Swimming with the Sea Turtles

Cruise - Day 4, September 1

We arrived at the port in St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands around 11:00 am. By the time the officials came onboard and certified the ship, it was about 11:30 before debarkation began. We had planned a shore excursion for this port, but found out once we were on the ship that our excursion didn't start until 1:00. So we had time to go eat. While we were eating, we saw a pirate ship leave port, catamarans come into port, and a seaplane land. The water was such a beautiful shade of blue. We enjoyed the sights!

Around 12:15, we made our way down to Deck 0 and off the ship. With the temperature and humidity high, we looked for a place to get out of the sun. Unfortunately, the 2 small tents they had set up only accommodated about 1 tour and left the more than 30 other excursions standing in the heat. We could see Senor Frog's right next to the dock, so we chose to go out of the port and look in their gift shop. Well, that took all of 10 minutes, because there wasn't much there. We did take a few pictures from the dock.

Finally, they had our tour line up and began sending the "You will not sue us" forms down the line for everyone to sign. There were just about 60 people on our tour to go snorkeling. It was finally time to leave. What they didn't tell us was that we had to walk well over .5 mile to get to where we boarded our catamaran, Virgin Breeze. We had on our water shoes so really weren't prepared for that kind of a walk. Somehow we made it in the heat. We boarded the boat and found a seat. We were given safety instructions and a glass of water before setting off from the dock.

Snorkel equipment was distributed for those who needed it. We had masks and snorkels, but took fins and snorkeling vests. 

The catamaran headed to Turtle Cove on Buck Island, which was about 2 miles south of St. Thomas. Buck Island was given to the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service back in 1969 because of its value for migratory birds. The island is now know as Buck Island National Wildlife Refuge. When we arrived, there was already 1 boat there, and 2 more followed closely behind us. Everyone put on their equipment and jumped in. There were at least 150-200 people trying to get to the same sights, mainly sea turtles and colorful fish. 

We set off to go see the sea turtles first. They were small green turtles about 10-12 feet below us. Staff from one of the boats would spot them and then people would make their way over to where they could see the turtles. They would call out when a sea turtle would start to surface and people would watch that area. Of course, we had a lady on our boat who thought her job was to hover right over the surfacing spot and block everyone else from seeing them up close. We saw about 6-7 on the bottom and 2 who surfaced. 

Next, we swam towards the shore where the coral reef area was so we could see the fish. Fish, sea urchins, and coral were about 2-4 feet down so were easy to see. We weren't there long when they signaled for us to board our boat. We were very disappointed because we had only been snorkeling about 25-30 minutes. However, we didn't want to get left, so we boarded the boat.

Once everyone was aboard and accounted for, our boat took us to another little island so we could go to Honeymoon Beach, a private little beach area. They anchored offshore where the water was about 4-5 feet deep. Anything taken off the ship had to either be able to get wet or had to be held high above our heads. Needless to say, we left everything on the boat. The bottom was all rocks on top of the sand as people made they way up to the beach. This beach was not pristine, far from it. The water was closer to what we have at home in clearness and color. We decided we would grab a bit to eat at one of the two shanty shacks. We ordered hot dogs which were actually very good, or else we were really hungry. A chicken ran wild on the sand around the tables. Robin went back into the water for a little bit while Dean stayed up in the shade under the umbrella at the food shack. After about 50 minutes, we were signaled to board the boat.

Again, once everyone was back onboard, the catamaran headed back to the St. Thomas. We saw lots of boats and even an old mill before we spied our ship. This time, the captain had called for one of the island trams to take anyone back who needed the ride. We waited until we saw that those who really needed it were on the tram and then we chose to fill in the empty seats. 

We didn't have to be back on ship until 6:30 pm but also didn't want to go do anything all wet and carrying all of our snorkeling equipment. We chose to go back on the ship and go get showered. We were finished and ready to go by 5:30, but were cutting it close to go anywhere. The main shopping area was downtown so a taxi would be needed. We went back down the gangplank when it started to rain. That was the final straw. We got back in line to check in on the ship. No shopping in St. Thomas for us!

Since we were all cleaned up, we decided we could go to the 7:30 comedy show before dinner in addition to the 2 shows after dinner. We saw both comedians again.

Dinner was delicious as usual. Jennifer and Heath were back but Bradford and Karen were not. We started to think it was us. Karen had introduced us to the chocolate lava melting cake when she had it the first night. Three of us decided we needed to try it and we were glad we did. It was so yummy! Tonight, the staff sang to us during dessert.

Jennifer and Heath told us what they had done for excursion. They booked onboard at the Shore Excursion desk and took a different snorkeling trip to the same Buck Island which we did. However, they didn't leave until 2:45 so they had time to shop in the morning. They only had about 16 people on their boat and theirs was the only boat. They snorkeled on both sides of the island and were able to see large sea turtles, a ray, and lots of large colorful fish as well as a sunken ship. We know now to wait until onboard before scheduling excursions so times are known.

After the comedy shows, we went back to the room and were greeted by a new towel creature, a frog. We watched a movie before we fell asleep. We had gotten to swim with sea turtles, which was our main goal for the day. We were content!

NOTE: We had purchased a new underwater GeekPro (same idea as Go-Pro, but different company) camera from Amazon for this excursion. When we got home and downloaded the photos, they were awful...colors were pinkish and very grainy. We have posted a few of ours, but most of the turtle photos are others. They still represented what we saw. By the way, we have already returned the new camera back to Amazon with no questions asked.