Salt Pond Bay – Easter and More April 3-7

Kathy and Kenny, cordial hosts, began the Easter weekend with a surprise visit to SEAMAN’S ELIXIR.  Kathy can rarely come for a visit without bringing some type of surprise, this time malted milk and chocolate Easter eggs in a hand decorated mayonnaise jar.  (Martha Stewart has NOTHING on Kathy!)

 

Easter morning, we walked to Drunk Bay to explore the “bone yard”.  Drunk Bay, strewn with all shapes and sizes of coral and rock, gives the ambitious sorts an opportunity to express themselves creating any number of abstract sculptures.  As it was Easter, Kathy created a coral Christ on the cross, facing East…much more appropriate than my original idea of an Easter Bunny.

 

A traditional ham dinner followed aboard MER SOLIEL, which included a to-die-for cauliflower gratin, wonderful warm bacon vinaigrette bacon dressing with baby spinach salad, completed by homemade strawberry short cake.  I surprised them both with an Easter Basket Hunt, giving them “hot-and-cold” directions as they scoured their boat.  What fun!

 

Our hike the following day was to Ram’s Head, which is the site of a mass suicide by slaves in 1733.  The slaves had succeeded in taking over St. John during a rebellion and held the island for 6 months.  When the West Indian Brigade (sadly comprised of Black soldiers) came to put down the insurrection, the slaves retreated to Ram’s Head and threw themselves from the cliff rather than return to slavery.

 

It is a mile hike to the summit, up some small inclines and then down to an incredible blue cobblestone and coral beach, followed by a few more inclines, which traverse the hill.  The layer of cobblestone on the beach is so deep; footsteps produce a hollow echo through the stone.  Very nice hike.  Ram’s Head summit is maybe 200 feet above the water, a shear drop-off to the rocky, wave crashed shore below.  You can see the BVI easily and all the way to St. Croix on a clear day.

 

Booby Rock, a designated dive site, was my fourth and first mid-depth dive, up to 50 feet.  John, SOJOURN, Bob, LEAP OF FAITH, Steve and I went together.  Of course, it was a lobster hunt (successful, might I add).  Steve got pretty beat up wrestling with a lobster tucked well back into its hole.  (These lobsters make wrestling cattle look like a Sunday afternoon tea…)

 

What amazed me was the profuse amount of coral.  It was incredibly lush…I have never seen anything like it.  I saw the most beautiful coral, two side by side, which looked liked blown glass cylindrical vases.  I tried to look them up in my Reef Coral Book, but they are not included.  I did get a picture, though  🙂

 

Steve and I saw our first-ever scrawled filefish, two that appeared to be mating.  There were dozens of Blue Hamlets, Fairy Bassets and Bicolor Damselfish.  I was not as successful with my picture taking as I hoped I would be, but I did get a shot of the filefish, basset, and the guys getting a lobster.  There was so much to see, and the guys were on a mission to get a lobster, I could not just sit and sit to take pictures.  Just the same…IT WAS AMAZING!