November 7 - Leonid Meteor Showers in USVI November 18?

RickG: Earthandsky.org mention that the Leonids peak Saturday November 18. Has anyone had any luck seeing the show in previous years?

California Girl from usvi-on-line.com said: Rick, I'd have to check to see what phase the moon is in, but if you're lucky enough to have a new moon the Leonids are one of the year's most spectacular meteor showers. Sometimes they're VERY active, sometimes not so much. But if you can stay up late enough (meteor showers usually peak about 1:00 - 2:00 a.m.) you will be in for a treat.

Here's some information that may help you. You're in luck! There's a new moon that night!

LEONIDS (maximum November 19; 4:45 UT
[November 18; 8:45pm PST; 11:45pm EST])

Moon: New (no interference)

Best viewing window: European observers should have the best view, during the predawn hours of Sunday, November 19. North American observers (East Coast strongly favored) should start watching just before midnight on Saturday evening, November 18, and continue watching through the morning hours of November 19.

Recommended for: Anyone interested in meteor observing; just keep in mind uncertainties in predictions and don't expect to see any Leonids if you're watching before the radiant rises (11pm-midnight for most mid-northern locations).

Some years ago, when the teams of David Asher and Robert McNaught were making their groundbreaking predictions of Leonid storms and outbursts for the years 1999-2002, they also noted a possible outburst for 2006. This November, we'll find out whether that prediction comes true. On November 19, the Earth is due to pass through a trail of debris left by the Leonids' parent comet on one of its previous returns. A sharp peak of perhaps 100 Leonids/hour is expected, although there is a bit of uncertainty. If it occurs very near the predicted time of 4:45 UT, Europe and Western Africa will see the display during the favored morning hours. The East Coast of North America will see a bit of the display (maybe up to 25 per hour) as earthgrazing Leonids starting when the radiant rises at around 11pm. Depending on just how short and sharp this peak is, most of North America may be out of luck.

RickG: Thanks Cali Girl. I found another reference that basically states that if you watch to the East starting around 11PM on November 18th you should see some pretty good meteor activity - around 35 meteors per hour. I'll be watching... after a long day of travel geting there.

http://www.arm.ac.uk/leonid/2006/info2006.html


Cheers, RickG


Update 11/27/06: Meteor viewing was a success! We saw about 10 an hour on Saturday and Sunday nights. Once the kids went to bed and the lights were dim some of the streaks were impressive. The best viewing was from villa Le Lapin II on the hill between Hart Bay and Chocolate Hole.

October 18 - 30 days to St. John - Gang of 24

Well, it's time to get ready for our biggest trip yet - or, biggest herd (moo!). We have 24 people aged 2 to 69 gearing up for Thanksgiving on St. John. Everyone in the group is related by blood or marriage with two core family groups linked by my sister and her husband. 14 people are St. John Virgins, excepting a cruise ship visit. 10 of us have stayed in a villa on island once or more before. This is my 10th or so trip and my Sweet Christine's 8th or 9th trip. I'm pretty excited, so I'm going to channel that energy into TooMuchInformation here.

This trip has been 2 years in the planning. How do you get 24 people booked and moving in the same direction? Well, I announced I was going and told everyone to come along and make their own reservations. I got one villa, my sister's family got a second villa, and a gang of newbies got the third villa.

How do you get three houses right next to each other so that you can spend every waking hour together? Gee, I forgot to ask that question. With two houses on Hart Bay and one on the Great Cruz Bay hillside, we are close enough to play together to play and far enough apart for some privacy.


Detailed image: http://www.garvin.us/STJ/photos/STJ3Houses.jpg
Google Earth: http://www.garvin.us/STJ/photos/STJ3Houses-google-earth.kmz

Picking villas was pretty tough with toddlers in two houses; there are not many houses with enclosed staircases. The other criteria were price range, swimming pool, and party friendly layout. My personal pet peeve is having to walk up and down stairs between the pool and the kitchen with pitchers of blender drinks. So, I always look for a house with a pool on the same level as the kitchen. Having steps instead of a ladder in the pool is nice too. Another factor is that hard cooling breeze that blows onto the South Shore this time of year - it makes the pool chilly. It can also fling deck furniture about at 4AM. So, I look for a house with a Western exposure. Cocotier looked good to me, though we've never stayed there. I've seen Dolphin Run over the years and I like the setting. Le Lapin II shows great and is pretty new.


Cocotier through Destination St. John
http://www.destinationstjohn.com/cocotier.htm


Le Lapin II through Caribbean Villas
http://www.caribbeanvilla.com/lelapin2/lelapin2.html


Dolphin Run through Caribbean Villas
http://www.caribbeanvilla.com/lelapin/lelapin.html

Coordinating schedules is too big a problem to solve. We are arriving and leaving at different times and moving independently. I pulled together some notes that have been helpful in reducing the newbie pre-trip anxiety http://www.garvin.us/STJ/New_Visitors_Guide/STJ_New_Visitor_Guide.html. In order to get together and have fun once we're on the island I'm using the beach and happy hour method. I'll just announce what beach I'll be on each day and where I'll be for happy hour. Hey, if nobody hooks up with us at least I'll have fun! After happy hour folks can cook at home or go out to dinner, it's up to them. No mass herd feedings at restaurants.

For Thanksgiving dinner we'll likely do a pot-luck meal together. Reservations for 24 at the Fish Trap? Kill me now. Though, we had a great Thanksgiving meal there for 8 in 1997.

I'm certain we'll have a great time together. With the newbies and the kids beach time and snorkeling with frosty beverages is going to adventure enough. I'll let you know how it works out.

Cheers, RickG

NY Times St. John Article - February 24, 206

Somehow I missed this New York Times article on St. John on February 24, 2006. It's pretty good for a short article. I like the picture of the Coral Bay crosroads that they lead with.

Two Months and Counting

St. John soon come! Two months from now I will be sipping Cruzan Rum Cream on the deck while I watch the twinkling starts and listen to the frogs sing. Two months from tomorrow I'll be slipping into the 84 degree water at Francis Bay...

New St. John rental villas

I was taking a look at properties for a 2007 rental and it was interesting to see so many new (to me) properties coming up. Bongo Bongo has gotten a lot of notice because of their painfully confessional construction blog, but there's a lot more out there. I was surprised what I found with a cursory look. Here's a quick look:

• South Palm - 4 bedroom in Virgin Grand Estates
• Hawksview Estate - 4+ bedroom on the North $hore
• Carnival Beach House - 2 bedrooms on Klein Bay
• Orion's Hill - 2 bedrooms on Ajax Mt.
• Angelica - 3 bedrooms Great Cruz Bay
• Caneel Trailside Cottage - 2 bedrooms on Caneel Hill
• Sea Stone Villa - 2 bedrooms in Great Cruz Bay Estates
• Venturosa Villa - 4 bedrooms above Cruz Bay
• Waterfall - 3 bedrooms in Rendezvous Bay
  

More American Airlines Scheduling Weirdness

After calling American to fix our departure times I found something even odder. The departure and arrival times on our reservation do not match the times on the flights when you do a search & quote! It looks like American Airlines does not understand the difference between Eastern Standard Time and Atlantic Time. When the US East is on daylight savings time, as is currently the case, the US Virgin Islands do not participate. By our November trip daylight savings time will have passed and the East coast be on the same clock as the Virgins

So, I expect American to do another schedule change when daylight savings time ends on October 29.

New books in the mail yesterday

I got home from late work meetings and had a priority mail package from the Virgin Islands. I had ordered the new St. John Off The Beaten Track by Gerald Singer from Gerald Singer's website at www.stjohnbeachguide.com. I own two previous versions going back to 1997 that are very dog eared and show signs of spending time on the beach. The new version is printed on glossier paper, have a ton of pictures and feature better maps.

A lot of the new content is also on the St. John Beach Guide website along with some additional pictures. There are some new trails that look interesting. The L’Esperance Road trail looks interesting as does Great Sieban.

American Airlines Schedule Changes

We called American Airlines to fix our flight schedule. We originally were leaving out of Washington, Dulles at 7AM and arriving in St. Thomas at 1PM. American moved the 7AM flight to 8AM and booked us on a connecting flight out of San Juan that got us to St. Thomas at 3:55PM. We need time to get the rental jeep and check into the villa, so that was too late. American was willing to change our connecting flight to allow us to arrive at 3:55PM, with only 45 minutes to connect in San Juan.

How did we find out that American had made this change? By checking the status of our reservation. No notification was given. Looking at the usvi-on-line.com message board, it looks like this is a pretty common practice by American. They change their flight schedules every month... I'll check back in October.

Cheers, Rick