US Virgin Islands, St Thomas to St John

So, here we go with week 2 of this fantastic trip. I can’t wait for some of the neat stops this week. It’s two cruises combined really and so yesterday a whole crop of new people got on the ship. There are 33 of us that were on the cruise last week so approximately 200 newbies. I spent the day on the ship, taking advantage of the space with hardly anyone else on board since the people leaving the tour were gone by 9 am and the new passengers didn’t start to embark until 1 pm. I actually got to the gym for the first time. I am pretty proud of myself for doing a pretty good workout. Hard to do on those days when we’re snorkelling.

We departed San Juan at 10 pm on Saturday evening with the same flag raising ceremony as last week and headed for our first stop at Haven Sight Cruise Ship Terminal in the capital city of Charlotte Amalie on the island of St Thomas in the US Virgin Islands.

The US Virgin Islands are an “organized” unincorporated territory of the US similar in nature to San Juan. They have no “rep by pop”. They get to elect a representative to Congress, but that person can’t participate in votes in Congress and can only participate in committee. They participate in the presidential nomination process but like other territories, don’t get to vote in the presidential election. Locally, they have an elected legislature, with different number of representatives from each of the islands. As of 1970 they are able to elect their own governors, whereas before then, they were appointed by the President of the United States.

The main islands that make up The US Virgin Islands are Saint Croix, Saint John and Saint Thomas but there are approximately 50 more smaller islands in the group totalling 134 square miles.

Christopher Columbus (who else) is thought to have discovered the islands in 1493, but the Spanish didn’t settle until 1555. English and French settlers also started arriving but interestingly so did the Danes in the late 1600s with the establishment of the Danish West India Company. In 1754 the islands became part of Denmark. Slaves were used on sugar cane and cotton plantations and in the last half of the 1700s, there were significant slave rebellions and eventually in 1848 the slaves were declared emancipated by the Governor. Many of the Danish farmers abandoned their farms because they were no longer profitable and their population gradually dwindled. In 1917 the United States purchased the islands.

The islands have been hit by several hurricanes over the years, most notably in 2017 when within two weeks they were hit with two Category 5 hurricanes, Irma and Maria which caused extensive damage.

At one time, oil refining was large here but it has been shut down and now tourism is approximately 60% of the GDP of the islands, and 2.5 – 3 million people visit the islands in a normal year. Agriculture and small scale manufacturing (rum distillation) make up the rest.

There are several National Park Service sites in the islands, and today, one of them was our destination about 5 km east of Saint Thomas, the island of Saint John. Saint John is only 17 square miles and about 60% national park. Famous Honeymoon Beach is part of it and our specific destination. You can hike 30 minutes from the ferry dock (the only way to get to Saint John is by private boat or ferry) to the beach. We took a charter catamaran today.

Our catamaran, the Dancing Dolphin, was in one of a plethora of yacht clubs on the island, about 20 minutes by bus from the main cruise ship terminal. There were 3 dozen or so people on this excursion called the Saint John Catamaran Champagne Cruise. We motored over under beautiful blue skies and pretty calm water passing several of the smaller islands around Saint Thomas. One of the staff on the catamaran pointed out quite a large island that apparently used to belong to Jeffrey Epstein. Some of the homes on the hills of the islands were pretty spectacular.

There were several boats anchored in the bay at Honeymoon Beach and quite a few snorkelers already in the water. After a safety briefing we got our gear on and headed out. There was quite a large reef to explore with more fish than we’ve seen at other spots. I saw a school of probably 100 bright yellow, fairly good size fish at one point, ebbing and flowing with the current under a coral shelf. There was some bright red coral that I’ve never seen. Then I snorkelled over to the beach and went for a walk on the absolutely beautiful sand. I forgot to take my camera to the beach with me so I don’t have any pictures of my painted toes in the sand there. A good reason to come back.

We weren’t there long before we were called back to the catamaran for the return trip. We were offered the ubiquitous rum punch on the return trip as well as Prosecco and some cheese and crackers to hold us over til lunch. Any day on the water is a fabulous day, and today was no exception.

After we got back I showered and grabbed some lunch and then went browsing through the shops in the cruise ship terminal area. Didn’t buy any jewels I’m afraid. The rest of the day was spent in what has become quite a routine, napping, snacking, chatting, working on blogs, reading, listening to port talks, and dinner. I’ve had some really interesting table companions which makes the chatter really interesting.

Tomorrow we’re in to St Barts, (weather permitting) the island of the rich and famous. Lots of famous people seek out their privacy on St Barts, partly because it’s so hard to get to. Our tour director warned us to check out the menu of any restaurants we might want to try because some of them have outrageous prices for seemingly routine food. I don’t have an excursion booked for tomorrow and am looking forward to sleeping in a little.