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How many of you have been longing to trade your stateside job for endless days enjoying the beautiful waters of the Caribbean? Perhaps you’re already on island and are looking to purchase an established business here? Well look no further…

Sail Safaris is on the market and it recently had a sizable price reduction. For those of you not familiar with Sail Safaris, it’s a sailing charter business that includes 40′ Beneteau sailing yacht (Dell Rose), a 27 ft. Stiletto Catamaran (Fly Girl), and a Caribe tender, as well as 60 new sets of snorkel gear and two secured moorings.

The asking price for Sail Safaris is $289,000. You can learn more about the business by visiting its website at www.sailsafaris.net. You can also contact Hilarie Oliver of American Paradise Real Estate at (340) 693-8352.

You know, it’s not that far fetched to be reading this at work right now and saying to yourself, “I can totally do this“. I’ve actually met three couples in the past two months who’ve done exactly that. After reading a story about a business listing on the very website, they packed up their lives for a move to paradise. So if they all can do it, you can too! 🙂

Want to learn more about how Eric and Kellie Jo, the current Sail Safaris owners, traded their Florida farming business for a life in the Virgin Islands? Click here to read a story we wrote about their move back in December 2013. 

Want to own a piece of the island but not ready to fully make the plunge? Well then this may be for you…

Enjoy this new Westin St. John Coral Vista phase interval ownership, which is available during prime weeks 51 through 18 (Christmas through mid-May). This ownership is very flexible and can be booked by the day in either a studio or a two-bedroom unit. It can be used for quick getaways or you can add time to existing reservations. The best part – it’s being offered at $5,000 less than what’s currently being sold at the Westin. Ownership includes all of the Westin resort amenities: fitness center, tennis, pool, beach and restaurants.

This can be yours for just $14,000. Want to know more? Please contact Jennifer Doran at 340 Real Estate Co. at [email protected]

Looks like St. John’s going to be the focus of yet another HGTV show… Gosh we’re a pretty popular island!

I was hanging out with some News of St. John readers at Joe’s Rum Hut yesterday afternoon, when a cameraman walked past me and down onto the beach. I’d heard that HGTV was coming back to the island, but I didn’t realize it was happening now. So I took my natural curious/nosey (you take your pick) self down to the beach and asked a few questions. You know, so I could give the scoop to all of you. 🙂

Turns out that HGTV is filming an episode of Caribbean Life. This latest episode will focus on the new couple who owns St. John Car Rental from what I hear. They did some filming yesterday afternoon at Waterfront Bistro and earlier that day when out and about with Iggy on RocknRolla. We heard they’re going to do a little hiking and perhaps stop over at Cinnamon Bay too.

This isn’t the first episode of Caribbean Life that’s been filmed here on island. Beach Bar owners Joe and Karina were featured on an episode that aired back in April. Click here to read all about it. 

It appears that CNN may need a fact checker. Hey CNN, I’m available for hire! Email Me!

According to CNN.com, “Maho Beach” is the 11th best beach in the world. Funny, that’s not what Maho looked like when I cruised past it earlier today… 🙂

One of the best perks about running a blog in paradise is that I get invited out to do some really fun stuff. Yesterday, for example, I was invited out on a boat trip by Busy Bee Charters. Busy Bee is a boat charter company out of Coral Bay that specializes in trips that circumnavigate St. John. I love a good day out on the water, but it typically involves some sort of debauchery over in the BVIs. So when Captain Bryan invited me out on a wholesome day around St. John, I was pretty excited.

I met Captain Bryan out on the dock in Coral Bay at 8:30-ish. (I was born 11 days late, so that’s my excuse as to why I’m a good five to 10 minutes late for everything in life.) I hopped aboard the Busy Bee, a 26-foot power catamaran, and we headed South out of Coral Bay.

Captain Bryan offers two trips that circumnavigate the island – one includes a homemade lunch served at Newfound Bay and the other includes a stop at Pizza Pi over in Christmas Cove. I opted for the Pizza Pi trip. (Being from Connecticut, I simply cannot get enough good pizza in my life. How many of you have had New Haven pizza? My goodness, it’s delish!)

Almost immediately after getting on board, I asked Bryan if he could find some whales for me. (By now, I’m sure you’re all well aware of my whale obsession that peaks each year between January and March when the humpback whales migrate through the area.) Captain Bryan of course said “sure” but we both knew that would be a hard one to pull off. Or was it…

Our first stop was at Beehive Cove, also known as Tektite. For those of you unfamiliar with Tektite, it was an underwater laboratory back in the 1960s where scientists lived underwater for two weeks and observed fish and other aquatic species in their natural habitat continuously for the first time ever. Very cool stuff. There also happens to be some great snorkeling in the area, which is why we stopped there. I lounged on the boat while the snorkelers snorkeled away. The water’s a tad too chilly to hop into during the winter months for this island girl. Just as the last snorkelers were getting on the boat, we saw a huge splash in off to the South. “A whale,” my friend yelled! No way, I simply didn’t believe it.

But then I looked up and saw something I had never seen before… An adult humpback whale completely breached straight up, out of the water! So much so that we could see the tail! A whale! A whale! I nearly died right there at Tektite! Now you probably are wondering if I got a picture. Well of course not, I was too darn excited and shocked to see it. Plus I was living in the moment. Sorry folks.

Captain Bryan scooped the last folks out of the water and we drove South to see if we could catch up with them. At this point, I think the others guests may have been getting pretty tired of hearing about my whale obsession, but they graciously let me carry on. So a big thank you to all of you on Busy Bee yesterday if you happen to be reading this. 🙂

We were cruising South and then turned West for a few minutes when Captain Bryan spotted one right in front of our boat. I had my iPhone in hand and tried my best to get a pic. I apologize but my excitement got the best of me and this was all I could capture: However… Thanks to the iPhone 6+ live video feature, I was able to capture a few seconds before I snapped the pic. Here it is super slowed down:

Again, I am so sorry that I was not able to capture what I saw yesterday, but please know, it was unbelievable cool. And Captain Bryan is now on the top of my “my favorite people on St. John” list because of it. 🙂

So after my whale obsession died down a bit, we stopped over in Christmas Cove, which is located behind Great St. James island off of the southwest coast of St. John. It’s called Christmas Cove, according to Captain Bryan, because it’s a protected cove where boaters hunker down when the Christmas winds start picking up, naturally around Christmas time. The snorkelers did some more sight seeing here, and I did some more lounging and chatting with Captain Bryan.

Once the snorkelers got their fix, we cruised over to Pizza Pi and ordered some of the best pizza in the Caribbean. For those of you unfamiliar with Pizza Pi, it’s literally a boat that typically hangs out in Christmas Cove where it serves fantastic pizza. We wrote about it last year. Click here to check out that story.  From there we took a quick stop at Lovango Cay and then cruised up the North Shore, around the East End of St. John and toward Coral Bay. Our last snorkel stop of the day was over at Hansen Bay where we happened to bump into another St. John favorite – Angel’s Rest. Angel’s Rest is the USVI’s only floating bar. It’s very cool and we happened to have written about this too back in 2014. Click here to read that story. After a quick cocktail, we jumped back onto Busy Bee and headed back to Coral Bay. I have to say, this was an absolutely fantastic day. Captain Bryan was great, the trip was great, and the whale sighting was simply icing on the cake. I highly, highly recommend taking a trip out with Busy Bee Charters if you’re looking to get out on the water and do something different.

Captain Bryan offers the Lap of St. John with the homemade lunch every Wednesday for just $150 per person. His Lap of St. John with the Pizza Pi option happens every Tuesday for $140 per person plus lunch. There must be a minimum of four people and Busy Bee can carry up to six. All trips leave at 8:30 a.m. at the Coral Bay dinghy dock.

For more information on the Lap of St. John and Busy Bee Charters, please check out their website at www.busybeevi.com

Saturday started out as a pretty crummy day here on island. Yes, I’m sure you’re saying to yourself, “no day on St. John is a crummy day.” And you know what, you’re right. But the weather was crummy with lots of clouds, cooler temps and on and off rain, and despite all of that, I was determined to go out and about and do something fun. The beach was out of the question and I wasn’t interested in partaking in any day drinking. (You’re welcome liver; you’re equally as welcome bank account.) Well guess what, I ended up doing something very fun … I went treasure hunting.

How many of you have heard of geocaching? Geocaching is a fun, outdoor activity where you use your phone or a GPS to find containers or “caches” all across the world. The caches usually contain fun little trinkets and a written log. People who find the cache jot down their names and the date they found the cache. They then have the opportunity to take a trinket and leave a new one in its place.

St. John has at least nine geocaches spread throughout the island. On Saturday, I decided to seek out the one called “It’s Haul Over 2.” For those of you who know the island well, you can probably guess that this cache is located somewhere near Haulover Bay … and you’re right.

So how do you locate these caches? Go to www.geocaching.com and type in 00830, St. John’s zip code. (You can do this on a regular computer or on your phone.) That will bring you to a page that details all of the caches in the area. (It includes some on St. Thomas and also at least one on Jost Van Dyke, so make sure you find the ones specific to St. John prior to heading out.) Once you pull up the info, you can scroll through the different caches. You can also pull up a map option to get an idea as to where on the island they’re located.

As I mentioned, I chose the cache called It’s Haul Over 2. Here are the details it provided:

So I hopped in the Jeep and headed out East. I met a friend along the way that has absolutely nothing to do with this story. But she was cute, so I’m including her.

I drove all the way until I reached Haulover Bay. There’s a new sign on the right hand side of the road that says Haulover and Trail. I parked off to the left and headed up the trail to Haulover North.

After about five minutes, I got to the beach. It was shockingly calm Saturday afternoon too. From there, I knew to take a right. The cache was somewhere in that area.

I pulled out my iPhone, checked the coordinates again and knew I was in the right area. I thought it would be super simple to find, and I was surprised when it took me a bit. I looked left, right, up and down, and then I finally spotted it… Can you spot it in this picture???

Obviously I am not going to ruin the fun and tell you exactly where it is. 🙂 But I will tell you it’s somewhere around here.

And here it is… Ta da!

I took a few minutes to look through the trinkets and also the log book. After logging my find, I noticed a ton of NASA-related trinkets. Hmmm…

For those of you who know St. John super well, you probably know that Homer Hickam lives here on island part time. Homer had a movie made about part of his childhood – October Sky. It was the first movie Jake Gyllenhaal was in, and it is fantastic! The movie is about how Homer, a coal miner’s son, was inspired by the first Sputnik launch to take up rocketry against his father’s wishes. Homer went on to work for NASA years later. Very cool.

So after doing a little investigating in the log book, I discovered that Homer’s wife Linda happens to be the owner of this cache. Pretty darn cool. So thank you Linda and Homer for adding a little fun into my life this past Saturday … wholesome fun I may add. (That makes Mama News of St. John very proud, which is all that matters some days.)

Random side note: Homer and Linda own a beautiful villa here on island – Skyridge. Click here to check it out. 

So the next time you’re all looking for something fun, different and wholesome to do on the island, consider going out and finding a cache.

Our old friend Moose has made the big time once again!

I’m sure by now you all know the story of Moose. He’s the adorable Pit Bull mix that spent nearly five years living at the Animal Care Center here on island before being whisked away in a private plane and flown up to his new family in Boston. Well Moose’s story of hope has been written into a 54-page paperback and all of the proceeds will go to the two shelters that helped him during his journey – the Animal Care Center here on St. John and the Last Hope K9 Rescue in Boston.

The Story of Moose is written from Moose’s perspective as he takes us through his life in pictures from the day he arrived in the shelter until the day he was finally adopted five years later. His story is one that has many ups and downs, and his message is all about never giving up … with a lot of amazing photos. It’s an entertaining and heartwarming story for both children and adults. (I have to admit, it made me teary eyed as I read an advanced copy last night.)

Moose inspires us all to be a no kill nation and to never give up. Every dog deserves a loving home, and every dog can find one. Don’t give up until it happens. ​(Charlie, my ACC rescue, happens to be sitting next to me as I type and echoes that statement.)

Again, all proceeds for this book will be donated to the Animal Care Center of St John and Last Hope K9 Rescue in Boston. They gave Moose his life and his happy ending. We want to give back to them so they can do it for the next dog.

The book is currently being printed; however you can preorder yours today for only $14.99.  Only a limited number was printed, so please act fast and get yours today. The book is expected to ship between February 28th and March 2nd.

Click here to preorder a copy of The Story of Moose. 

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Who wants to check out a little villa eye candy today? Perhaps you’re looking to move to St. John or maybe you simply want to pass the time by daydreaming about your perfect island villa. If any of this sounds like you today, then you’re going to want to check this out… Caribbean Palm Villa is a stunning new home located in Point Rendezvous on St. John’s South Shore. It features three master suites, all of which have both private balconies and en-suite bathrooms with private outdoor showers. The home has a gourmet chef’s kitchen with granite countertops, commercial-grade stainless steel appliances, reclaimed barn wood custom cabinetry and much more. But the best part of Caribbean Palm Villa is its expansive outdoor area that features a large pool with an ocean view, ample seating, an outdoor kitchen and more. It also happens to be a successful short-term rental. Get more details on that here.  Caribbean Palm Villa is being offered by Tropical Properties for $2.65 million. For more information, please contact Tropical Properties at (340) 776-6862 or visit their website at www.tropicalpropertiesvi.com