News of St. John

Hello everyone, and happy Monday! The St. John ferry schedule is expanding, giving all of us more options when traveling between St. John and St. Thomas.

Inter Island Boat Services recently announced that its adding additional runs between St. John Crown Bay marina on St. Thomas. Inter Island leaves from the Creek, the area in front of the National Park Visitor’s Center. They do not leave from the regular ferry dock beside High Tide.

Inter Island leaves Cruz Bay every day at 11 a.m. and 4:15 p.m. And beginning on November 15th, it will add an 8 a.m. run leaving Cruz Bay. This is great for people with early morning flights.

Inter Island will leave Crown Bay every day at 3:30 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. And beginning on November 15th, it will add a 9:30 a.m. run leaving Crown Bay.

The cost of an Inter Island ticket is $20 one-way for adults, $10 for children and $15 for seniors. The cost for a taxi to the airport is an additional $5-$10. It takes roughly 40 minutes on the ferry and just five minutes or so in a taxi if traveling to the airport. You can book your Inter Island tickets online at www.interislandboatservices.com.

The regular people ferry that leaves from the dock beside high tide costs just $8.15 for non-residents and $1 for children ages 2-11. The regular people ferry leaves Cruz Bay every hour on the hour from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. It leaves Red Hook at 5:30 a.m. (Monday through Friday only), 6:30 a.m. 7:30 a.m. and then every hour on the hour from 8 a.m. to midnight. The ferry takes approximately 15 minutes and the taxi ride is about 45 minutes. The taxi ride costs $15 to the airport. Bag fees for both ferries are additional. You cannot reserve a ticket online for this ferry.

There currently is not a ferry running between St. John and Charlotte Amalie on St. Thomas.

Here is a map of the ferry locations courtesy of Vinow.com:

And we have some more good news to share with you all today… There is a new barge on island! Soon, there will be a new way to travel between St. John and St. Thomas by vehicle. We will share the details on that very soon.

A new car barge arrived on St. John last week.

Today’s story is short and sweet. It’s about daylight savings on St. John. St. John and the entire US Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico are on Atlantic Standard Time. We do not observe daylight saving time.

Between fall and spring, St. John is one hour ahead of Eastern Standard Time. Between spring and fall, we are on the same time as Eastern Standard Time. So currently, we are one hour ahead of New York City and the East Coast.

The only downside of not observing daylight savings on St. John, in my opinion, has to do with television schedules. Good Morning America, for example, now starts at 8 a.m. for us. Our favorite primetime shows start an hour late as well.

One good thing is that we do not lose an hour of daylight like many of you. The sunrise is currently at 6:19 a.m. and sunset is at 5:45 p.m. Our sunrise and sunset times don’t vary drastically here like they do in many places in the States. The latest the sun sets here is 6:59 p.m. and that happens in late June. It never sets after 7 p.m. And the earliest it sets is 5:41 p.m. in late November and early December. So year round, there is only a difference of about an hour and 18 minutes. (Click here to see all of the sunrise and sunset times.)

That’s all we have for you today. Some interesting “news” you can use. Have a great Sunday!

Happy Halloween everyone! I hope you all have a safe & enjoyable holiday!

If you are lucky enough to be on island, the kids event starts at Mongoose at 3 p.m. And later this evening, Drink and Dog House will both hold their annual Halloween events.

Hello everyone and happy Wednesday! We’ve made it to the middle of the week! We have some pretty cool “news” to share with you all today. One of our residents is set to do something very special this weekend, something only 50,000 people in the entire world have the opportunity to do each year.

When many of us are waking up Sunday morning, Brenda Baxter-Simpson will be at the starting line of the New York City Marathon, the largest marathon in the world. How exciting is that?! And even cooler, she is being sponsored by the NYPD Running Club, who will be running in honor of Police Officer Brian Mulkeen who was sadly killed in the line of duty last month.

Brenda has lived on St. John for the past seven years and has run the island’s annual 8 Tuff Miles road race 10 times. You can often see Brenda running the hills across the island or the streets of Cruz Bay. I was super surprised one day when I saw her running up the extremely steep section of Centerline Road just past Princess Bay out on the East End. I drove past and said hello … in my Jeep. 🙂 Those hills are crazy out there!

Getting a spot in the NYC Marathon isn’t easy. You have to be one of the world’s elite runners, win a lottery spot or be sponsored by one of the race’s charity partners. Brenda received her spot thanks to a friend who owns a vacation rental here on St. John. Mike (who asked that we not use his last name) is a retired lieutenant commander detective of the New York City Police Department. He is also friends with a high ranking police official in the NYPD Running Club.

“I was telling him about 8 Tuff Miles and then I mentioned Brenda and her nutty running habit of running up Jacob’s Ladder in the middle of the day,” Mike said. “He thought it would be great to have her on board and invited her to join as a special guest.”

(Jacob’s Ladder is the steep hill between the E&C gas station and the Westin.)

“I’m so excited,” Brenda told me the other day. “It’s going to be incredible! The thought of 50,000 runners and 2 million spectators is a little overwhelming… But I’m ready!”

Brenda has been following a training plan that includes running and time at a gym in Florida, she said. She started by running four to five mile stretches here on St. John, but then had to head north to St. Augustine where she could continue her training by running 16, 18 and 20 mile stretches. She is often joined by her boyfriend Wayne Campbell (the original owner of Barefoot Cowboy) and their dog Teddy.

“Wayne and Teddy drove and met me at various miles on all runs six miles or more with water and e-gels, so I wouldn’t pass out in the summer heat,” Brenda said. “Without them, I wouldn’t have been able to get that training in, particularly the long runs.”

This will be Brenda’s first marathon and she admits to being a bit nervous, however we know she’s going to do an amazing job! We will keep you all posted on her progress.

This is probably the sweetest video you will see all week. Yesterday, we told you about a recent sea turtle nest that hatched here on St. John. Well today, we’d like to share a video of one of those turtles making its way into the ocean for the first time. If this doesn’t make you smile today, I am not sure what will. 🙂

Click here to read Monday’s story and to see lots of pics of the baby turtles. 

We would like to extend a HUGE thank you to Jennifer Rittenhouse Pruss for sharing this video with us.

Halloween on St. John is such a great time. Whether you’re a child or an adult, there’s always something fun to do. Here is a quick rundown for this year’s events for Halloween on St. John:

Let’s start with the children. Mongoose Junction will hold its annual trick or treating event beginning at 3 p.m. on Halloween. Children are invited to wear their costumes and trick or treat throughout the Cruz Bay retail and restaurant complex. All of the businesses will be participating, and prizes will be awarded.

And right across the street from Mongoose will be an extension of the festivities for the kids with a Trunk or Treat event. The event will be inside the parking spaces beside the ball field and will stretch down toward the National Park Visitor Center. All are welcome to attend and participate by decorating their vehicles.

Now on to the adult events…

Dog House Pub will kick off this year’s festivities tonight with “Skaraoke” – a Halloween version of their weekly karaoke event. Tonight’s party starts at 9 p.m. and will feature a costume contest and drink specials.

The Tap Room will hold its annual Halloween Eve Costume Party tomorrow night. Costumes are encouraged, and prizes will be awarded. The party starts at 9 p.m. and will feature the sounds of DJ LS1.

Skinny Legs is scheduled to reopen Thursday with its annual Halloween bash in Coral Bay. Skinny’s reopens at 4 p.m., and the party starts at 8 p.m. The costume contest will take place at 10 p.m. Prizes will be awarded. Not sure how you’ll get over the hill to Skinny’s? Well Owen’s Taxi & Tours is offering a shuttle for $10 each way this year. The shuttle leaves the ferry dock in Cruz Bay at 6 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. It will return to Cruz Bay at 10 p.m. and 11:30 p.m

The ladies over at Drink are gearing up for their annual Halloween party too. The party starts at 9 p.m. and will feature DJ Adonnis. Costumes are encouraged, and prizes will be awarded.

We will be out and about, and will be sure to share lots of photos with you all!

Hello everyone, happy Monday! We’ve decided that we need to start this week off on a very high note, and we’re sure it will bring a smile to your faces! We have new baby turtles on St. John!

As you know, we love our sea turtles here at News of St. John. You can see turtles all around St. John, although it is a near guarantee that you can see them if you are snorkeling at Maho Bay on St. John’s North Shore. Well, you’re going to see more in the future because we just had a rather large nest of turtles on St. John hatch … how exciting! And even better, there are still more nests that are getting ready to hatch. I am so excited, and I know I’m not the only one. 🙂

“It is a fun time of year because there are still nests being laid as recently as October 10, Todd Sampsell, President of Friends of the Virgin Islands National Park, recently told us.

As of last week, we had 24 nests on St. John this turtle hatching season, Todd said. Of those, 17 were active and 7 hatched. Five of the seven nests were excavated by volunteers, and 421 hatchings made it out to sea.

Now if that doesn’t make you smile today, I’m, not sure what will.

Volunteers monitor and excavate the nests through Friends of the Park’s Sea Turtle Monitoring and Protection Program. In addition to monitoring the nests, the program provides advice to residents and guests on how to interact with turtles. They also provide education and outreach to children in our schools through Friends of the Park’s School Kids in the Park (SKIP) program.

The island’s sea turtle monitoring program is heavily dependent on volunteers and largely funded by Friends of the Park. You can monetarily support the program by visiting Friends of the Park’s website here. In the meantime, here are so more great photos courtesy of Jennifer Rittenhouse Pruss.