Yes, Virginia, there IS a Santa Claus. And he's been on the beach.
At least he was about 15 years ago when Steve Simonsen tracked the jolly old man sailing from Cruz Bay to Trunk Bay in a boat handmade by folks at Low Key Watersports. Then, last year, the enterprising Eloise Anderson caught up with the jolly old elf at Maho Bay.
Santa was played by a fellow named George. "I don't know his last name," Simonsen said. Neither does Anderson, owner/publisher of the St. John Sun Times. "I don't know anybody's last name on St. John."
"We recognized the boat as a great prop," Simonsen said. "So we hired George for the morning and got a special permit from the National Park to bring the boat to the beach."
Sometimes plans don't come togethger smoothly. "There was George out in this rowboat, in the Sound, and the tiller broke, which made it more difficult to sail and didn't please the owners," the photographer said. But it didn't stop Simonsen from making perhaps as many as hundred shots of Sailing Santa.