We really did have a good time, FarCry. Almost every bay had good snorkeling and beautiful scenery. Except for the first and last nights, our stops were fairly lonely bays within the park boundaries of St. John. We thought about staying one night at a marina at Red Hook and having some fun on shore, but it was so hot we decided to stay out where we could catch the breeze. 1st night - Christmas Cove on Great St. James island, nice spot, just a short trip from the CYOA docks since we left late (no moorings - had to wrestle with a balky
windlass). 2nd - Did a quick snorkel at Caneel, then moved on to Hawksnest - lots of turtles. 3rd - Francis/Maho - very protected, beautiful beaches, swam with the sharks! (They were only 2 footers.) There were actually quite a few boats here, but plenty of open moorings. 4th - Great Lameshure. Had a nice hike, but Little Lameshure looked nicer when we walked past it, and even had a restroom. 5th - Honeymoon Bay, Water Island, just a short motor back to the charter docks the next morning. Had some great drinks at a tiny little beach bar, and there was a tiny beach
grill with steaks, etc., but expensive. There was a photo shoot at a pavilion on the point. Glamor shots of some very attractive ladies that became even more interesting when they took off all their clothes!
Speciald, CYOA gave us a small starter package. If you buy their provisioning package, they add to the collection, but they don't offer a separate basic package so we bought what we needed at Pueblo.
One more thing - we didn't like having to
pump the heads overboard every time we used them. Our briefer told us the government has been terribly lax about requiring pumpout stations and only the big-boat marinas have them. We thought it would have been a tiny bit better to hold the waste until we were out in deep water, but they wanted us to completely clear the
holding tanks each time. Is that how all the charter companies do it?