We regrouped on not sailing to St. Croix after clearing customs for a number of reasons. The biggest one being the time spent sailing there and back on the time frame left and the other major factor is the tropical wave currently forming in our area. I’m sure it won’t materialize but figured we might stay near to protected moorings in the gorgeous bays of the North side of St. John. The waters and landscape are truly magical, so we are all pleased with this call.

Customs on St. Johns were fantastic clearing back into the US! Friendly, efficient and even updated our local boater information. The town was bustling, Park Headquarters was open and things seemed better than ever even in the midst of the total devastation. The Park has been very slow in opening the Cinnamon Bay campground (we are moored here now, think the famous Kenney Chesney song.. ) and the beach has not been cleaned post storm.  this along with no food or drinks available at Trunk Bay has the locals concerned with a negative effect on tourism… something they need desperately to recover.  Word is the NPS bureaucracy is getting in the way…

After customs and getting drinking water we dinghied back to Huntress, offloaded and had a delicious lunch of butter pan seared tortillas with left over dinner from the night before with some added cheese… yum! We then packed up for an afternoon of hiking the Reef bay trail (water and snacks.) We had hiked this several years ago and the trails have been cleared so we didn’t waste anytime getting there. Which is great because we hiked for over 4 hours, covering almost 7 miles!

We hiked 3 trails: Reef Bay and two other trails off the main trail (Petroglyph and the Reef Bay Great house trails) “The Reef Bay Trail is an out and back 2.2 miles long and descends through a shady moist forest and a dry forest, both of which incorporate a wide variety of plant life. The visible remains of four sugar estates and more recently the abandoned farming communities are along the way.”

The Reef Bay trail is also one of my favorite running trails… next trip! The vegetation that was destroyed was intense, but the trees that made it including the very old and wonderful Silk Cotton (also known as the Ceiba) tree, where we took selfies, hugged and admired the knots that look like a face if you look carefully. The trails were in superb condition and some major efforts were made restoring post storms. Bravo and thank you NPS! (no bureaucracy in this case!)

The ruins and old rock walls were very visible and fascinating as ever! Savannah really enjoyed seeing as she was very young last time we hiked this, so her appreciation of the history was great.  We all were finding ourselves getting lost in time, wondering how life used to be.  First the Taino Indians as far back as 900 A.D., then sugar plantations and farming from the 1700s through the 1940’s.

We took the hard right off the Reef Bay trail to link up to the short Petroglyph  trail to see this sacred area. Always fascinating. We also hiked to top of the bluff and admired the views including the “great house” across the valley that we eventually walked up too.  The bluff above continued so Savannah and I decided to “off road” it and hike to the top while Jim waited for us. It was farther up than we thought and no trail with a lot of hand over foot, but we made it! Getting back down was the trick… the views were amazing and it kept going UP. After seeing the bluffs from the “great house” later on, we realized we had only ascended mid mountain! We would have been going a while to get to the top! We would make Indian calls at the top of our voice and we were far enough up that we could no longer hear Jim make calls back!

Finally making it to the end of the Reef Trail with the amazing old Sugar Mill ruins was so fantastic! What a house this would make, I was secretly restoring this old rock and coral structure in my mind with “rustic meets beach” open living. Seriously this old mill would make the best house.  Just to the South is the “Reef Bay” with breaking knee slappers on either side and gorgeous water.  The mangroves and manchineel trees were not near as thick but still survived.  There were deer on the beach  that quickly scurried off  when we got through the thicket.

On the return trek we took a little detour to see the great house. This too would have been a fantastic home with the panoramic views of the valley, the Petroglyph site across the valley and Reef Bay. Back in the day this also would have been one heck of a walk back up to the house from mill!

After reaching the road we hailed our very nice cab driver Kenneth (retired law enforcement officer from Dominica) who arrived within 20 minutes, then took us for a beautiful tour on the N side of the island passing by Maho, Cinnamon, and Trunk bays. Super fun riding in the back of an opened aired, modified pickup with bench seating. These have been around a while but it’s always a thrill to ride in one because these guys drive em’ like they are Porsches on the winding roads!

Arriving back to the boat in our dinghy we cast off the mooring and back tracked up to Cinnamon bay where we were delighted with a double rainbow, turtles and butter flat water with a breeze. The night sounds were off the charts. We have not heard birds in a YEAR!!! What a little slice of heaven. Not sure what tomorrow has in store, but i’m pretty sure I could stay right here forever.

Dinner was chicken and red sauce over gnocchi, fresh greens (picked up when we bought water :)) and  garlic/cheese/butter English muffins. YUM.

The photos are low res.. and I took SO MANY. I’ll try and recap with the best ones..

As I’m writing this morning over coffee I’ve seen 3 turtles come up with in 10 ft of the boat and the views are wonderfully distracting. I love this place!