USVI Day 3 - Kayaking, Princess Bay

Date	Distance	Time	Elevation Gain	Average Moving Time	Year to Date Miles
4/22/2024	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	264.9 miles

Parking: 

• Taxi to area near Princess Bay

Map:

• Gaia GPS

Directions:

• n/a

We arranged ahead of time for a kayak rental today. What we didn't know was that taxi drivers don't like going to this part of the island, presumably because there is less traffic out here (fewer tourists to pick up). We had the front desk at our campsite call for a taxi for us. When the driver came, he said he thought we were going somewhere else, and baled on us. Then he felt guilty and came back for us 2 minutes later. We ended up really liking this taxi driver and got his phone number and used him over and over again whenever we needed to call a taxi as opposed to just jumping on one. We gave him instructions for where to go and then we were surprised by our drop off point. We expected a business. Nope. There were just 2 kayaks parked in the water with nothing else around. We asked him to come back at 4pm, because we knew no taxis would be randomly driving by. We hoped he came back, lol. The island is quite small, but the roads are very narrow with no shoulders, so not ideal for walking on. We didn't want to walk home. Plus, sunset is around 6:30pm here! We ended up going to bed around 7:30pm most nights and waking up at 5:30am! So different from my normal schedule.

I completely covered up today with long pants and a long sleeve shirt, despite it being hot. I covered all exposed skin in tons of sunscreen. One thing I don't own is water shoes. If I do a trip like this again, I will get some shoes I can snorkel in. They will be nice for kayaking too. I also need to invest in a dry bag for kayaking, since we do it in NC too. I just hauled my backpack onto the kayak. It was raining but stopped soon after we started. We carried our snorkel gear with us and ended up pulling up on a beach to snorkel in the mangroves, which we learned are a fish breeding ground. Kayaking was so much fun :) We stopped at a second beach to try some more snorkeling, but the water was rougher, so I sat on the beach and sketched while Dian and Tara snorkeled. We also saw wild goats in the mountains from our kayaks. In the bays, the water was quiet, but sometimes we had to kayak in the open ocean and it was pretty bouncy. We ended up kayaking 4.8 miles. A storm was coming in (it rains here every day, but not all day), so we headed back to our drop off location an hour early. It did start pouring, so we huddled under some bushes waiting for our taxi. I had planned on bringing a sit pad but decided not to at the last minute. It would have been nice today for our wait.

After our kayak trip, we took quick showers. The campground has outdoor showers. I only had brought a couple of bandanas to dry off with (I couldn't find my microfiber towel). We headed to the restaurant to eat our dinners (dehydrated meals) and listen to a talk about sea turtles. In Virgin Island National Park, there are Green, Hawksbill, and Leatherback sea turtles. Five nights a week, the campground has people come to talk about various subjects from 5:30-6:30pm, and we enjoyed every one of them!  

Where we got dropped off, on the side of the road.

We saw a few pelicans during our trip.

We saw many hermit crabs everywhere.

I ended up tying my backpack to the kayak.
Time to invest in a dry bag!

Mangroves along the shore

Having an underwater camera would have been so fun. 
The visibility is supposedly 50 feet deep. 
I tried in a couple places taking photos from above shallow water. 

We enjoyed looking at shells on the beach. 

Morning glories

Portia tree

Green Buttonwood

Near our kayak port.
We were entertained by many jeeps going down this incredibly steep road.

We saw many sea urchins on the trip.
This one is dead, but we also saw live ones while snorkeling. 

There are a lot of cacti on the island. 

Some type of barrel cactus.

A storm coming in, so we headed back to our drop off location early.

We hung a piece of beach trash to a tree to help us find our drop off location again.
It poured. 
We sat for an hour waiting for our taxi. Type 2 fun!
We did meet the kayak owner, who came in a dinghy to take the kayaks away.
He was very casual about being paid.