St. John, The United States Virgin Islands 3/3

Traveling the World with Christie Cruise and Travel Masters
Alison Christie

St. John, The United States Virgin Islands

I have been writing about the beautiful Virgin Islands and the experiences "The Gang" enjoyed during our weeklong stay at the Westin on gorgeous St. John. We chilled and got into "Island Time" on the beach with good books, we are very well at different restaurants in Cruz Bay, Played a little tennis and took a long boat ride to Virgin Gorda to see The Baths. As we checked off our list of things we wanted to do while on St. John, we had one thing left that all of us wanted to do (my son Alex and his friend Greg Stump - my other son who is part of "The Gang" could not come with us because of college classes). We all wanted to explore the island. There were 2 ways we could do this: rent a jeep and explore by land or rent a dingy and explore by water. Both options would be fun but they both also had downsides. They drive on the left side of the road and navigating very small, curvy island roads didn't sounds all that appealing, although we drove all over Ireland this way last summer. The dingy option had the appeal of deserted beaches and very cool snorkeling places but the downfall was being in a small boat in a big ocean. The "dingy law" was we had to stay at least 100 yards from shore so that was a little intimidating for me. However, wanting to be the "cool" Mom as I described in my last article and wanted Alex and Greg to have the best possible time, I agreed to rent the dingy out last full day on the island.

The next morning, we loaded the boat with our gear, plenty of sunscreen and some water. As we were pushed away from the beach, little did I know of what was awaiting us in the seemingly harmless, crystal clear, blue/green waters of the Caribbean. I sat beside Alex and let him do the steering first. Getting out of Great Cruz Bay, where the Westin is located, was easy. We had to go slow since there were many sail boats and power yachts in the bay. Yes, this is fun I tell myself. A little sun and wind in my face, an occasional mist of salt water and the huge smile on Alex's face was making me forget all of my earlier worries about the dangers of being on the open ocean in a small boat. However, my smile did not last very long. Once we got out of the protected bay, the waves were much larger and naturally, Alex gave the boat more power. The dingy reared straight up and I thought we were going to go over backwards. Now, that is a huge exaggeration of what happened as it wasn't anywhere near tipping over backwards but that's what it felt like to me. I yelled at Greg to sit in the front, hoping it would bring the nose down and was also yelling at Alex to slow down. However, it is just not that easy. Going slow in that thing is actually very bad as well because of the waves. We didn't have very much time to try to adjust the speed because the most dangerous reef that we were told to watch out for was coming up rather quickly. The instructions we were given on how to navigate the reef were contradictory. Get close to the reef on the right side as it goes straight down in the water but not too close and watch out for the reef on the left side because it is quite large and only about a good below the water. OH, and yes the opening that you have to go through is only about 10 feet wide. Normally, 10 feet is plenty of room to steer this small boat through but given the nose was about 3 feet higher than the back of the boat that made it difficult to see over. Alex was standing while steering and Greg and I were leaning to each side of the boat giving directions and being engulfed every now and then by a rogue wave. I was trying so hard to see any sign of the reef on my left but all that I could think about was the waiver that I signed at the Cruz Bay Watersports, essentially agreeing to hold the company harmless in case of an accident and also agreeing to pay for any damages to the boat. The instructor was also nice enough to tell me about a gentleman that hit this exact same reef last week and his vacation just cost him $18,000.00 more than he thought it was going to cost. Apparently, $18,000.00 is the cost of a new dingy. Back to the story...Alex maneuvered out little dingy right through and we made it to the other side without scraping the bottom of the boat on the coral. Our first major challenge was met with success.

After the coral reef, it would be a little while before we encountered any other obstacles, so Alex worked on the speed. Alex and Greg wanted to snorkel at Waterlemon Cay, the very furthest location we could possibly go in the dingy. The instructor told us to go there first, as later on in the day the water became choppier. What?? It couldn't possibly get any choppier. We did manage to get the boat to "plane out" quite a bit, meaning the nose came down and the boat became much more efficient in cutting through the water. Thinking having Greg in the front was helping with this, we insisted he stayed there. All I can say now is "I'm very sorry Greg". He was tossed, bounced, thrown, smashed...there aren't enough adjectives to describe what was happening to him in the front seat. He was hanging onto the rope used for tying up the boat and it looked like he was riding the most fierce, bucking bronco and hanging on for dear life. I'm sitting beside Alex, clutching my beach bag that has my cell phone in it, to my chest as I too, am being tossed about the boat. I am actually petrified. My thoughts are going wild and this cell phone was going to save our lives in the event we get tossed overboard. I had it wrapped in 3 plastic bags, inside a lined cosmetic bag with my scarf wrapped around it. How I was going to tread water with my bag in the air until I swam to shore wasn't something that I had totally worked out yet, though. But I needed to have a plan and this was the best one that I had. To be fair to Alex,  it wasn't his fault. There is simply no way to operate a dingy more than 100 yards offshore where it could possibly be a smooth ride. We made it to Waterlemon Cay and indeed the snorkeling was fantastic. We got to see a large sea turtle, which Alex and Greg said was the highlight of their snorkeling. We hit several deserted beaches on the way back, which I will admit was a little less choppy but still a teeth rattling ride. And all the way home, Alex kept saying what a "trooper" I was. I hope that was his way of saying what a "cool mom" I am.

Safe travels, Alison