Under the Sea

While in St. John we snorkeled every day, usually twice a day, and rarely repeated locations. The shoreline of St. John is a series of bays which provide calm waters and excellent snorkeling. All we had to do was park the jeep, take a few steps or a small hike to the edge of the water, and get in. Every bay had different features and creatures. Parrotfish were everywhere. I read somewhere that if you got close enough to them that you could hear them crunching on the coral, and lo and behold it was true. The following pictures don't really do the experience justice, but they'll give you a taste, anyway.


We saw tea turtles everywhere--they let us follow them all over the place. I can't even describe how much swimming with turtles delights me.


We only saw these large starfish (the four-legged variety are called sea cushions) in one place, off Waterlemon Cay, but there were gazillions of them. I even saw one of them moving. It was not very exciting.


This picture isn't great, but it was taken at my high point of the trip. By the end of our trip we had seen virtually all the creatures shown in all the books except for the spotted eagle ray. It became our white whale, so to speak. On one of our last snorkels, there they were! First there was one, then suddenly there were three, circling around us, snuffling around for food in the grass and sand, seemingly oblivious to our being there. They were huge--several feet across, with tails about 8 feet long. I could not keep my eyes off them.


Look very closely--there's an octopus hiding in there amidst the conch shells. We knew the shells meant that an octopus was nearby, and as we swam down for a closer look, we could see it pulsate and change colors! SO COOL! We also saw lots of squid swimming around--I chased one and made it ink.


One day we were snorkeling close to shore and I suddenly heard Greg shouting, "KATIE, KATIE, KATIE!" I looked his way and saw a shark. Holy crap, a shark! It was a nurse shark, about six feet long, just cruising along the bottom. Not dangerous, but freaky just the same.

So, bottom line, if you are in the market for some amazing snorkeling, go to St. John. St. Croix was so-so, St. Thomas is a pit to be avoided at all costs, but St. John is heaven. I'm already planning our return trip in 2015!