St. Croix Island Talk

This posting begins what I hope is a monthly update on what is happening in the Scuba Diving world of St. Croix, brought to us by our friends at Dive Experience.

Michelle Pugh, Dive Experience owner, writes:

“Last week we had a photographer and diver from Sport Diver Magazine.  They did a two tank morning dive with us, and then on the afternoon dive we were met by a large pod of dolphins!  In the pod were two little baby dolphins that were probably not more than a few weeks old.  Very cute!  The next night we did a night dive on the pier and found several seahorses and a frog fish.  After the dive we went to the new hip place for dinner called Ono’s that is above Turtles Deli and had a great meal there.

On top of that the St. Croix Department of Tourism just dropped off an Italian magazine that has our dog Skeeter in it!”

Michelle really knows how to keep this newly certified open water diver excited about the sport even though I am now stuck in New England for the winter!  Baby dolphins - how cool is that????

Are any of you readers scuba divers who have dove on St. Croix?  If so, leave a message with your favorite St. Croix dive and why!

This will be the last update associated with Hurricane Omar and St. Croix.  We were all truly blessed that Omar spared the island to a great extent.  Latest reports are that power has been restored to most of the island, still waiting are residents on the hard hit East End.  Tour operators have returned to business; last week there were some trips to Buck Island and scuba diving.  Most restaurants and shops are open.  Winter is fast approaching so time to start thinking about those vacations to warmer climates, and there is no reason that St. Croix shouldn’t be on your list due to Omar.

Even though Crucians breathed a sigh of relief on Thursday that the damage was light from Hurricane Omar, there is cleanup that must be done.

WAPA, the island power company, has power restored to over 40% of the island including Christiansted and expects nearly full restoration by Monday.  The East End and South Shore (opposite sides of the island from Villa Soleil) were the hardest hit, with poles sheared off or fallen over and will take the longest to restore.

The Coast Guard is on island, helping the cleanup of Christiansted Harbor where several boats sunk, docks were destroyed and channel marker buoys need to be re-deployed in their proper spots.  Several tour operators boats weathered the storm and they expect to be back in business sometime next week.  Schools are also set to re-open on Monday after a survey of the structures is completed and fallen trees have been removed for accessibility.

Dana, our caretaker, who hails from New England and for whom this is his first hurricane experience in the tropics, isn’t sure yet whether he prefers this to a nor’easter or not.  Similarities certainly exist, from the packed grocery stores and people stocking up on non-perishable goods and batteries to traffic snarls due to road closures.  And removing sodden leaves and debris could certainly equate to shoveling snow.  On the other hand, the sun has come out, the temperatures are back in the 80’s, and always beautiful vistas of the Caribbean Sea haven’t changed.

Preliminary word from St. Croix is that Hurricane Omar hit around midnight last night but left only minimal damage in his wake. Omar had gained enough strength to be classified as a Category 3 hurricane just around the time he was due on St. Croix, but at the last minute took a more easterly path than forecast. Omar passed through what is known as the Anegada Passage, between the islands of St. Maarten/St. Martin and the Virgin Islands, instead of directly over the VI’s. Less powerful winds on the outer edges of the storm meant less damage to the island.

Power remains out on St. Croix as WAPA struggles with an issue at the main generating source. There are some downed trees, telephone and electric poles, damaged boats in Christiansted harbor, and washed-out roads, but little structural damage is being reported across the island. Over 5 inches of rain fell, with the East End taking the brunt of this storm. Omar was one of those fluky hurricanes that traveled northeastward, the reverse of most Atlantic hurricane trajectories. Actually, the last hurricane to affect St. Croix was also a reverse traveling one, nick-named “Wrongway”Lenny, in Nov. 1999.

Villa Soleil itself sustained some minor damage, mostly to our fence and trees. All this rain does have positive consequences - it will help the islands bushes and trees recover and re-leaf and our cisterns (the method of catching rainwater and storing it beneath the house until needed for cooking, drinking and bathing) are full.

Whew…..we are all breathing a sigh of relief this morning and looking forward to business being back to normal in a very short time!

Here is a photo taken on Tuesday by our caretaker from the Villa Soleil deck showing Omar’s approach.

I looked at the date on my last post and I can’t believe it! How can it be almost mid-October by now? The days in Boston are getting shorter and cooler, the trees are beautiful, and Coloradoans are starting to think about the snow, but St. Croix and Villa Soleil have not been far from our thoughts. September and October tend to be our slow rental times, and therefore, maintenance and upgrade time. The Villa is getting a new look this fall - new exterior paint will turn it from white/blue to yellow/purple. Work is progressing and I can’t wait to see the final product. Some boring stuff like electrical work and pool maintenance, and new doors that will welcome our guests come November.

As always, Melissa will make a trip down there at the end of the month to stock the Villa with everything from cleaning supplies to games, all those things our guests so appreciate having on hand when they arrive. If I’m lucky I may be able to slip away for a few days….I would love to Scuba with her and try out that newly minted Dive Card that recently arrived in the mail! With airfare to the Island as low as it’s been for awhile I might just be able to do it……….

Learning how to use Windows Movie Maker to make the new villa tour movie wasn’t enough fun…..no, I recently also got to learn to use iMovie.

We have had this great scuba diving movie for awhile  of Melissa (who is an amputee) using a device called The Scooter when she was diving.  The Scooter is a motorized contraption physically challenged or handicapped scuba divers hold on to and it helps power them around.  Of course, Melissa’s kids had to get in on the action and give it a try for fun as well.  And St. Croix’s beautiful reef fish and coral play a starring role!

Anyway, we’ve had this movie on CD for awhile but it was a Quicktime movie and I hadn’t taken the time to get it so it was web-ready.  Voila, my son gets a new Macbook and, like any good mother, I co-opted it and put it to good use!  You can rate how well I did by watching the movie either on YouTube or on the Villa Soleil website.

Enjoy - I myself can’t wait to go back to St. Croix now that I am officially open water dive certified!

Whew!!!!

Was I happy a few weeks ago. I have been working on a new video tour movie for the Villa Soleil website for awhile. You would think it would be easy……but no matter what it is that is new to you it seems as if there is always a learning curve. I chose to use Windows Movie Maker because it is what was on my desktop. Not sure I would start with that program again. Although the end product turned out okay. It just seemed like what I wanted to do wasn’t easy. Okay, it was easy to put the pictures together but editing what I didn’t like wasn’t. I had to delete some stuff I wanted to stay and re-do other transitions between frames. It just seemed to take more effort than necessary.

And after I got it done I had to figure out how to put in on the website so everyone could view it no matter what their system or video player…..more fun and games! Enter YouTube. After several days thinking I needed to change my video format to Quicktime and being totally frustrated with that, I learned something extremely exciting. I can’t even begin to tell you HOW EXCITING this was at the time……You upload your video to YouTube, THEY convert it to flashplayer, and give you the code to embed it on your webpage and VOILA!!!! everyone gets to see your new video.

You can see the result of my hours of work on YouTube or the Villa Soleil website.

I think it turned out pretty well if I do say so myself. I also have to give credit to my business partners son, who is entering the music industry. He did the soundtrack for me - nothing quite like having your own composer to write St. Croix reggae music on demand!

Enjoy -

Although I am back in Massachusetts thoughts of St. Croix still linger, sometimes showing up in the most unusual ways…..

Hubbie and I remain single (without children) since all of ours are currently traveling somewhere else. So last Wednesday I had the brilliant idea to invite Jeff on a picnic dinner. Here in Marblehead we have a beautiful little offshore island that is easy to canoe to. So I packed some dinner, a blanket, a flashlight and a candle, and we loaded the canoe on the car and off we went.

After dinner, sitting on a rock, contemplating the surrounding ocean in the moonlight, we happened to noticed what we thought were fireflies hovering right above the water. We have fireflies here, but I had never seen them anywhere but our backyard. After closer inspection we realized they were bioluminescents IN the water. (fireflies are also bioluminescents - ie a living creature able to create their own light)

We’re familiar with creatures called Bioluminescent Dinoflagellates from our kayak trips through Salt River Bay with Caribbean Sea Adventures on St. Croix but I didn’t know they lived this far north. We’ve run our fingers through the water on these kayaking trips to mimic predators and encourage these guys to show us their stuff and light up. It was an unexpected pleasure to experience the same phenomena in our own North Atlantic - they are so beautiful and add more romanticism to an already special evening.

Me being me of course, I had to do a little research and learn more, and so I’ll take this opportunity to share a little more these amazing creatures with you:

Bioluminescence is the only source of light in the deep ocean, and about 90% of marine organisms have the capability to produce light at varying intervals and lengths. Many are marine plankton and photosynthetic, so they are important links in the ocean food chain. Dinoflagellates fall into this category. Most light emitted we see in the green or blue spectrum, mostly because water absorbs the other colors faster. The roots of Red Mangroves produce lots of tannins that are rich in vitamin B12, which is important for these little guys; they can be found in the unpolluted bays of the tropics where these beautiful trees grow. Voila! The reason the lagoon just below the house is full of them and their light!

Whether you experience in your own hometown ocean or make a point to do it on your next holiday, this is one of those ‘don’t miss’ experiences, especially for kids. Dragging your hand through dark water and leaving a trail of light behind you is truly magical.

Here I sit over the beautiful Caribbean Sea.  The varying blue colors of the water are too many to count.  What a pleasing image to the eyes and soul.  The only thing you hear are the birds and the ocean waves (calming to say the least).  The flowers are breathtaking, both the colors and the aroma.  I personally love the plumeria.

This is the place where we re-charge our batteries.  We are a family that works hard and need this time to  have fun and recoup.

We have only been here for four days and have already golfed, spent hours by the pool, gone out to dinner and today we plan on scuba diving.  We are all looking forward to the rest of our stay in PARADISE.

Villa Soleil is so comfortable for our family and friends….time to wake up the troops and start the day.

Our last night on St. Croix.  Erik and Melissa and their crew arrive tonight….I’ll be turning the daily blog over to them.  Dinner again on the deck.  It’s just too nice to leave when we get home from the beach and cleaned up.  Neighbors are having a party so we even had live jazz to accompany our leftovers.

How things change from one visit to the next:  a new bypass around Christiansted is being built, the government owned hotel on the boardwalk that has been under restoration is nearly finished and looks nice.  There are some new houses being built in Judith’s Fancy, some building going on around the island.  A new jet ski rental place on the boardwalk in Christiansted looks to be doing well.

Then there are things that haven’t changed much, like the weather and the scenery.  The taxi stands.  The Forts.  The friendliness of the islanders.

Today we did some shopping in C’sted.  Found gifts for our kids, local music mostly, which we will all enjoy.  Spent the afternoon at Green Cay.  Saw three sea turtles, some adult squid and two tiny (an inch long) squid, and two very large schools of Blue Tangs.  And an iguana.

As much as it changes, it doesn’t.  It’s been a fun holiday but I’m also looking forward to getting home and seeing my son, friends and cats.  Isn’t that the way it is when you leave?  At least Boston area weather is similar to this so I won’t suffer too much climate shock!

Cheers, J