays the driver and covers operating expenses. Unlike Uber Eats and the like, we are not charging the restaurants to provide this service. They have had one heck of a year, and we want to help them. Restaurants are at 50 percent capacity due to Covid, so essentially their businesses have been cut in half. We are hoping to help them with that.

We are planning to offer STJ To Go Tuesday through Saturday from 3 p.m. to 8:45 p.m. You can order the day of or up to 14 days in advance. We are limited in the number of nightly orders, so we suggest ordering in advance if possible.

Please take a few minutes to check it out at www.STJToGo.com

And as always, you can always email me at jenn@explorestj.com or inbox me on Facebook.

Thank you all for reading! Have a wonderful weekend!