News of St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands

Silent auction shopping at Mongoose

The holiday shopping season kicks off with energy and charity Friday at the annual Evening in the Courtyard at Mongoose Junction, from 4 to 9 p.m.

Mongoose merchants will donate items to be sold at silent auction with the proceeds benefiting the Gifft Hill School's scholarship fund and programs.  The evening will also feature music and dance performances by students. Auction and raffle winners will be announced at 8 p.m.

Many Mongoose shops will feature activities and presentations for the evening.

• They include a book signing at the Friends of the Park Store by Caroline Rogers for her latest collection of gorgeous pictures in Coral Reef Stars, A Galaxy of Undersea Images and a special show at Bajo el Sol featuring Livy Hitchcock's pastel paintings. This will be called "A Puerto Rican Celebration" and will have new paintings by Livy whose inspiration is from a collection of black and white photos taken in the 1950's.
• Sugar Birds is excited to be showing a series of brand new original watercolors by Shari Erickson, done especially for The Evening in the Courtyard, along with a collection of her original oil paintings.
• Bougainvillea will have new holiday dresses and accessories.

Thanksgiving regatta begins

 
The island's competitive sailors were up early this morning to kick off the 28th annual Coral Bay Thanksgiving Regatta. The two-day event is sponsored by the Coral bay Yacht Club. 

During the day the sailors compete while in the evenings, it's party time at Skinny Legs with music provided by Chris Carsell and Friends and Hudson and the Hoo Doo Cats.

The race schedule, according to Denise Wright at Onlinevacations.com.

• Friday, November 27: Gaffers, Single Handed 30 ft. and under, Single Handed over 30 ft. but under 40ft., Single Handed 40 ft. and over, and Multi-Hulls Race. Registration at 8:30 a.m. at Skinny Legs. Skipper’s Meeting at 9:30 a.m. at Skinny Legs.
• Friday evening 5-7 p.m., mandatory registration for all Saturday Pursuit racers.
• Saturday, November 28: PHRF I, PHRF II, and Pursuit Class Race. Skipper’s Meeting at 8:30 a.m. at Skinny Legs.

The awards ceremony is at Skinny's Saturday evening at 5:30 p.m.

NYC Real Housewives do St. John

They came, they supped, they swam, they left.

The New York Post confirms the gossipy Gotham gals found everyone's favorite 'undiscovered' beach, Gibney. 

The Post said, the cameras rolled as the New York City girls dished and splashed.

"Alex McCord, Sonja Morgan, Kelly Bensimon, Ramona Singer spent quality time together on the north shore, chilling out in a six-bedroom suite at one of St. John’s largest luxury vacation villas in the gated Peter Bay community, reports the St. John Tradewinds."

"They were also spotted hanging out at the tennis courts at the historic Caneel Bay resort and were seen snorkeling during a 'private photo shoot' — accompanied by Bravo cameras," the Post added.

It's also reported the girls enjoyed a visit to La Tapa.

Downtown ferry service cut in half

St. John's ferry companies will cut the number of round trips from Cruz Bay to Charlotte Amalie to three for the winter. Transportation Services and Varlack Ventures complain that the previous schedule of six runs a day was unprofitable.

The Public Service Commission gave the operators the OK to reduce the service "to give more financial stability to the struggling ferry companies," the Virgin Islands Daily News said in its report of the PSC meeting.  Read the full story here.

The new schedule means that if you have a flight between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m., and want to take the STT-CA ferry, you better be on the 8:45 a.m boat.  Otherwise, it's to Red Hook you'll go.

And this may not be the last cut.  The St. John Source reported that the chairman of the Public Service Commission said the cutback in ferry runs downtown "would give the PSC enough passenger data to determine whether the downtown run should me ... possibly eliminated."  Read the Source report here.

The Red Hook-Charlotte Amalie ferry ride is one way to avoid the cacophony, jostling and cattle-car-like taxi-to-the-airport experience that you get taking the Red Hook ferry. (Of course, it also means you will miss out on hearing the drivers' loud rap music or inhaling his 'pine scented air freshener,' too.)

The winter schedule for the ferry ride around the east end of St Thomas to downtown C.A. has boats leaving Cruz Bay at 8:45 a.m., 11:15 a.m. and 3:35 p.m.  Ferries from Charlotte Amalie to St. Thomas are scheduled to leave at 10 a.m., 1 p.m. and 5:30 p.m.

Treasure Map to island's riches

Visitors to St. John will be able to explore the island and win prizes at the same time, early in the New Year thanks to the St. John Treasure Map & Guide.

The map will be distributed free at the Red Hook and Cruz Bay ferry docks, and other places on the island, beginning in January.  The map divides the island into five areas and directs people to various sites and activities.

"Each territory has its own unique adventure with clues to find, questions to answer and activities to complete," explains the map's Web site.  "These tours  involve not just site seeing but interaction with the island's hot spots, restaurants and shops, historic sites, beaches and hide-aways."

Visitors will be invited to go online to the map's Web site (http://islandtreasuremaps.com/), upload their answers and comments, and have the opportunity to win the "Motherload", a free trip to St. John.

The map is being developed by Jennifer Knowles-Donnelly, co-owner of the Jolly Dog stores, and a partner.  She describes the map as a way for merchants to get people to come into their stores and get the answers to the map's questions.  Think of it as a scavenger hunt.

Why no Pond Bay photos for a while

Matt and Howard are back from Boston but they don't plan to resume posting weekly photos of the Pond Bay project, taken from their house.  The reason - well, there's not much progress being made. 

"For a time, we were regularly posting updated pictures of the Pond Bay development at Chocolate Hole," they wrote on their blog," St. John Talk. "However, for the past month or so, development has halted.  Rumors suggest funding has dried up.  Therefore, it seems a bit silly to continue to upload pictures while no changes are taking place. Therefore, until development resumes, we will halt the Pond Bay updates."

The Inquiring Iguana hears that there's a dispute between the Pond Bay developer and the money folks, a German bank.  Earlier plans to open the project in time for Christmas  seem overly-optimistic, maybe by next summer.

• St. John Talk blog can be found at http://www.stjohntalk.com/blog/?p=1392

An evening of wine, music, and food on the beach

The island's food and wine event of the year is set for Saturday night at the Westin Resort.

As many as 325 people are expected at the event, Flavors, to taste, munch, sip, and savor the best the island's many chefs and restaurants have to offer. 

"This is high scale dining not a free food buffet frenzy or cocktail party," said Kati Steinborn, owner of Katilady Events and chairman of the Rotary Club-sponsored event.

The caterers and restaurants will be competing to make the Best Overall Presentation, and serve the best Appetizer, Entree and Dessert.  Judges include the Virgin Islands Chef of the Year as well as two winners from the Taste of St. Croix. Party goers will also have a voice in the selections through a silent ballot. 

Steinborn had a caution for the food vendors. "While the crowd gets a little nuts when word gets around that someone is serving filet mignon, if that filet is not delicious the crowd knows it," she said. "Do something that sounds intriguing and is absolutely delicious and you will win the crowd."

Proceeds from Flavors go to St. John Rotary's scholarships and community activities.  The goal is $35,000. Flavors begins at 6:30pm.  Tickets are $100 at the door.  Music for the dining and dancing will be provided by Inner Visions.

If you're visiting the island and want to have a great evening, taste the best there is and meet some real St. Johnians, go to Flavors.  You'll get a real taste of the island.

• Web site: http://www.flavorsstjohn.com/

Guy Benjamin in Cruz Bay

The island's grand old man, Guy Benjamin, is doing a book signing.

The 96-year-old author has overseen a reprinting of Me and My Beloved Virgin.

The St. John Source's Lynda Lohr says Benjamin will be at the Friends of the Park store at Mongoose Junction Friday from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.

• The Source story is at http://stjohnsource.com/content/news/local-news/2009/11/16/historic-st-john-author-and-educator-sign-books-friday.
• You can contact the store here.
  

Photo Safari with Steve Simonsen

Island photographer Steve Simonsen is planning a photowalk this winter.  E-mail Janet Simonsen for details on the Dec. 12th event. 

PS, look for Steve in a New York Times feature about island camping next month, too.

Starfish 7% more expensive in food price survey

The Department of Licensing and Consumer Affairs said its October sampling of food prices at island stores showed Dolphin Market as the low price leader.  Pine Peace came in second, with the market basket 1% less expensive. Starfish Market was the most expensive, with prices 7% higher than Dolphin.

The Virgin Islands Daily News has more on the report here.