Nov. 3, 2013--Sunday:  St. John's

Again the forecast was saying more rain and a 10 percent chance of a tropical storm developing.  At this point, we decided to throw good weather to the wind and head to St. John anyway.  Turned out to be an excellent decision!  We soon discovered the west and north facing shores were calm as a pool there!   The water was nice and clear, too.  We fell in love with St. John!!  I've decided when I win the lottery, I want to move there instead of Kauai now---or maybe split time between the 2!  3/4th of the island is National Parks and very picturesque.  Even the little town of Cruz Bay is covered with trees and pretty buildings. 

 Had to stop at the overlook of Cruz Bay on our way north out of town.

Soon we were into the National Park.

It was still raining, so I was really surprised when we pulled over at the Trunk Bay overlook and saw the beautiful greens and blues of the water there.

The crowded Trunk Bay beach

We decided to head past Trunk Bay to Cinnamon Bay and work our way back.  But at Cinnamon Bay, we really didn't see any stand out snorkel areas, so we took a few pictures and doubled back.

 Even passed what looked like some old ruins.  Next time maybe we'll investigate them some.

I had been to Trunk Bay years ago on a Disney cruise with my Dad: http://travelingwithsue.blogspot.com/2009/05/2005-disney-cruise-lets-try-again.html .  That was a complementary cruise from Disney because he almost drowning at Castaway Cay on our previous cruise.  So when we went to Trunk Bay that trip, I only snorkeled a short distance from shore and made him sit on the shore.  I wasn't impressed with the snorkeling then.  But today we snorkeled all around the island just off shore and all the way to the rocks at the far right of the beach.  I can now see why everyone brags about snorkeling here!

The rain even held off---mostly.  Did get sprinkles now and then, but we were snorkeling so it didn't matter.  Plus the weather was so suspect, that not a lot of other people showed up.  Turned out to be a perfect day!
Almost immediately we were welcomed by these guys.

 I had seen some of the underwater snorkel trail last time, but happened to miss a lot of them.  Here are a few of it's markers.

 This guy's size is deceiving, he was quite large.

 Some of the beautiful soft corals around Trunk Bay.

 Another very large fish---I believe it's a snapper.  Note the average sized blue surgeonfish below the coral.

Another small damselfish

 some of the terrain around the island

 terrain and a butterfly fish

 more terrain

Rounding the far side of the island.

Even looked above the water now and then.

another spotted pufferfish

 Josh and his squid buddies.

 surgeonfish

 Looks like a butterfly fish, but I haven't seen one like this before.

 another type of worm?

 another new butterfly fish

 Ken noticed an area that was covered with these tiny shells.  This is just a small sampling of that area.

At this point, Angie's memory card was full so she headed back to shore to replace it.  Then we headed to the far right rocky shelf.
More colorful Christmas tree worms.

 a couple more lizard fish.

 Even a lobster.

 A flounder

 Large porcupine puffer

 This picture doesn't begin to show the size of this Caribbean grouper!  This guy was even bigger than the snapper I saw earlier.

Even spotted this translucent fish.

 terrain to the far right

 back to the beach---one final look.  Looks like some cruise passengers have finally arrived.

 By now we were hungry, so we hit up the snack bar there.  After seeing all those fish, I was ready to eat some!

 Some donkeys even decided to come and enjoy the beach.

We still had a couple hours before our ferry and we were anxious to check out another beach.  So we went to the next one closer to town--Hawksnest Bay.  This turned out to be a real gem!!  No showers, lockers, or snack bar like at Trunk, but it was free and parking was about 10 feet from the beach.  We were also treated to an extremely calm surf and clear warm water. 

  so calm and clear!

 One of the things I liked about this place was the size of the fish and variety of ones I haven't seen before.  Here is the largest triggerfish I've ever seen.

 Not too far out is a forest of these orange Elkhorn corals.

There is also lots of fan coral.

 And the schools of surgeonfish like we see so many other places.

 Another treat was to see this huge Angel fish.  

 This Queen Angelfish was also huge!

Of course, my battery gave out then, just as this large school of different fish came by!  But it was time to go anyway, so off we went.  But we did have time to stop at a market and get some refreshments for the car ferry.  We had paid the $50 RT in advance, so had to wait for the same ferry.  (Note, the internet said RT was $40 on the weekend, but they said it's been raised to $50 now)  It wasn't a long wait, though.  They were punctual. 
 Nothing like a little Mango beer to help the time pass!

on the ferry.

 views from the ferry ride were interesting, too.

 goats on St. John

 looking towards St. Thomas from the car ferry

 red cliffs of St. Thomas.

 Back at the Elysian and dinner at Sangria's.  Love the view from the open air restaurant---even at night.

 pina coloda time!

The end to a perfect day!  Would loved to have gone back to St. John.  Too bad Ken wasn't as thrilled with it as I was!  Anything with a time schedule to it (like the ferry) makes him nervous.