St. Croix Trip

St. Croix


We headed out from Christmas Cove on Great St. James Island at 7:30am on Monday, October 12th. Seas were less than 3 feet and it was a smooth ride towards Christiansted. About 2 hours out, we had our first dolphin encounter. About 4 to 5 dolphins riding in our bow wave and jumping for us. Another half hour later we encountered our next group of dolphins. They too, played in our bow wave.

About 2 hours before we reached Christiansted we started seeing spray in the distance. It appeared to be whale blows, but we thought that surely we were wrong. We changed course and headed in the direction of the blows. We thought that we saw 2 whales blowing. Finally, we saw a whale breach in the distance. Very cool. We tried to get closer, but they disappeared and we never sighted them again. Either way, it was our first whale sighting and that alone made it special.

We averaged about 7 knots and arrived in Christiansted in 6 hours. Our first stop was at St. Croix Marine where we attempted to fuel, since this was supposed to be the best prices on the island $3.19 per gal. for diesel. The fuel pumps were broken. Our luck…. They told us to go to Green Cay Marina for fuel. We also inquired about dockage, they wanted $2.75 per ft. per night plus 50cents per KWH for electric and 10cents a gal. for water. Not inexpensive. We were very surprised as we expected St. Croix to be less expensive than St. Thomas where dockage runs us $1.00 to $1.50 per ft. per night for transient, especially in low season.

Off to Green Cay Marina further east on the north shore. Easy entrance and they met us at the fuel dock to help tie us up. Fuel was $3.30 per gal. We inquired about dockage and they were $2.00 per ft. per night, with the electric and water the same price. We asked about the white mooring in Altoona Bay by St. Croix Marine and were told that they had been put in by the Conservation Group, but they had no one to collect the fees….so we would probably not have to pay anything. We left Green Cay and headed back to Altoona Bay in Christiansted Harbor. We picked up a ball closest to the St. Croix Marina and dinked on in to check out the marina.

There is a $5.00 per day fee for tying the dinghy up at their dinghy dock. They told us we could also leave a rental car in their secured lot. Being that we were renting a car the next day (for 2 days) we were happy to hear that it would be safe at night. We called Olympic Car Rental and rented a 4door small car for $38.00 per day. (plus fuel). Quite the deal.

We took a quick ride around the harbor and out to the western beaches of Christiansted. We checked out the strip of bar/restaurants on the wharf and the Fort and Protestant Cay (and hotel). Back to Cattitude for cocktails and dinner, as we want to get going early on Tues. morning.

Tuesday, Oct 13 9am we dink on in to St. Croix marine and Olympic Car Rental meets us to take us to the rental office to procure our vehicle. A quick and easy procedure and we are ready for our tour of the island…map in hand.

We headed east through Christiansted and pass Green Cay Marina and Restaurant, the lovely old Bucaneer Hotel and sugar mill ruins. We pass several restaurants and watering joints. The north shore is beautiful with rolling hills and pretty houses. Not far from Green Cay is Reef Beach and Duggan’s Reef restaurant with a pretty beach and hammocks under the trees. It was not open for lunch, but it looks like a great place to spend some time. We were told that it is one of the best restaurants on island and a great place to get lobster. We continue on to Teague Bay and the St. Croix Yacht Club. Looks like another good place to anchor and use facilities. After Teague Bay we came up to Cramer Beach Park. Nice beach with tables, shelters and virtually no one there. Across from the beach is a HUGE radar dish (85ft. across) it is part of the Very Long Baseline Array.

See more about it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Very_Long_Baseline_Array

Heading further east, the views of Buck Island are beautiful. We end up at Udall Point (the furthest eastern point of the United States.) There, there is a monument to the Millennium. You can see for miles and miles. Northwest to Buck Island….. East to the Ocean as far as the eye can see and South to the southeastern bays of St. Croix. Just beautiful.

From Udall Point we headed south and west along the coast. Our biggest complaint was that the foliage along the roads was so high that you couldn’t see the view most of the time. We did come to overlooks and eventually got to the DiviCarina Hotel complex. There is housed the only Casino on the island. We didn’t stop to gamble. (LuSea is underage). We continued driving along the south shore and eventually came across a Boy Scout camp. Pretty cool looking sporting/climbing area.

Next we saw HOVENSA! It looks like a large city in New Jersey. This is the largest oil refinery in the Western Hemisphere. Just huge! Drove around it but it seemed to continue for miles.

From Hovensa, we decided we needed lunch and couldn’t find anything along the road, so we took a straight path to Frederiksted. There was a cruise ship in town so many market booths were set up along the wharf. We drove past and headed out to Coconuts for lunch. Great burgers and Margarita’s and the waitress even brought LuSea a glass of ice water. After lunch I wanted to walk through the vendor booths as I knew they would only be there when the ship was in. Considering it was a large Celebrity ship, there weren’t many people in town. The vendors had some really pretty things. I think the item I like most is the “Chaney” jewelry. It is made from small pieces of old broken Chinese pottery. The piece is then surrounded by a silver or gold bezel. Very nice stuff….different. I didn’t buy any, since Paul has cut me off from jewelry purchases.  Now what I don’t know is “can you only get Chaney in St. Croix, or is it available in other islands?

We finished up with the vendors and headed back east toward the St. George Botanical Gardens. Upon arrival they were charging $8.00 per person and Paul had no intention of looking at plants for $16.00. We then decided to head back to Christiansted via the rain forest. It was certainly the long way back, but we saw the rest of the north shore and arrived back in Christiansted by dinner time. Since we had the car for 2 days, we walked along the wharf and then headed back to St. Croix Marina to leave the car and head back to Cattitude. Upon arrival at the marina parking lot, we were told that we couldn’t leave the car there and that we needed to leave it on the street. No way! We eventually agreed with the marina manager that we would leave it in the restaurant parking lot on premise. Not sure they would be happy about that, but at least it would be safe.

Back at Cattitude we had dinner and bedtime as we wanted to get a reasonably early start the next day.

Wed. Oct 14th. We head back to the marina about 9am and yes, our car is still there. Today we will go back to the west end of the island and check it out further. Cruzan Rum Factory is our first stop. The tour is $5.00 per person. At first we thought that that was a little high for walking thru a rum factory….but stay tuned. The factory was interesting, to see how the rum is made, all the barrels of rum in the warehouse for aging. Over 10,000 barrels. Wow. The flavoring and bottling is now done in Florida, so all we saw as end product was the area where they pump the final product into tankers to ship to Florida.

Now, here is the great part! After the rum factory tour, they take you to the bar to taste the rum. Now we figured that we would get those little tiny shot glasses with a couple of tastes of the different flavors. But, NO, they are making full drinks. Each tour guide seems to have their own concoctions. You can try many drinks as you want or can consume without falling over. Cool beans! Best was the Banana Split. It is kind of like a Bushwacker, but all different rums.

After the rum factory we went to the Whim Plantation. A historical site. Original house and furnishings along with a sugar mill remains. Interesting to hear the story of the owner and see a map of St. Croix with the locations of all the sugar mills. There were hundreds of them. After the house tour, it was a self guided tour through the property. Nice with a lot of remaining items from the 1800’s.

After the Whim plantation we continued along the south shore and ended up at Sandy Point. One of the nicer beaches on the island. We just looked, but had no desire to go swimming. It would have been a nice place to have lunch. We decided to head back up to the rainforest and the Infamous “Domino Club”. Home of the beer drinking pigs. We head through Frederiksted and up the mountain. Along the way we see the waterfalls from the rain forest by the Creque Dam. This dam was built a long time ago to collect water for Frederiksted. You can climb down to the bottom where the water falls, but there are also a few waterfalls on either side of the road. We found a particularly nice one, but there were a number of locals in it so we watched for awhile and continued on our way. It is amazing that in the middle of this rainforest there are sporadic homes. Most, you can’t even see the entrance road to the house.

Arrival at the Domino Club. We are the only ones there and we put LuSea in her travel bag. Into the restaurant we head and sit at the bar. Paul & I ordered lunch and while it was being prepared we were deciding what to drink. Along comes a cat and LuSea barks from her bag (up on the barstool). They say “YOU HAVE A DOG?” Paul answers, yes in the bag. No Dogs. But he replies “it is in a bag”. No dogs, put it in the car. No, the car is too hot and the dog will not survive. NO DOGS. Meanwhile there the cat on the floor eating from a bowl and we look around and see another cat lying across one of the dining tables. We ask “what about the cats”. Oh, they are no problem, just the dog. Paul, who never gets upset with anything, says “That’s bull shit” and we up and leave. Ridiculous. They have cats and beer drinking pigs, but the dog in the bag is a problem. Again, bull shit.

We head back down the mountain into Frederiksted and find the Turtle Deli. Wow, a deli that rivals a NY deli. We order Reubens on fresh baked rye bread. Paul a pastrami Reuben and me a Corned beef Reuben. The sandwiches were HUGE and delicious and LuSea was allowed to sit under the table. We each ate half the sandwich and had them wrap the other half to take back to the boat for another meal.

From the Turtle Deli we headed back north along the coast and into Christiansted. By now it was around 4pm and I still wanted my Lobster dinner. We walked along the wharf checking out the menus and finally found that “Angry Nates” was serving lobster. We certainly weren’t hungry yet, so decided to take a walk and them come back for happy hour and finally dinner. We watched sunset at a table on the wharf during Happy Hour and told the waiter that we were going to take a long time before ordering dinner. No problem, and LuSea sat under our table and they brought her a BIG bowl of ice water. So much for the stupid people at the Domino Club. We ended up talking to a gentleman that was down on business. He ended up sitting with us while we ate dinner (he had already eaten) but he did try my lobster. It was Delicious. One of the best I have had. Paul had prime rib which was the special of the evening. His was delicious too. It was a great meal with reasonable prices. 1 2lb. lobster dinner, 1 prime rib dinner, multiple cocktails and wine and the bill with tip was $100. The 2 lb. lobster was $34. And the prime rib $20. The rest was alcohol. Great prices.

After dinner we headed back to St. Croix marine to leave the car and dinghy back to Cattitude.

Thursday, Oct. 15th. This morning, we will return the car. Paul will take the car back to Olympic and I will take LuSea in the dinghy and we will meet at the wharf when Olympic drives him back. We visited the Fort, Steeple Building (was a church, then a bake house, then multiple other things) the Scale House. Lots of history to read about. Afterwards, we found the ice cream parlor and called that lunch! And then visited the shops in town. In the late afternoon we headed back to Cattitude and ate the 2nd halves of our Reubens for dinner.

Friday, Oct 16th. Today we will head to Buck Island. We lifted anchor and headed east for the 2 mile run to the island. The entrance into the lagoon where the snorkeling is is a little tricky. It is hard to see the entrance buoys from a distance, so a chart is really necessary and the cruising guide helped. There were only 2 other day boats there and we picked up a mooring ball. Great snorkeling. Lots of colorful fish in a reef surrounded bay. We saw 1 shark, then 2 sharks, then 3, then 4. And of course, the battery on the camera died. So back to the boat to charge out the batteries. Armed with a working camera, we headed back to where we saw the sharks earlier. They were all still there. Paul took the camera and I stayed back a distance. They freak me out. But I did see all four of them. A couple of black tipped sharks and a reef shark and lemon shark. All just hanging around. Some guys from the day boat thought that they might be laying their eggs in the grasses they were swimming around. Very cool. Our first shark sightings and 4 at that.

We got back on Cattitude, where LuSea was waiting patiently and popped open a couple of cold beers. While we were sipping our beers, just limin, a National Parks Service boat approaches us. They pull their bow right up to our stern and a ranger jumps onto our boat. Doesn’t ask to board, doesn’t say anything. Now that, was not cool. He begins to tell us that the limit for the moorings is 42’ and they can see from the side of Cattitude the great big 43. Ooops, we didn’t know. Gives us a warning and as the park service boat (with a fender out on the wrong side) pulls back up his bow to our stern to pick up his buddy…..he hits our swim ladder. Now they have a bunch of officials onboard and were showing them around. We yell. You damaged our boarding ladder. It is bent. They bring the guy back to our boat and he jumps off the boat of their boat on the other side. These guys are idiots. How about putting fenders out and coming along side. Duh! The ranger looks and the ladder and gives us a business card with the head rangers info on it so we can put in a claim. She is onboard the guilty boat. They leave and we pack up.

Off to the western bay and drop anchor. It is a beach, and a turtle nesting area. We swim ashore (with LuSea) but keep her down by the water so as not to leave doggy prints in the sand. (Next thing you know, we will be arrested for taking the dog ashore.) It is a very pretty beach with picnic tables and barbeque pits. You are however, not allowed on shore after sunset or before sunrise. We enjoy a really pretty sunset and barbeque onboard.

Sat. Oct. 17th We decide to try to go back to the snorkeling area in the hopes that we won’t get caught. Really, 42 ft. or 43 ft. We don’t get it. As we are heading over, we see a ranger boat coming. Crap. We decide to pass on the snorkeling and head east along the north shore of St. Croix. We find no other anchorages that are accessible and still seeing the ranger boat out there head back west. We see a day boat anchored just west of Buck Island on the north shore of St. Croix. We find the entrance and head to the beach. It is pretty much deserted except for the day boat, which is leaving.

We kayak to shore and walk the beach. We see what looks like tire tracks, but we see that they are actually turtle tracks. Neat! You can see exactly where the turtles come out of the water, where they nest, and then head back into the water. There are a bunch of them.

As we continue to beach comb, Paul finds what appears to be a rubber ball. We think that is some kind of seed, and just throw it up into the bushes. (The next day, we realize it was probably a turtle egg that didn’t hatch.) Bummer, wish we had realized it then so we could have looked at it closer.

A while later we see the ranger boat finally head back to Christiansted. It is now 3pm and they probably get off at 4pm. We pick up anchor and go back to the anchorage on Buck Island. We enjoy sunset cocktails and grilled dinner again. The weather has been outstanding. Calm winds, flat seas. Perfect.

We are heading back to St. Thomas tomorrow and we plan to try to fish. Someone had caught a 500lb. marlin just 2 miles off St. Croix 2 days before. Paul gets our rod, reel, and lures set up….We are going to catch a big one!

Sun. Oct 18th. We wake up and enjoy the morning. When we get up and look at the beach, we can see turtle tracks that were not there the night before. Cool. Great pictures of the tracks. We eat a leisurely breakfast and hoist anchor to head north.

The seas are calm, then wind is down and we cruise at about 6kts. Trolling all the way. Nice cruise, but not a single hit. Bummer. Coming north, it is really hard to figure out at first which island is which. But the GPS doesn’t lie so we just follow our course. 5 hours later we are rounding Great St. James Island and back in Christmas Cove. The one thing that we did notice heading back to St. Thomas was that the wind from the North had a "chill" to it.  Guess winter IS coming.

It was a great trip. Although Paul had no desire to go, even he enjoyed it. We had always been told “not to bother with St. Croix” as there was not much to see. There is a lot to see, just not the many, many beaches of the BVI and there aren’t many fun bars for partying. Certainly no beach bars. But, the scenery is beautiful. The thing that hit me the biggest was how clean it was. NO garbage on the streets or highways. Even the poorer homes (though they might have had a dead car or 2 in their yard) their houses were neat and clean.

For those who say take 3 days, One to get there, One to see it, and One to get back, you are not getting the entire experience. You need at least 2 days with a car. A day of walking around Christiansted and at least one if not 2 days at Buck Island. So a week is a perfect amount of time.