Snorkeling Caneel Bay Resort’s Scott Beach
Caneel Bay Resort, St. John, US Virgin Islands – it is day #7 of our romantic 25th wedding anniversary tour of the Caribbean.
As I mentioned in a previous post, the Caneel Bay Resort features “an omission of telephones, TVs and other modern-day distractions to allow for a true escape from one’s technology-driven world”.
I suppose some people might be put off by this seemingly forced unplugging, but I must confess that we found it incredibly relaxing. Furthermore, without the technological noise, we found time to reconnect, enjoy forgotten quietness, and simply breath.
So that some of you don’t start to hyperventilate, please know that all the rooms have free WiFi.
The incredible beauty of the Caneel Bay Resort are its seven magnificent private white sand beaches. And with Scott Beach a mere stones throw from the back porch of our bungalow, we were drawn to spend another day enjoying its beauty.
If you look closely in the top right of this photograph, you can see one of the swimming area buoys in the water. The area preserved for snorkeling Scott Beach is enormous, and today we decided to take advantage of that.
As you can see, there is a great deal of beautiful sandy turquoise waters to enjoy at the Caneel Bay Resort. As you go a little further out, you will come upon areas of sea grass. This is where you will find the local sea turtles munching away on the sea grass.
We found one area where we were surrounded by about 20 sea turtles. We looked down as they foraged the sea grass, and then every once in a while one would pop to the surface for life giving air. If you looked horizontally across this scene, there was a constant parade of sea turtles popping up and down. It was beautiful to behold.
Note: this photograph was taken from the Caneel Bay Resort’s Facebook Page.
Swimming right alongside the sea turtles were the local stingrays. These majestic creatures glided across the very bottom of the ocean, and then would stop, undulate their wings, and stir up a cloud of sand.
We also noticed a great many times that the stingrays would meander up very close to the shore. It’s a little unnerving, at first, to be standing in the waters near the beach and see a very large stingray swimming directly towards you. We learned, however, that they have no interest in you, and will simply swerve around you.
Note: this photograph was taken from the Caneel Bay Resort’s Facebook Page.
Beyond the area of sea grass lies a vast area of coral, and this is where all the beautiful fish were hanging out. In this area we saw countless varieties of colorful fish, many varieties of coral, including an abundance of brain coral, untold numbers of sea anemones, beautiful sea fans undulating in the currents, and occasionally whole schools of fish would pass around us.
We literally spent the whole day marveling at this incredible display.
I am absolutely certain that the Caneel Bay Resort will forever remain in our top ten places to visit. The unsurpassed beauty of the surroundings, the simply stunning beaches, the peaceful serenity, and the opportunity to spend hours witnessing this astonishing underwater world makes for remarkable memories.
And, after all, after the experience, aren’t we looking for memories?