You asked, and I listened! You want more beach? Well I’m going to give you more beach!
Take a minute to escape to one of the most beautiful spots in the Caribbean… Honeymoon. Enjoy!
Want to get a live look at the island? Check out our webcam page at www.islandtidbits.com/webcams
For those of you who know me, you know how much I love securing my GoPro to the Jeep and taking fun island videos for all of you. Well I did just that earlier this summer, and I’m excited to share it today. I labeled some of my favorite spots during the video too, so you can use this as a handy little guide to check out your favorite places along the north shore.
This video clocks in at just under 16 minutes, which is long, I know. Below the video is a quick reference list of some of your favorite places and the time they pop up in the video. You can save some time by checking it out that way if you prefer. Or you can grab yourself another coffee (or heck, make yourself a cocktail!), pop on your favorite island tunes, and enjoy 16 minutes of paradise. 🙂 Have fun!
You can find this video and all of my videos at www.islandtidbits.com/videos
Hello friends! So as I mentioned last week, the purpose of Island Tidbits is to share stories about items on island I find to be very cool and/or interesting. So today we’re going to start by chatting about a cannon, which is located beside the ferry dock in Cruz Bay.
The bulk of people who visit St. John, or return to the island, do so via the Cruz Bay ferry dock. And as we do so, we pass an important element of our island’s history – a cannon that was previously located at Fortsberg in Coral Bay. The ruins of Fortsberg, an 18th century citadel fortress, are located on a hill above the eastern side of Coral Bay harbor. Fortsberg was the site of a successful slave rebellion in 1733.
This particular cannon was relocated from Fortsberg to Cruz Bay when the ferry dock was being built in 1838. At that time, it was placed with its muzzle facing downward and into the ground, a common practice during peacetime. The cannon was used as a hitching post for donkeys or horses. (The fort at Fortsberg was decommissioned in 1765.)
When the dock was remodeled in the 1990s, the cannon was placed pointing out to sea, which is culturally and historically inaccurate. The good news is that the ferry dock is set to be renovated once again, and local historians and residents are asking that the cannon be restored to its original position.
In 2013, three additional cannons were uncovered on the beach in Cruz Bay. It is believed that they, too, were originally located at Fortsberg. The three cannons were removed at the time, and moved to a “secure place” according to a 2013 St. John Source article.
Pretty interesting stuff, right?
That’s all I have for you today. Thank you so much for reading! I’ll be back later this week. 🙂
Originally posted on Sept. 18, 2022: I know many of you are interested in the weather as Tropical Storm Fiona passes through. The following are the best sites (in my opinion) to monitor our weather. If there are any additional sites you think I should include in this list, please feel free to email me at jenn@explorestj.com.
Living Earth
This is an app that I follow more so during peak hurricane season. It shows a live look at the earth and its weather, including clouds and tropical storms. Another neat feature is that you can see where it’s light or dark in the world, and you can also see which cities are illuminated at night.
Wunderground
I use Wunderground daily to see if or when we are getting rain, especially when I’m conducting Explore STJ island tours. It seems to have the most accurate weather for our region. You can pull up live radar too. You can check it out on the web at www.wunderground.com or download the app to your phone.
Windy
This is another great app, which is also located on the web at www.windy.com. It’s pretty self explanatory – it shows us how windy it is in a particular place. But it also shows radar, thunder, temperature, clouds, rainfall amounts, wind gusts and more. All you have to do is drop a pin on the area that you are interested in to see information on that spot. You can also use the app to check out the weather for several days in advance.
Weather.vi
This is a website created by the owners of Coconuts villa on Gifft Hill. It shows information compiled from its weather station including temperatures, rainfall, winds, wind gusts and more. You can find it online at www.weather.vi.
St. John VI Weather on Facebook
This is a very informative page for those of you who are on Facebook. Dan Boyd and crew post the weather daily. It is super accurate and a page that many of us rely on for local forecasts. You can find it by searching “St. John VI Weather” on Facebook.
And lastly, you can always pull up our webcam page at www.islandtidbits.com/webcams to see live images from across the island.
Hi all! Well I have to be honest, when I launched this blog earlier this week, I never thought we’d be talking tropical storms on day two. But alas, here we are. For those of you who are stateside and are curious how Tropical Storm Fiona will be affecting St. John this weekend, please check out the webcams listed below.
Want to pull up these webcams each day just so you can see how beautiful this place is? You can do so by simply clicking this link:Â www.islandtidbits.com/webcams. You can also click the Island Webcams link at the top of the page (desktop) or in the menu bar (phone/iPad).
If I missed any of your favorites, please send me an email at jenn@explorestj.com, and I will add them to the list.
St. John Spice Cam – Overlooking the ferry dock & Cruz Bay
The Beach Bar – Bar Cam
The Bar Bar – Beach Cam
The Beach Bar – Stage Cam (This webcam is only online when The Beach Bar has live music.)
The Windmill Bar
Calichi at Picture Point – 360 degree views!
Coral Bay Views – Located at Coconut Hill cottage, high above Coral Bay
Grande Bay Resort – Overlooking Cruz Bay
Fish Camp – Overlooking Turner Bay, Little St. James & French Cap
Great Expectations villa – Overlooking Hart & Rendezvous bays
Great Expectations – Sunset cam
La Jolla Caribe – Located in Catherineberg, high above Cinnamon Bay
Lovango Resort & Beach Club
Maho Bay House
Soggy Dollar Bar – Located over in Jost Van Dyke in the British Virgin IslandsÂ
Villa Calypso – Overlooking Klein Bay with views of Ditliff Point
Windsong Villa – Overlooking Fish Bay & beyond
Windswept Point Live – Located on a point between Trunk & Cinnamon baysÂ
Coconuts villa – Located in Gifft Hill with views toward Pillsbury Sound & St. ThomasÂ
https://www.weather.vi/webcam.php
Esprit villa – Located on Bordeaux Mountain, above Coral Bay
https://espritstjohn.com/live-webcam/
Mare Blu villa – Overlooking Rendezvous Bay
https://www.marebluvilla.com/stjohn-webcam.asp
Sunset Ridge Villas – Located above Cruz Bay with views toward St. ThomasÂ
