June 11 is the date we planned to arrive in Saint John, U.S. Virgin Islands, before staying on for another nine nights. In the months leading up to that, I spent a lot of time daydreaming about those hours we’d be spending in paradise. My inner photobug also drove me to great lengths to gear up for the trip, as I got serious about capturing more captivating moments to feed into new Rare Air chapters.
Episode 17 debuts here – presenting some of the underwater scenery shot with a Panasonic Lumix camera. I now have a spreadsheet where I am logging footage and building future entries for this series. Since the archive for Saint John already has enough content for at least 10 more unique minutes of sublimity, I’m hoping my fondness for this special place is something you share.
When I was logging material back in June, I made this entry in reference to all the underwater Lumix video: “There is enough footage for an u/w St. John Rare Air.” You can see it here. While I know the visual storytelling falls far short of Discovery Channel quality, the time I’ve spent creating it has been extraordinary. Hopefully it will invite you to immerse yourself in nature, starting very soon.
Here are a few lines from my June 15 journal: “There were schools of fish big and tiny, and we even witnessed some foot-long jacks running into a bait ball, barely turning away from me at the last second as I watched from the edge. The purple sea fans, orange, yellow and bright red coral, make such a striking backdrop, and tiny yellow, black, blue, orange and white fish play so comically, but in ways that also seem defiant and defensive. We have seen lots of parrot fish, curious wrasses and yellow tails, and even some huge lumbering snappers… but in this spot, they were everywhere we looked. That was especially true as we crossed the beach to a rocky reef and made our way around it. The water got deeper and the coral larger, and we spent a good 30 minutes going in and out, finding other views into the undersea life that is so prolific…”
To see more new episodes, please circle back soon.
Here’s a memory lane wayfinder for our 2016 Saint John adventure, as it lines up here and in Rare Air.
Saint John, U.S. Virgin Islands, June, 2016
. August 2016 Desktop Calendar: Slideshow featuring select photos from our first trip to Saint John in 2016
. Rare Air Episode 16, Part 1: Trip overview; video from 6/17/16 near Annaberg Sugar Mill
. Rare Air Episode 17, Part 2: Compilation of some underwater footage
. Rare Air Episode 20, Part 3: Video from 6/12/16 at Reef Bay beach
. Rare Air Episode 21, Part 4: More Reef Bay video from 6/12/16, and info on the ancient Petroglyphs
. Rare Air Episode 22, Part 5: Video from 6/17/16 at Waterlemon Cay
. Rare Air Episode 23, Part 6: More Waterlemon Cay video from 6/17/16
. Rare Air Episode 24, Part 7: 6/13/16 at Ram Head, and info on hiking the Ram Head Trail
. Rare Air Episode 25, Part 8: 6/13/16 at Salt Pond Bay
