Buck Island

Today we went out to Buck Island, a small island Northeast of St. Croix. The entire island is a US national Monument, including the reef surrounding it. The reef makes up one of the few (I think 3) underwater national monuments!

We took a boat over through “Big Beards” company, leaving from Christensted. Our group had 18 people, and our sailing catamaran had us to Buck Island in about an hour. We stopped first at one of the most beautiful beaches I’ve seen, with powder white sand and clear water. Nothing much really to see here, but it was a 30 min. stop to swim, and learn how to use the snorkel equipment if you didn’t know how. The beach was called Turtle beach because Turtles nest their eggs here.

Our next stop was right out in the middle of the reef. Our first mate took us on a short tour to make sure we knew what we were doing and then we were on our own. It was very cool. We were near this place called the Grotto. Underwater signs told you about the fish you were seeing. The Grotto is an area you can enter where you are completely surrounded by a huge bowl of coral. There are two main types of coral, the bright red fire coral, which grows in formations that look like flames, and brain coral, which is yellow and looks like a huge brain. The fish here were big and colorful. I think I have seen every color of fish. There are even some rainbow fish that are green and yellow and purple and pink and orange all at once. Many of the fish swam in schools, which was very neat to see.

After snorkeling the great Buck Island Reef, we sailed back to St. Croix for a barbeque lunch of hamburgers, hotdogs, mahi mahi, and chips and punch (or rum punch). It was quite tasty! Even the Mahi Mahi was pretty good.

We got back to Christensted at about 3:30 and we tried to do some shopping. (Except for some Donald Duck stuff at Disneyworld, I haven’t bought anything yet…am I weird that I don’t like to shop?) Let me tell you, though, shopping for Tammy is a piece of cake. I mean, Caribbean….pirates….there is pirate stuff everywhere!

We got back to our cottage at around 5:00, took showers, and then went to dinner at the sunset café. This restaurant, North of Fredricksted, was also on the beach, but you couldn’t really see anything because there were trees all along the restaurant. Still you could here the water, and see where parts of the sand. There was a dog hanging out there who kept going in for swims and then coming out to dig on the beach.

This restaurant specialized in seafood. I got crab stuffed lobster, so good, and Grant got grouper, which he really liked as well!

After dinner, we lit a couple of mosquito coils and sat out on our porch. We played a game of clue and a game of battleship. Then we came inside to watch some TV. A very cozy evening. I really like it here.