A Gibney Beach Morning

A Gibney Beach Morning, originally uploaded by captainjay.

So we are on StJohn for the weekend. Hanging at Gibney this morning
the Halloween Parties this evening. The boat in the background is
Caribbean Soul one of CYOA's cats. I just did their sail check
yesterday.

Friday Beach Picture

This one is of Honeymoon Beach on Water Island. Deb and I took this one a while back. We are heading to St John after work today for a couple of days worth of R&R we have some friends in town so it should be fun.

Jay

Happy Birthday Laura

Today is Laura's birthday. WooHoo :-)  Duane and Laura own a local dive shop Admiralty Dive Center located in Charlotte Amalie STT in the Windward Passage Hotel. They are very special people and have became really good friends of ours since moving to STT. If you're on island, drop by the shop and wish her a very happy birthday. If not, you can drop her an email at admiralty@viaccess.net

Just thought I would add an update. We pulled off the surprise party last night for Laura and it was a huge success. Ed the baker from Edible Arts made the cake and it was fantastic. Laura is a parrot head so he made the official logo of the Parrot Heads in Paradise. sooo cool!

Boat Buying

So we are finally buying a boat. We have decided to buy a small power boat for day trips and an occasional overnighter. So after some looking around we found a "deal", I put this is quotes because there aren't really any deals on boat and words like investment don't really apply. As much as we love to sail the work schedule that I keep makes using a power boat a lot more practical at this point than a sail boat. So the boat is a 25 foot walk around with a small cabin and head. The boat is in Puerto Rico and we are working on the logistics of getting some repairs done and bringing it back to St Thomas in the next week or so.

Hurricane Season

According to NOAA and About.com:

Officially, the Atlantic hurricane season is from 1 June to 30 November, but as the Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory (AOML) notes:


"There is nothing magical in these dates, and hurricanes have occurred outside of these six months, but these dates were selected to encompass over 97% of tropical activity."

When Is the Hurricane Season Most Active?

Again according to the AOML, there's a "very peaked season from August to October", with:

78% of the tropical storm days
87% of the "minor" hurricane days
96% of the "major" hurricane days

And within this peak hurricane season, early to mid-September is the pinnacle.
 
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So according to this information, we are just about out of the peak hurricane season, whew.

Little Shop of Horrors

A big group of us from CYOA went to go see Little Shop of Horrors at the Pistarckle Theater. It was soooo much fun. I already bought tickets to their Christmas show, A Christmas Carol. They have some really talented actors and musicians. Jay went but we were taking bets of how long he would make it, but he actually enjoyed the show so that says something. LOL  I love plays and musicals, so I couldn't stop smiling the entire time....really enjoyed it. If you are on island, you really should check them out for some fun entertainment. They are located at Tillett Gardens which is down the road from the Tutu Mall. Jacks restaurant and Bar is there too. Enjoy!!

New patio set

We finally broke down and bought a new patio set from Home Depot this week. A coworker helped me put it together today since Jay is on a crazy work schedule. We kept hoping we would find a good deal on a used one... Someone moving off island. But just couldn't find one. Apparently they go pretty quick when someone is selling one and it usually goes to someone they know. So while we were shopping for a new fridge last week we realized Home Depot had all their patio furniture and other "summer" items marked down to make way for Christmas and other "winter" items. It cracks me up because it's summer here all year but since they have to do the same thing as mainland stores, then they mark the items down. Worked out well for us. We had to borrow a friends truck to go pick it up because the box was huge and wasn't even close to fitting in our car. Home Depot wanted $80 for delivery, so thankfully we have great friends that had no problem loaning us their truck. This has been one of the things I've wanted since moving in this apartment because the view is so awesome and the breeze is wonderful. I can't wait to start eating all our meals out here!!

Friday Beach Picture

This one is from Marina Key in the BVI's compliments of Margo again Margo's Virgin Island Pictures

Fridge Shopping Island Style

So the refrigerator failed at the apartment last week. Actually by Saturday it was about 50 degrees in the fridge side and still cold in the freezer. We called the land lord, and since she is stateside and the old one was close to sixteen years old, she said for us to just go out and buy one and take it off next months rent. We were fine with that or so we thought. We went out Sunday to shop and try to work out the logistics before we lost any food. We decided going in that we would try to find an Energy Star unit to lower the WAPA bill, plus there is a twenty percent rebate program from the government here on Energy Star. So first stop is Home Depot, they had three fridges in stock, one luckily would fit in the opening and it was Energy Star, $929.00 for a two door 21 Cubic Foot model with an ice maker that we couldn't use. So we told the land lord we would shop to make sure we got the best price. This was a big mistake. We went to KMart, Price Smart, Cost U Less, and Western Auto, and two independent furniture stores. None of them had an Energy Star unit in stock. So we go back to Home Depot to buy the one we looked at first. They no longer had it in stock, they only had one when we were there, this is information that would have been helpfull to know when we left the first time. So in utter disbelief we gave up and went to the beach. The last hope was the appliance Expo, they were closed on Sunday. Deb called them Monday morning, no luck there either. So we gave up and bought a non energy star unit from one of the independent stores, since they delivered. We got the new fridge Monday evening. Like most simple things here, it wasn't so simple.

Benefit at Magens Bay

We went to a benefit yesterday at Magens Bay that was really nice. The proceeds were to benefit the homeless in St. Thomas. There were bands playing all day long and tickets could be purchased to get food, drinks, beer, cake, etc. There was a really good turnout so hopefully they brought in a good amount of money.

We got there later in the aftenoon so we missed a couple of good bands that I wanted to hear. We were out shopping for a new fridge. But that's a whole different post. We definitely needed the beach and drink after our shopping experience.

Friday Beach Picture

This is another borrowed picture from a VIOL poster. This one is Cooper Island Beach Club int he BVI. I borrowed it from Margo. She was on a charter early this year on one of CYOA's cats for a week with friends. For those of you interested here is a link to the rest of her photos from the trip. 

Have a great weekend!

Linbergh Bay Spoils Dumping is Dead

The Governor pulled the plug on the dumping of harbor spoils in Lindbergh Bay today. This definitely took some wheeling and dealing to put this in place. Hats of for having the guts to do the right thing.

Here is a link to the press release.
Governor's Press Release

Article in St. Thomas Source with more details.

VI Eco Tours Slide Show

So here are some more pictures in the form of a slide show from the VI Eco Tour Kayak trip to Hassel Island that we took over the weekend. It's a nice trip. It is a fairly long paddle so you want to make sure your in shape for it. There is also a short hike as well so wear some comfortable sandals.

Hassel Island

Just finished our kayak tour with VI Eco Tours over to Hassel Island. It was a great trip and I highly recommend it. Our guide Frank did an awesome job with the history of the island and all the forts. I'll
post some more pics later.

Friday Beach Pic

Friday Beach Pic, originally uploaded by captainjay.

It's Friday!! Yea! Been a crazy week with going to the gym everyday after work so i've decided to take Fridays off from working out. :-) We have a couple fun things planned this weekend so we'll post some
pics.

This pic is Anegada in the BVI. Sooo beautiful! Just a short boat ride away. Hopefully we'll get back there soon. This pic Borrowed from a member on Virgin-Islands-on-line.com.
Enjoy!

VInow Colors of Paradise TV

I recently got this email from VInow.com introducing their Colors of Paradise TV and thought I would share it with you. They have several videos about the Virgin Islands that are pretty cool. I don't know how often they come out with a new video but I'll be keeping a watch out for sure. Enjoy!

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Take an Island Break ...grab your coffee and sit back and watch some Colors of Paradise TV! Great shows about the U.S. Virgin Islands! The newest episode is Fort Segarra, Water Island. Other recent episodes include Lindberg Bay and Brewers Bay on St. Thomas. Click over and watch right now at http://www.vinow.com/tv
Thank you for watching!
Sincerely, VInow.com

A new kayak tour with VI Eco Tours

The VI Eco Tours has a new location and new kayak tour! They are now doing a tour to Hassel Island. It starts at the Frenchtown dock in front of CYOA and crosses the channel over to Hassel. They do a short walk/hike to the fort and give the historical information, then paddle over to a beach for relaxation or snorkel.  The price is $89 per person, with discounts for locals. Jay and I have booked a trip for this Saturday so I will let you know how it goes.

Weather is a comin'

Well, we have the 8th named storm of the season coming this way, Henri. But it's predicted to go north of here. Right behind Henri is a tropical wave that could turn into something more, but hopefully not. According to StormCarib.com we could feel some effects from Henri on Saturday but I hope not because Jay and I have a kayak trip booked with Eco Tours and I don't want it to be cancelled. :-)

Wikked Jazz on The Green

Deb and I went to Jazz on the Green at Wikked last night. It was a really nice time. The music was good and a perfect setting for it. It was a bring your own chair or blanket kind of thing if you wanted to sit in the grass by the stage. Wikked was running drink service on the lawn area. We chose to sit in the Bar Area of the restaurant we had some happy hour snacks and split a Mahi sandwich.

They are supposed to start doing this once a month and it has the potential to turn into a large event. They also are having an Oktoberfest party next Saturday with four bands this is supposed to go on all day starting around one in the afternoon till ?

Paradise Gate Fitness Center

Well, I finally joined a gym this week. If you remember, I tried to join one last year in the Nisky Center but it closed down the day before I gave them my money. None of the other gyms are in a convenient location with Jay and I sharing one car so I kept putting off joining one. But I finally gave in and joined Paradise Gate.

The gym itself is decent. They have nice exercise equipment, lots of cardio (treadmills, stair climbers, elliptical, bicycles), free weights, etc. It cost $99 to join and $53 a month. No contracts. Plenty of parking. But the location is at the end of Havensight. So you have to drive by all the cruise ship traffic, construction traffic, etc. Right now it's not bad, but as soon as high season hits and there are 6 ships in port, it will be a nightmare.

The main problem I have with this place is the personal trainer racket that they have going on. When I joined, I paid a $99 joining fee which I would think would entitle me to at least one time around the gym
with a staff member to show me how the machines work so that I don't hurt myself using them incorrectly. But no. The staff member on duty is also a personal trainer and charges $75 a week for his services. That's $300 a month! And if you don't hire him to be your trainer then he won't help you while you're in the gym. If I ask a specific question, he'll answer it reluctantly. But if he sees me stuggling on
a machine, he'll walk right past me to help someone else. I guess someone who's paid him. I think it's really sad.

So I've been trying to research online what is a good program to follow for beginner upper and lower body workouts. If anyone out there has any suggestions I'd be glad to hear them.

St. John Brewers Root Beer

St. John Brewers came out with a root beer awhile back, the makers of St. John Pale Ale and Summer Ale. Hook Line Sinker carries the beers and now they have the root beer as well.

Island View Guest House

I stopped by Island View Guest House to check it out for a friend. I really liked it. The view is awesome, the rooms are nice, the restuarant and honor bar are really cool. The drive is really easy, right up crown mountain road, then a little steep drive way (but not bad) and you're there. The manager was really nice and let me into a couple rooms to take a look and the price isn't bad either.$95 to $160 depending on high or low season, balcony or pool side room. All rooms have a/c, tv, etc.

Island View Guest House
P.O. Box 301903

St. Thomas, VI 00803-1903
Local phone: (340) 774-4270
Toll free: (800) 524-2023
Fax: (340) 774-6167
E-mail: islandviewstthomas@gmail.com
http://www.islandviewstthomas.com/

Friday Beach Pic

It's Friday! Yea! Don't have anything planned for the weekend yet but we need to do something since Jay only has a few more before he goes back on the crazy winter schedule. Maybe Smith Bay? Haven't been there in awhile. :-)
Btw- this pic is Lindbergh Bay

The Inn at Villa Olga

I stopped by the Inn at Villa Olga in Frenchtown yesterday to check it out for some friends that are coming down for vacation. The manager Jill was very nice and gave me the keys to a couple rooms to check out. She described the place as a no frills, economy hotel for budge minded people. It's an older hotel, but they are always doing updates. It's in a great location, Frenchtown, which has some of the best restaurants in St. Thomas. Oceana is right next door.  Plus, easy driving to any place you want to go. She said it's walking distance to downtown, but it's a pretty good walk. I'd guess about 20-25 minutes depending on your pace and I probably wouldn't walk it after dark. The rate for harbor view rooms are $85 a night until Dec 23. Jill said that if you book a harbor view room and there is an ocean view room available, she'll upgrade you for free. The rooms were a little on the old side, but they were clean and smelled fine. It's definitely something to check out if you're looking to stay within a budget and don't want to spend a fortune on taxis.

Pool / deck area

stairs from pool to rooms. Lots of stairs which is typical for hotels in STT.

Ocean view room. King size bed, a/c, tv, cable, microwave, small fridge, coffee pot

Private deck with awesome view.

Harbor/pool view. Two full size beds, a/c, tv, cable, microwave, small fridge

View from Harbor view rooms.

Website: (it seems they are having some issues with the site at the moment?)

http://www.bolongobay.com/VillaOlga.htm

Rates:

http://www.bolongobay.com/villaolgarates.htm

Reservation request:

http://reservation.worldweb.com/Bookings-nr104/booking-request.html?&hotel_id=150&newrelease_redirect=1

The Inn at Villa Olga

3700 Villa Olga, St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands 00802
Tel: 340 715-0900
Toll Free: 800 524-4746
Email: villaolga@bolongobay.com