The weather was absolutely perfect this morning, so we enacted the Beach Day plan.
But first, we made breakfast and ate on the porch, overlooking the palm trees and ocean. The breeze was lovely, but it wasn't even 9 AM and the "feels like" temperature was already above 85 F.
As with all other places we've visited that don't have winter, there are wild chickens roaming around everywhere. And in case you think that's charming or something, you should know that roosters crow at completely random times in addition to the crack of dawn.
We loaded up the silver bullet and chartered a course for the west coast of the island. Check out those sweet alloy wheel... covers. This poor thing has 27k miles on it, and it's had a rough life.
It always takes me a day or two to get used to driving on the left again, but somehow it feels easier in a left-hand drive car because the wipers and blinkers aren't reversed, and I don't keep trying to get in the passenger seat. Intersections still feel unnatural (doesn't help that lane markings are spotty), and it's easy to forget that stop signs are on the left side, but other than that it doesn't require much thought by day 3.
It also doesn't help that only the main roads have names here, meaning the GPS directions are often just "in a quarter mile, turn left" or "turn right".
Our first destination was Rainbow Beach, but we ended up heading about 1/4 mile up the road from the main area to a more secluded spot, arriving just after 10 AM.
There were a few other people up the beach a short distance, but we pretty much had the entire visibile stretch of sand to ourselves.
I walked back towards the main Rainbow Beach area, to see how far it was to the beach bar. There were a few houses practically in the ocean, and a rocky coast that absorbed much of the force of the surf.
Walking back to the group, I was able to find some shade to hide in for a brief respite from the brutal sun.
We spent almost 2 hours sunning, swimming, floating, and paddling around. There wasn't much of a barrier reef, so the waves were free to crash on the beach; the visibility wasn't more than a few feet underwater, not that there was anything to see anyway.
Around noon, we loaded up the car and returned to the main beach area, to grab some lunch at the Rhythms beach bar. Some of the locals express their festive spirit in creative ways. This was not the first car we've seen decorated for the season. There was also a Santa bobblehead on the dashboard.
We started out on the patio, but the sun was too hot so we relocated to the covered deck area.
When we sat for the second time, the guy we had run into at the Isaac Bay trailhead, yesterday, was at the next table with his wife and baby. He was excited to see us again (and jokingly said "see you tomorrow!" when they left soon after).
Right as we were getting ready to leave, a random rain cloud rolled in and it started to shower. By the time we were in the car, it was pouring.
There were a few more beach areas just up the coast, and a potential hike to a lookout spot with a historic lighthouse at the top of Ham's Bluff, so we drove away from the rain, headed north.
Not too far from Rainbow Beach, the quality of the road surface deteriorated rapidly. The next few "beach" areas were little more than short stretches without vegetation along the side of the road, and it was still raining, so we passed by without stopping.
After a few miles of doding enormous potholes and puddles, requiring some very creative driving, we encountered what qualifies as a sign around here directing us towards the lighthouse.
The road up towards the lighthouse trailhead was ever worse than the previous road; we stopped and turned around at a huge puddle, after watching a Jeep Wrangler come through it from the other direction and realizing there was no way our rental car would make it.
On the way back down the coast, I took this shot of a representative stretch of road through the windshield. There was another (rental) car that happened to be attempting the lighthouse trail roughly in tandem with us that also aborted the mission and turned around.
By the time we got back down to the Rainbow Beach bar, the rain cloud had moved out over the water. We continued down the coast, through Frederiksted, and out to the Sandy Point National Wildlife Refuge.
The real objective was to find one of the beautiful beaches within the wildlife preserve. The last few miles of road, within the refuge, were on a gravel road.
We disembarked at what we were mostly sure was the parking area for Sandy Point Beach, and followed the trail through the lush vegetation.
There was a small bridge over a pool of stagnant water, later referred to as the "stinky bridge".
Eventually, we emerged from the trees, near the end of a 2-mile stretch of hot sand. It was almost 2:30 PM, and the refuge theoretically closed at 4 PM (and is only open on weekends).
As was starting to feel like "usual", we were almost the only people in sight.
The water was beautiful and clean, but the surf was quite lively and we got tossed around a fair amount while swimming. Everything I see on the web about this location suggests that this is atypical, so perhaps this is storm surge from some event happening out at sea.
The relentless waves had piled up quite a berm of sand where there would normally be a gently-sloped beach. While in the water, it was nearly impossible to see everyone sitting on towels just above the water line.
The the north, the remnants of the recently passed storm were visible.
I walked down to the literal point, at the very southwest corner of the island, to see what might be around the corner. At the point, the waves crushed the shore from two directions, creating a swirling mass of water that littered the beach with conch shells.
The short answer is: there's nothing around the corner at the point; the shrubs meet the water, and the beach ends.
On my walk back, a random woman approached me and asked me if there were any people around the corner at the point. She was carrying a bundle of something wrapped in a towel. I gave her the bad news, and she thanked me for saving her from additional walking while carrying two six-packs of beer.
She was looking for a group of friends who had asked her to bring them beer, and complained that it wasn't going to stay cold for long. As we walked back towards the beach entrance together, she gave me a beer and wished me a merry Christmas.
When we got back to the Terrizzi towels, she told the same story to Rudy, gave him a beer, and wished him a merry Christmas too.
Everyone else thought we were both crazy for accepting beach beers from a random stranger, but that sort-of-cold beverage was extremely refreshing.
By 3:45 PM, the sun was sliding towards the horizon, and we briefly debated staying to watch the sunset... however: 1) it wasn't for 2 more hours, 2) this would require breaking the rules (closed at 4 PM), and 3) nobody was excited about the idea of driving 16+ miles back across the island in the dark, on these poorly-maintained roads.
Plus, the sun reflecting off the water was becoming increasingly unbearable. Several of us had to go for another swim to cool off again, just before packing up and heading back to the car.
Throughout today, there were several alleged sightings of sand crabs, leading to moderate consternation and some relocation of towels. I hadn't seen one until we were just about to leave, and it was gracious enough to pose for a photo.
It's right in the center, in case you have trouble spotting the subject. I don't see what all the fuss was about, personally.
Our grand tour of the central part of the island, on the way back to Pelican Cove, was mostly uneventful. We even had a few miles of decent highway, with a nearly-attainable recommended speed of 55 mph, near the airport.
Just before we made it back, around 5 PM, we encountered a man taking a horse for a walk, apparently.
After unpacking, changing, etc., we snacked on leftovers from the Italian restaurant and regrouped to go out again for dinner. What with it being Sunday night, none of the potential options in the immediate neighborhood were open, so we decided to head into Christiansted, about 10 minutes away by car.
On the way downtown, we stopped at the grocery store again to acquire additional supplies, but they apparently hadn't restocked anything since yesterday, so we had to get creative.
We enjoyed a light dinner at the Bombay Club, before returning to the condo again.
It started pouring almost immediately after we went inside. It seems to rain a little bit every night here, as it did on St. Thomas when we were there last year. The prevailing winds are from the east, and there are patches of rainforest on the west side of the island.
Tomorrow, we're taking a boat out to Buck Island for some group snorkeling and more beach time.
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