Menu Close

Sargassum Seaweed is Here But Not Affecting Main Beaches

Jenn Manes
Sargassum in Fish Bay Wednesday morning

We are definitely seeing a large amount of sargassum seaweed around the island, but thankfully it is not affecting any of the most popular beaches here on St. John.

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.

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.

All of this being said, I have seen a large amount of sargassum around St. John over the past several days. Coral Bay is filled with it at the moment. Fish Bay has a large amount of it too. I haven’t been out to John’s Folly in over a week, but it usually pools up there too. I’ve seen smaller pockets of it just off of the north shore beaches, in Rendezvous Bay, which faces south, and other spots around St. John.

Sargassum in Coral Bay Wednesday afternoon. Image taken from Calichi’s webcam.

So why are we seeing more sargassum lately, and why it is forecasted to get even worse this year? Well that can all be blamed on climate change. The higher temperatures in the Caribbean have the ability to impact sargassum levels, according to scientists at the University of South Florida Optical Oceanography Lab. Click here to learn more about their research. 

Sargassum typically comes and goes throughout the summer months. As I mentioned, it is not currently affecting any of the island’s most popular beaches. If it starts to, I will definitely let you know.

Click here to view St. John’s webcams. 

Want to learn more about St. John? Take an island tour with me!

Learn more here –> www.explorestj.com/tour

See the island of St. John with a 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.

Click Here to Book Now. 

How to Get Through the St. Thomas Airport Faster

Jenn Manes
You have to fly into St. Thomas (STT) when traveling to St. John, US Virgin Islands.

The summer travel season is right around the corner, so today I would like to share some tips about how you can get through the St. Thomas (STT) airport fast when you are traveling back home.

Leaving through the St. Thomas airport is a multi-step process. You have to go through Customs, Agriculture and TSA. If you are checking a bag, you also have to stop at the counter. On busier days, the lines can be out the door and down toward the taxi stand. Nothing is more stressful than the thought of potentially missing a flight on departure day, so here are a few quick tips on how to get through the St. Thomas airport faster.

Most people are surprised that they have to clear through US Customs when leaving through the St. Thomas airport. The reason is because the US Virgin Islands is outside of “customs territory” per the United States government. It can be a relatively quick process that typically includes quick questioning by the Customs agent. These lines during busier times, however, can be quite long, but there are two ways to advance to the front of the line – Global Entry and porters.

Global Entry 

Global Entry is a program of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection service that allows pre-approved, low-risk travelers to receive expedited clearance upon arrival into the United States. There is a lane inside the customs area specifically for passengers with Global Entry. You must have your Global Entry card with you – physically, not a picture on your phone – and everyone with you must have that card. You cannot bring a child, spouse, etc. with you in the Global Entry line if they do not have a physical Global Entry card when traveling from the St. Thomas airport, for example. Travelers with Global Entry are able to skip Agriculture when traveling out of St. Thomas, so that’s another time-saver.

Global Entry costs $120. You will have to do a quick interview and submit fingerprints before approval. Some travel credit cards will reimburse you for the cost to obtain Global Entry. If you travel often out of St. Thomas, Global Entry can be very beneficial.

Porters

If you do not have global entry, you can pay a porter to bring you to the front of the Customs line. Porters charge between $3 and $5 per bag, and will help transport your luggage. During the busier months, you may still have to wait when using a porter, but your wait time will be significantly shorter. You can easily identify porters by their red shirts. If you are checking a bag, grab a porter before heading to the airline counter.

Steps to Leave the St. Thomas Airport 

  1. If you are checking a bag you stop at the airline counter first. They do not take your bag. They simply tag it at the counter. If you are not checking a bag, you will skip this step.
  2. Go through Customs. If you have Global Entry, skip number 3.
  3. Go through Agriculture. Absolutely everything goes through this machine, including luggage, purses, pillows, basically anything you are carrying will go through this machine.
  4. Drop off your checked bag. If you are not checking a bag, go straight to TSA.
  5. Go through TSA (security). There is a separate line for travelers with pre-check.

Want to know more about what can and what cannot go through Agriculture? Check out the following story.

St. Thomas Airport Update: New Step Requires Extra Time

Want to learn more about St. John? Take an island tour with me!

Learn more here –> www.explorestj.com/tour

See the island of St. John with a 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.

Click Here to Book Now. 

St. John Has Record-Breaking Sea Turtle Nesting Season!

Jenn Manes
Image credit: Willow Melamet

This is such great news to share! St. John had a record-breaking sea turtle nesting season! We had 3,221 hatchlings successfully make their way into the sea, the largest number to date!

Friends of Virgin Islands National Park just released their 2024 Sea Turtle Program Nesting Report. Here are some of the highlights:

  • 3,221 hatchlings made it out to sea
  • 37 nests were found, which is the highest number recorded to date
  • 11 estimated nesting females were identified
  • 1 new nesting beach was documented
  • The first nest was identified in March.
  • The largest number of nests were identified during the month of September.
  • All documented nests were laid by Hawksbill turtles.

Maho Bay

The report includes interesting information regarding our beloved turtles located over in Maho Bay. Researchers have been identified and photographing turtles at Maho Bay since 2012. They identified 101 turtles since 2012. Six of those turtles have lived in Maho Bay for over seven years. Amazing.

This year’s report includes information on monitoring, protection, education and more. Click here to read it in its entirety. 

Want to learn more about St. John? Take an island tour with me!

Learn more here –> www.explorestj.com/tour

See the island of St. John with a 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.

Click Here to Book Now. 

Look for the Green Flash!

Jenn Manes
Your chances of seeing the green flash at The Windmill Bar are very good this time of year!

Have you ever heard of the green flash? It’s a pretty cool thing that happens a few times a year here when the sun dips down into the ocean at sunset, and it’s possible to see it currently from The Windmill Bar, among other places around the island.

So what exactly is the green flash? Just as the sun sets over the horizon, you can see a quick flash of green as the upper rim of the sun falls below the water line. It only lasts for about a second or two, so you really have to be looking for it. I’ve seen it a few times over the year, and it’s pretty cool. My friend Anne Bequette, a photographer who used to live on island, captured the green flash several  years ago. Check it out…

The green flash can also occur during sunrise, so those of you staying in parts of the East End, Coral Bay or possibly Ditleff Point also have a good chance of seeing it throughout the year.

The sun shifts further to the left (when looking from The Windmill Bar) in the winter months, so the Westin Resort is also a great spot to watch for the green flash during the winter months.

And here is a random fun fact, our friends over at St. John Brewers make an energy drink called Green Flash.

The Windmill Bar has a webcam, as do many of our businesses and villas here on St. John. I doubt you will be able to catch a glimpse of the green flash from the webcam (but you never know!), I am certain that you can catch a great sunset view. Check it out on our webcams page at www.explorestj.com/webcams.

Want to learn more about St. John? Take an island tour with me!

Learn more here –> www.explorestj.com/tour

See the island of St. John with a 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.

Click Here to Book Now. 

Caneel Bay Resort: Redevelopment is Imminent Despite Federal Appeal

Jenn Manes

The plan to redevelop the shuttered Caneel Bay Resort continues despite a federal appeal filed by the company that ran the resort prior to Hurricane Irma.

Caneel Bay Resort has been closed since the summer of 2017. It was not operating when Hurricane Irma hit, due to its annual seasonal closure. The resort sustained catastrophic damage, as did a majority of the island, and has remained closed since. Little to no cleanup has occurred with regard to the 166 rooms and other structures on the property.

Bids from interested developers were due in March. The National Park Service will not release the number of bids received, nor will they release who, of the 22 groups that visited the site last fall, has submitted bids. A representative from the National Park Service told me last week that they are currently “finalizing qualification reviews” and that they would have more information to release at the end of May or in early June.

The National Park Service intends to award a contract to a developer/person/business/nonprofit who wants to rebuild the resort following the National Park Service’s parameters. For example, the resort must be low profile, cannot exceed more than 166 rooms, and has to have public access, among other criteria.

Despite the National Park Service’s Plans to move forward, EHI Acquisitions – the company that operated the Caneel Bay Resort through Sept. 6, 2017 – will not let go. They tried to obtain ownership via a federal lawsuit and failed last year. They subsequently filed an appeal, which was heard in federal court last week. The appeal is based on the definition of the word “offer.”

Screenshot from the federal appeal

EHI Acquisitions “offered” the Caneel Bay property back to the National Park Service for a monetary sum. The National Park Service balked and stated that no money should change hands. That is the issue at hand in a nutshell. Again, a federal judge ruled in favor of the National Park Service in April 2024. Click here to read EHI’s appeal in its entirety.

In the meantime, beachgoers can walk to Caneel Beach via the main parking lot. It’s is a quick five-minute walk past the plantation buildings, including the former ZoZo’s restaurant, and past a few destroyed buildings. It’s an odd little walk, but the beach, once you arrive, is stunning.

You can also taxi through the resort to Honeymoon Beach via a $6 shuttle. You can also walk to Honeymoon and Salomon beaches via the Lind Point Trail. All of Cannes’s seven beaches are also accessible via water.

Caneel Beach

I will let you know as soon as the National Park Service releases more information and also when a decision is made on the appeal.

Interesting Links Regarding Caneel Bay

Caneel Bay Resort Property to Become National Park

Rebuilding Caneel Bay Update: Interested Businesses & Organizations

I Visited Caneel Beach & It was Amazing!

Want to learn more about St. John? Take an island tour with me!

Learn more here –> www.explorestj.com/tour

See the island of St. John with a 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.

Click Here to Book Now. 

St. John is Named “Best of the Best”

Jenn Manes
Trunk Bay

Well friends, this is no surprise here – St. John was, once again, named the best of the best!

The World’s 50 Best Beaches list came out again last week, and our very own Trunk Bay didn’t take first place this year, as usual, but it was named to the list’s Hall of Fame due to the number of times it’s taken the top spot. Here’s what they had to say about one of many of your favorite spots:

Trunk Bay is located less than 15 minutes from Cruz Bay. It is easily accessible via taxi, which costs $9 per person, per way. St. John taxis are cash only. There is a packing lot at Trunk Bay, but it is very small. So it is best to either go early, or take a taxi. The is a $5 entry fee. Cash is not accepted for the entry fee. It is credit or debit card only.

Once you are inside Trunk Bay, there are showers, restrooms, chair, snorkel gear and life vest rentals. These are all available until 4 p.m. daily. There is also a great little spot that serves lunch – both hot and cold options – and there is a full bar. Happy hour at Trunk Bay is from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. daily. You have to love that!

Want to know more about what food and drinks are available at Trunk Bay? Please click here to read Explore STJ’s Trunk Bay Beach & Eats article. 

Want to know more about Trunk Bay amenities and facilities? Click here to read an article about Spending the day at Trunk Bay. 

Bring a little Trunk Bay home with you with this custom-made 500-piece puzzle! The next shipment goes out on Tuesday, May 13th. Order yours today.