Woke up early this morning to clouds. A LOT of thick, heavy clouds – and what appeared to be very heavy rains on the horizon. Checked out the local weather, cloudy but low chance of rain – less than 50% until 11am. We decided to take the risk – threw some towels, sunscreen, snacks, snorkel gear, water and our para-sheet in a waterproof bag and were out the door by 6:30AM, with a plan to return to BBC at 11am for brunch. We headed for familiar territory at Sapphire Beach. We were there early – first people in the parking lot and only the second people on the beach. We set up camp just above the shore break and took a walk on the beach. I sent a text to both my sisters to see if they could see us on the Sapphire in the Sun webcam – – no go, appears the webcam was out of service, as they both saw darkness… Bummer. We have spent many days lounging at Sapphire Beach and snorkeling the reef – long before the reef was damaged from people standing on it. DON’T STAND ON THE COARL!! LOOK, don’t touch. And while I’m at it – don’t feed the fish dog biscuits and don’t touch the marine life!
Any way, we walked all the way to Pretty Klip point, admired the clouds and the sea, snapped a few more pictures and headed back to base camp to take my new snorkel and mask for a test spin.
It was too early to rent fins, and I’m not a strong swimmer – but we managed enough of a snorkel to realize my mask was leaking. Back to shore to make some adjustments to the mask. Slowly, but surely, the sun managed to burn through the cloud cover enough that we succumbed to putting on some sunscreen. A few more hours of floating and soaking up the intermittent beams of sunlight – our bellies were begging us to head back for some food. We packed up camp, rinsed the snorkel gear and headed back to BBC just in time for the sun to have burnt off a fair amount of cloud cover. This is why one should pay no attention (some exclusions apply) to weather forecast in the Caribbean!
Back at BBC, we whipped up an easy brunch of pancakes, bacon and fresh strawberries. Simple and tasty with a little bit of sugar sprinkled over the top. Marcus laid down for a little siesta and I headed down to the pool with my first book, to soak up some glorious sunshine. Revised forecast was now calling for partly cloudy – with rain expected around 3pm. Other than a few afternoon showers, we spent the afternoon lounging by the pool, hanging on the beach and napping.
Dinner Monday night was easy – one of our favorites – Molly Malone’s. If you’ve ever heard me talk about St. Thomas I’m sure you’ve heard mention of Molly’s…an Irish Pub in Red Hook, at American Yacht Harbor. We stumbled across Molly’s 8 years ago, our first trip down here – and had a blast. We’ve been nearly every trip since, often visiting more than once. Over the years, food and service has been both up and down – this year was back up – both the service and the food.
On our way back to BBC, traffic was snarled up as someone with a pickup truck and a massive speedboat, attempted a turnaround in the middle of the intersection. Back to BBC for an evening night cap and some heads up trivia on the balcony…
Flip Flops & Time Off - Adventures in Travel & Every Day Life 