Which Fancy Yacht or Cruise Ship is Currently Anchored Around St. John?

Hello everyone, ands happy Sunday! This is Jenn Manes, owner of Explore STJ island tours. High season is upon us, which means we have so many great boats visiting us here in the US Virgin Islands. I reached out to Hillary to see if I could share some fun info with you all about some of our current and recent visitors, and was thrilled when she said yes! 🙂

I was out and about on an island tour the other day when I noticed that our first cruise ship of the season was anchored just off of Cruz Bay. In fact, it was the first cruise ship that has visited us since March 2020. It was a strange, but welcomed sight. The cruise ship was much larger than the majority that have visited us in our pre-Covid world. I was curious, so I opened my Marine Traffic app to learn more.

For those of you not familiar with it, Marine Traffic is a very cool app that tracks a variety of boats’ positions throughout the world. Yachts of a certain length are included, as well as cruise ships, cargo ships, etc. The app is free to download, although you can upgrade to a premium version for a small fee. You can also view its information online at www.marinetraffic.com

The way it works is simple. Open the app (or visit the website), zoom into the area you’re interested in and click on a boat. Magenta shapes are pleasure crafts (including the big yachts) and blue shapes are commercial boats, including cruise ships and ferries. The app includes information like boat name, size, call sign, current position, port calls and more. I pulled out information on Hillary’s sailboat Asante this morning to give you a visual. Check it out:

Pretty neat, right??!

Now for those of you who follow the site, you’re most like familiar with the fact that many of the same impressive boats visit our waters year after year. (It’s pretty cool that these boats literally have the world to choose from, and they opt to visit us!) Well if you are looking to find the current location of one of you’re favorites, you can even search by vessel name. The Rising Sun – a 454 foot yacht owned by David Geffen – is a creature of habit. It arrives every year for the Thanksgiving holiday and lingers in our waters for a few months. Here is a quick search I did this morning to find its position:

Again, pretty neat, right??! I don’t know about you all, but I love this app!

Oh and when you come across a pretty amazing boat and want to know whether it’s privately owned or a charter boat, simply type the name into Google. Superyachtfan.com has a pretty good database of the world’s most impressive yachts.

Small edit based on social media feedback: The cruise ships that anchor off of Cruz Bay only carry a few hundred passengers, basically the equivalent of the people who could stay at Caneel Bay if it was still open. 

So there you have it, folks. More news you can use today!

If you’d like to see this beautiful island with me or learn more interesting (and sometimes random!) facts about St. John, please consider booking an Explore STJ island tour. I have an “Excellent” rating on TripAdvisor, and I would love to share my love for this island with you. For more information, please visit www.ExploreSTJ.com, email me at [email protected] or follow Explore STJ on Facebook and Instagram.

Thanks all! Have a wonderful day!