Virgin Islands today comments

Hubby and handyman who helps out at our house are arguing and have been for 30 minutes over paint. I want to knock their heads together. :-X

Thanks for the kind words about SMVC & SF!!! Tammy - We miss your three so much!

Such a beautiful day today! Had the top off the Jeep, took the dogs for a long ride and then a walk around the fort. I really love living here!

Did anyone hear about the nighttime robbery at the Dept of Ag this weekin STX? I have boycotted the Avis since they refused to run the NORMAL request for members, so may have missed the story. Did anyone see a write up in the papers or online sites? From what I hear, thieves came at night and held the security guard at gunpoint while they repeatedly returned to steal all the PRO-MIX (about 75 bags). Yes, armed robbery for bags of soil!! and I never saw anything in the media...

We are all ready to go to bed. JJ is watching tv almost asleep and hubby goes out to lock up his container. Hubby comes running in and telling JJ to come quick. He grabs him up and runs outside to see the biggest frog that he has ever seen in his life. I am grabbing a robe and running after them. They find the frog and hubby sets JJ down to look at the frog. JJ is naked as usual. He is now running around outside with a flashlight following the biggest frog ever with JJ in his birthday suit. I was running behind them saying, JJ is naked and he doesn't have shoes on. He might step on a centipede. Wait let me get him some shorts and shoes. They ignored me as usual. Sigh. What to do?

LOL and the adventure continues 🙂

dougtamjj, I love it!!!

You're too funny Tam!

Is everybody in the house running aroung ..... NAKED.......LOL...(had to put on a robe) very funny!!!:D

Nah, poorthang. I had on a t shirt and underware. Hubby was clothed.

I just came back from a week in the DR and heard something about Usie's cistern....anyone heard anything about this?

Hey guys. Trying to make my way to the VI again to study marine biology @ UVI. 😀

We had the most wonderful adventure last night. A group of us went to Sandy Point and saw a leather back sea turtle lay her eggs. She was one of the largest leather backs that has ever been recorded here. Her carapace, (her shell), was about 5 ft long. She layed 184 eggs. We know that because the scientist moved her eggs to a higher location because she layed them on the shore line where waves were washing up into her nest. It was incredible to witness. My son said over and over, isn't she beautiful? My favorite part was watching her crawl back to the ocean with her huge powerful front flippers. So awkward on the sand dragging her heavy body then becoming a beautiful ballerina when she reached the sea. Incredible! I wanted to follow her.

thats cool

It was extremely cool. She actually layed 132 eggs. I was so excited that I got the numbers all mixed up in my head. A friend of mine said she would remember the size of the sea turtle if I would remember the number of eggs. LOL. I got them all mixed up.

We went last night and it was quite amazing to see. The first turtle was on the beach when we arrived. She dug around for a bit then went back to sea without laying. The second turtle went basically to same location as the first and did her business. The rain interfered with us staying to watch her head back in the ocean. Im excited for June to do a hatchling observation!

i thought Sandy Point was closed during turtle nesting season. Did you go as part of a group?

The beach is closed. You make a group reservation through the parks department (I think). I went with a group of 23 or so...you arrive at 8PM and stay until a turtle is spotted and you watch dig, lay, bury and then head back to sea. We were there until 11:30 PM.

I believe that it is SEA that offers the turtle watching. Office used to be in Gallows Bay. Awesome experience not to be missed.

The USFWS is in charge of the turtle watch program. 3 nights per season are allocated for SEA members, however, those groups are still run by USFWS. You can call Jen Travis, the education coordinator for the turtle watch program at 340 690 9452 for more info and to schedule a group. Much of the season is already booked up so call ASAP if you are interested!!!

Watching a sea turtle lay her eggs should be on your bucket list. Incredible!

I woke up in the middle of the night, cold, listening to the rain and wind, After what seemed forever I fell back asleep. We decided to work on the house all day because of the weather but a friend invited us to go exploring. I can never resist an exploring trip. I threw my backpack and first aid kit into the truck, (someone always gets hurt), and off we went. We had breakfast at Good Spirits. Yes, they are serving breakfast now. Yummy and inexpensive! I had eggs, bacon and english muffins, hubby an omelet and of course JJ had chocolate pancakes. We met up with our friends and went hiking on the rocky beaches north of Udall, east of Cramers Park. JJ and his female friend A, found huge bamboo and a plywood sheet and built a lean too. They decorated it with all sorts of plant life, rocks, coral and shells. Honestly, they built a beautiful great shelter. They climbed the rocky cliffs while I mentally went over the supplies in my first aid kit not sure if I had butterfly strips in case one of them fell. JJ has a foot full of sea urchin spines from yesterday but wasn't complaining about it. The kids also went swimming in the very rough sea but today with neoprene booties and gloves. Around 4:30 our friends left and hubby wanted to hike down to Jack and Issac's Bay. I was not sure because I knew I was going to have a very tired hungry 8 year old to hike out with. He was a trooper however, I only had to use my stern mommy voice a few times on the way back telling him to move it and quit whining. We did find some turtle nests according to JJ and picked up tons of things that hurt turtles, fishing lines, fish hooks, plastic bags, bottles and all kinds of plastic. We also found a very cool bamboo raft. We had found pieces of a broken up bamboo raft on the other beach. Very primitive but well made. Of course we had all kinds of theories about how the raft got there and who was on it. It was fun. After we hiked out we went right back to Good Spirits for dinner and for me ice cold beer. The food was great!

Tomorrow back to work and school.

Our day in Paradise.

Tam

They also have the hatchling observations starting June 15th

G'morning,

Tammy, thank you for sharing your day. What a great story!

May I add that you, JJ, and Doug are owed an enormous Thank You for collecting / removing the extremely dangerous litter from the area!

Fishing line, fish hooks, plastics maim and kill turtles, all wildlife that is attracted to the shine of a hook, birds that may see fishing line as nesting material, and these items are life threatening to ocean creatures once the litter eventually ends up in the seas. Horrid infections and limb amputations in wildlife are all too common after entanglement in fishing line - drownings from this litter in the oceans are the norm. Monofilament fishing line is not biodegradable and will continue to exist and kill in the environment for hundreds and hundreds of years after the person who left it is long gone from this life.

What is sad and pathetic about this situation - not ONLY in the islands, but EVERYWHERE - is that it is avoidable. Just DON'T LITTER!
I swear that some individuals just do not define this type (s) of trash as hazardous material...probably the most dangerous to the environment. I have witnessed these horrors personally and, until people assume more responsibility for a clean environment, the issue will remain....the slaughter will go on.

Many, many thanks to you! (tu)
Swan

Thank you Swans, however we have to give all the credit the The Turtle Hospital at Marathon Key Florida. http://www.turtlehospital.org/ We had no idea that all those things were a danger to sea turtles and other wild life until we toured the hospital 2 years ago. It made quite an impression on us all to se first hand the horrible effects on those poor creatures. It doesn't matter where we are we always pick up plastic bags, fishing line, nets, ect.

JJ caught an octopus this weekend. He has caught them before but it is always exciting. This time it was like Christmas. There is a family here that has only been here since January. They came to work at Hovensa. Well they were only here two weeks before they got the news that the refinery was closing. They are a delightful family. They want to explore, snorkel and scuba dive. Maybe because their time was short here they just went for it but I very seldom meet families from the states that enjoy this island as much as we do. Their daughters are just as adventurous and enthralled by this island as JJ is. JJ catches all sorts of things and studies them. This octopus was fairly large. He put it in a nearby tide pool and those kids discussed all the parts of that octopus. He explained about its suckers, beak, pistons, color changes and they all giggled hysterically when it sprayed water at them. They were fascinated when it changed colors. He only held it captive in the tide pool for about 5 minutes. A wave washed up and it crawled out and with a fabulous squirt of ink it shot out to sea. The look of wonder and excitement on those childrens' faces is something I will never forget.

I thought about the day for a long time after I got home. I realized that the most fun JJ has is with West Indian children. So many come here and isolate themselves from the wonderful people and the culture of the island. I'll never forget the day JJ jumped off the bridge at Altoona Lagoon. It was a rite of passage.

I remember the first time my daughter caught a fish with her bare hands. She was 5, the summer before kindergarten, swimming around playing, while I sat with her sister in the wet sand. All of the sudden she stood-up waist deep, holding a wiggling 10" fish with both hands. "Can I keep this?" I recall every detail of that morning. We still talk about it 15 years later.

My kids spent a large part of their childhood in the VI. The experience makes them somehow look at everything differently. I can't explain it. A little softer and a little harder at the same time. Less worldly but less naive.