St.John

[LRDWILDER]

I have a friend in St. John who is an Instructor. I'll shoot him an email and let you know

[robjoubert]

Originally Posted by Rileybri

Just booked five nights on you know where!!!! STJ Inn this time around......STOKED

Can you please tell me how you did the bookings?

[spethmd]

We have been going to Cinnamon Bay On St John since 1975 (originally my parents, my wife and I, then additionally our children, now also our grandchildren). We have always stayed in the furthest out, highest, tent (it used to be tent 46, it is now tent 62), where we can see out over the Caribbean, with beautiful sunsets, seen directly from our bunks. We are all avid snorklers with the exception of our son who also scuba dives.
The setup at Maho Bay did not exist yet in the 1970's.
In the mid and late 1970's, one could go down to the beach, put on the snorkels, walk into the water toward the right, and there, immediately adjacent to the beach and extending all the way along the shore to Maho Bay was the most beautiful, vivid, live, vital coral reef right below the surface with glass clear water rich in every type of coral (including huge brain and antler corals), sea fans, sponges, anenomes, worms, you name it, and teaming with every type of Caribbean tropical fish, eels, squid, turtles, and on and on. A similar live reef was over at Little Cinnamon Bay and a rich teaming reef surrounded the island to which one could easily swim across from the Cinnamon Bay beach.
But they are all gone now --- dead and gone. What a tragedy!!?? Our grandchildren will never see that paradise. I am told that there are absolutely no living reefs around the shores of St John anymore for snorklers.
Similarly, in the 1970's Stewart and his wife would attach their 46 foot sailboat out on a buoy in Cinnamon Bay and take families, like ours, out for day trips to little islands with beautiful reefs. We even floated over two large leopard Rays on one of those trips. I am told those reefs are also dead for snorklers!!
We still go there because it is a beautiful place. But how sad that the reefs are gone for snorklers!!!

[mitsuguy]

Originally Posted by spethmd

We have been going to Cinnamon Bay On St John since 1975 (originally my parents, my wife and I, then additionally our children, now also our grandchildren). We have always stayed in the furthest out, highest, tent (it used to be tent 46, it is now tent 62), where we can see out over the Caribbean, with beautiful sunsets, seen directly from our bunks. We are all avid snorklers with the exception of our son who also scuba dives.
The setup at Maho Bay did not exist yet in the 1970's.
In the mid and late 1970's, one could go down to the beach, put on the snorkels, walk into the water toward the right, and there, immediately adjacent to the beach and extending all the way along the shore to Maho Bay was the most beautiful, vivid, live, vital coral reef right below the surface with glass clear water rich in every type of coral (including huge brain and antler corals), sea fans, sponges, anenomes, worms, you name it, and teaming with every type of Caribbean tropical fish, eels, squid, turtles, and on and on. A similar live reef was over at Little Cinnamon Bay and a rich teaming reef surrounded the island to which one could easily swim across from the Cinnamon Bay beach.
But they are all gone now --- dead and gone. What a tragedy!!?? Our grandchildren will never see that paradise. I am told that there are absolutely no living reefs around the shores of St John anymore for snorklers.
Similarly, in the 1970's Stewart and his wife would attach their 46 foot sailboat out on a buoy in Cinnamon Bay and take families, like ours, out for day trips to little islands with beautiful reefs. We even floated over two large leopard Rays on one of those trips. I am told those reefs are also dead for snorklers!!
We still go there because it is a beautiful place. But how sad that the reefs are gone for snorklers!!!

In St. Croix, the underwater preserve around Buck Island is the same way - all the coral is dead... However, in Cane Bay, where we dive, there is plenty of healthy coral in as little as 6 feet of water, and it's quite nice all the way out to the wall which is in about 35 feet of water...

[jet126]

We were there over Christmas 2008. Ditto what everyone has said about the reefs. Dead. So sad. Even Waterlemon Cay was a shadow of its former glory - and that was one you could always count on. I did one two-tank dive. Christmas Cove was as bad as the reefs, Little St. James Ledge was in good shape - not surprising since that's a private island.

The hiking is still phenomenal. The national park is doing a great job maintaining the trails and they were not at all crowded.

I'd go back to St. John for the hiking.