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Another Cruz Bay bar for sale

Lizard’s Landing has been listed for sale for $425,000, after operating with its new owners for only a brief time.  Years ago, the prime Cruz Bay location did business as the Back Yard, and then the Duffy’s Love Shack folks from St. Thomas bought the place.  They did lots of promotions to build business, but quickly sold it.  Under the new owner, "Landing" has gotten some dark comments at Virgin-Islands-On-Line.com, with several people saying it’s not a popular place.

In other real estate news, the number of homes for sale continues at record levels.  The Multiple Listing Service shows 127 properties available, starting at $365,000 and going up to $10.5 million.  Three new homes were added to the MLS in the past week. The median price of a listed property is $1.7 million and the average price is $2.2 million.  That average is up about 8% from a year ago, while the median price is steady

How busy is it?

Lots of construction traffic is coming down Centerline road, turning at O’Connor’s service station, and then heading out the South Shore road to the Westin, and bays along the coast.  Sometimes the trucks can’t make that sharp left turn, and so have to stock 2/3rds of the way through, and back up into traffic to complete the turn. (Which means some of the Sprauve School crossing guards are turning into traffic cops when the kids are out and the traffic’s blocked.)

This is not a good situation – as proven by last week’s incident when a dump truck came down Centerline, couldn’t brake, pushed a Jeep through the school fence, and kept on going until it came to a stop across from Nazareth Lutheran Church.  Thank goodness the kids were in school.  The Virgin Islands Daily News reports the truck driver, 24-years-old, was cited for "negligent driving by operating a defective vehicle."

The sound of the season: noise

Constant construction is the theme of this winter’s season on island.  Dozens of new villas, hundreds of condo units and hundreds of timeshares are being built, from Cruz Bay to East End. 

The sound of the previous night’s musical steel drums can give way when the sun comes up at 6:15 to the "beep, beep, beep" of Mack trucks backing up and air hammers breaking rock and ledge with their continuous "rat-a-tat-tat".  Fortunately, the construction generally stops at about 4 p.m. Although we did hear one guy with a hyper work-ethic pounding rocks until 10 p.m. one Saturday night.  (So did everybody else around the Bay!)

Kayaking with dolphins

Years ago, we swam with sea turtles off Caneel Bay’s main beach.  Tuesday, we went kayaking with dolphins off the beach at the St. John Westin. 

The mammals were swimming, surfacing, and diving as close as 10-feet away from us, and just outside hotel beach’s the swim area buoys.

I’d brought my camera on the kayak trip, perhaps foolishly.  But we were "exploring the neighborhood," since our villa, Blue Tang overlooks Great Cruz.  When Mrs. Inquiring Iguana, Donna, spied the dolphins, I was happy I had the camera. I managed to get several segments showing them.

In previous years, locals have identified one dolphin who visited the island’s waters and named it "Splash." They were delighted when it returned one year with what was believed to be a child, which was named "Squirt."  There’s no way to know if they are the dolphins we watched at Great Cruz, of course.

Top restaurant goes online for kitchen help

Zozo
"ZoZo’s Ristorante – a well established, successful, Northern Italian Restaurant, operating for over 10 years, is now accepting resumes for Executive Chef and Sous Chef," says a classified ad on the Caribbean section of CraigsList.org.

The Inquiring Iguanas will be eating there Wednesday night, so we’re sure hoping this ad is just to build a resume file,  just in  case.  The owner of another popular restaurant said she’s always interested in chefs looking for work, but her staff is solid and has been on board a long time. If you’re a good cook, and would like me to pass along your resume, e-mail [email protected].

Read moreTop restaurant goes online for kitchen help

Second gas station ‘soon come’

Eandc_pumps_2
Looked like some employee training was going on at the E&C
Service Station at Enighed Saturday morning.  A  number of people were
standing near the new gasoline pumps, apparently being instructed how to operate them. In another sign that reopening may be imminent, workers spent most
of the week painting handrails around the service bays and a sign that will show gasoline prices was erected.

The station’s
been closed several months and was originally expected to reopen in
December. But word that O’Connor’s, the other gas station in Cruz Bay,
will likely be closing this summer when construction of traffic
roundabout begins, apparently spurred the owner of E&C to expand
its facility and add two more gas pumps. When O’Connor’s closes,
E&C will be the only station in town, as O’Connor’s has been for
about six months.

Hooters does St. John

Hooters
Guess what just pulled into Great Cruz Bay, off the Westin beach? 

Hooter Patrol IV, a new 97-foot yacht which, its Web site suggests, is a corporate boat. Girls_1

Even before you could see the name, you noticed the Hooters-orange rubber dinghy trailing the white yacht.


Mrs. Inquiring Iguana quickly rushed to the Blue Tang binoculars and reported, "The girls went below deck." Three guys were on the top deck, kind of piloting.  Two others, wearing orange shirts (!), were in the back.

Then a group motored into the Westin.  Mrs. I.I. said, "There they go, shopping, handbags in hand. Five chickie-wickies." The girls got out of the boat themselves, didn’t wait for anyone to help them, she added.

Wait there’s more.  She then espied five other girls getting into another dinghy. So far, that’s 10 females and five guys. 

Mrs. I.I. said, "Maybe it’s an employee incentive thing."