St. John Talk Blog

Well, I’m sure tons of people do this, but for my first time, I swam in the ocean on Christmas Day.  Weird, but cool:

Hope everyone had a good holiday.  There is actually a model home at Pond Bay already available to tour.  It’s the already-painted home with the palm tree in front on the left side of the complex.  Looks beautiful.  You can see interior pics on the on-stjohn.com blog site.

Having been here for just about a year, I have finally taken a picture of a hummingbird.  They are always flitting around the landscaping.  Previously, by the time I got my camera they had taken off.  This one hung around.  The shot isn’t great and he’s flying in the shadow so the color isn’t great, but that’s okay, I’ll keep trying!

Things are moving along quite well.   There’s even exterior paint and a palm tree!!  Click on the image to see the full size one.

Hope everyone has a good weekend and the Northeast doesn’t get as much snow as predicted.

One of the things that makes St. John and most tropical islands beautiful is the many cloud formations that are almost always present and changing on a typical deep blue sky background.  This is I think due to the generally high humidity in the tropics, the available atmospheric moisture and local radiational heat effects from land masses, but I’m no weatherman.  So, anyway, to see a cloudless sky down here, like the one we have today, is pretty unusual and worth commenting upon.  And the humidity is quite low, feels more like California than the Caribbean.

Although we have no official confirmation, we are told that an intoxicated tourist jumped from the 10:00 pm Cruz Bay to Red Hook ferry on Monday evening.  Apparently the tourist was angry about something and leapt from the ferry into the water.  While the ferry came about to try to find him, it was unable to do so.  Our source tells us that the tourist has not been found.

While short on details, we obtained this information from someone who was on the ferry and who wishes to remain anonymous.  If that is the case, we are surprised that there has been none (or very limited) mention of this situation.

If anyone knows about this situation, please do let us know.  We hope our – allegedly missing tourist – is found and is alive and well.  Of course, if this is not true, please let us know; we don’t want to be spreading false rumors.

Casey is all wet in this photo after a nice swim at Gibney Beach.  Of course, she wouldn’t have gone in for a swim if Matt hadn’t physically carried her into six foot deep water and made her swim back to shore.  After this, she kind of stayed away from the water for most of the afternoon.

Here’s the closest we’ll get to a snowman this winter on St. John, built yesterday by Bob Cioppa, friend Brenda and daughter Ruby on Gibney Beach.

Last night was the annual Mongoose Junction “All Island Christmas Party,” known affectionately by locals as “Prom.”  Hundreds of island folk and tourists alike flooded Mongoose Junction last night to dance to the beats of famous island band Inner Visions, drink and eat some yummy complimentary treats provided by Michael and Barbie of Sun Dog Cafe/Gecko Gazebo.  An awesome time was had by all.

The latest Pond Bay Update, taken today, Dec 12 at about 5:30 PM.  We thought you guys would like to see how it looks towards sunset as we usually take the photo in the morning.

A day late and a dollar short, but that’s okay.  Here’s this week’s Pond Bay update photo:

Have a great weekend!

Yesterday afternoon was a big old Sunday afternoon beachfest at Oppenheimer Beach.  If any of you were driving on the north shore and saw a bunch of (illegally) parked cars along the side of the road (including mine) it was to attend the pig roast on the beach (food by Red from the Beach Bar) with live music by a local band.  Beer (Virgin Islands Pale ale, naturally…yum) was also available although lots of people brought their own coolers.  Some people also brought their dog.  If I knew that beforehand, I would have taken Casey.  She loves a good pig roast.

Sorry the pic is so lousy.  It was taken with my old Motorola Razr phone.  Forgot my real camera.  There were a lot more people than the picture suggests.