Month: July 2021

With only one day left of our epic USVI tour, Scott and I hired a taxi to tour the island and explore the ruins of St. John. This is a great way to see the sites, without having to join a tour . What we weren’t expecting was an open air safari bus for this tour!

Our tour guide was very friendly and knew just about everyone on the island. He wanted to make sure we stopped and saw everything and he almost literally did. We scheduled him for four hours @$75/hour and he was worth it. Since the truck is open air, you want to make sure you hang on tight!

First stop the Bethany Moravian Mission Church

Tony took us to the Bethany Moravian Church and his parents are actually laid to rest in the cemetery there. The first Moravians came to St. John in 1741. This building was erected in 1919 and the sanctuary was restored after the storms of 2017. It is still an active church today and it has a beautiful view.

Neptune’s Lookout

Our next stop was the Susannaberg sugar mill at Neptune’s Lookout which was built in the 1700’s.  The windmill tower of Estate Susannaberg was erected between 1780 and 1800 and is the second oldest windmill on the island of St. John.  The estate is owned by the Neptune Richards family since they purchased it in the 1950s and they still live in the house which is on the grounds. The estate is now used for weddings, special events and camping.

The views are amazing from every vantage point, which look down at Caneel Bay (where we were the day before). At the top of the hill, there is The Windmill Bar, which was currently closed due to covid.

We also got a peak a view site of country singer Kenney Chesney‘s home at the top of the hill. Sadly, his home was nearly destroyed by hurricane Irma and he’s now rebuilding.

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Catherineberg Sugar Mill Ruins

Heading northeast, we entered the Virgin Islands National Park to check out the Catherineberg Sugar Mill Ruins. The ruins are an example of an 18th-century sugar and rumfactory. The “most impressive” ruin is that of an unusual windmill tower and the very large cistern. It was amazing to see how intact the ruins still are.

One very interesting thing we discovered was the sugar mills were constructed using coral! Could you imagine?! We can’t even step on coral, let alone dig it up for building materials.

Along the way, we saw wild donkeys and all kinds of fruit trees.

We came upon tons of soursop trees too. With an aroma similar to pineapple, the flavor of the fruit has been described as a combination of strawberries and apple with sour citrus flavor notes, contrasting with an underlying thick creamy texture reminiscent of banana.

As we drove down the windy narrow highway, Tony took time to pull over and share the views with us.

At this viewpoint is was awesome to see how close Tortola & Jost Van Dyke of the BVI were to us.

Francis Bay

Our next stop was the Francis Bay walking trail and home of George Francis.

In 1863, the Annaberg Plantation was purchased by Thomas Letsom Lloyd of Tortola from the James Murphy heirs (one of the original owners). For a time, Lloyd struggled to keep the estate in operation, but in 1867 a violent hurricane, followed by a series of devastating earthquakes, finally put an end to sugar production at Annaberg.

With his factory in ruin, in the spring of 1871 Thomas Lloyd sold Annaberg to his property overseer, George Francis, and returned to Tortola. George Francis was born enslaved on the Annaberg plantation. His name first appears in the earliest existing census for the property compiled in 1835, in which he was recorded as a thirteen-year-old field laborer.

Over the course of his life, George Francis encountered opportunities that in his youth must have seemed wholly unimaginable. By 1860, he had gained the position of estate overseer, and two years later he received outright title to a 2-acre parcel of land on the Annaberg property from the will of his former owner, Hans H. Berg.

In 1871, George Francis acquirred the entire Annaberg estate from Thomas Lloyd and immediately set out to renew sugar production on the property. At the time of his death in 1875, Francis had recently completed the construction of a new sugar-boiling house and horse mill on the isthmus between Mary’s Creek and Francis Bay. It was the last facility ever to produce sugar on the Annaberg property. [credit US Parks Online].

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Once again, you’ll notice all of the coral used to construct the buildings!

From Francis Bay, we headed to the Annaberg Ruins passing by Mary Creek. The water was amazing, but the sewer smell was horrid!

Annaberg Plantation Ruins

As with looking at churches in Europe, this was now our third sugar mill ruin we visited in two hours. Had it been our first one of the day, we might have spent more time exploring the ruins. Annaberg Plantation, as of 1780, was one of 25 active sugar producing factories on St. John. Other products produced at Annaberg were molasses and rum. Annaberg was named after William Gottschalk’s daughter and translates to Anna’s Hill. Gottschalk was the plantation owner. 

The windmill at the Annaberg ruins, one of focal points of the site, was built possibly between 1810 and 1830, and was one of the largest in the islands.

When the windmill wouldn’t churn due to lack of winds, they then used horses and mules instead.

Today the plantation ruins are protected by the Virgin Islands National Park and are open to the public. Trees have reclaimed the hillsides around Annaberg.

In the 17th to 19th centuries, boiling rooms were used to convert sugarcane juice into raw sugar.

What was super cool to see from the plantation was how close we were to Tortola and the BVI. I’m literally pointing at Road Town, where we will pick up our bare boat charter next February!

Heading back to Cruz Bay

After three hours, it was time to head back to Cruz Bay. It was interesting to pass by Maho Beach, Caneel Beach and Honeymoon Beach by car this time. Both Maho and Honeymoon were packed and cars were parked everywhere along the street.

Tony was fantastic and we’re so glad that the concierge at Gallows Point Resort booked him for us!

Since Tony dropped us off at the market, we decided to do a little shopping and support the locals.

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After a full day of walking and exploring, we were hungry and thirsty! We stopped at The Taproom for a quick snack and cocktail.

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Right across the street is the dinghy dock! How convenient.

On our walk back, we noticed another boat rental company at Cruz Bay called Ocean Runner and you can rent Boston Whalers!

We finished our amazing day, enjoying the sunset and a beautiful dinner at Ocean 3-6-2 at our hotel. This was a highly recommended restaurant and we were very happy we spent our last night there.

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Goodbye St John – Until we meet again

Scott and I had a wonderful time in St. John and we can’t wait to return and explore more. Out of the three US Virgin Islands, St. John was our favorite. As we were enjoying our last morning, we had a new visitor who tried to come into the condo. He (she?) was a very friendly and curious peacock.

Of course our neighborly iguana had to come say goodbye too.

We headed to the ferry terminal around 1pm and enjoyed another quick boat ride across the bay.

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As soon as the plane started down the runway, it began to rain again. We timed it perfectly. Until we meet again US Virgin Islands – see you next February, when we fly in for our bareboat charter in the BVI.

As always, thank you for following our journey! Be sure to subscribe to our blog and our YouTube Channel. You can follow us on social @BoatingJourney on FB, IG, TW and TikTok!

Cheers, Scott and Ally

Scott and I decided to rent a dinghy for the day and explore the northern beaches of St. John, including Caneel Beach. The dinghy rentals were very affordable and you had the freedom to go where ever you chose (following their guidelines of course).

We started the morning having breakfast at The Landing, which was very busy. They also have a deli counter, so we purchased sandwiches for our journey.

Wharfside Watersports Dinghy Rentals

Surprisingly, we went on-line to Wharfside Watersports the night before and were able to book a 12′ dinghy for $249/full day. They also offered larger Zodiak inflatables, but they were around $750/day. If you want anything extra, like a cooler or snorkel gear, you can rent that too.

Once you arrive, they have you do an online registration about yourself and experience, which takes about 5 min.

From there they give you a map and recommended beaches. Since the beaches we could visit were on the northern end of the island, they did have a few cautions for us. We were allowed to go all the way to Maho Beach (where the turtles were abundant), but they warned us that the northern winds could easily make for rough seas and landing at the beach. More on that later.

Their shop also offers lots of gift items and beach accessories.

The staff was super helpful at the beach. They give you a quick rundown on the motor and then they push you off.

Scott and I left Cruz Bay and headed to what we thought was Hawksnest Beach. We pulled up and it was just a nice quiet sandy beach, with no one around.

The first beach we landed, was gorgeous, but it was ALL sand, so we knew the snorkeling wouldn’t have any marine life.

After checking things out, we decided to hop back into the dinghy and head east towards Maho. As we entered the channel, the seas were getting a bit rough and I was sitting on the bow. Within a few minutes cruising fast, the dinghy caught some air and we slammed down hard. This wreaked havoc on my already bad back. Great. I told Scott I didn’t feel comfortable cruising into large waves in a 12′ dinghy, so we headed to Caneel Beach instead.

Wharfide had recommended Caneel Beach, but now looking at Google, I wonder if we were at the wrong beach, yet again? Either way, we loved where we ended up for the day.

Caneel Beach

As we pulled up to the beach, we immediately saw the abandoned Caneel Bay Resort. Sadly the resort was destroyed by Hurricanes Maria and Irma in 2017. The owners only have two years left on their lease, so they are waiting until then to find out if they will renew their lease before they invest money into rebuilding it. The restaurant (ZoZo’s) did survive and they only serve lunch. You can only access it by dinghy or small boat.

Walking around the property, it was pretty sad to see all of the abandoned buildings. It had to be an amazing resort. They did still have a security guard on the property, watching our every move.

Scott would normally have gotten some drone footage, but this resort was located inside the National Park, where drones are prohibited. I was amazed to how clear and blue the water was everywhere we went.

There was a good size anchorage in Caneel Bay with about twenty boats anchored. Notice the power cat below – that’s what we are chartering next February in the BVIs.

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We had a small picnic lunch, then did some snorkeling (be sure to check out our YouTube video below) and then headed back to Cruz Bay after about four hours.

One thing I noticed during our entire trip, was this long line of clouds. It was really cool.

Finishing the Day

Before we returned the dinghy, we decided to head towards our resort at Gallows Bay and check out the Lagoon 77 that was anchored outside our room. It was gorgeous. It’s available for rent by Chillaxinaxin’ Charters.

For dinner, we decided to head into town towards Mongoose Junction. This is a small retail complex, about 4 blocks from the center of Cruz Bay. It was built of stone and surrounded by trees, so it reminded us of a treehouse.

Inside, there were a number of great restaurants and shops. After checking everything out, we had dinner at 1864, which was outstanding.

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We did make dinner reservations the day we arrived, so we recommend doing that when you visit. Mongoose Junction offers so many cool places, so be sure to check it out when you visit St. John.

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Tomorrow we tour St. John by land

Tune in next week, as we hire a taxi for the day (and that is a story!) and tour the island by safari-like taxi. As always, thank you for following our journey. Be sure to subscribe to our blog and vlog to stay updated on our adventures. Follow us on social @BoatingJourney #BoatingJourney. Until next time!

Cheers, Scott and Ally