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Charity Event to Help Wounded Veterans Happening at Oppenheimer Sunday

Jenn Manes
Image from a past Chaotic Kayak race

There is a great event happening here on island tomorrow, and I hope many of you can attend!

The Chaotic Kayak race is scheduled for Sunday, November 14th at 11 a.m. at Oppenheimer beach. The Chaotic Kayak is an event that supports Team River Runner, an adventure and adaptive paddling program for wounded and disabled veterans. Team River Runner has been bringing veterans to St. John for a week-long leadership clinic since 2007. One hundred percent of the money raised at this event will be used to bring veterans back to St. John.

Chaotic Kayak is a zany race in which teams kayak around an obstacle course in the bay. Each team also tries to get a child to sit in the middle, and this teammate’s job may be one of the most important of the day. His or her job is to use a super soaker to throw off nearby teams. My son Dalton is on Team High Tide, and is super excited to participate.

Teams are raising funds, which will not only support the program, but they will also help the teams get a head start. You can donate to my son Dalton’s team – Team High Tide – by clicking this link. Teams get a five second head start for every $100 raised. Every dollar helps!

The teams that have signed up to participate are:

  • High Tide – Click here to donate.
  • Kids’ Night In Babysitting
  • Crabby-Ducks
  • Back Peddlers
  • Irie Pops
  • Beach Bar

There is an amazing raffle too! You need to be on island to purchase tickets. You can purchase them today at High Tide in Cruz Bay. Tickets will be on sale tomorrow at Oppenheimer too. There are more than $20,000 in raffle donations so far!

Again, this event is open to the public, so please come down and join us! There will be free shuttles leaving the gravel lot in Cruz Bay beginning at 9 a.m. I hope to see many of you there!

Spend the Day at Water Island

Jenn Manes
Water Island

I recently spent the day on Water Island, and it was so much fun that I’d like to share it with all of you.

Water Island is the smallest of the four main islands here in the United States Virgin Islands. It is located south of Charlotte Amalie, which is the main town over in St. Thomas. You can only access Water Island by boat. It has a ferry that runs several times a day, but I opted to visit with my friends over at Flyaway Charters.

Flyaway Charters is one of St. John’s longest-running charter boat companies. It is based out of Coral Bay, and they have several boats in their fleet. They offer local trips, a shuttle to Lime Out, and excursions over in the British Virgin Islands. For this Water Island trip, we hopped on Picaroon’s Parlay, a newer World Cat that seats up to 12 guests. It’s such a beautiful boat. Check out a few pics:

We met Flyaway Charter at the Coral Bay dinghy dock, which is located behind Skinny Legs.
Spacious interior
Super comfortable bow seating!
More shaded interior seating
Dalton (right) loved sitting on the bow with Thatch (left), who is the son of Colin and Leah, Flyaway’s owners.

We took a nice little cruise along St. John’s south shore, and arrived at Water Island within an hour. One fun thing you can do on Water Island is rent a golf cart. I reserved ours in advance with Rachael’s Rentals. They offer two, four and six seat golf carts. The price ranges from $55 to $75 depending on the cost. The pickup location is up a small hill from Water Island’s main dock.

Pulling up to Water Island
Our chariot for the day!

Leah, the boys and I hopped in the golf cart and headed across the island and down to Dinghy’s Bar & Grill while Captain Colin and Mike pulled the boat around to Honeymoon Beach.

(Dinghy’s is located on Honeymoon Beach in Water Island. This is not the same as Honeymoon Beach, which is located here in St. John.)

From there, we grabbed some lunch, a few cold drinks and splashed around in the water. It’s really a pretty spot.

Heading down to Dinghy’s
Such a fun little beachfront spot
Not a bad place for lunch and drinks!

After an hour or so, the six of us hopping in a golf cart and drove out to Fort Seggaro. Fort Seggaro was constructed during World War II to protect the entrance to St. Thomas harbor. It’s a very interesting area that’s great for exploring.

The fort so cool that I am going to dedicate an entire post to it. Stay tuned…

If you would like to join Flyaway Charters on a day trip to Water Island or other places in the USVI or BVI, please check out their website at www.flyawaychartersvi.com.

And click here if you would like more information on Rachael’s Rentals. 

Want to learn more about St. John? Take an island tour with me!

Learn more here –> www.explorestj.com/tour

See the island of St. John with a longtime resident. See the nooks and crannies that many visitors miss. Explore the beaches, historical sites, perhaps a tiki bar or two, and much more. Full & half days available. Rated “Excellent” on TripAdvisor.

Click Here to Email Me with Questions.

Click Here for Real-Time Availability & to Instant Book. 

Operate a Waterfront Restaurant in St. John!

Jenn Manes
This restaurant space is now available in Coral Bay.

If you’re looking to operate a restaurant in St. John, now may be your chance!

The former Salty Mongoose location, which more recently operated as Sharky’s By the Water, is now available for lease. This space features a large, 12+ seat bar, plus numerous tables. And the best part? It is located directly across the street from Coral Bay harbor.

The monthly rent is $7,500, and the property owner is asking for a minimum of a three-year lease with a three-year option. But remember, everything is negotiable. 🙂

The operator would be responsible for utilities and CAM charges, which is estimated to be about $2,500 a month total.

The new operator cannot compete with Surf Club Cantina – which is adjacent to this location – in terms of food offerings. Subs, pizzas and/or pastas are favored.

Restaurant spaces do not come available very often on St. John, so you may want to act fast!

If you are interested in this opportunity, please reach out to me at at jenn@explorestj.com, or via text/call at 203-376-3786. I am a licensed realtor with 340 Real Estate.

Formerly Sharky’s

Want to learn more about St. John? Take an island tour with me!

Learn more here –> www.explorestj.com/tour

See the island of St. John with a longtime resident. See the nooks and crannies that many visitors miss. Explore the beaches, historical sites, perhaps a tiki bar or two, and much more. Full & half days available. Rated “Excellent” on TripAdvisor.

Click Here to Email Me with Questions.

Click Here for Real-Time Availability & to Instant Book. 

 

 

New Food & Drink Options at Cinnamon Bay

Jenn Manes
The food truck is open daily at Cinnamon Bay.

The campground at Cinnamon Bay reopened Sunday, and the food truck area features a few new items that I think many of you will be interested in.

But first, let’s start with the basics…

Cinnamon Bay is one of the most popular beaches in St. John. It’s a half of a mile long, which makes is one of the bigger beaches on the island. Cinnamon Bay is the home to the Virgin Islands National Park campground, which features tent camping, glamping, and cottage rentals. Cinnamon Bay is about 20 minutes from Cruz Bay. Taxis regularly stop there, and the fare is $11 per person.

Cinnamon Bay has a sit-down restaurant that serves breakfast and dinner. It also has a food truck that’s located near the beach. The food truck is open daily from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. They close for a quick lunch break between 11:30 a.m. and noon. This daily closure is new this season.

The food truck features a few new items this season. For the kids, they now serve a virgin strawberry daiquiri and also a St. John Brewers root beer float. For the adults, they’ve added a rum and root beer float. On the food side, they’ve added a jumbo soft Bavarian pretzel, which comes with cheese and honey mustard. Here is the full food truck menu:

Pro tip: The frozen painkiller is one of the best on island. You definitely need to try one! 

They’ve even added an additional shade tent with extra picnic tables. One of the great things about Cinnamon Bay is the ample shade that’s located along the beach, as well as over in the concession areas.

New shady seating!

Cinnamon Bay’s  sit-down restaurant is open to campers and visitors from 7:30 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. daily. It is open for dinner from 5:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. nightly. The dinner menu changes daily and features a different theme each night.

For those of you who are interested in camping, rates for camp sites start at $40 a night. The glamping sites start at $145 a night, and the cottages start at $175 a night. Click here to read a past Explore STJ post about the Cinnamon Bay campground and to see lots of pics. 

Want to learn more about St. John? Take an island tour with me!

Learn more here –> www.explorestj.com/tour

See the island of St. John with a longtime resident. See the nooks and crannies that many visitors miss. Explore the beaches, historical sites, perhaps a tiki bar or two, and much more. Full & half days available. Rated “Excellent” on TripAdvisor.

Click Here to Email Me with Questions.

Click Here for Real-Time Availability & to Instant Book. 

 

First Cruise Ship of the Season Arrives in Cruz Bay

Jenn Manes
The Explora III made its inaugural visit to Cruz Bay Wednesday.

If you were in Cruz Bay yesterday, you may have noticed a sizable cruise ship anchored off of Cruz Bay. You may have even caught a glimpse of it on one of our webcams. The ship that visited yesterday was the Explora III, and yesterday was its inaugural visit to Cruz Bay.

The Explora III was carrying 926 passengers, according to the USVI’s cruise ship schedule. That is a relatively large ship to visit Cruz Bay. Typically we get smaller ships that carry around 400 passengers or less. The Star Pride is anchored off of Cruz Bay today, and it carries a maximum of 312 passengers.

Cruise ships have anchored off of Cruz Bay for years, so this is nothing new. The larger cruise lines – Carnival, Royal Caribbean and Disney, for example – anchor over in St. Thomas. Those guests then often taxi and ferry over to Cruz Bay for the day. When these smaller ships anchor off of Cruz Bay, they are brought to shore from the ship via a smaller tender.

Cruise ships are commonly seen off of Cruz Bay between late October and often until late March or early April. We typically do not see them in the summer months.

Want to know what’s going on with the ships and the island? Check out these helpful links:

Want to learn more about St. John? Take an island tour with me!

Learn more here –> www.explorestj.com/tour

See the island of St. John with a longtime resident. See the nooks and crannies that many visitors miss. Explore the beaches, historical sites, perhaps a tiki bar or two, and much more. Full & half days available. Rated “Excellent” on TripAdvisor.

Click Here to Email Me with Questions.

Click Here for Real-Time Availability & to Instant Book. 

Cafe Roma Closes For Good

Jenn Manes

Cafe Roma has closed for good. The popular Italian restaurant, which has been open since the 1980s, was one of the oldest, continuously running restaurants on island. The following message was posted on its Facebook page this morning:

Rumblings of its closing began several weeks ago here on island. I even saw the round Cafe Roma sign in the dumpster over near the basketball courts last week. From what we hear, the restaurant is going into a new direction, one that will perhaps focus more on seafood, rather than Italian.

This closure has nothing to do with power outages just as a FYI.

I will let you know more as soon as I know more.

Want to learn more about St. John? Take an island tour with me!

Learn more here –> www.explorestj.com/tour

See the island of St. John with a longtime resident. See the nooks and crannies that many visitors miss. Explore the beaches, historical sites, perhaps a tiki bar or two, and much more. Full & half days available. Rated “Excellent” on TripAdvisor.

Click Here to Email Me with Questions.

Click Here for Real-Time Availability & to Instant Book.