Living on a Rock: 5 years Ahead of the Plan

Testing out St. John in the Summer

Having fun at Cane Garden Bay 6 days before Irma wrecked it.

Our last vacation on St. John was 10 days ending Labor Day 2017. The plan was fairly simple: spend 10 days with Carrie’s brother and his wife, do some diving, spend a few full days on Maho, and relax by Great Expectations’ big pool. The secondary goal was to see how St. John was in summer. We have talked for at least 5 years about moving down full-time by 2023.

The water was warm, really warm - even diving down 50 feet. We stayed neck deep at Maho throwing a frisbee for hours. We’d get a fresh beer out of the cooler every hour or so. We took a “local’s trip” with Jimmy & Bridgett to the BVI. Then the weather reports got more accurate. The water was too warm. Depressions were forming. Our friends were starting to make plans. Power tools and plywood came out of storage units. News reports were sounding more ominous by the day.

We left Monday September 4, 2017. The villa got buttoned up on Tuesday by an unknown-at-the-time Erickson and his crew. The weather came 2 days later. You heard - it wasn’t pretty.

Carrie, Sadie & Steve with plants from Josephine’s

Island Relativity

Fast forward almost 2 years. We helped get Great Expectations sorted after the storm. Then we bought it. We took 2 dozen trips back and forth. We’ve now been on island with Sadie for just over 4 months. Some days it feels like 3 years. Some days it feels like 3 days. We try to go to the beach every week, but sometimes we just have too much going on. We have a small group of fellow island business owners we consider dear friends. We still marvel at the sunsets. I don’t think that will ever go away.

I have been underwater diving 5 days (10 tanks) since March and wish I could spend more time down with the spotted drum and yellow headed jawfish. I did just buy a local’s 40-tank package from Low Key Watersports - I call it instant dive insurance.

Carrie & I are renting an apartment at Bogie’s Villa on Gifft Hill, just 1.5 miles from the villa. The 6 unit complex was completely rebuilt by owners KC & Basil Bsisu and is made up of 2 long-term apartments, 4 short-term rentals and a pool area.

Constant Improvements

Phase 1 of Solar Panel replacement by ProSolar

We try to spend as much time at the villa as possible upgrading, cataloging, and planning. This summer is entirely booked except for 2 x 1 night openings. We’ve just checked in our 46th group of guests since January. We’ve had construction management crews stay for 2 to 8 weeks, many 3-generation families, 6 weddings, and a whole lot of repeat guests.

We’ve blocked off 5 weeks over this September to do some more work:

• New villa-wide Window Treatments (sound minor? It’s 16 sliding glass doors worth of curtains and rods!)

• Final 2 new sliding glass doors in Jumbie and Denis

• Last 3 new in-wall safes

• Pool/Patio furniture

• Painting

• Landscaping

• Hardwood refinishing

• Low-voltage lighting additions

• Pool pump house doors

• New Tennis net and Basketball hoop & backboard

We’re also making plans now for some pretty major work for the fall of 2020. We’re looking at tiling, bathroom upgrades, and some activity items.

Our 4th Life

Carrie kept her job and went remote. She plans to be back in Vermont 3-4x a year. I’m doing web development work here, back in Vermont, and all over the country as usual. I think i’m on my 19th plane ticket since Irma. While we miss friends in Vermont, we remember, this was the original plan - the storms just accelerated the timeline a few dozen months. When we meet up with Chuck & Kristin again, it will be with warm smiles and big hugs. We didn’t expect anything like this, but are embracing it full on.

Steve & Carrie in the big pool

Our Goal: Give each group of villa guests a beautiful, welcoming place to relax on St. John while they celebrate their marriage, anniversary, birthday, family reunion, corporate successes, or just simply their ability to come to a small rock in the Caribbean where warm smiles and “good mornings” are commonplace and the hardships and negativity melt away.

What’s Next? Stay tuned!

Steve Butcher
July 31, 2019

Complete your SCUBA certification while vacationing on St. John

So you love Snorkeling around the beaches of St. John but have always wondered about SCUBA...

The beautiful water of the Virgin Islands is home to 500 species of fish, not to mention amazing beaches and coral reefs. While just about everyone who visits the USVI spends time snorkeling in search of a turtle, recreational diving St. John (and the surrounding USVI and BVI) is wonderful and not at all hard to do.

We've had hundreds of family and friends stay at Great Expectations for a week or two's vacation and every once and a while we get groups where one or more of the guests wants to get certified to SCUBA dive. While you may think it would take away from your vacation time, with a little planning, you can actually mix some great beach days, hikes and a few happy hours along with getting your PADI or SSI certification.

Don't sit in a classroom while on St. John

Regardless of where your home is, major SCUBA organizations now allow you to complete the coursework required for certification online or on your tablet. Make a plan to purchase the PADI eLearning package a few months before your trip. You learn online or on a tablet by reading, watching video lessons and testing.

Low Key Dive shop even has a special e-Learning PADI Open Water online package you can pre-buy (and schedule) so that when you arrive you are ready to complete your 6 instructional dives.

Pre-schedule your dives around other vacation activities

Consider when you arrive and depart St. John, dinner reservations and specific beach days, then pre-book your certification dives with the dive shop before coming. We recommend NOT diving on your last day on St. John and definitely not after pre-planned late nights.

Typically you will need to do 4 or 6 dives (2 confined water and 4 open water) following your coursework.If you didn't do your 2 confined water dives at your local dive shop, don't worry, you can do those 2 dives and your other 4 certification dives in the waters around St. John. Most dive companies do 2 tank dives in a 2-3 hour morning or afternoon. So 6 dives will take you 3 mornings or afternoons. For a Saturday arrival, consider Sunday, Tuesday and one other day to get out in the water and complete your diving lessons but still have plenty of time for the beach.

Opening up other shores around the Virgin Islands

Once you pass, the dive shop will take your photo and order your certification card and you are free to dive with them or other dive shops in the future. A standard 2-tank trip will take you to various unique reefs and islands around St. John and cost you $125 with all the gear included.

Plan your next trip

Once get a few dives under your weight belt, you could even return to St. John for a future vacation. We recommend checking out the 2-tank weekly scheduled dive of the  BVI's Wreck of the Rhone National Park off Salt Island.

WARNING:  One of the downsides to being able to stay underwater for dozens of minutes at depths reaching 100 feet is that snorkeling a St. John beach isn't as thrilling. Sure, there's always something fascinating about swimming near a turtle when they surface for air, but it can be pleasantly frustrating when you can't follow him down to the bottom and stay for a while.

Testing the waters: A One-time SCUBA Trial run

If you love snorkeling around St. John and have always wondered what it would be like to not have to hold your breath, you can sign up for a very affordable Discovery dive trip. Low Key Dive shop offers the SCUBA Discovery trip that lets you learn the basics about diving while actually doing it around the beautiful reefs of St. John. You will spend 15-20 minutes before the scheduled dive trip watching an instructional video and filling out a few forms, then proceed to the dive boat with certified instructors and other recreational divers.

St John Tradewinds announces St John villa, Great Expecations, hosts wounded soldiers

Low Key Watersports and Great Expectations Hosting SCUBA for Disabled VeteransWritten by Tradewinds Staff
Friday, 03 December 2010 06:00After completing a course in the pool at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, a SUDS participant, above, got his diving certificate in St. John waters last year. The group is back on St. John with a new group of divers this week.Low Key Watersports in Cruz Bay will again help sponsor an Adaptive Dive Program based out of Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., called Soldiers Undertaking Disabled Scuba (SUDS) the first week of December.The group of 11 will be staying at Great Expectations near Chocolate Hole and diving will be provided by Low Key Watersports. They will be on St. John from December 2 through 7. The SUDS Program is for veterans who have received severe injuries in Afghanistan and Iraq. Aquatic therapy and scuba diving can be very beneficial to the rehabilitation process and promotes mobility.
The injured veterans do their initial SCUBA training at Walter Reed and then travel to the Caribbean to complete their dive certification. The SUDS Program runs eight to 10 trips a year and this St. John trip will be the group’s second time on St. John. SUDS is a 501c(3) non-profit organization and a chapter of the Wounded Warrior/Disabled Sports Project.
When the SUDS group was on St. John the first time in the Spring 2009, the local community really came together to support the injured veterans. Any and all contributions, whether in services or in donations, are very much appreciated. In addition, the one area where immediate assistance is needed is food.
Anyone interested in providing a breakfast, lunch or dinner for a group of 11, should contact Carla Chatterton at (207) 504-6661 or carla@johnchatterton.com