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ST CROIX 2024 DAY 5
Day 5: Scuba #2 and some beaches
Going to bed early has me getting up at the crack of dawn as well. I just couldn't sleep any longer and the hubby was up soon after and headed for the coffee pot.
I managed to make breakfast sandwiches and pack for the day because we are...
GOING DIVING AGAIN OF COURSE!!
We headed out to the car at 8:45am and going somewhere new...Cane Bay Beach. We were winding our way around the mountains (some scary and near miss curves you couldn't see around) and eventually made our way down the other side. (They REALLY need right hand right cars on this island and the weeds cut along the side of the road).
We eventually made it to Cane Bay and we were told to park in the parking lot at The Landing Beach Bar. We sat in the car in the a/c...it was so hot already this early in the morning.
I managed to see a lady on her phone walking back and forth along the road and we decided to get out and found out it was actually our dive instructor. I moved the car over to the beach by the restaurant at Sprat Net Beach
We were ready to put our gear on right away. You see, if you have done a Discover Scuba in the last week, you do not need to repeat the class to do another dive. We get to go straight to the good stuff.
Our dive instructor today would be Calli (on the left)...Remember this picture? (Not my picture and belongs to Cane Bay Dive Shop)
We headed onto the beach and was ready to head out.
There were a few rocks when you get in and boom....I fell down onto my bottom. Oopsy! I should have known it was coming. I'm always danger prone. The hubby helped me up and out we went. I ended up with the same pair of fins I had the day before (which didn't match and the backs were different and one of them hurt). Calli was gracious enough to allow me to wear her dive boots and fins to prevent rubbing. That was so nice of her.
We were going out to the buoy and then go down but the water was really pushing us back so we just decided to go ahead and go under.
Once again Karl was floating up and would be pulled around by Calli during the dive.
Karl was going to get to experience what it was like to dive at a reef. I was excited to see what it had to offer.
Here's my videographer again...getting all the great footage for me to put together something interesting for you watch. 🙂
We started to see more and more coral and the excitement was building at what we might find today.
Black Durgon Trigger Fish
Sakari started with the macro pictures of course.
Karl still being pulled around so he don't float up:
This area had anemone's too:
We spotted a stingray with a friend:
Then we spotted a bunch of Garden Eels...this time Sakari would not miss them. She managed to get some close ups of them but they did not turn out the greatest because of the coloring.
She patiently waited on the sea floor, without moving, for one to come up...and it finally did.
She found an oyster:
We finally made it to the reef and it was really pretty and boosting with color.
More macro from Sakari:
Blackbar Soldier Fish hiding out:
More Garden Eels in the area: this was the most we've ever seen before...even when we went to Roatan and went diving at "Mandy's Eel Garden" there wasn't this many!
It was just an explosion of color.
At this point I have someone poking at me and I turn around and I see the hubby shrugging his shoulders, making a weird face, and then pointing at the GoPro. Oh no! It had stopped working. No clue what had happened. There really wasn't anything you can do when you're under water.
We continued on...
I look around and the hubby is GONE! Like I couldn't find him anywhere. I look at Sakari and I see her taking pictures with the camera except that it was pointing UP. What is she so interested in?
Yep, he was all the way up at the top of the water. He was trying to fix the GoPro. He later told me he told the instructor he was going up and pointed at the GPS. I guess she understood. Once he had fixed it, back down he came.
French Angelfish
Yellowtail Damsel:
Look at this beautiful Redband Parrotfish:
Harlequin Bass and friends
Sakari captured several pictures of a beautiful Coney Sea Bass. It seemed to have a fish attached to the side of it.
I noticed a really huge fish in the distance and I started swimming that way. Before long it was going over the edge at the wall. I hear a "tap-tap-tap" and that was my signal to GET BACK! We were not allowed to go over the wall and if this instructor knew me, she'd know walls petrify me most of the time. No worries Callie. I didn't get my shot of the big fish darnit. He was too fast for me. Can you spot it? It's right below my name.
More Groupers:
When Karl hit 1500, it was time to turn around. I still had 2600 on mine. Come on Karl, get with it. Control that breathing. 😂
Banded Butterfly Fish
Blue Headed Wrasse:
Spanish Hogfish
Karl was still busy floating up and Calli was still holding on:
We spotted a turtle:
Squirrel fish
Then we spotted a group of Squids on the way back.
Black Durgon Trigger:
We arrived back safely and poor Karl had sucked up all by 500psi. I was left with 1600psi, Sam 1100psi and Sakari 2000psi (was Sakari even breathing down there???). We were down there for 43 minutes and went 36 feet according to the instructor. The water temperature was 84% at the bottom.
Aww, Sakari led Karl out of the water and we all praised him for such a great job he did.
It was a great dive and we were happy that we had booked a second dive. We are now currently up to dive number 26 under our belts and Karl has had 4 dives.
After our dive we didn't hang out for very long however, Karl found a coconut and after watching Aidan and Wesley break one open the other day, he thought he would be able to do this by slamming it against the concrete. It did not work.
Here's a video of our dive. I hope you enjoy it. If you don't, it's the hubby's fault. Just saying.... 😉😂
Now I wanted to mention...I worked for HOURS on this video and only after I finished and downloaded it did I open it up in full screen on my computer. Then...I noticed something that Sakari did. She never mentioned it to me. I never seen it happen...even though I was looking that way. The hubby was recording her and never noticed. But review the video and I noticed...SHE DROPPED MY CAMERA! She always has the tie around her wrist and I have no idea why she didn't at that time. It dropped to the ocean floor and she retrieved it before anyone could notice. Then didn't tell anyone...until right now after I confronted her about it. It's one of my biggest fears...dropping a camera. (After just having a heart attack back in spring and the hubby dropping the GoPro and not knowing when we were diving in Puerto Vallarta. Eeekkk).
Also, sorry for the coloring in the video. It is horrible in some areas. I have yet to figure out what causes this. No settings are changed but sometimes it turns out real blue or green and other times it is fine. The only thing I can come up with is that it depends on the sunlight (maybe going behind the clouds at times distorts the colors on screen). We even have a filter on the lens so that it helps with the coloring. 😶
As we were leaving, Sakari spotted this weird bug that would fly and then come down and then dig in the sand. He was really interesting to watch.
We decided to continue on down the street and it would dead end into a resort. This was Carambola Beach Club. We were told where we could park, up a small hill and that we would have to walk down across the street, down the steps, across the parking lot, through the resort and out to the beach. Whew!
This would be the parking lot on the hill:
There was a couple that came walking down the hill. They looked confused. They said they were told to walk UP the hill from the parking lot and they would find the trail to Annaly Tide Pools. This is a big attraction here in St Croix and a lot of people hike this trail to find the tide pools. I've seen pictures. It's very beautiful but a lot of work to get there (a couple of hours to get there and it's around 4 miles). Then you have to hike up and over slippery rocks to the other side and you are rewarded with a tide pool you can get in and then hike in reverse to get back. They had tried several times to find the trail...and by several times, they said 3x so far. They were headed back to the security guards station to ask once again for instructions. I felt bad for them. It was extremely hot. Too hot for us to even think about it.
We walked across and down the street a short ways to the steps:
Then we found the steps to go down toward the resort:
Across the parking lot we went:
The resort was very pretty but the beach didn't leave anything left to be desired. It was pretty rocky on one end and a sandy area the other way but most of all the water was pretty wavy. It wasn't really enticing enough for us to want to get in. There wasn't anyone else down there either. I'm not sure if it's always like this (the waves) or just today.
We decided we really didn't want to swim here so headed back up to the car.
Ok, so that beach was a bust and I was really craving some water/beach time...and Karl was craving some food.
So on our trip to Frederiksted Pier and trying to find the rain forest...remember where we ended up going down the dirt bumpy road and had to turn around at the quarry area? Well, we've passed a beach/restaurant several times and decided we would head back over that way and check it out. It was on my list of beaches to go to. What better time right?
It was a place called Rainbow Beach and I believe it is a place that others recommend as a beach day when cruising. It's not far from the cruise port and easy to get to. So if you are a cruiser looking for a beach to go to on port day, here's my review on it.
Here's the location from the cruise port.
We arrived and it was such a colorful place and looked like it was going to be a great place to hang out at.
We headed to the restaurant...I guess I needed to feed these kids. 😄
So here's the menu and pricing:
We decided to order some sweet potato fries as a starter and man were they good! It was a pretty big basket and we all shared. ($11)
Karl immediately started with a drink. He ordered the "Blue Cruzan". I'm not convinced he liked it too much but still drank it. Sakari ordered a virgin Pina Colada. ($8 each). We stuck with our Diet Cokes ($3/each)
Sakari and I decided on the Mahi fish tacos which comes with 2 tacos on flour tortillas with lettuce, tomato, cheese and drizzled Ginger Citrus. This also comes with one side and we decided on the cole slaw. ($17)
It was pretty good but I did wish that the fish chunks wasn't so "chunky" and smaller bites. I usually don't like chunky anything...not even chicken. I like shredded.
The hubby with with the Chicken Tacos instead ($14)
Karl had the Huge Fried Pork Loin Sandwich that came with one side and he decided on Onion Rings because he just loves those. He said it was delicious. ($14 plus $4 upcharge for the onion rings)
Our view from our seat:
Once we were done, we ordered a bottle of water to go and our total bill was $101. Feeding 4 people is pretty darn expensive these days. It seems to be over $100 each time.
With our bellies full, we were ready to hit the water because it was so hot out. Down at the beach, we managed to see our kayak family from the other day. I stopped to say hello to them when we were in the water. They were leaving tomorrow. I was so glad we weren't...just saying.
So time to do a bit of snorkeling and see if there's anything good here. There's a beach area and when you head off to the left of it (in front of the restaurant) there's rocks along the shore and this is where I would find the snorkeling. A few over/under pictures to show you what I mean.
You will find a bunch of small fish hanging out under the rocks in the area. There was a lot of pink mushy sea "stuff" all over the rocks. It was like little powder puffs and pretty. Some of it had washed up to the shore and when you feel it, it was slimy and Karl shrieked when he touched it and pulled back quickly. 😁
There were plenty of schools of fish hanging out everywhere.
Large groups of Yellowtail Snappers under the rocks:
A school of Surgeons
Yellow Surgeon Fish (or Yellow Tang as some call it in the aquarium world)
As I was going along the rocks, I kept noticing movement on it...but it was fast. Darting in and out of crevices and never staying in one spot very long. I finally decided to just float and trying to be as still as I possibly could to get a picture. Finally, this came out and sat on the rocks for me.
It was very small and I was up close and zoomed in to get this picture. I first thought it was a blenny, but I'm not sure now with the shape of the mouth.
There wasn't much coral in the area either, but this red piece really stuck out.
High Hat (Drum)
We headed back toward the beach and I decided to take a few more over/under shots. Sorry, this would be the only shot I got of the beach. I completely forgot to take one.
When I came back in, after taking my over/under pictures, Sakari was fascinated with something and told me to "come look". She swooshed the sand back and forth with her hand and it uncovered a crab. As soon as he was uncovered, he would scoot his way back into the sand. We watched him as he zoomed from rock to rock and putting up his claws to make sure we knew he meant business if we were to try anything.
Sakari then ask me "Have you seen any green or orange crabs around the rocks?" "Nope, I sure haven't". So, we started looking for green and orange crabs. Yep, I seen them zooming around the crevices of the rocks along the shore. I tried hard to get pictures because they were so weird looking. Then we started noticing they were all over the place in the water. Hmmm. Sakari found that if she moved a rock, they would scurry. The only issue was they were super quick and with each movement they immediately went to the bottom of the rocks where you couldn't see them. Then Sakari decided to just lift the rock up and all of a sudden she let out a shriek and was just giggling away. I'm like what? She said they're in my hand! It tickles. Then she giggled again. "What?" She says "It just crawled down my leg!" (Yes, I got this all on video).
She managed to get one for me to take a picture and man was it weird. Karl ran of course... "I'm not holding an ocean spider!" I looked like a cross between a crab, spider and frog! I've never seen anything like this before. Orange striped legs and a green striped body. So cool looking.
So what are these? They are called Nimble Spray Crabs. Aren't they cool?
Here's a video of the snorkeling in the area and the crabs:
After several hours spent at Rainbow Beach it was time to head home. We had a full day and it was time to relax.
We stopped off at Plaza East for some water, bread and pop...another $44 spent on 3 items. Once we were home, we spent a little time in the pool and then it was shower time, relax, then bed later. 💤
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