Stinging Plankton???

Travel discussion for St. John
AquaGirl
Posts: 913
Joined: Mon Aug 21, 2006 6:59 pm
Location: Fairfax, Virginia

Re: Stinging Plankton???

Post by AquaGirl »

This isn't report from STJ, but we just got back from 11 days in the nearby BVIs, and encountered stinging somethings, so I thought I would offer my 2 cents.

We snorkeled in various places every day and each of us got stung once. My hubby never felt the sting, but got a few nasty looking blisters on his hand after one snorkel. They looked like a bad case of poison ivy, but only itched a little bit. When we snorkeled the Indians, I got stung on my face and it hurt like the dickens for about 2 minutes. The pain went away after a few minutes and I had 2 little bumps for a few days, with no pain or itching. As other posters have said, it seems to affect people differently.

I had brought Safe Sea Lotion - the one with SPF 30 and for kids, because I have sensitive skin. On the day I was stung, I had put it on in the morning, but forgot to reapply it on my face for the snorkel at the Indians. My hubby had not used it, but we both faithfully used it after the stings and never got stung again, even though we were in the water for the next 5 days. Of course, we don't know if it was the lotion, or we just didn't encounter any more stingy things. However, I would highly recommend trying this stuff, in case it does work :)

As an aside, we passed by the north shore of STJ on our way back to St Thomas (on a boat) and enjoyed seeing it from the water. Now to plan our next trip...
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