2026-03-29 Good visit, and on to St. Martin

We had a good visit with Lindsey and her boyfriend Zach.  Spent 2 days in Watermelon Bay on the north side of St. John, and then motored to the south side and spent 2 days on a mooring in Salt Pond.

Good times hiking and snorkeling in both places.

Dean, Zach and Lindsey -setting out on our hike

Sugar mill ruins near Watermelon Bay

Charm in Watermelon Bay

Some of the prickles along the trail

The flowers were in bloom, and the bees extra busy gathering pollen

Jack Spaniard wasp nest - small and easy to accidentally brush against when hiking

We met some other hikers on the trail, and they suggested the best ruins were just a bit further on.  Guess we all misunderstood the directions they gave, but after going about a mile out of the way, we did backtrack and find the ruins.

Brown Bay Plantation Ruins

Taking a break 

Salt Pond Bay on the south side of St. John is known for having sea turtles, and it did not disappoint.  

Saw many turtles surfacing to breathe, and Kris saw 8 on the bottom during a quick snorkel in the bay.  We also had a large Jewfish under the boat for a while, but could never get a photo of it.

Spent a lot of time snorkeling around Salt Pond Bay, and Dean also cleaned the props, and changed the zincs.

School of Blue Tangs

Queen Triggerfish

Schoolmasters

Stingray with remora

Green turtle surfacing with remora in pursuit

Turtle feeding

We went for a walk - all uphill to have some ice cream.  Found a couple of blue pool noodles in the road that must have blown out of someone's vehicle.   Carried them to ice cream and back to the beach, where we found a couple of kids we could give them to.

Ice cream - yummy treat

Dean carrying the pool noodles we found on the road.

On the nice trail back to the bay 

Of course, we had plenty of time to just relax as well, and also played games in the evening.

Mexican train dominos night

We left Salt Pond early Wednesday morning and headed back to St. Thomas to drop Lindsey and Zach at the airport.   Sorry to see them go, as they were easy company - relaxed, didn't overuse water, even helped do dishes - they are welcome to come back anytime.   

After dropping them off we headed into town, got groceries, had lunch and then back to the boat where we upped anchor and headed back to St. John to Francis Bay - whew - busy day.

Tried a new place in St. Thomas - The Tap and Still.   Very good veggie burger and fries.

Friday we went for a walk to the Annaberg Sugar Plantation Ruins near Francis Bay.  At one point there were up to 591 slaves at the plantation.  Amazing how they terraced the steep hills to grow sugar cane.  About 1 gallon of sugar cane juice made 1 lb of sugar.

Nice walk up to the plantation ruins

Info board

Old windmill ruins

Saturday morning we upped anchor and motored through the British Virgin Islands east to get in a position to sail to St. Martin.   Per the weather forecast we should be able to motor east for 15 miles or so past the BVI's in light winds, then turn to St. Martin on a tight reach.  That did not work out.   We did sail some, but the winds were lighter than forecast, and more east than forecast, so ended up sailing for only a couple of hours, then the motor came back on, and it was mostly a motor trip. Oh well, at least half the trip was also fairly calm seas.   Got in at 3:30 a.m.  - dropped the hook and went to bed.