March 23

It has taken me 45 minutes just to reach this screen… who knows what else will happen with this hotel’s wifi. I will wait until March 26, when I am back home, to mention today’s activities, and photos.

Well, this morning the electronic wave across the ocean must have kicked into high-gear… all seems normal. Yesterday was not normal, and I mean the activities, not the wifi. The St Croix airport is only about a 20 minute fight from St Thomas. All was smooth until the landing. A Cessna 402 can be moved around more easily than a B-737 at low speeds. St Croix is much different compared to St Thomas, and St John. The Sandy Point Wildlife Refuge was closed, so I headed east on route 70, passing one of the few remaining K-Marts in the world. St Thomas has one, as does Guam. A couple of my high-school and college friends, Tim Murray and Dave Knachel, will remember I worked at a K-Mart in Fairfax, VA. But that was decades ago. I drove to Salt River Bay NHP and Ecological Preserve. This is the only spot where Colombus landed on which the property is now owned by the U.S. Government. This was his second trip to the area, in 1493. Plenty of campers had lined the beach with tents. I passed by the Sea Thru Kayaks location, which has access to the bay. I will get to them in a minute.

Next stop was Fort Christiansted NHS. The VC and Bookstore building is under major overhaul. I was worried I could not get the Passport Book stamps. But I walked into Ranger Evan, inside the fort (it is open from 8:30 AM to 4:30 PM). I asked him if the stamps were located someplace else. He had to check one of the rooms in the fort, then he offered to take me to the park’s offices across the street, where the stamps were available. We spent the next 20 minutes talking about the fort, the city, and the history which intertwines the two. Every African slave which came to the island landed in Chirstiansted. The scale house, where each slave was weighed, is close to the waterfront. An ancient scale mechanism is situated right in the middle of the first floor. Evan said the average lifespan of a slave was six years, once he stepped on-shore. The fort was built in 1733 by the Danish, who now owned the area, after the French and British had fought for years (in the 1500s and 1600s), to protect their interests. The fort’s name was Christiansvaern (“Christian’s Defense”), in honor of the Danish King Christian VI. Sugar cane was the primary output, just like St. John island. I had seen a couple of sugar cane fields as I drove from the west end of the island to Christiansted. The U.S. came to own the island in 1917 when it paid $25 million to Denmark. Evan said long-term plans have the VC/Bookstore building become only a bookstore, while the facility at Salt River Bay will be the official VC for the three NPS sites on the island. Problem at Salt Bay is the building there was basically destroyed by a recent hurricane, so full reconstruction is underway.

Stamps in-hand, and a thank you to Evan, I walked to Caribbean Sea Adventures office on the city’s boardwalk by the water. This boardwalk is where many restaurants and a couple of hotels are situated; it is the “fun” part of the city at night. Captain Allie and her two-woman crew (I apologize because I will probably not spell their names incorrectly… but think of Leia of Star Wars… so, Leia and Teia) welcomed an enthusiastic group of tourists onto their boat, for the 30-minute excursion to Buck Island Reef NMon. These three ladies are about the best boat team I have ever seen. First stop was the west anchorage area of the island, so everyone could relearn their snorkeling techniques. I took a camera over to the beach to get my photo in front of the NPS park sign. Then, 45 minutes of snorkeling. I followed a couple of spotted Trunkfish, some yellowtail snapper, and countless other species. The east end of the island is much different. The ladies said the reef is similar to a horseshoe, with the east end being the “u-turn”. Therefore, the NPS has set up permanent bouys which boats attach to, so the bottom is not disturbed. I lost track of time, but the view was stunning. Some Great Barracuda were waiting for an easy meal. I made sure not to get too close. Multiple varieties of large and small Parrotfish displayed their colorful skins. Puddingfish, Yellowheaded Wrasse, Blueheaded Wrasse, Blue Tang, and seemingly endless other species were going about their business, interacting with the coral.

Remember Sea Thru Kayaks? 6:30 PM was the departure time for their Bioluminescent kayak tour. There are only a handful of areas around the world where one can see this night-time display. Certain single-cell organisms, when disturbed, will “light up”, as a defense mechanism. After paddling the 3/4-miles across the main section of the bay, we went through a small channel into the 10-acre light-zone. Circular light sticks attached to the back of each kayak was basically the only “light” we had by which to navigate. Then the fun began. The faster one paddled, the bigger the sparkles and blue “clouds”. I had a see-thru bottom kayak, so as I moved forward I could see the cells flow by, emitting their white and blue lights. My first thought was that of a wormhole, as seen in the Star Gate or Star Trek movies. Our guides, Meg and Jake, had said Ballyhoo fish are known to jump into the air at night, and could land in your kayak. How prophetic. I was jolted when a 6” specimen decided to join me for the ride. I quickly put him back into the water. I will not go into the scientific details of the bioluminescent. Rather, if you are on St Croix in the future, you should consider taking this tour. Be advised, you do have to paddle at least 1.5 miles in a kayak, so have some arm stamina.

Well, that was quite a day, visiting all three parks on St. Croix, with some suntan to show for it. Time to head back to Ohio.