Maho Bay

Tuesday 19 Mar, USVI day 3, St. John: Visit Cinnamon Beach and Peter Bay, and afternoon on Maho Beach.

Great sleep last night, too much of it in fact. We wake up after 9am! To a partly cloudy sky, which makes for a fresh morning. Few sprinkles of rain over breakfast, and we try to decide on the action plan for the day.
As we chat in the cockpit where to move (or not) lots of small power boats arrive here in Maho Bay, all loaded with bikinis parades. They must be tripper boats. It’s quite interesting observing them: pick up the mooring buoy from the stern, instruct the guests, hand them snorkels and flippers, send them in the water, then just a few minutes later back on board, slip the mooring lines and off they go to the next bay. And by 11am they are all gone and we have a peaceful bay again. It’s like a mini invasion!

Late morning we fly the drone around Cloudy Bay while there is bright sunlight on the turquoise water surrounding us. Lovely view from up there. She looks like she is sitting on a plate of light blue frosted glass. We then try an experiment to get the drone to follow us in the dinghy. It all works perfectly until we get “advised” (read: told off!) for speeding and making wake in the National Marine Park. Apparently there is a rule… Well in USA there are rules for everything but seems odd in the land of power-boating and constant wake that we, in our tiny dinghy, could actually upset anyone! Adding to this annoyance, when we download the video we find we have recorded nothing! It seems there is a special technique to ensure you are actually recording, while in this follow-object mode. Lesson learned.

We then take the dinghy to the next bay, Cinnamon Bay, where half of the long beach is secluded behind an island and half open to the sea. The enclosed section is very tranquil with the usual beautiful water. All along the beach there are shady trees overhanging the sand and lots of people, groups and families under the shade.
Behind the beach is another hurricane affected resort. Half tent-room and half concrete rooms. The tents appear to be occupied but the main buildings are still to be restored. We walk all along the beach then take the dinghy to the next bay.

Peter Bay is fully developed with houses right down on the beach and larger mansion size properties on the headland. The beach houses have pan-tile roofs giving them an interesting Spanish appearance. The waves are crashing on this beach so we don’t go ashore, and in any case it all looks very private. An impressive looking bay. Would love to explore between these properties.

Seeing all these lovely beaches, we fancy having a few hours on them but stupidly we don’t wear swimwear. So we go to our own Maho beach for a chill, via Cloudy Bay to get swimwear.
And first stop is at Paddle-In, the funky beach bar for drinks and a hotdog. We sit in the shade under the papaya trees where we meet an interesting guy from Chicago who now lives here. He is into real estate (as everyone seems to be) and manages houses for people. Apparently a $15 million house will rent for $20,000 per week. He is also a member of a band here and tells us all the venues where they will play in the coming days. Maybe we will venture to listen one of these evenings.

Then we go to the beach and for a swim in the very quiet water. We also watch with great interest a pelican who is feeding. From quietly sitting in the water, he suddenly takes flight just inches off the water and then suddenly dives in, not very elegantly, when he spots a fish. Sitting back on the water his lower beak is expanded full of water, plus presumably a fish. The water is drained then with a flip of his head the beak goes upwards and the fish slides down his throat. We giggle at how it must feel to have a fish wriggling in you tummy! He does this over and over again. Just how many fish can he fit in there? And he seems fearless of humans. At one point he dives into the water just 2m from where we sit. It’s now mid afternoon and most people are packing up to leave. Soon we feel we almost have the once crowded beach all to ourselves.

Back to Cloudy Bay for sunset lunch … or is it dinner. We only eat one meal per day after breakfast, so take your pick!

Evening is relaxing and video editing again. The Eustatia video is almost done and we are quite happy with the content: sailing, historic town, volcano hiking, diving and lots of drone shots. It should be a good one.
Then to bed on our very peaceful mooring with the perfectly gentle rocking that sends you to sleep immediately.