St. John, United States Virgin Islands 2/3

Traveling the World with Christie Cruise and Travel Masters
Alison Christie

St. John, United States Virgin Islands, Part 2

Our gang was able to fly to this tropical oasis of fun only because we were proactive and rented a car and drove to Charlotte, NC to catch the 2nd leg of our flight. We were to leave on March 5th and our local, trusty weathermen and weatherwomen were all predicting a very heavy snow storm for early that morning. After having bad experiences of flights being cancelled out of Charleston, WV because of weather, we didn't want to chance it. So after some quick maneuvering with American Airlines and calling Tri-State Airport to rent a car (last one from Avis, Hertz totally out of cars), I wrapped up work the best I could and we left Wednesday afternoon for Charlotte. It turned out we made a great decision because our flight WAS indeed cancelled the next morning and our trip would have been shortened by at least one day, maybe two. Sometimes you just have to do what you have to do.

As I wrote previously, we enjoyed a few awesome days on the beach, relaxing, reading and getting into "island time". We also spend one day on a trip to Virgin Gorda and The Baths, an amazing experience along with snorkeling at Norman Island. We spent another day playing tennis in the early morning and relaxing on the beach at The Westin Resort and Villas on St. John in the afternoon. Alex is trying his hardest to connect with a Sailing School in St. Cruz Bay, only to have the number busy at times and no answer other times. That's when an idea hits him...We could kind of kill two birds with one stone and he could enjoy some time on a boat in the ocean and instead of renting a jeep and exploring the island by land, we could explore the island and the secluded beaches by water, renting a dingy for the day. That sounds OK by me. I've taken 3 different boating trips throughout the Virgin Islands over the past 20 years and remember taking a dingy from the boat to the beaches to hang out at Foxy's, the Soggy Dollar Bar and Willie T's floating bar at The Bite, on Norman's Island. So, Alex checks out the details from Cruz Bay Sports at the Westin, comes back to me and of his grand plan. We could rent a 14 foot dingy with a center console steering wheel and that would be big enough for The Gang (Alex, my oldest son, Greg Stump and me - we were without our 4th member of The Gang, my youngest son Austin who couldn't get away from college). The cost of the rental was only $200.00 and Alex assured me we didn't need the bigger dingy of 16 feet. Trying to be the cool Mom who is fun to hang out with, I said "Sure, sounds great to  me. Here is my American Express. Go rent it for the next day".

The next morning rolls around, after a night of toss and turning by me and not a lot of sleep, our alarm goes off and I told Alex I just wanted a little bit of extra sleep. He and Greg could go ahead, rent the snorkeling equipment and get the 15 minute lesson on how to operate the dingy and I would be there shortly. After all, we rented the boat for a full day and it wasn't going to leave without us, so a few extra minutes of sleep by me wouldn't hurt our plans. That is when Alex says, rather sheepishly, that uh, he and Greg couldn't take the Captain's lesson because it had to be someone with experience of boating on the ocean. Great. I have plenty of experience RIDING in dingys but not operating them. But, still hoping to be the "cool" mom, I get right out of bed and after a quick shower, Captain Alison is ready to take on the Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea.

After filling out forms and waivers of basically being responsible for any damages of any kind to the dingy, the employee then went over the detailed water map of where we had to pay very close attention to where the reefs were and what we had to do to avoid getting too close. I was petrified and totally unable to concentrate on his warnings, wondering if I had any kind of insurance that could protect us and being pretty sure that I didn't have any such coverage. However, I tried to mask the look on my face and we proceeded on to the dingy operations with another guy. This employee was much more laid back, quickly pointing out just the very basic mechanics of this water craft. Here is the key, the kill switch, push forward on this lever to go forward, pull back to go backwards and the trim (for the motor) is located here. He also handed us life vests, saying you don't need to wear them but they make good seat cushions. Said we had enough gas to get us to Waterlemon Bay (which is where Alex and Greg wanted to go snorkel) and if we didn't have any other questions, off we go and he gave us a big push away from the beach. Alex was at the wheel and although still rehashing my lack of insurance coverage, I had the presence of mind to say or maybe slightly yell to him, "Do you have the trim up?!!! DO you have the trim up?!!! To which he replied "Yes, Mom, it was already to for being on the beach".