On Monday, March 21 [2022], we went snorkeling at Waterlemon Cay, one of the premiere snorkeling sites in Virgin Islands National Park. Skipping it on our first trip had been my biggest regret, so I was very excited to see what it had to offer.

The Pearly-Eyed Thrashers got started early that morning. They were shrieking at 2am. Happily we had mostly learned to sleep through them.

It wasn’t so much that we were slow waking up, we were just slow to get moving that morning. Which was just fine, because a few little rain squalls moved across the southern end of St. John while we read, hung out, had some breakfast.

While the rest of us were talking through the plan for the day—West Indian food in Cruz Bay for lunch followed by Waterlemon Cay—Josh poured himself a Screwdriver, stuck an unripe coconut in his shirt to be a one-sided tit, and started playing Kim Petras’ “Coconuts.”

Later, at 10:45, when we decided to head out at 11am, Josh poured himself another screwdriver. It wasn’t until the rest of us began putting on our shoes and walking out of the eco-tent with our things that Josh finally realized we were leaving and began putting in his contact lenses, between sips.

We ran a few errands on the way into town, including dropping off postcards at the post office.

We went by Mongoose Junction to go to the great little Friends of Virgin Islands National Park store, but it wasn’t there anymore.

We swung into the Visitor Center, and the volunteer at the counter said that they’d had to close the store at Mongoose Junction. That was a shame. Friends of Virgin Islands National Park is a great “friends group.” “Friends groups” are often the official nonprofit partner of a National Park or other federally protected site like a National Wildlife Refuge or National Forest. Definitely give Friends of Virgin Islands National Park a follow on social media.

For lunch, we were craving some good West Indian food, and we found some great dishes at the Roti King food truck.

Walking to the car afterward, a bird shit on Jimmy’s head and sunglasses. He was, rightly, freaked out. But it was also pretty funny.

After Jimmy had cleaned off, we drove out to the Annaberg parking lot, where Nick, Sean, Josh, and I had been the day before. This time we were headed along the shore below the plantation ruins toward Waterlemon Cay.

Leinster Bay Trail hugs the shoreline for maybe half a mile until it connects with Johnny Hill Trail off the sand beach in Waterlemon Bay.

Right at the start of the trail is wide, shallow Mary Creek, an inlet between the Annaberg area and Mary Point. Mary Creek is one of the places on St. John where the tide is actually noticeable. It was in when we arrived.

Waterlemon Cay is perched on the shallow shelf of Waterlemon Bay just before the seabed plunges sharply into Sir Francis Drake Channel. Right at that transition point of depth, it generally boasts an array of species. Some are more comfortable in the shallows and others venture from the depths of the channel to the reef.

The trick that I’d heard from my new friends Pat and Helene and from the guidebooks was not to swim out from the sand beach, but to swim over from a rocky area where the distance between Waterlemon Cay and the mainland of St. John was closest. So that’s what we did.

Josh and Nick paddled across to Waterlemon Cay. I stayed near shore with Sean while he got his bearings. He was doing great, and he saw a few neat fishes, but he was nervous about making the crossing to the cay. I swam out about half way to see how deep it got…maybe twenty-five feet?

Ultimately, Sean decided not to make the crossing over and headed off to join Jimmy on the sandy stretch of beach.

I headed out across the water to Waterlemon Cay.

Near the deepest point on the way across, I spotted a Sting Ray.

There is some debate about which direction to circumnavigate Waterlemon Cay. I opted for counter-clockwise so that I was not fighting the strong current on the northern side of the cay, closest to the deep channel between St. John and Tortola in the British Virgin Islands.

As I approached Waterlemon Cay, I reached the outskirts of the reef surrounding it.

Now I was beginning to traverse the north side of the cay. The water was deepening, particularly off to my right as it sloped toward the channel.

Meanwhile, Sean was watching Nick and Josh paddle about on the south side of the cay.

There were lots of striped Sergeant Majors on this side of the little island. And also some dark bluish-purple fish. I learned later that they were also Sergeant Majors. They turn that dark color when they are guarding eggs.

Sure enough, although I didn’t know it while I was swimming past, but the image above has a couple smears of purple Sergeant Major eggs on the rock in the center. And there are dark colored Sergeant Majors guarding them.

By this time I had made it around to the south side of Waterlemon Cay. Here it was shallower and there was no current to speak of.

But there was a lot of interesting sea life.

Crossing back to shore, I spotted the Sting Ray again.

In all I was in the water around Waterlemon Cay for over an hour.

I went and joined the guys who were hanging out on the sand beach. They had seen a Flounder in the shallows near the shore. Wildlife sighting envy number three for me. Nick and Josh had also seen a turtle.

Satisfied with our snorkel, we headed out back along the shore toward the parking area.

As we got back to the parking area, the tide had gone out at Mary Creek.

Our goal was to head over to Trunk Bay after 4:30pm when they no longer charged admission and when it would hopefully be less busy. We were excited to finally visit one of the most beautiful beaches on the planet after missing it on our first trip.