A Day in the Life of a Sea Turtle

One of our guests spotted a sea turle while out on our Full Day Sail and we wondered what he would say to us if he could... *thinking*


Here's what we think he'd say:

Hi! I'm a sea turtle and live in the beautiful blue waters of the US and British Virgin Islands. There is just so much to explore here and not to mention the view and food is amazing. Let me give you a tour of a day in the life of a turtle.

Its normally a beautiful sunny day when my family and I wake up and swim around the reefs eating algae, sea grass or jelly fish for my meals, (so please no plastic in the water it looks like jelly fish to me and my family).

Then at times we receive visitors that are not from the ocean but from all around the world who come to see all of turtle- kind!

Most of our new found friends have never seen us up close and get a bit excited (while we are just swimming around our home the coral reefs) while snorkeling on by, on passing tours like this one (New Horizons Full Day Sail), taking our picture!  We are all very flattered but would like a little space since if you touch our shell the oils from your fingers can cause fungal diseases to our shell.  No offense!

We enjoy the pace of life here, just sunning and relaxing, but at certain times we have a population boost and that's hard work for our lady turtles! Our moms to be travel a long way to where they themselves were hatched and find an area and then they start to dig.

After digging to a satisfactory depth (around 40-50 centimeters and  16-20 inches deep) these mama turtles lay over 150 or more eggs! This whole process takes around 30-60 min. and the gender of our hatchlings is determined by the temperature of the sand!  Lighter sands maintain higher temperatures and decreases incubation times resulting in more lady turtles.

I'm sad to say most of our lil' ones do not make it due to predators, pollution, and a variety of other elements with only 0.01% who do make it and so to help us we hatch at night to avoid sea gulls and other predators.

We would love to see you and educate you more on the life of sea turtles. We are sprinkled all over here in the US and British Virgin Islands so here is an open invitation to you to come on down here and enjoy yourself turtle style!

Our Very Own Beauty Queen!

From July 7 thru 10, 2011, our very own Carol Tuohy represented the Virgin Islands as Mrs. U.S. Virgin Islands in the United States All World Beauties Pageant held at the Prairie Center for the Arts in Schaumburg, Illinois.

There were 17 other contestants, the oldest of them being 40; she is 71!  She won Best Talent by doing ribbon dancing - she danced to the Everly Brothers song “Wake Up, Little Susie.”  She started with a “poodle skirt” which was then ripped off to reveal a black leotard for dancing!  At her age, she still can jump high in the air, get down on the floor and back up with no assistance, all the while twirling her ribbons on sticks.  The crowd went wild!

She also won Best Fashion Wear.  She wore a black sleeveless sheath dress with a drop waist, a hounds-tooth black and white long scarf through the belt loops, black and white jewelry, black and white heels, and topped it all off with a black straw hat with a turned up brim of black and white hounds-tooth.  All the other contestants wore cocktail dresses, she thought she did the wrong thing, but went with it. And what do you know, it must have pleased the judges!

She would have loved to bring the title home, but 1^st Runner-Up was not bad... =)

She has won 3 titles in the past 10 years representing the Virgin Islands: 
Ms. V.I. Senior America 2001, Ms. Senior Sweetheart of America 2008,
and Ms. Classic Queen of Hope 2010.

Soggy Dollar Bar - JVD

The Soggy Dollar Bar, located on White Bay, Jost Van Dyke, BVI. The birthplace of the "Original" Painkiller, (a very popular rum drink among many guests who sail or motor into White Bay).

The island of Jost Van Dyke is only 4 miles long, population less than 200, and is known for its "barefoot" lifestyle. There is no dock at this stop so guests will have to swim ashore, this is also where to the bar gets it's name - their motto is "Jump in and get your dollars soggy, then spend them at the Soggy Dollar Bar".

Guests can relax in the hammocks under the palm trees, go snorkeling, play some fun beach games, and order a World Famous "Painkiller" from the bar that created it.  There is also the option of shopping at the boutique, then you take home one or more of their t-shirts with all the catchy phrases about vacationing and partying in the islands.

Join us on our BVI trip and see first hand what a great place this is!