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Trip Report, Part III: SHHH, I just saw a SHARK!
Trip Report, Part III: SHHH, I just saw a SHARK!
PART III: SHHH, I JUST SAW A SHARK
OUR GOOD LUCK ROOSTER TAKES A DAY OFF - SALT POND:
On Monday morning, the goal was to get up early and hike Ram Head, followed by a snorkel adventure in Salt Pond. Our friends were relying on our rooster to wake them up, but alas, he didn't crow. As a result, we didn't hit the road until 9 o'clock, way too late to mess with hiking on St. John on a muggy October day.
I was insistent on making it to Salt Pond anyway, while our group still had energy and sand gravity had not set in. We ate a quick breakfast then picked up lunch at Baked in the Sun and headed out, taking Centerline to Coral Bay and then the road to Salt Pond.
Now, I am not a motion sickness person. It's never happened to me, not once, not even on boats. But everyone, except the drivers, felt sick on the ride to Salt Pond. That is one twisty road, my friends.
We trusted Feet, Fins and Four Wheel Drives to be truthful about the hike to Salt Pond. For those who are wondering, none of us classified it as an "easy, five minute" hike, even our marathon runners. We took chairs and a cooler, and that was a foolish choice. You live and learn, I suppose.
Salt Pond Beach itself was lovely. I'd read that the shade is sparse, and that much was true. It's amazing how scrubby that side of St. John is. Quite a contrast to the North Shore road, that's for sure. Some pictures of lovely Salt Pond:
SHH, I SAW A SHARK:
One of my friends, who we'll call Design Chick, is afraid of fish. I know, it's silly, but she normally won't even get into the water if there are fish hanging around in the shallows. However, she wanted to snorkel. Or rather, her husband wanted her to snorkel.
Problem: her husband doesn't have the patience to let her have her hissy fits. Luckily, that's where Dave comes in. I've been with him ten years and have trained him well. He's seen me through a good many hissy fits, so he was well-equipped to deal with this little situation.
After 30 minutes spent getting Design Chick comfortable with the mask and the fishies, we set off on a little snorkel, just me, her and Dave. We head out to the left side of Salt Pond and are having a fabulous snorkel. I separate from them a bit and am happily watching a pod of squid. I look up briefly and see Dave gesturing for me. I swim over and he greets me with these words:
"Shhh, don't tell Design Chick, but I just saw a shark!"
"Where?" I ask.
"It just swam by, but Design Chick didn't see it and I don't want to freak her out. It was BIG," he says.
At this point, I doubt his story. Please understand that I've been with this man for ten years. He's rather... shall we say... eager to find cool animals or celebrities, and so sometimes he preemptively thinks that he sees something or someone when he really doesn't. Like the day before at Maho, when he shooed me away from a HUGE fish (and it was a fish because I was right next to it) that was about 4 feet long because he thought it was a shark.
I question him, asking how big it was, if he saw its head, and where it went. He assured me it was a shark, said about five feet long. I shrug my shoulders, replace my mouthpiece and snorkel off in the opposite direction from the shore.
I wasn't impressed.
I snorkel out further and am really digging on what I see out there. The snorkeling at Salt Pond is pretty good, folks. So there I am, by myself, just glancing around. I look down and right below me, nestled comfortably into some coral, is a very large nurse shark. Five or six feet? I don't know. I look at its back fins, look at its head, look again, and again just to be sure, and then swim off. No panic, no fear, but my body definitely issued a flight response.
I know you would practically have to punch a nurse shark to get it to tangle with you, but still, it's a tad unsettling. I collect Dave and Design Chick. I summon him to the surface and report my sighting. We decide to kindly suggest to Design Chick that we swim towards the shore. We don't tell her about our sightings until we reach standing depths. Good move, as she declares she is D-O-N-E with snorkeling. She wasn't, but she has a flare for the dramatic.
It wasn't our last shark sighting of the trip, but that's a story for installment five.
DRUNK BAY AND THE DELUGE:
Once our complete group gets wind of our shark finding, the guys all want to see the shark. So they set off for a dude snorkel, and the ladies opt to hike over to Drunk Bay. We beat our way through the brush and reach the beach. We take pictures of some statues (similar to msgcolleen's picture):
And then, we take the time to make our own specimen:
Nice little views from Drunk Bay, and an easy walk from Salt Pond. We head back and people are hungry and burned. Everyone's ready to go. We hike up the hill to the car (ouch and hot) and decide to go eat our lunch on the North Shore somewhere.
Big mistake.
Salt Pond was so very sunny, but the North Shore was so very moody, with big rain clouds and intermittent showers. We finally end up at Hawksnest and everyone is wet, hungry and in a foul mood for some reason (probably because we're wet and hungry). We eat our lunch while the mosquitos eat us. We then try to go out to the beach when the sun returns, but no one's feeling it. The mosquitos continue to feast.
We're tired and we're snorkeled out and we're being eaten alive. It's pool time.
I'm sure that Hawksnest is a favorite to many, but I just don't pick up good vibes at that beach. Don't know why, but it's not for me. C'est la vie. My friends called it "the bad beach" for the rest of the trip.
After returning "home," we have pool time and rest up before dinner.
THE BOP OFF THE CLIFF:
To summarize, on Monday we had sharks, showers and 'squitos, so why stop there? Why indeed. After a few too many cocktails, our friend the Accountant decides to run downstairs to get something out of her room. Now, the only way to access the bottom apartment is around the driveway and through a separate entrance. So, she bops down there, perhaps enjoying herself a little too much after enjoying her cocktails a little too much.
In her high school years, the Accountant was a big dancer, and she gets a bee in her bonnet to kind of "bop" back up to the house. To music... that she only hears in her head. Problem is, she's not paying attention and proceeds to bop herself right off her patio down a cliff. I'd say a good eight feet down.
She demonstrates:
She dusts herself off and drags her bones up to the main house, where we discover she is quite scratched and bruised, including long bloody scrapes on both calves. Once we realize she's more or less okay, we all laugh at her. Repeatedly. For the rest of the trip.
Don't lie, you'd do the same.
ZOZO'S:
Dinner that night was a ZoZo's. We split three bottles of wine (oopsie), appetizers, had yummy entrees (I had the Mahi), and then dessert. It was filling, it was good.
I was tired, and so excited for the next day, which was our trip with Lion in Da Sun. Everyone decides the failure of our rooster to crow MUST be what caused our "off" day.
That da*n rooster better crow in the morning.
OUR GOOD LUCK ROOSTER TAKES A DAY OFF - SALT POND:
On Monday morning, the goal was to get up early and hike Ram Head, followed by a snorkel adventure in Salt Pond. Our friends were relying on our rooster to wake them up, but alas, he didn't crow. As a result, we didn't hit the road until 9 o'clock, way too late to mess with hiking on St. John on a muggy October day.
I was insistent on making it to Salt Pond anyway, while our group still had energy and sand gravity had not set in. We ate a quick breakfast then picked up lunch at Baked in the Sun and headed out, taking Centerline to Coral Bay and then the road to Salt Pond.
Now, I am not a motion sickness person. It's never happened to me, not once, not even on boats. But everyone, except the drivers, felt sick on the ride to Salt Pond. That is one twisty road, my friends.
We trusted Feet, Fins and Four Wheel Drives to be truthful about the hike to Salt Pond. For those who are wondering, none of us classified it as an "easy, five minute" hike, even our marathon runners. We took chairs and a cooler, and that was a foolish choice. You live and learn, I suppose.
Salt Pond Beach itself was lovely. I'd read that the shade is sparse, and that much was true. It's amazing how scrubby that side of St. John is. Quite a contrast to the North Shore road, that's for sure. Some pictures of lovely Salt Pond:
SHH, I SAW A SHARK:
One of my friends, who we'll call Design Chick, is afraid of fish. I know, it's silly, but she normally won't even get into the water if there are fish hanging around in the shallows. However, she wanted to snorkel. Or rather, her husband wanted her to snorkel.
Problem: her husband doesn't have the patience to let her have her hissy fits. Luckily, that's where Dave comes in. I've been with him ten years and have trained him well. He's seen me through a good many hissy fits, so he was well-equipped to deal with this little situation.
After 30 minutes spent getting Design Chick comfortable with the mask and the fishies, we set off on a little snorkel, just me, her and Dave. We head out to the left side of Salt Pond and are having a fabulous snorkel. I separate from them a bit and am happily watching a pod of squid. I look up briefly and see Dave gesturing for me. I swim over and he greets me with these words:
"Shhh, don't tell Design Chick, but I just saw a shark!"
"Where?" I ask.
"It just swam by, but Design Chick didn't see it and I don't want to freak her out. It was BIG," he says.
At this point, I doubt his story. Please understand that I've been with this man for ten years. He's rather... shall we say... eager to find cool animals or celebrities, and so sometimes he preemptively thinks that he sees something or someone when he really doesn't. Like the day before at Maho, when he shooed me away from a HUGE fish (and it was a fish because I was right next to it) that was about 4 feet long because he thought it was a shark.
I question him, asking how big it was, if he saw its head, and where it went. He assured me it was a shark, said about five feet long. I shrug my shoulders, replace my mouthpiece and snorkel off in the opposite direction from the shore.
I wasn't impressed.
I snorkel out further and am really digging on what I see out there. The snorkeling at Salt Pond is pretty good, folks. So there I am, by myself, just glancing around. I look down and right below me, nestled comfortably into some coral, is a very large nurse shark. Five or six feet? I don't know. I look at its back fins, look at its head, look again, and again just to be sure, and then swim off. No panic, no fear, but my body definitely issued a flight response.
I know you would practically have to punch a nurse shark to get it to tangle with you, but still, it's a tad unsettling. I collect Dave and Design Chick. I summon him to the surface and report my sighting. We decide to kindly suggest to Design Chick that we swim towards the shore. We don't tell her about our sightings until we reach standing depths. Good move, as she declares she is D-O-N-E with snorkeling. She wasn't, but she has a flare for the dramatic.
It wasn't our last shark sighting of the trip, but that's a story for installment five.
DRUNK BAY AND THE DELUGE:
Once our complete group gets wind of our shark finding, the guys all want to see the shark. So they set off for a dude snorkel, and the ladies opt to hike over to Drunk Bay. We beat our way through the brush and reach the beach. We take pictures of some statues (similar to msgcolleen's picture):
And then, we take the time to make our own specimen:
Nice little views from Drunk Bay, and an easy walk from Salt Pond. We head back and people are hungry and burned. Everyone's ready to go. We hike up the hill to the car (ouch and hot) and decide to go eat our lunch on the North Shore somewhere.
Big mistake.
Salt Pond was so very sunny, but the North Shore was so very moody, with big rain clouds and intermittent showers. We finally end up at Hawksnest and everyone is wet, hungry and in a foul mood for some reason (probably because we're wet and hungry). We eat our lunch while the mosquitos eat us. We then try to go out to the beach when the sun returns, but no one's feeling it. The mosquitos continue to feast.
We're tired and we're snorkeled out and we're being eaten alive. It's pool time.
I'm sure that Hawksnest is a favorite to many, but I just don't pick up good vibes at that beach. Don't know why, but it's not for me. C'est la vie. My friends called it "the bad beach" for the rest of the trip.
After returning "home," we have pool time and rest up before dinner.
THE BOP OFF THE CLIFF:
To summarize, on Monday we had sharks, showers and 'squitos, so why stop there? Why indeed. After a few too many cocktails, our friend the Accountant decides to run downstairs to get something out of her room. Now, the only way to access the bottom apartment is around the driveway and through a separate entrance. So, she bops down there, perhaps enjoying herself a little too much after enjoying her cocktails a little too much.
In her high school years, the Accountant was a big dancer, and she gets a bee in her bonnet to kind of "bop" back up to the house. To music... that she only hears in her head. Problem is, she's not paying attention and proceeds to bop herself right off her patio down a cliff. I'd say a good eight feet down.
She demonstrates:
She dusts herself off and drags her bones up to the main house, where we discover she is quite scratched and bruised, including long bloody scrapes on both calves. Once we realize she's more or less okay, we all laugh at her. Repeatedly. For the rest of the trip.
Don't lie, you'd do the same.
ZOZO'S:
Dinner that night was a ZoZo's. We split three bottles of wine (oopsie), appetizers, had yummy entrees (I had the Mahi), and then dessert. It was filling, it was good.
I was tired, and so excited for the next day, which was our trip with Lion in Da Sun. Everyone decides the failure of our rooster to crow MUST be what caused our "off" day.
That da*n rooster better crow in the morning.
Girl-- when I saw that nurse shark at Salt Pond I had the SAME reeacton. It's the only time that I really ever got nervous in the water -- don't mind the little guys-- but when they are bigger than me something in my brain triggers and I am not right with being there.
That walk back up from Salt pond is a BITCH!!
Also, I would recommend Hawksnest for an AM snorkel or better yet head to Jumbie!
Keep em coming!!
That walk back up from Salt pond is a BITCH!!
Also, I would recommend Hawksnest for an AM snorkel or better yet head to Jumbie!
Keep em coming!!
Last edited by Gromit on Thu Oct 16, 2008 4:01 pm, edited 1 time in total.
*Another fine scatterbrained production
If the road towards Salt Pond "queasifies" your "tough as a nail" stomach, imagine what it does to my "sometimes feels queasy even on the subway (running straight)" stomach. I love our time on St. John but am in a constant fight against motion sickness.
I've seen sharks but have never seen a Nurse. Honestly, I would love to see a Nurse Shark, big or small (well, preferably ones not bigger than me
). Can
I've seen sharks but have never seen a Nurse. Honestly, I would love to see a Nurse Shark, big or small (well, preferably ones not bigger than me
). Can
Pickle,
I have mentioned this before but please stop at a drug store/big market and pick up motion sickness bands. I have used them for 25 years & they work great. No drugs, slip them put them in the glove compartment when you get to your beach. If you tend to get quesy snorkeling wear them in the water! Wierd tan lines but no motion sickness.
I have mentioned this before but please stop at a drug store/big market and pick up motion sickness bands. I have used them for 25 years & they work great. No drugs, slip them put them in the glove compartment when you get to your beach. If you tend to get quesy snorkeling wear them in the water! Wierd tan lines but no motion sickness.
I appreciate your suggestion, cocosmom. I will try the bands on our next trip to St. John. For some reason, I do okay with snorkeling (except a few times the water was too choppy for me). Actually I feel "worst" when driving back "after" snorkeling. My balance/inner ears seem to get messed up from being in the water for so long.
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nothintolose
- Posts: 1960
- Joined: Mon Aug 07, 2006 10:36 pm
- Location: New Orleans, LA
Your reports are such a great read! Thanks for sharing! Just love 'em! Love the humor, love the pictures, love dreaming about taking a trip to St. John -- hoping to do it for our 25th in Feb. but tentatively holding off for the moment....waiting for a brighter economic picture; however, reading all the great stuff on this forum makes me want to just say, "What the heck?! Let's go!"
Your reports are such a great read! Thanks for sharing! Just love 'em! Love the humor, love the pictures, love dreaming about taking a trip to St. John -- hoping to do it for our 25th in Feb. but tentatively holding off for the moment....waiting for a brighter economic picture; however, reading all the great stuff on this forum makes me want to just say, "What the heck?! Let's go!"
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msgcolleen
- Posts: 1497
- Joined: Thu Oct 05, 2006 8:33 am
- Location: Allen, Texas
You are right about just missing each other during the week! But, I'm sure I saw you guys Tuesday getting on the "Lion in Da Sun" charter as we were boarding the "Night Train" for our day sail. Can't wait to hear about your trip!
Loved your Drunk Bay dude!!
Loved your Drunk Bay dude!!
I've got 2 tickets to paradise~Pack your bags we'll leave tonight!
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