A collection of travel and adventure stories

St. John, USVI Kayaking

Description and Directions >>

Description:
St. John is the smallest of the three United States Virgin Islands (20 sq. miles) located in the Caribbean. St. John has some of the best beaches, and two-thirds of the island is protected by the Virgin Islands National Park. The southeast side of the island near Coral Bay provides excellent kayaking.

Activities:
kayaking, boating, fishing, hiking, camping, picnicking, swimming, snorkeling, sightseeing and more

Directions:
The best way to get to St. John is to fly into nearby St. Thomas, and then take a ferry from Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas (45 min) or Red Hood, St. Thomas (15 min) to Cruz Bay, St. John. For ferry information and schedules, please visit http://www.vinow.com/general_usvi/interisland_ferry/. To get to Coral Bay, take Centerline Road.

Story Date 12/12/2005
Publish Date 12/27/2005

Story Perspectives >>

According to Mikala: Our day kayaking the East End of St. John was fantastic. We arrived at Crabby's Watersports in Coral Bay around 8:30am, where Doug (the owner) loaded up our kayaks and drove us to Princess Bay to launch. As soon as we entered the water, we noticed the contrasts of the bright colors...turquoise, green, blue, etc. It was very pretty. As we kayaked along the shore, we started to see dozens of fish splashing around in the water. A giant pelican was having a field day catching all the fish. I'm not sure why they were jumping around. I had read that there were piranhas here, so that's what I starting thinking they were. Of course, I was thinking of the movie "Piranha," so that was a pretty scary thought.

We continued kayaking along the shores and inlets of Hurricane Hole up to Turner Point. We thought about rounding the point to the next bay, which is Round Bay, but the water was pretty rough at this point. It seemed as if we were entering the ocean, since we no longer had the protection of the island bays in front of us. We decided to turn around and explore the rest of Hurricane Hole. After all, we were out for the sights and relaxation, not extreme adventure. I preferred to kayak in the calmer water of the bays we had passed through.

We stopped at an isolated white sand beach near Otter Creek. This was a great place to have lunch. There were no other boaters around, so we had the view all to ourselves for most of the time. We had brought our snorkeling equipment, so we swam around this area for a while. There were many sea urchins, starfish, and other types of fish to look at. The water was refreshingly cool in the hot sun.

After swimming and snorkeling, we headed back out in our kayaks. We explored along the shores, where the mangrove trees grow into the water. There were a few other sandy and pebbly beaches, but we didn't stop to explore these. We continued kayaking along the western shores of Hurricane Hole and around Harbor Point into Coral Bay. By the time we headed around the point, the wind had picked up some and the water was no longer as calm as earlier.

We had kayaked about 6 hours for a total of about 6 miles. It was a terrific time. I wish we had had more time to kayak in other areas of St. John, since the water is just so beautiful!