News of St. John

UPDATE: The Virgin Islands Port Authority announced Wednesday afternoon that operations should resume as normal Friday. February 28, 2020. Great news! 

Hello everyone, and happy Wednesday! Today’s post is short and sweet, but extremely important if you are currently visiting St. John or plan to in the near future.

The Virgin Islands Port Authority is asking travelers to arrive at three to four hours early when traveling out of Cyril E. King airport on St. Thomas. This is due to an issue that was found during construction, which prompted airport executives to move customs to a temporary spot in the building. This is subsequently causing long wait times especially during the afternoon when the majority of flights leave the airport.

Property managers on island have posted on social media numerous times that guests who have arrives two to two-and-a-half hours early have missed their flights. So please, get there very early.

I have also been told that the airline counters have not been opening early to accommodate those who need to check luggage or print boarding passes. So if you can travel with carry on luggage and print your boarding pass in advance, that could save you time.

The last update posted by the Virgin Islands Port Authority was on February 19th. At that point, they stated they would “resume normal operations as soon as possible.” We will let you know when that occurs.

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Hello everyone and happy Monday! Over the weekend, we told you how our webcam captured video of a meteor exploding near St. John. We also explained that we were tipped off to this awesome event by another resident living here on St. John, who was the first to learned he, too, caught the event on video.

Well today, we’d like to let you all know that we just added that webcam to our website. It’s located up in Skytop, which is a neighborhood high above Fish Bay. The webcam faces southwest, so it captures some pretty sunset views. Check it out:

We also added a webcam that overlooks Rendezvous Bay on St. John’s South Shore. This webcam is located at Casa La Famiglia, and it’s in a great position to potentially catch a whale sighting. Cruz Bay Watersports spotted some last night just south of Little St. James, so they’re still here, folks!

And lastly, we added The Beach Bar’s webcam back to the site. So now you can watch the action from one of the island’s most popular watering holes live.

We also have some not-so-great news to share with all of you. We’re moving to a new spot on the island (great news!), so the News of St. John webcam that overlooks the Westin and Great Cruz Bay will no longer be available (not so good news!). The good news is that we plan to install our webcam in our new spot which is located high above Cruz Bay. We expect this change to take place later this week.

Not familiar with our webcam page? You can see them all by visiting www.newsofstjohn.com/webcams

That’s it for today, folks. Now go ahead and check out all of those webcams! Have a great Monday!

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Now this is cool…

I received an email Saturday night from a man named Brent who lives over in Skytop in Fish Bay. He told me how his friend Mark Sudduth is professional hurricane chaser and researcher. Mark told him how a meteor exploded over the Dominican Republic early Friday morning, and he thought that Brent’s webcam may have captured it. And it did! And guess what? So did mine! So exciting!

It’s not every day that your little webcam you installed to catch a sunset or boats pulling in and out of Great Cruz Bay catches a meteor exploding…

So what I have since learned is that what Brent and I captured on our webcams is called a bolide. A bolide is “the light emitted by a large meteoroid or asteroid as it explodes in the atmosphere,” according to the American Meteor Society. Check out this quick clip I pulled from my webcam:

Pretty neat, right??!

If you want to know a bit more about this bolide, please check out this three-minute video Mark made for his YouTube followers. It also includes footage from Brent’s webcam.

I don’t know about all of you, but my mind is blown over this. So very cool. Enjoy the weekend everyone!

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Hello everyone, and happy Friday! Today’s story is short and sweet. Next Saturday, February 29th, is 24th annual 8 Tuff Miles road race. We’re going to be there, and you should too!

Let’s start with the runners. There are less than 100 bib numbers left, so if you want to participate, you need to register online now. Online registration closes tomorrow, February 22nd at noon, so be sure to get that done today.

If you are not familiar with 8 Tuff Miles, it’s a pretty incredible road race that begins in Cruz Bay and ends out in Coral Bay. The course is 8.3 miles long, starts at sea level, climbs to an elevation of 1,000 feet, and then goes back down to sea level. And for those of you who have driven Centerline Road where the race takes place, you will know that there are many curves and hills along the way. Hence the name – 8 Tuff Miles.

For those of you who will be on island and want to participate, but you don’t want to run or walk the 8.3 miles, you can join me out at Mile 8. For the past four years, my friends and I have manned mile marker 8, handing out water, Gatorade and more shots that you could ever imagine. Last year, we went through about 15 bottles of liquor and 80 beers. So needless to say, it’s a St. John-style road race. 🙂

If you are interested in joining me at Mile 8, please send an email to [email protected].

And at the end of the race, there is an awards ceremony/party over at Mongoose Junctions. So it’s simply a great day all around. Please visit www.8TuffMiles.com for more information.

For those of you here on island and those of you who check out our webcams from the states, you may notice a bit of a haze in the sky today and over the next couple of days. Well that’s not haze you’re looking at, it’s actually Saharan Dust.

It typically happens every spring and summer, but it decided to make its debut a bit early this year (and last year too). What happens is that dust from the Saharan Desert travels west and clouds up the skies over the Virgin Islands. It occurs when an increase of warm air causes sand particles to rise above the desert. Those particles are then transported over the Atlantic Ocean and across to the Caribbean. When the dust arrives in the territory, the islands’ typical bright blue skies are replaced by a haze. Visibility is reduced, and the air quality becomes poor.

Here’s a better explanation that Eleanor Gibney gave us back in 2015:

“What we are seeing is the effects of desertification as the Sahara has been spreading south. The fine particles of soil from formerly fertile lands are easily blown off, unlike heavier sand particles. The process accelerated in the past 40 years, prior to that visible dust was never noted in the VI.”

The first satellite image shows the amount of dust that’s currently near the Territory. The second shows that there will be less around the islands by Saturday night. However there is there is a decent amount to our east, so that may come through the territory within the next week.

For those of you who would like to track the Saharan dust layer, you can do so here.

When the dust arrives, I usually get questions asking how long it arrives. That’s hard to answer other than to say that it comes and goes. Your best bet it to check the forecast using this link. One great thing about the dust is that it makes for great sunsets. So be sure to check out those webcams around 5:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. as sunset is currently at 6:21 p.m. AST (which is one hour ahead of EST).

That’s all we have for you today, folks! News you can use!

Tag: Saharan Dust Virgin Islands

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Well folks, we have some great news to share with all of you. The Cookhouse at Annaberg has reopened permanently. One more step forward!

For those of you unfamiliar with the Annaberg plantation, it was one of the island’s largest sugar producers in the 1700s and 1800s. It also produced molasses and rum for export. Today, the site is the largest area of intact sugar production ruins on the island. Annaberg sits within the National Park, and is open to the public.

The cookhouse, which sits in the plantation’s horse mill, was erected after sugar cultivation was abandoned in the last quarter of the 19th century. Cattle were raised in its place and the cookhouse was erected.

Now, every Monday through Wednesday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., Mrs. Sprauve is onsite baking bread inside the cookhouse. What makes the bread that Mrs. Sprauve is serving so unique, in my opinion, is the way that the bread is baked. She cooks the bread over a charcoal stove, and the charcoal is made onsite at nearby charcoal pit.

Mrs. Sprauve showed me how the charcoal is placed above and below the pan in which she is making the bread. The charcoal, I recently learned, takes about a week to produce.

The bread is offered to visitors for free, although donations are accepted.

So the next time you are on island, please be sure to stop by Annaberg and say hello to Mrs. Sprauve. And when you are there, be sure to walk over and visit Charles at the garden. He is one of the island’s most treasured residents. Please click here to read an article we wrote about Charles last summer. 

Hello everyone, and happy Monday! I know how much you all love a good auction, and we have another one to tell you about today. This one supports the children who attend Gifft Hill School, and it’s happening now.

But before we get into the auction, we’d like to tell you a bit about the school. Gifft Hill is St. John’s only pre-k through 12th grade school on the island. (The island’s public school only goes up to eighth grade. Students attending public high school must take the ferry to St. Thomas.) Following the 2017 storms, Gifft Hill was the first school to reopen. It waived tuition for every student that year, and many public school children opted to attend Gifft School. Many of those students were retained, and continue to attend Gifft Hill today. More than 90 percent of the students at Gifft Hill receive tuition assistance. This auction will directly support those students.

Currently there are nearly 50 items/packages up for bid. The items range from original artwork to vacation packages. You can visit www.giffthillschool.org/auction to view the items or click this link.

The auction is open now and ends on March 7th at 10 p.m. EST.

This auction coincides with Gifft Hill’s annual gala, which is taking place on March 7th at Jo Ann and Glen Hall’s home in Chocolate Hole. Click here for more information. 

A wonderful event that celebrates the strength and spirit of St. John and its people begins today with events happening at Franklin Powell Sr. Park in Cruz Bay. Here are all of the details straight from Frank Langley, President of the St. John Arts Festival:

There has been no better place to show both visitors and residents alike what the culture and tradition of St. Johnians is all about than the “little park” straight off the ferry terminal, forming the first impression that newcomers experience – leaving no doubt that they have “arrived in the Caribbean,” with all of its color and warmth – as advertised.

(This) year’s Festival program retains the successful format of previous years, starting with a Children’s Day on Saturday, February 15th, when all the energy and exuberance of youth is displayed – including traditional steel pan band music; an “All-Island Children’s Choir”; and children Quadrille dancing. There is also a Children’s Art Show in the storefronts of various empty offices on the second floor of the Market Place which continues throughout the following week.

Sunday, February 16th is a lazy day in the shade of the huge mahogany trees, with church choirs and a new “St. John Recovery Choir” echoing the indomitable spirit of the islanders, followed by colorful adult Quadrille dancing with its romantic links to days gone by.

Monday, February 17th – President’s Day – is the highlight of the week-long event, commencing with the music of the island’s number one traditional “scratch band,” originating with hand-made instruments and jaunty songs, as a prelude to a show of colorful dancers and a towering Moko Jumbie, reviving old dances such as the Bamboula from way back in the past and the superstitions of chasing away evil spirits in the trees.

Tuesday, February 18th reaches out to the music and dance from the neighboring Latin-American Caribbean islands. In the evening, in association with the St. John Film Society, there will be a screening of the award-winning documentary film: “Sea of Shadows” at the St. John School of the Arts, which highlights the continued fishing of whales and the threat to their future existence.

Wednesday, February 19th – We round-off musical concerts in the park with relatively modern, but definitely Caribbean, reggae music.

Thursday February 20th at the St. John School of Arts, in the evening, will be the screening of a wide-variety of films by Virgin Island film-makers – the 3rd VIP Film Festival.

Throughout the Festival, adding to and completing the exclusively Caribbean atmosphere in the park is the ongoing exhibition of hand-made Caribbean arts and crafts, plus food and local-grown fruits and vegetables, with the exhibitors in colorful Caribbean traditional dress.

It’s a little jewel of a show – uniquely St. John! Visitors can’t miss it as they depart the ferry, and they will be left with the memory of the colorful traditions and culture of the people of this island.

And here is the event’s weeklong schedule:

As always, this promises to be a great event. I hope to see you all there!

Happy Valentine’s Day everyone!

Today is a day to celebrate love, and here in Love City, we do it right! Anne Marie Porter is holding her 16th annual Celebration of Love vow renewal ceremony today at Trunk Bay. All married couples are invited to attend. Not married? Well you are more than welcomed to attend too. 🙂

The ceremony starts at 5 p.m. Over the years, more than 1,300 people have attended the event.

And now I am going to end this post with an annoying mom moment… 🙂

I just want to give a BIG thanks to my friend Bizzy for being brave enough to put paint on a 19-month-old’s feet to create my very first Valentine’s Day gift from Dalton. I love it! The next time you are all grabbing a drink at Maho Crossroads, please give Bizzy (who bartends there a few days a week) a big high five for her bravery!

That’s all we have for you today, folks! Happy Valentine’s Day everyone!