Sapphire Beach 2020

We were having a staycation here in St Thomas and we were actually STAYING at Sapphire Beach. It had been 10 long years since I was here last and I really wanted to see if my memory of the snorkeling was still the same. I have revisited my previous pictures from 10 years ago, but as time goes by, so do the memories. 

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So this page will be a compilation of all the days we spent at Sapphire beach during our stay.

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So, off we went to claim our spot under the grape trees. Fighting for prime real estate with the iguana's would be a daily chore. Also, if you are not out on the beach claiming your spot by...around 6-7am, sometimes you don't get the best view, but we always managed to find the best shade. 

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I asked Sakari if she was ready to head out and she put on the mermaid tail and off we went. 

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After awhile, I asked Sakari if she wanted to head back in and she said yes. Once we got back, Kam was waiting at the shoreline with me "mamaw, will you swim with me? mamaw, will you swim with me? mamaw, will you swim with me?" "Good grief child, let me catch my breath for a minute I heard you the first time and the second and every time after that."  I figure if I tell her this enough times, she'll stop repeating herself. We shall see.

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Well, it's hard to say no to a granddaughter who I just taught to swim a week prior to vacation and she wanted to test out her skills in the ocean. After explaining to her that it's not the same as being in her pool...there are waves that can carry you out, the depth changes quickly and you can be over your head fast, and every other thing I could think of that would make her comprehend that this is not her pool and she is to stay really close to me is what I ended up saying to her. 

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She was scared to death of the fish in the water once she managed to poke her head under and see all the fish that she couldn't tell was there when she was standing up. OH NO! We will not have her turn out like her dad who usually won't step more than knee deep in the ocean because he's afraid of fish and anything else that might be lurking under there. Humans are not fish food...well, unless you happen to be a damsel. Then humans are pretty tasty if you get close enough. 

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We would spend quite some time searching for "sea glass" and pretty little shells at the shoreline after she got used to the fish around her and knew they were interesting to look at.

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I was really happy when I managed to find 2 pieces of green seaglass. SCORE! It rained a little here and there and I just chalked it up to that sporadic Caribbean showers you get all the time.

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Meanwhile, Sakari was starring at the trees and I got out to see if she had found some scaly critters lurking above our chairs. Yep, she sure did. There were about 5 iguana's above us and a few on the beach.

Since she is the animal whisperer, I handed her a camera and let her put a few of them in a trance while she got really close to them to snap some pictures for me. I knew the minute I tried to get anywhere near them, they would give the signal and retreat. If the mere thought of me getting close to them didn't scare them away, then the sight would of my hee-ho, limp, grunt, hobble all the way over to the tree would.

A few final thoughts on the snorkeling. These are just my thoughts and experiences. I remember Sapphire Beach (back in 2010) to be the most awesome snorkeling ever. I remember the fish, the coral, the fun we had. However, after visiting many other places in the Caribbean, and also after visiting Coki beach, I started to question if Sapphire really was as good as I was remembering it from years ago. Just my opinion, but it doesn't compare to Coki with the various colorful corals or variety and it certainly didn't compare to other places I've been to in the Caribbean that are simply AH-MAY-ZING! (Like St Lucia for instance)

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So why did I remember it as a great snorkeling place from before? I honestly think a lot that had to do with it was that it had been the first time I had been snorkeling in over 21 years. So, it really amazed me to see all the fish and corals. It was also my husbands first time being in the ocean and snorkeling so it was so exciting at the time. But now that I would call myself somewhat of an "expert" in snorkeling and have been many many places, I would call the snorkeling here ok to mediocre. There were a lot of rocks with smaller damsels, tangs and so on there. A few nice corals here and there and I was overly excited when I found an orange looking coral. But, it just doesn't compare to the purple coral you will see at Coki. Is it worth a day to visit? Of course! It's not like you aren't going to see anything...it's just that it's not on my "top" list of snorkeling places after today. You also can't beat the beautiful beach and all the grape trees and palms to sit under.  More on this later....

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The kids wanted to go to the pool for some fun (but this is only offered for guests staying here at the property and there is a security guard that walks around making sure you belong here, so this part is only if you are looking to stay at the resorts and get an idea for what it is like here) and we gathered our things and walked via the beach to the pool area. You can tell that this area was hit by the hurricane (I assume) and they never rebuilt or opened up the bar that was there or repaired the roof, electrical or anything. But hey, we came for the pool so it didn't really matter to us. I'm kinda glad there isn't a bar there because if there was, that area would be a lot more crowded than it ever was during the times we were there. 

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The kids had fun playing in the pool and I got my water therapy in for the day that's for sure. 

Although there are signs posted not to jump off the walls or planters at the pool, very rarely did you see an adult or child that followed those rules. My kid and grandson would give me heart palpitations every time they jumped or flipped off the top to the bottom and no matter how many times I'd yell, they'd catch me off guard and do it again. At one point, Billy did his back flip as well. 

One of the days I decided I was going to head out on an adventure...all by myself, just trying to buy some time before the crew woke up. I wanted to explore a little on the other side of Sapphire (by the condo's over there-Crystal Cove) and also take some pictures. So, off I went...on my own, armed with my camera.

Another day of snorkeling at Sapphire...

Meanwhile, the hubs was entertaining himself with Iggy and the girls were actually on the beach with their mermaid tails on. I hope they didn't stay out there too long...their gills will dry out!

Kendra and I continued on. We went out further than I had been out the other day and further over toward the pool area. Ok, I will admit, the snorkeling got a lot better the further out we went. So, I can take back my previous statement of it being "ok" and say that it's at least a lot better than "ok".  There is still a lot of rocks and not a lot of various fish (mainly the same fish you would see at most beaches), but we did come across a school of tangs and that was exciting for me. I absolutely get excited when I see a large group of them. They are so beautiful and peacefully glide through the water. 

We decided to head back in and check on the family. I was satisfied with everything I was able to see this time around and glad that the snorkeling was better than the other day. I still wouldn't say it was fabulous, but definitely good enough. 

Me, Kendra, Sam, Sakari and little miss repeat all decided we wanted to go for a walk down the beach (toward the other condo's I went down toward this morning). The boys (Billy and B) didn't want to take part in this adventure and decided they would just hang out. B had brought his laptop with him and was watching Fortnite videos and was just too into it to walk with us, plus he's super lazy and said it was "just too much walking" for him. So, off we went. Of course more rain here and there and we would dart under a tree during the "sprinkle" only to emerge and see a rainbow! 

When we got to the end "Kendra" decided we would keep going. "Going where??? The beach is pretty much ending". She replied "Ahhh, we will follow the water and see what we can find". Oh just great. Watching Fortnite with B was sounding a little more promising then this adventure she was about to take us on. 

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At this point, the beach was pretty much ending and there was a lot of ironshore rocks along the edges of the water. There was a lot of stepping over things, holding on to the hubby for dear life on rocks that were slippery, stepping over palms trees and wondering if any of the people who lived in the houses there with their signs saying private property were going to come out and tell us "get off my lawn"...only it wasn't a lawn. It was a very interesting and a very long walk...especially for someone like me. We made it pretty far and things were only getting worse. I finally put my foot down, well...not really because that would probably hurt if I stomped it...and said "I'm turning back! We are to a point where it's not safe at all for me to walk and it's also starting to get dark with a long walk ahead of us back and over all the things we crossed. You see, I had discovered that it gets dark around a little after 6pm and that is why I'm so darn tired and ready for bed by 9-10pm. Back home, it was't getting dark until around 9pm or a little after.  I wasn't taking any chances on the sundown game tonight because I knew we'd be left in the dark trying to figure out which spot was the best spot to try to put my foot down.

Then on the way back, Sakari spotted an anemone right at the shore line. It was a very strange place for it to be and the waves going in and out would cover it over and over, then rinse it off. I'm really shocking we didn't step on it on the way down. Kambriah "What is that? What is that? What is that?"

There were a bunch of kayaks by the beach and one was down by the water and the waves was pulling it out. Sakari decided to be a good samaritan and go save it and pull it all the way up where the others were located at. I can't believe they just left it down there. I'm not even sure if the surf shop is open still. I never did see anyone there or it open and I would think they would somehow lock these things up at the end of the day. But, they were always just left out everywhere. 

Sakari all of a sudden screamed with excitement! She pointed at the tree...it was the game that she played on another island (I think St Croix) and she absolutely LOVED it and the challenge. There's a hook on the tree and then a ring attached to a string and you have to swing it and try to hook the ring on the hook on the tree. She tried and tried and just couldn't get it. The wind was not on her side!

We kept walking past the condo and of course...headed toward the pool where we would find Brayden swimming. 

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I continued to take pictures of the sunset bouncing off the clouds and the palm trees. We would end up going out on the little pathway by the pool that took you out to some rocks, crashing waves and water on both sides. They use this area for weddings. It's very lovely and made for a great photo shoot, which I happened to see at least 2 weddings while we were there and the photographer out there taking pictures. I do have to say that the ground is really rough. There's a lot of sharp rocks, dirt (not sand like you would think) and just not a pleasant walk if you are barefooted. (I did see a groom and bride out there barefooted for their wedding). Me, being so self foot conscious, couldn't imagine how they managed to walk it and not throw out a few "ouchies" along the way. 

It wasn't too long before Sakari discovered what we were doing and headed down to us....RUNNING!!! With her bare feet. Yikes! Ouchie!

She offered to take some photo's for us. It's super nice to capture those special moments to cherish places you have been together, however, I am very reluctant to share any photo's of me in them. I'm very self conscious about my weight these days. I have gained so much since last year after my accident and being bed ridden, in a wheelchair and still not being able to walk much and can't be too active. I've never been so big in my life and although I can't help it at this point, it's still not a pretty site to me and embarrassing. :( 

I ended up taking some pictures of Sakari in different poses. She was having fun.

Then as quickly as she came...she was off again...RUNNING AGAIN!

IF YOU COLLECT SEAT GLASS:

Yet another day, I decided I was going to take a walk on the side of the condo's by the pool. I hadn't really been down this way passed the pool. I headed down to the rocky gravel seashell area by the water. This side of the beach is all rocky and the waves are a little more prominent. It's not really a swimming area but the second week we were here I did see an entire family in there snorkeling. I don't think I would have felt comfortable snorkeling in there (or even making it out there passed all the rocks) and definitely wouldn't have wanted my child in there (they were younger than Sakari). But, I'm sure there's probably good snorkeling there. 

I figured this would be an excellent place to look for shells and neat pieces. To my surprise, it was SEA GLASS HEAVEN!!!! I swear this must be the place where all sea glass comes to live. There's was tons of it. You just had to look closely in the sea of shells and rocks. I was SUPER excited that not only were there green ones, but I started finding DARK BLUE one's as well. I think I had read that the blue are somewhat rare. I also found some VERY light blue one's and I'll have to look those up. There wasn't many but on the STT fb boards, someone brought up sea glass and said that the light blue one's are possibly from the stopper top to old cologne or perfume bottles? Then I also found the normal green, some darker green (like a seafoam green), 2 colors of brown, white and some odd pink looking glass. I was so excited with my finds. My hands were full and I headed back to show Sakari and Kendra my pot of gold. Immediately they both went out looking for more and Kendra was getting pretty serious about it and would sit down in one spot and dig and then move on to the next. LOL

I found a really neat something-or-other that had washed up on the shore. Sakari wanted me to take a macro shot of it. 

While we continued to look for seaglass, we noticed Billy had walked down the beach and over toward the marina. We wouldn't find out until we came back that there was a boat accident and he went to go investigate. They had flipped their boat over, was wading in the water, their entire contents from their boat floating in the water and and another boat trying to rescue them. 

Kendra and Billy would spend the next hour gathering everything that washed up on shore and taking it to one location where the boat actually ended up washing into the rocks at. They had hoped that the owner of the boat (hopefully not hurt) would return and find all their belongings in one place easing the pain of everything that had just happened. Yes, they have a good heart and it's not always fun and games with them. 

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On another day...

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We gathered our snorkeling gear and headed out to the water. 

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I took a few pictures here and there but the water was really rough and it wasn't working out too great. My dry snorkel wasn't so dry at this time and eventually we just gave up and got out. 

If you are thinking about eating at Sapphire, here our experience there. It was just me, the hubs and Sakari that went. The hubby ordered for us and we sat down at one of the tables. Yes, the food is expensive but man was it really good! Sakari and I had a cheeseburger and the hubs had a ....get this...a bacon cheese hotdog. Say what? I would have never thought to put BACON on a hotdog. He was it was super yummy and for $10 I surely hope so.  I mean no matter how you spice it up, the fact still remains it's a hot dog. 

So tonight would be different than all the other nights. Normally we would spend the rest of the day, and some of the after hours, at the pool. But, since we were down at this end of the beach area, we decided to just hang out over here. Sakari really wanted to go back and test her luck at the round ring to tree hook game. While her and daddy had a face off, I took lots of pictures of the sun going down over the hill.

Sakari has a mean throw...watch out and stay away from the area! Half the time it would end up in the tree. In the end, daddy was the champion ring to hook thrower and managed to get it on there once. I don't even know how he did that because of the wind. 

We found a couple of chairs and decided to relax and watch the...in this case...clouds go down because the sun doesn't go down on this side of the island but the reflection on the clouds are spectacular! (Not to mention they way it reflects off the water). Once again, Sakari would have to rescue a kayak down by the water. Why are people leaving them out there??? I wonder how many they lose from people leaving them too close to the water and the tide washing them out. 

I wanted to move a little further down toward our area of the beach so when it got dark I wasn't tripping over anything because I couldn't see. So we walked down to right in front of our building and found more chairs by the water. We would sit there until it got too dark and the beautiful sunlit clouds went away. Sakari built a sea turtle in the sand between us and then it was dark and we called it a night. 

On our next day, Tropical Storm Iasis was on it's way. So there wasn't a lot of beach time but here are some pictures...

I took a video of the wind and storm picking up. Then we noticed there were several paragliders out and taking full advantage of these winds and waves. I would pop out to check them out every so often and then finally we decided (once the rain stopped for a few minutes, we decided to go out to get a better look). 

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We stood under some of the grape trees and had several friends around us. I'm sure they were wondering what these big birds out there in the ocean were.

Since this was a day of staying "home" and not getting to visit a beach, you know I'm going to take full advantage while I'm standing out there watching the paragliders to take more pictures as if I was visiting a new beach. 

As we watched and I took pictures, it would rain off and on...then I knew we had over stayed our visit and should have walked back about 5 minutes earlier because all of a sudden it was POURING! Now normally this would not be a problem and we'd just make a run for it. However...no running for me on this foot. Ugh

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We would hide under the grape trees for awhile just waiting for the opportunity to make it or break it.

The rain slowed a little but was still going strong and we knew we should just go for it and off we went. I felt so bad for the hubby because he won't leave me behind and had to endure the pounding rain on us in slow motion. I always tell him to go ahead "save yourself" but he just won't. 

Some pictures the following day...nice and sunny again and the Tropical Storm had officially passed!

I headed down the jetty one last time. The wind was blowing and the water was a little mad still. But I love to try to get pictures of the waves crashing onto the rocks. 

Back to the pool area. I love how the pool is situated right against the ocean water. I'm not sure why they had the steps leading down onto the beach blocked off. But, you could always go around. 

The hubby and I decided to take a walk down the other side where the marina was. I hadn't been over that way and wanted to check it out. 

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I can tell you this is THE place to find all the crabs in the area. They were just everywhere. Darting between the rocks and running.

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There were plenty of pelicans diving for fish in the area as well. Maybe from the boats returning after the storm and churning things up for them. However, we did notice that our parasailing boat had not returned yet. 

There was some rock stacking going on here...I love to see what people create. Had Sakari been walking with us, I'm sure she would have stopped to do her own creation.

Can you spot the crab? This is some awesome camouflage going on in these rocks. I can see why they like it over here.

Our last day at Sapphire Beach pictures....

We had seen that they had a little coffee shop at the resort and went in to check out their menu. They had various breakfast items and I successfully managed to cook up all of our breakfast food the day before. This meant I was going to take a break from cooking today and actually eat out for breakfast for the first time since we arrived. Go me!

On the way over to The Beach Buzz, we found a baby iguana. Oh my gosh! I'm just so in love with these little guys. They are the cutest ever! Sakari picked him up and put him out of harms way. I was so afraid that someone was going to step on him sitting there on the sidewalk.

Inside of The Beach Buzz...

We took our food out to the little dining area right outside and had a leisurely breakfast and talked about what a wonderful time we had during our stay and how bad we didn't want to leave. 

FINAL THOUGHTS....

St Thomas is a beautiful island. We have been here several times and enjoyed ourselves every time we have been here. 

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This wasn't the vacation that I had hoped it would be and by that I mean that we didn't get to do everything I had planned on doing. I'm a beach lover and I fully expected to go to every beach that I could. But, with Kendra and family not wanting to go, combined with the Tropical Storm we encountered taking off 2 days of our trip and the issues we had waiting around trying to go parasailing for the first week...it just wasn't in the cards. 

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I really hope to come back and stay again and be able to go to all the beaches and places I had hoped to go to this time: Magens, Mountain Top, Drake's Seat, Water Island, Mangrove Lagoon, and COKI!!!! Then also the other beautiful beaches I wanted to see on St John.

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If I was to come back, I would definitely want to stay at Sapphire again. We absolutely loved it here. It's beautiful, decent snorkeling, the pool area is awesome, and the SEA GLASS!!!! Like wow, the most I have ever seen other than in Bermuda at the sea glass beach. I came home with quite the collection and so many beautiful colors!

Another thing I wanted to do was to compare photo's from the last time we were at Sapphire. It had been 10 years since we were there last and with several hurricanes that hit St Thomas, there were some palms missing and then again the vegetation had also expanded in areas as well. But it was neat to try to create the "scene" again. 

 2010

2020

2010

2020

UNTIL NEXT TIME.... WE  ❤️  YOU ST THOMAS!