USVI-On-Line

Day five

Started at Maho, but jellies drove us off the beach after a couple of hours. We headed into town for lunch at Waterfront Bistro. Mahi sandwich

wbmahi by liamsaunt, on Flickr


Soft shell crab

wbcrab by liamsaunt, on Flickr


Liam’s double burger

waterfrontburger by liamsaunt, on Flickr


Tuna tacos

wbtacos by liamsaunt, on Flickr


We spent the afternoon at Trunk. The kids went snorkeling and saw a scrawled filefish

tfliefish by liamsaunt, on Flickr


Cailifish and Liamfish

tbcaili by liamsaunt, on Flickr

Nothing special happened that evening. Just hung around at Coral Cove. Everyone was too full from lunch to eat dinner.

Day six

Went to Honeymoon. It was dry, dry, dry

honeymoon 2 by liamsaunt, on Flickr

Lunch at Caneel Bay again. Seveche

caneel seveche by liamsaunt, on Flickr

Volcano roll

caneel volcano roll by liamsaunt, on Flickr


Spicy tuna roll

caneel spicy tuna roll by liamsaunt, on Flickr

Caviar and Baja rolls

caneel baja and cavir by liamsaunt, on Flickr

View from the restaurant

[caneel by liamsaunt, on Flickr

Quote of the trip came from the table beside us regarding snorkeling:
“When I see fish, I think dinner. When I see stingrays. I think boots.”
“They make boots out of stingrays?”
“Yeah, reeeeaaaaaal good boots.”

After lunch some people snorkeled Caneel’s public beach. The resort staff now prefers that you check in at the beach shack before heading down to the beach, just FYI. I think this is so they can remind you not to sit in the chairs. Arrow crab

caneel arrow crab by liamsaunt, on Flickr

Red hind

caneel grouper by liamsaunt, on Flickr

Trumpetfish

caneel trumpetfish by liamsaunt, on Flickr

Squid

caneel squid by liamsaunt, on Flickr

canel squirrelfish by liamsaunt, on Flickr

Usual late afternoon/evening routine of pool, grilling something for dinner, hang out on the coveered porch etc.

Day seven

Started the day at Haulover. We tried to snorkel North but there was too much seaweed in the water to get in. Ended up snorkeling South, which is not one of my favorites. Not much to see other than this barracuda

hauloverbarracuda2 by liamsaunt, on Flickr

There is some decent coral along the edges of the bay but I did not take any pictures.

Lunch was at Shipwreck Landing again. Conch fritters

shipwreckfritters by liamsaunt, on Flickr

Fish sandwich

shipwreckgrouper by liamsaunt, on Flickr

Curry nut grouper

shipwreck currynut by liamsaunt, on Flickr


After lunch we decided to head to Great Lameshur and see if we could find the manta ray that we heard was hanging around

greatlameshur by liamsaunt, on Flickr

Success

mantause by liamsaunt, on Flickr


manta5 by liamsaunt, on Flickr

manta by liamsaunt, on Flickr

I have video too but might have to upload it to youtube as I can't tell if this flickr video link works

https://www.flickr.com/gp/28539958@N00/1P96U5


Day eight

We thought about going to Salt Pond but everyone was feeling too lazy, so we went into town and got some snorkel stuff that we needed at Low Key. Then we had lunch at the Beach Bar.

bb by liamsaunt, on Flickr

Most people got the tuna down now.

We spent the afternoon at Cinnamon and then chilled out in the pool at Coral Cove for the rest of the day

pool2 by liamsaunt, on Flickr

Day nine

Another lazy morning at the house. My sister, niece and I went beachcombing for sea glass and then drove over to Josephine’s farm to see what she had for sale. I was able to get some soursops and papayas to make into cocktails/mocktails for our afternoon pool parties, as well as basil, spinach, and arugula. After that we came back for the guys to go to Skinny Legs. I will admit that Skinny Legs is not at all my favorite, but my nephew requested it so off we went. Mahi sandwich (overcooked)

skinnylegsmahi by liamsaunt, on Flickr

Burger of the day

skinnylegsjalepenoburger by liamsaunt, on Flickr

Turkey reuben

skinnylegsturkey reuben by liamsaunt, on Flickr]

We spent the afternoon at Hansen Bay. Some people snorkeled over to Pelican Rock. Queen angelfish

pelicanrockangelfish by liamsaunt, on Flickr

Tang

pelicanrocktang by liamsaunt, on Flickr

Scrawled filefish

pelican rock filefish2 by liamsaunt, on Flickr

The kids played in the water while I snorkeled the shoreline for sea glass. This is a good spot to look for sea glass if you are a collector of it like I am. Kids acting nice

hansen by liamsaunt, on Flickr

Back to Coral Cove for the usual pool time, dinner etc.

Day 10

We started out back at Great Lameshur hoping to see the manta again but no luck. We did find an octopus

lameshur octopus2 by liamsaunt, on Flickr

And a turtle

lameshur turtle by liamsaunt, on Flickr

Some people snorkeled over to Tektite

tektite by liamsaunt, on Flickr


Back to Coral Cove for pooltime and nibbles.

nibbles liam by liamsaunt, on Flickr

We went to Aqua Bistro for ponzu tuna night

aquabistroponzutuna by liamsaunt, on Flickr

Jerked wahoo with mango salsa

aquabistrojerkedwahoo by liamsaunt, on Flickr

Wahoo picatta style

aquabistrowahoopiccata by liamsaunt, on Flickr

The kids had dessert

aquabistrodesserts by liamsaunt, on Flickr

This was our last night at Coral Cove, so after dinner we went back to the house and packed up for the morning’s move. Great house, but so is the place we headed to for the next week...

No problem for me to see the video... quite a show off it is... that Manta!!
You know that I love travels with you and your gang!!! Coral Cove is amazing!"

Thanks for posting! I always enjoy your trip reports and pictures!

Can't wait for more!

Thank you for sharing!
Awesome photos... Especially love the ones of the octopus and manta!
The video link worked for me... How close do you think you were to the manta?

With all the rocks on Great Lameshur, is it difficult to get into the water?

Those sting ray photos were amazing! I wonder if it was the same one we saw last year at Maho? I can't wait to see where you stayed next! The pool at Coral Cove looked beautiful.

As always your TR and pics just leave me anxiously awaiting the installment. Thank you so much for sharing. I am so enjoying living vicariously through you and your family.

islandjo2010 wrote:Thank you for sharing!
Awesome photos... Especially love the ones of the octopus and manta!
The video link worked for me... How close do you think you were to the manta?

We were very close, and everyone in my group saw it. Here is another video that shows how close we were. It is only about 20 seconds long because I had to stop filming and gather myself to try and take a steadier shot (I was obviously very excited!), but you can see Liam and Caili's fins at one point.

https://www.flickr.com/gp/28539958@N00/9D43u4

Patty wrote:With all the rocks on Great Lameshur, is it difficult to get into the water?

We wear our water shoes into the water and then people either tie them to our board shorts or toss them up on shore based on preference, and then the people who tied their shoes bring the people who tossed their shoes up their footwear when we return. I do think it would be tricky to get in without water shoes, but it is probably doable.

If you toss them up on shore, just be certain to get them far up on the beach! One time I tossed my shoes up at Waterlemon and we were gone so long the tide came up and one of my shoes floated away! John followed the current and found it right before it went around the point Walking back from Waterlemon barefoot would have been challenging!

How exciting that you all saw the Manta and I can only imagine the faces of Caili and Liam (under the masks). We went to Great Lameshur a couple of weeks after you saw the Manta but had no luck. So for now... I enjoy your video and dream about meeting Mantas someday.

The view from Coral Cove looks wonderful. We stayed in that area and the breeze was as wonderful as you've mentioned. It is far from Cruz Bay but we really like the location.

Looking forward to the next installment!

Thank you for your wonderful report and pics, as always. Love that you all got to see the manta - so special!

I was curious about Hansen. We have enjoyed snorkeling there in the past and we were wondering if it is still accessible. Seems like we read that someone put up a fence to block access last year? Sounds like its open to the public now.

Other than Haulover North, did you see much Sargassum seaweed? We had read an article in the news a month ago or so, and it sounds like it is really bad. Other than a few mentions here and there, it seems like its not too bad on StJ, unlike some other islands. When we were in the BVIs last fall, there wasn't much on most VG beaches. The only places that were really bad were the rocky bay near the water plant and the beach at Biras Resort, where it was piled 5ft tall and stinky!

Too Much Fun! Great photos and video! Thanks for sharing.

I was so happy when I saw your trip report. Yours are always so fun to read and I always enjoy the great photos. I am so jealous of the manta sighting. It's on my wish list but I'm glad your whole family could experience it together. You are the queen of trip reports in my book ! !

AquaGirl wrote:I was curious about Hansen. We have enjoyed snorkeling there in the past and we were wondering if it is still accessible. Seems like we read that someone put up a fence to block access last year? Sounds like its open to the public now.

We parked in Miss Vie's lot. Isn't her beach part of Hansen Bay? Anyway, before parking there, we did drive all the way to the end of the road to look for alternate access points closer to Pelican Rock. Everything that used to be available is now blocked with either fencing, no parking signs, or no trespassing notices. I looked carefully on both sides of the road but did not see an alternative to Vie's lot. She was perfectly cordial, but did ask us to be sure to be off the beach by 5PM. We made it off at 4:58

AquaGirl wrote:Other than Haulover North, did you see much Sargassum seaweed?

The only North Shore beach with sargassum was Jumbie. There was also quite a lot in Coral Harbor, the rocky beaches along the road to Salt Pond, and in the bay adjacent to Coral Cove. But, of course, none of those places are snorkeling spots. I would not worry about it.