Uh oh, things are not looking up for Paul Golden. The Third Circuit Court of Appeals rejected his bid to stop CZM from reviewing his permit. Roger Morgan got the scoop Wednesday afternoon and Andy Simpson confirmed it on Free Speech Thursday morning. Don’t take my word for it. Here’s an excerpt:

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You can get the full program here. The discussion about Golden starts around one hour ten minutes into it. Andy comes on at about 13 minutes after the hour.

Just a few weeks ago Paul Golden held a press conference announcing Wyndham Resorts as his “brand” partner for the proposed resort on St. Croix’s south shore, in the environmentally sensitive Great Pond wetlands. He spoke as if the project was a done deal – $150 million in equity – CZM permit fully in compliance – $32.5 million of the publics money back in his hands for the convention center – breaking ground next month – Blah Blah Blah. Reporters asked about the pending lawsuits and he shushed it away, “I’m not going to talk about those”. Like they were trifling inconveniences. How about the “default” CZM permit? “No, its not default. We have the permit and we’re fully in compliance.”

Except, he didn’t mention one of the pending legal issues was his own appeal of the Third Circuit Court’s order to send his permit back to CZM for “finding of fact”, to determine if it is actually “compliant”. If he’s so sure its compliant, why would he worry about CZM reviewing it?

Well it doesn’t matter now. He’s lost this battle and is back to square one. You can read more about it in the Daily News article 3rd Circuit denies Golden Resorts appeal; permit must go back to CZM for review.

Llewellyn signals the start of our wedding

The following is a Guest Opinion, from the Virgin Island Daily News, Thursday, March 13. Written by Todd H. Newman, an attorney who lives on St. Croix. Reprinted by request of Raki (Raquel Santiago-Silver).

On Monday, March 3, St. Croix icon Llewellyn Westerman went home. Every community has one or two persons who are so well known, and so beloved, that they are just referred to by one name. Llewellyn is just such a person.

A famous musician, recording artist and performer – having been crowned the Calypso King of St. Croix – expert chef, man of letters, and one of the best sailors in the Caribbean, Llewellyn can now also be known as Lazarus.

On Friday in the afternoon Llewellyn was doing what he loves best: sailing. As he brought his vessel Charis up to the mooring at the St. Croix Yacht (Club), a squall came up. He and his brother Inglore struggled to anchor the boat and lower the sails. Suddenly, Llewellyn collapsed. The first of many miracles on that Friday was that when he collapsed, Llewellyn became tangled in the sails and fortunately did not fall overboard. He was not breathing and there was no heartbeat.

Mike Webber – originally from the states but who has lived on St. Croix for many years – was on the dock at the Yacht Club and saw that something was wrong. He raced down the dock, got into the Yacht Club whaler, motored up to Charis and somehow was able to lift the lifeless Llewellyn into the boat. He ran the whaler straight on to the beach and immediately began mouth to mouth resuscitation and CPR. St. Croix native Stephanie Malanga came running over to help, as did Lisa Price, who has split her time between St. Croix and Jackson, Wyoming for many years.

The three of them, a white male from the states, a white Virgin Islander, and a woman who has loved St. Croix all her life, worked furiously breathing air into Llewellyn and pounding on his chest. While they were doing everything they could to keep blood flowing through the body whose heart had stopped, someone from the Yacht Club remembered that William Will, who lives in Cotton Valley, had recently purchased a defibrillator. A call was made and miraculously Will was home and raced to the Yacht Club with the defibrillator.

The exhausted lifesavers followed the instructions and placed the defibrillator on Llewellyn. No heartbeat registered. The defibrillator then did its job and Llewellyn’s heart began beating.

Ambulances arrived and the comatose Llewellyn was rushed to the hospital. There, Emergency Room doctors and nurses fought to stabilize their patient. A CAT scan was performed to see how badly Llewellyn had injured his head when he collapsed. At that time, a young Virgin Islands native, Dr. Keldall Griffith – who had graduated from Central High, gone on to the states for his medical training and returned to St. Croix several years ago as a cardiologist – was testifying in Frederiksted in front of the Legislature. Contact was made with Dr. Griffith, and he came to the hospital.

Despite it being Friday evening, he quickly assembled his expert team of specialists and by 7 p.m. he was operating on Llewellyn. By 10:30 that evening – to the grateful applause and tears that greeted him from those of the many Llewellyn well-wishers who had snuck their way into the hospital – he announced that he had repaired the blockages in Llewellyn’s heart.

Our amazement and joy at the fantastic set of circumstances that had resulted in Llewellyn still being alive were tempered by our fears as to what brain damage may have been done due to the long time that Llewellyn was without a heartbeat. The miracle became complete Saturday morning as Llewellyn was weaned off of the narcotics, and we instantly knew from the sound of his voice and the quick humor that indeed Llewellyn was back!

As Virgin lslanders we are many times too consumed with concerns of race and petty politics.

The events last weekend remind us of what a special place we live in, where a community of people worked together to breath life into one of our beloved residents, keeping him alive long enough for a son of our soil to perform his wondrous healing.

I am so happy to be a Virgin Islander and so proud of all who were involved in bringing Llewellyn back – we should all be proud. Every once in a while in the Virgin Islands it all works out.

Todd H. Newman

We have gotten many, many comments from concerned friends and family members all over.

The latest one is from his companion, Karen who says, “Llew has another week of recovery and then back for a stress test on Friday. He is taking it easy and getting some paper work done. plus alot of ZZZZZ!”

It’s good to hear that he’s doing well. We look forward to seeing Captain Westerman back at the helm of Charis+!

“It’ll be something different”, I said to Michael when we heard about the Yellow Bird coffee tasting. Not that he needed convincing. This would be a coffee and dessert pairing. Michael can be a coffee-and-dessert-a-holic (when he’s not too busy with projects, anyway). So we went out to Starfish Patisserie, Dennis Gribbons’ new pastry shop and bakery on Saturday evening and had a wonderful time. Yellow Bird Virgin Islands Coffee is the creation of Kangja and Roger Morgan.

I met Roger and Kangja shortly after they relocated to St. Croix a few years ago. It was at a rum tasting at the former Cafe Madeleine. That night, the rum was Cruzan Single Barrel, the island’s premier sipping rum. We chatted for a long time and shared stories about how we’d gotten to St. Croix, and life on our island, in general.

Anyway, we talked to Jenna and Tori about it and they were very interested. And when Meredith found out about it she wanted to come, too, even after her long week preparing for the Villa Madeleine Condo Association’s annual meeting. We didn’t have advance tickets, so Michael and I went early to get tickets and seats for the gang. We were REALLY early. Jerome and Viviana weren’t even in their official Yellow Bird uniforms yet when we arrived.

At a little after seven, shortly after Roger started giving us a history of Kangja’s dream to start a coffee company, the rest of our crew got there. Our first taste was of the Crucian Rainforest Blend. It was paired with a mini almond Danish topped with orange butter. Yummmm! The coffee is great. Some of the smoothest and richest-tasting I’ve ever had. Not being a caffeine user, I thought I’d be in BIG trouble later, but I persevered, drinking cup after cup of this delectable dark nectar.

The next round consisted of the Coral Bay Frangelico flavored coffee, paired with a fresh fruit tartlet and chocolate covered strawberry with strawberry coulis. Fantastic!

But I still liked the Cruzan coffee better. The last one would be the Frenchtown Roast. I love my coffee strong and thought this would be my favorite. It was paired with a chocolate and peanut butter mousse cake. Very good, but the desserts were starting to get to me. It was heavy for the last course and, while I enjoyed it, I could feel the sugar and caffeine coursing through my body and I felt heavy with the quantity of the last dessert. I was getting wired and tired at the same time. But I ate it all….

And then they had a raffle. Each of the prizes was a gift bag with a “thank you” card from Kangja and a package of Rainforest blend coffee! We’d put our names on our ticket stubs and Michael crunched them up before Meredith put them in the basket. The first name picked was…..mine! Then Michael’s, then Jenna’s! Crunching up the tickets had worked! We left with some major loot! Cool!

Afterward, we congratulated Roger and Kangja on their new venture (and on winning the battle against the “senators” wanting to shut down their radio station) and went outside to decide on our next step. We thought it would be fun to play miniature golf and Jenna wanted to come, but the others declined. So we set off in the rain to the east end where it had stopped raining, but the place was closed. The others all decided to go home, but we’d just heard that Danny Morris was playing at Chicken Charlie’s so we checked it out and it was true.

We saw Marg and Jim and Ethan and Robin, Millie and Tom, and a bunch of others. After all that caffeine and sugar, we needed something starchy and calming, so we drank a beer or two and had potato skins with cheese and sour cream (Michael ate all the bacon, and there was a LOT of it!). At the break, we paid Whitney , put a few bucks in Danny’s bucket, and headed home. Believe it or not, after all those stimulants, we were able to go right to sleep. I guess it was a burn and crash situation, or maybe the hops in the beer worked really well. But it was a fun and different evening. We’re going to stick with our regular Dean’s Beans organic fair-trade coffee (it not only tastes good, but it’s good for the planet and the people in the coffee-producing villages) but we’ll definitely be buying more Yellow Bird coffee occasionally.

(Also sent to the Source, the Avis and The Daily News)

As a person who fell in love with St. Croix the first time I landed at the Alexander Hamilton Airport in 1987, has lived here, raised my daughter here, worked myriad jobs (menial, professional and managerial), has done countless hours of volunteer work, and continues to try to promote the beauty and uniqueness of our island home, I must speak, yet again, about the potential damage that Paul Golden’s casino, convention center, golf course and “resort” will do to this amazing place.

There are a group of swimmers who get together every Saturday morning to swim from one point to another at various beaches around St. Croix. I have swum with them for over 10 years. One of the swims takes the participants from Robin Bay (east of Mt. Fancy) to the Boy Scout Camp. It can be a fabulous swim. The patch reefs in the Great Pond Bay, as well as the barrier reef, harbor innumerable species of colorful sea life. The waters are fresh and clear, until you get to the beach where Paul Golden wants to build this abomination. The beach may look nice from land, but it is murky and full of smelly seaweed once you get to the spot where this “resort” is proposed. The current takes a lot of yucky stuff to that particular beach.

During certain times of the year, the place smells like septic. The aroma of decaying vegetation in the area as part of the natural processes of a wetland/saltpond, aka swamp is prevalent. My belief is that Paul Golden was sold the proverbial, “Prime swampland in St. Croix that my buddies and I have been holding onto for just someone like you…” And that may be why we see former Senator David Jones’ face at every Golden hearing trying to dissuade naysayers like me, who actually know what the area is like and have had many years of contact with stateside tourists.

My business depends largely on tourism and I know the typical “golf resort/casino tourist” will definitely not enjoy their stay at this resort. But Golden does not want to look like an idiot who’s been sold a bill of goods, which is why he perseveres.

I can only imagine the pampered American tourist holding her nose walking from the beach to the golf course (or more likely being chauffeured in a fancy golf cart) to complain to her husband about the “awful smell of St. Croix” and wanting to go to Aruba or St. Martin.

St. Croix is a breathtakingly unspoiled gem with so much more potential than to be just another overdeveloped Caribbean island who has sold out to some (or a few) scam artist(s).
Let’s take better care of her and not let this happen.

Terry told me before that my posts were too political, so I’ve cut back, but I had to share this.

I just had an enlightening conversation with former senator David Jones. We were at the press conference where Paul Golden finally announced his partnership with Wyndham Worldwide to manage and operate the Wyndham St. Croix Golf Resort and Casino (formerly called Golden Gaming/Golden Resorts, LLC). Oddly, no one from Wyndham bothered to show up, or they kept quiet, they certainly weren’t introduced. How’s that for a resounding endorsement?

Anyway, I was discussing with Mr. Jones the fact that Mr. Golden’s checkered past includes episodes that would prevent him from employment in a casino, let alone running one, according to the Virgin Islands Casino Control Act. “We’re not here to judge anyone”, Mr. Jones said. He went on to say Paul Golden hasn’t murdered or raped anyone, as far as we know, so we should move forward. Right in our community, he told me, we have people who have raped and murdered and they’re flourishing, so why shouldn’t Mr. Golden. He seemed to be saying that, since we haven’t been able to enforce all our laws against more heinous crimes, we shouldn’t bother to enforce lowly laws like the Casino Control Act. It struck me as particularly odd, since our police commissioner was on a radio talk show this morning saying he and the force are committed to enforcing all the laws, from seat belt requirements, window tinting, cell phone use, noise ordinances and traffic rules on up. Yet here was a former senator, who used to be charged with making the laws, saying we should just ignore some of them, since we can’t enforce all of them.

I really wish someone from Wyndham had shown up at the press conference. I’ve heard all of Paul’s answers before, but I had a question for them. I’m wondering, given Mr. Golden’s history, in previous ventures, of ignoring municipal rules and regulations that he’s been unable to have changed to suit his purpose, how much consideration Wyndham has given to their liability should this practice continue on this resort project? I’d also like to know why they jumped the gun on his announcement by a few hours, sending a press release out to Marketwire, but failed to note it on their own Wyndham Worldwide website? (as of 4:00 pm AST 2/27/08)

Note: This editorial comment was also submitted to the St. Croix Source, The St. Croix Avis, and the VI Daily News

We’re back from our vacation, but the good folks working hard to get The Pickled Greek up and going are exhausted, so the not-quite-yet-open Greek is now closed for vacation.

They did get the outside looking nice though. The shutters are done, the building is painted, an alarm has been installed, generator and AC should be coming soon.

Our island was once mainly agricultural and is divided into sections called “estates”. They were plantations on which sugarcane and cotton, among other things were grown. The estate names still remain in use today. For example, we live in “Sally’s Fancy”. Other fun ones are “William’s Delight”, “Whim”, “Betsy’s Jewel” and “Rust Op Twist”. Just west of Christiansted town, is one called “Golden Rock”. There is a shopping area which includes a Pueblo Supermarket, a Blockbuster video, Golden Rock Pharmacy, Domino’s Pizza, etc. There has been a large new building across the street from Pueblo for a good while, which once had a sign announcing the opening of the “Golden Dragon Chinese Restaurant”. It was there for a long time, the grass kept growing and no work was being done on the property. Until just a few weeks ago. Signs of life! It’s always exciting!

There was a really fun change, too. Instead of Golden Dragon, the name on the building which appeared in large letters was “Golden Wok”! Right there in Golden Rock! We thought that was very clever and couldn’t wait until they opened so we could eat there. It’s a big building. Maybe we could finally have something like a stateside Chinese Restaurant (can you say “oxymoron”?) But we had great expectations….

They opened last week. The parking lot was finally paved and the neon “Open” sign flashed invitingly. Last night Michael and I worked in town, and thought it might be nice to give them a try. It was either that or the new Cajun place, “Zizzler’s”. I felt like nice Chinese veggies, so we went out to Golden Wok. Hee hee hee.

We arrived around 7 and the lot was jammed! It looked like the whole island was there! We saw some folks we’d hiked with a few weeks ago just getting there as well. They were part of a large group. We walked in and saw Kristin from Rumrunners dining with Anna from GoToStCroix, Anna’s husband Carl and their daughter Savannah. On the other side of the room our friend, Captain Al was seated in the crowd. Laura and John Ballard arrived with Casey Willard and a guy from wine club the other night.

We had to wait a minute for our table to be ready, so ordered drinks at the bar. I asked for an Amstel. They didn’t have it. How about a MaiTai? Nope. Michael wanted his usual FatPapi (rum and coke) which they had. I ended up with an O’Doul’s. Once we got to our table and opened the menu, we saw that the drink prices were more than we should pay for cheap stuff and switched to tea. Michael wanted his iced. I wanted hot. My tea arrived lukewarm. I sent it beck to be heated. It came back the same temperature, but with an extra teabag. I didn’t drink it. I gave up on anything to drink.

Ah, the food…..They had one of my favorites, eggplant in garlic sauce on the menu. Michael wanted to know if any of the dishes had cashews or peanuts since the menu didn’t specify. I guess he was feeling particularly nutty. Our waitress did not know. She went to ask. Oh, yes, the Kung Pao Chicken (they spelled it Kung Bo) had peanuts. So Michael ordered that. I ordered my eggplant. They didn’t have it. Okay, I’d need another minute to decide on something else. Okay, how about the curried tofu, and why don’t we start with tempura vegetables? Our waitress took the order and came back 10 minutes later to tell us they didn’t have the tempura veggies. Fine! Just bring our regular food! I was getting a bit irritated. When our food arrived, my tofu looked kind of lumpy. When she set it down, I said, “This is curried tofu?” She said it was. There was some nice fresh broccoli with it, which I devoured, then took a bite of the “tofu”. It was chewy. I gave some to Michael. It was pork or chicken! We called our waitress back and I said “This is NOT tofu!” She said, “Uh, oh, right, it’s chicken. You ordered the curried tofu?” “Yes, I did….”
She took my plate. Michael had a large dish of chicken and veggies with peanuts and was nice enough to share with me while I waited FOREVER for my tofu to arrive.

Meanwhile, the guy sitting alone at the table behind me was also having trouble getting what he ordered. He kept sending stuff back. It really became comical. Finally, my lukewarm food appeared. It was passable. The hostess/owner came over to refill Michael’s tea. “Is everything okay?” I said, “It’s JUST okay”. She giggled.

Michael kept saying, “Well, they just opened, you’ve gotta cut them some slack”. Maybe. Maybe they should train their staff better. How about a serving spoon to scoop your veggies over your rice? How about soy sauce on the tables? We had to ask for soy sauce.

We were able to get our bill in a timely manner. On the way out, I stopped at the ladies room. I thought, “Okay, new facility, the restroom should at least be nice.” HA! Hahahahahaha! The room was HUGE, but the water pressure was very low, so both toilets still had stuff in them. It stunk in there. There were two stalls. One “handicapped”. The handicapped stall had no rails and just a regular toilet (which was difficult to flush since the water pressure was pathetic). There was a small counter with one sink. With all that space and two stalls, you would think there could be a larger counter so more than one person could wash hands at a time. And, you know how women like to reapply lipstick and check their make-up? Impossible if just one other person was in there! Especially, since the lack of water pressure would cause one to take 50 million years to rinse the soap off their hands!

All in all, it was an annoying culinary experience. It will be a loooooong time before we go back there. We’ll just stick with our sweet little neighborhood Chinese restaurants that we know and love. Or maybe we’ll just eat Cajun.

Michael’s Dolphin Rating:

Golden Wok, Golden Rock, St. Croix

Name –
Location –
Service –
Food –
——————
Overall Experience –

Yesterday Peter asked what our plans were for the evening, “You’re driving me up to the rainforest, right?”. Kurt Schindler was playing his regular Last Sunday of the Month gig at the Montpellier Domino Club, or “The Pig Drinking Jungle Bar”, as he lists it on his site. Terry’s a little burned out on Kurt and I had stuff I had to get done.

So today Peter calls to tell me a little story that “Reggie has to put on his blog”, but its too good, so I’m keeping it for myself. Reggie will have to track-back to it.

On his way out west with a full car, Peter stops to pick up some visitors, staying at Chenay Bay Beach Resort, who are also heading to the show. When he gets to Bassin Triangle Kurt’s song “Banna” starts playing on the CD. So Peter immediately pulls over into the parking lot of a deserted gas station, across the street from the police station, and all seven of them pile out of his Cherokee and start dancin’ in the parking lot. There’s a police car parked in the lot, but Peter thought no one was in it.

When the song ends, they all climb back into the jeep to go on their merry way. Immediately Peter hears a “Whuuoop whuuoop” from the cop car. The policeman gets out, walks over to him and says, “Sir… you left your drinks on top of the car”. Peter turns back to the others and says, “Kids, you forgot your beers!” They all pile out again, retrieve their beverages, climb back in, and drive away.

Only on St. Croix. That’s why we call it Paradise!

Click here for Dean’s latest Track Projection

Other storm tracking sites we visit:

Intellicast Storm Center

NOAA National Hurricane Center

Craig’s St. Croix Weather

And a next one sent by Reggie:

Tropical Storm Risk

Dean is the tropical storm, soon to be hurricane, who may be coming to visit us in the next couple of days. I don’t know. People start getting all crazy and try to tell others how to prepare for a big storm. But I just think it’s like everything else in life: Use common sense. Of course, common sense is not all that common, but if people would just think a little (not too much, because that can get you into trouble, too).

I think it’s a no brainer to put small objects away that could be taken by the wind. It’s been quite a few years since we had to do this, so it will be good to take stock of all the junk we have and get rid of a lot of it. Major things to secure are lawn furniture and potted plants. We have a bunch of plastic chairs that we will never use again. They will go to the dumpster tomorrow (woohoooo!). Michael will need to decide which 5 gallon buckets should stay and which ones should go. Buckets are important in the storage and mixing of the oils for our veggie oil/biodiesel projects. But they are all scattered about and need to be organized and categorized.

The placement of the cars will have to be assessed. We have four and a half cars. The half car will stay where it is. Others will be moved to where they will be less likely to be hit by flying objects and tree branches. But also in a somewhat sheltered place where the wind, if it becomes strong enough, will not lift and move them causing damage. Don’t laugh, I saw an old Chevy blazer (heavy) that had been lifted by winds during hurricane Marilyn and landed on some roofing material that had also been displaced by the storm. Scary!!

The dog and cat situation will be addressed if need be as well. Some dogs will spend the storm in the spare bedroom behind closed doors. Others will be in our bedroom also with doors closed. Still others will be in bathrooms while others will go wherever we go. The cats can stay in the laundry room. We will have to rearrange a few things so they don’t knock stuff down if they get skittish at some point. They’d end up scaring themselves more than anything else.

The hardest part will be moving my many many plants. I have slowly been putting them in large ceramic pots. Now they’re heavier and therefore safer in many ways, but the wind can still snap the nice palms and frangipanis if they’re too exposed. As the storm approaches, we’ll figure out the best option for them. I’m thinking about just using the hand truck to move them into the carport. Then, there’s the barrels of used veg oil in the carport which may have to be rearranged. I’m not sure if they’ll be movable. We’ll see.

The shutters shouldn’t be that hard to shut since we have replaced most of the old windows. Noe that they’re easier to close, our window prep time is cut in half. That should be most of it. But for now, I have a bit of paying work to do, so I’m off….

A recent island controversy has inspired curiosity from the international media. In January, the people of the Virgin Islands (particularly St. Croix), started a petition drive to attempt a recall of some recently elected and re-elected senators who had enacted questionable legislation. It was discussed daily on a radio talk show hosted by Roger W. Morgan, who was in the process of buying the radio station which broadcasts the program.

The senators who were being recalled decided that they were not happy with the talk on Morgan’s program, entitled “Free Speech“. So they took it upon themselves to petition the FCC (on VI Legislative stationery) to block the transfer of a broadcasting license to Morgan for his station. Our illustrious VI senators want to stop the people from speaking out! They want the people to be denied the right to free speech!

A while back, a reporter from the Wall Street Journal was on island interviewing people about this and related issues. The article was on the front page of the Friday, July 13th edition. Since then, the subject has been picked up by other publications (Free Press reprint, St. Croix Source article and Commentary ). It’ll be interesting to see if anything comes of this publicity.

“Soon Come” is one of those versatile Cruzan phrases that can mean anything from “I’ll be there in a minute” to “your entree is on its way” to “It’s almost Christmastime”. Its one of Peter’s favorite Cruzanisms. You can’t hardly have a conversation with Peter without hearing “soon come” at least once.

Its Official. The Pickled Greek soon come to St. Croix!

Peter is everybody’s favorite waiter/bartender on island. He’s got three degrees, but has spent most of his career waiting, bartending and managing restaurants. When he came down to St. Croix, one of the things he left behind was the responsibilities of running restaurants. But he’s about to get back into it. Peter bought a restaurant, signed a lease, and is now the proud owner of The Pickled Greek. He’s just gotten started cleaning the place up and giving it a new look – the vinyl floor has been ripped up and the lowered acoustic ceiling pulled out. He not even open for business, but he’s already had more people stop in than the previous place had in the last year.

Look for The Pickled Greek just east of Christiansted, across from Pearl B. Larsen Elementary. Peter will be serving Greek and Cruzan dishes (he’s bringing back Mr. Nolan for authentic caribbean cuisine) and take-away dinners.

Another Cruzanism you’ll hear passing Peter’s lips is “I go to come back”, meaning “I’ll be right back”. At last nights Mango Tango Party, Carston suggested Peter put it over the door, in place of an Exit sign. We all liked it. Once you stop by The Pickled Greek, you can never leave, but you can “Go to come back”.

If there’s one thing that irritates me (OK, there are a few things that irk me, but this is near the top of the list), its when I hear “There’s nothing to do on St. Croix”. Whether its Cruise Industry excuses, St. Thomians dissin’ the Big Island, or travel writing whiners repeating schlock without ever having visited, it drives me nuts.

For the naysayers, here’s our social report for the last two weeks. In my renewed blogging zeal I’ve already posted about a few of these tings and intended to write up all of them (and still might), but I just keep getting farther behind – too busy doing to write! So here’s the abridged version:

Monday, April 30 Dinner at [tag]Tuttu Bene[/tag] with Peter and Heike before Heike left for Germany visit.

Wednesday, May 2 Coastal Zone Management public meeting regarding [tag]St. Croix Environmental Association[/tag]‘s proposed development of the [tag]Southgate Coastal Reserve[/tag] at Southgate beach and wetland area. Check back here for my letter to CZM regarding questions raised at this meeting.

Thursday, May 3 Sushi at the [tag]Deck Bar[/tag] – outdoors, overlooking [tag]Christiansted[/tag] harbor, Maggie serves up great sashimi and rolls. You can’t find fresher fish anywhere, the boats are docked right in front of you. Art Thursday – Christiansted Gallery Walk.

A Mocko Jumbie greets
revelers at Christiansted Jump Up.
Mocko Jumbie dem are
“false spirits”, people dressed up
as gods or spirits that “bless” events
by scaring away evil spirits.

Friday, May 4 Triathlon [tag]Jump-Up[/tag], Christiansted. A downtown block party covering about six square blocks (nearly all of C’sted). Music, dancing, [tag]Mocko Jumbies[/tag], steel pan, lobster kabobs, and limin’ in the streets. Meet new friends or catch up with ones you haven’t seen in months – young, old, residents, visitors – everybody is out at Jump Up. Served four times a year: February Valentines (or Terry’s Birthday, May Triathlon, July 4th, and December (sometimes late November) Pre-Christmas.

Lately, island favorite [tag]Kurt Schindler[/tag] has been performing his music magic in the Caravelle Arcade courtyard outside Caravelle Cafe (formerly Cafe Society, formerly de Bean Mon). He was there rockin’ away to a large and appreciative crowd Friday night.

Cinco de Mayo, Saturday, May 5 Finfolk [tag]Ocean Swim[/tag]. I think the scheduled swim was from one west end beach to another, but a small group of renegade non-triathlon participants met for a Cane Bay to Carambola beach route. The conditions were too perfect, so we opted to swim west from Carambola to [tag]Annaly Bay[/tag] and back. Visibility was great, I’ve never seen such calm waters at the western Davis Bay entry. Not too many spectacularly exotic species this trip, but we did see one small hawksbill turtle and a huge school of good sized bait fish of some type and the coral is this area is some of the healthiest around the island.

Dinner at [tag]Cafe Kaleidoscope[/tag] (at the former Southshore cafe location) before cross-island trek to see [tag]From Page to Stage[/tag] production of Hate Mail at the Good Hope School’s Savage Theater.

There were various Cinco de Mayo events around the island, but we didn’t get to any, just too much to do!

Sunday, May 6 [tag]St. Croix Ironman 70.3[/tag] (formerly St. Croix Half Ironman formerly St. Croix International Triathlon). Beginning in 1988 as an alternative off-season tourist attraction, the “little triathlon that could” has grown into a major international sporting event. Pros and challengers come from all over the world in an attempt to conquer “[tag]Beauty and the Beast[/tag]“. The triathlon is now a qualifying event for the Ironman World Championship (Kona, Hawaii), the Ironman USA (Lake Placid, NY) and Ironman Canada. We didn’t go this year, it came to us! Nearly every year, for the past six or more, Terry, myself, or both of us, have volunteered our massage skills to suffering triathletes down in the massage tent in the transition area. This year we took a break, took our dogs for walks and watched the competitors bike past once… twice… three times – the 56 mile bike loop(s) covers nearly the entire island and passes our little road 3 times, twice one way, once the other.

Monday and Tuesday, May 7-8 We caught our breathe and caught up on domestic things (riiiiiggggghhhht… well we tried, a little)

Wednesday, May 9 Dinner at the Deep End – Farewell to Peter, he’s headed for Germany and Paris vacation early next morning.

Thursday, May 10 Up at the crack of dawn, or a little before, to get Peter out to the airport for a 6:45 am flight – Incredibly, there are actually American Eagle employees behind the counter and a long line of travelers already checking in at 5:30 am, I didn’t figure they’d even open the airport before 6:00! I mean, nobody comes here right?

Thursday [tag]Luncheria[/tag] Night! We’ve become Thursday night regulars meeting our Land Rover Guru, Dave, his wife Michele, and their assorted (or is that sordid) friends.

Friday, May 11 After giving a couples massage on the beach in front of Sand Castle on the Beach in Frederiksted, we’ve got a few hours before next appointment. We enjoyed a snorkel/swim from Sand Castle south past Cottages by the Sea and the condo complex toward the public pool. A big barracuda passed us at a good clip, which can be a little worrisome. Usually they drift lazily along near schools of lunch. What was he after, or what was behind him?? Nothing scary turned up. Terry saw a small sea snake or eel, but I missed it.

Having worked up an appetite, we lunched at the [tag]Beachside Cafe[/tag] at Sand Castle. Terry started with french onion soup and followed up with a hummus platter. I had a cuban sandwich. The soup broth was thicker than usual and a little sweet. The hummus was “boring”, according to Terry. The cuban was alright, but pickle was on the side, not in it (carmelized onions in it instead) and though warm, it wasn’t press grilled the way I’m used to. I popped the pickle inside, and it was pretty good. All in all, not much to “blog about”. However, service was decent and the view is to die for.

Finished the day at [tag]Caribbean Community Theater[/tag]‘s opening night performance of Niel Simon’s The Odd Couple. This is the final show of the regular season. All the cast were great, but Michael Armendariz and Lionel Downer were terrific as Felix and Oscar. And we enjoyed opening night champagne and cake with the cast after the show.

Photo © Dive Experience

Saturday, May 12 Now that the waters have warmed up and our season is slowing down we were able to join the finfolk for a second week in a row. The scheduled swim, from Robin Bay (Lobsta’ Shack) beach across Great Pond Bay to Howard Wall Boyscout Camp, was aborted again, this time due to Portuguese Man-o-War jellyfish sightings on the south shore during the previous week. Getting stung by jellyfish half-way through a 2 mile swim – Not Fun. We relocated to [tag]Tamarind Reef Beach[/tag] for a ’round Green Cay swim on the north east shore instead. Like last weeks swim at Davis Bay, this was the calmest water most of these veteran swimmers had seen for this swim. Ray Lutz spotted a couple [tag]Spotted Eagle Ray[/tag]s on the way over and again on the way back – it was a see Ray see sea rays kinda swim. No turtles this time.

Since we were right there, we stayed for breakfast at the [tag]Deep End Bar and Grille[/tag]. Its hard to screw up simple breakfasts, but special orders can be a different thing. Our dining companion eschews all foods yellow (or at least yellow dairy items) and ordered an egg-white only veggie omelette with white cheese. The Deep End kitchen came through with flying colors (or would that be flying colorless) and served up the omlette as ordered. We were also able to pick up a cube (4-5 gallons) of used veggie fryer oil for our Veggie Rover Biofuel Project. For the record, we’ve collected Waste Vegetable Oil from several area restaurants and the oil from The Deep End is consistently the cleanest oil we’ve collected. That can really tell you something about how a place keeps its kitchen.

We’re making a good attempt to get back on our massage-a-week (or every other week) program. I got a massage from Terry last week, so she got one today.

Mother’s Day, Sunday, May 13 We had a lazy morning, then joined Terry’s daughter, Nicole, her boyfriend, Ian, and our friend Meredith for Brunch at [tag]Duggan’s Reef[/tag] out at Teague Bay. Our server started off a little scattered and nervous, but made a strong finish offering Meredith extra chocolate muffins to go. BTW, Meredith treated us all to brunch, so she deserved them. Thanks Meredith!

I got another massage from Terry – only a week apart, we’re on a roll. Though she readily admits it was only to speed up the queue to her next massage

Finished up Mother’s Day at [tag]The Terrace Restaurant[/tag] at The Buccaneer. I haven’t dined here since I used to manage their spa and was hosting a spa journalist. The view from the Terrace toward Christiansted and the harbor is unbelievable, hands down the best evening dining panorama on island. The sunset tonight wasn’t impressive, but the view still rocked. The food was fantastic, the service less consistent.

So there’s our two week round up. Keep in mind, this is after Easter, almost half-way through May, season is well into the downhill slide, but there is still too much to do. When season is in full swing every week-end (Wednesday through Sunday) is so chock full of events you have to really pick your favorites and abandon 2 or 3 per night. There’s no way to keep up with everything that’s going on.

Photo ©
Anchor Dive Center
Courtesy of
GotoStCroix.com

I’ve been in the islands for eight years, five on St. Croix. With all there is to do here, there’s still a list of things I haven’t gotten to. I haven’t dived “The Wall” off the north shore (I’ve snorkeled over it, but not dived. Come to think of it, I haven’t scuba dived yet – neither wall nor wreck, nothing. I haven’t learned to wind-surf ( I did take a lesson one day when camping at Maho Bay in St. John before moving here). I haven’t learned to kite surf ( again, took one lesson on St. Thomas one day, but there are folks here that can teach you to do it right from the beach, rather than take you out to the middle of a bay in a dinghy and try to drown you for an hour). I haven’t hiked even a fraction of the ruins on island with the St. Croix Landmarks Society Ruins Rambles. I haven’t gone horseback riding.

Photo © St. Croix
Landmarks Society

I haven’t been to the Lawaetz Family Museum at Little La Grange. I haven’t toured Fort Christiansvaern in the [tag]Christiansted National Historic Site[/tag], (I’ve been in Fort Frederik, in Frederiksted, volunteering for an art charity function, and had a chance to look around). I hadn’t even heard of the Estate Mt. Washington self-guided tour until just now (I chanced upon the listing in St. Croix This Week while looking up how to spell Lawaetz), so I’m sure there is plenty more to do that I’m not even aware of.

I invite those who claim there is nothing to do on St. Croix to come see for themselves and tell me that again… just as soon as they’ve finished doing all there is to do. See you next century!

St. Croix –

Naysayers –

Lately, Thursday night has become Luncheria night (more on that later), but this Thursday was special – the last [tag]Art Thursday[/tag] of the season. For three or four years now [tag]Christiansted[/tag] galleries and other businesses have been staying open late, and restaurants offering specials, for gallery-goers on the first Thursday of the month, November through May. Many of the participating galleries schedule special openings or shows for Art Thursday, offering wine and cheese and an opportunity for St. Croix’s art-lovers to get together and enjoy the wide array of talented local and visiting artists.

Untitled ~ Christina Frederick Gasperi,
Wayfindings at Maufe Gallery.

- Photo by Michael Dance

After some delicious sushi at the Deck Bar, we headed up Queen Cross St. mingling with friends and fellow art aficionados. Appropriately, we found our way to [tag]Maufe Gallery[/tag] and [tag]Christina Frederick Gasperi[/tag]‘s opening “Wayfindings”. Christina describes wayfindings as the process by which we find our path through a combination of observation and intuition. There were some powerful pieces, most composed on driftwood or weathered barn boards and fence wood. My favorite was a composition of weathered cattle skulls, covering most of one wall, positioned in the shape of an angel, or possibly a cross. The piece was untitled, so let the viewer decide. From across the room, I could have sworn they were sections of actual skulls, but closer examination showed they were all painted on, you guessed it, wood. Other pieces were reminiscent of hand-painted signs on the sides of buildings, very much like what you might find around some corner on St. Croix, or elsewhere in the islands.

Christina’s show will be up until May 24th, she’s considering a “closing” sometime before the show actually comes down. Following her at Maufe will be [tag]Nii Ahene[/tag], an African artist now on St. Croix. Ahene’s multi-media work will be split between Maufe and [tag]Walsh Metal Works Gallery[/tag]. The opening at Walsh is scheduled for Friday, May 25, followed on Saturday, May 26, by the opening at Maufe.

Other Galleries and Shops participating in this years Art Thursday include: Whim Museum Store, IB Designs, The Goldworker, Maria Henle Studio, Danica Art Gallery, Yellow House Gallery, D&D Studio, Crucian Gold, and Twin City Coffee House and Gallery. The [tag]Christiansted Gallery Walk[/tag] will resume in the Fall on the first Thursday in November.

Note: I’m back. To get things rolling again, I’ve included a reprint of a letter I wrote to the editor of the St. Croix Avis. It appeared in the Sunday-Monday, September 24-25 edition:

All that glitters is not gold. In response to the editorial, “Silver lining”, published in the St. Croix Avis Wednesday, September 13, I’d like to discuss the myriad problems with the Golden Gaming project. The roadblocks encountered by Golden Resorts are not so much a testament to the difficulty of development on the big island as they are a testament to the disregard and contempt that Paul Golden and Golden Resorts has shown for Virgin Islands law, residents and environment.

The original CZM permit was granted because of a misunderstanding by the CZM board, then upheld on a technicality, despite glaring faults and against the recommendation of the CZM staff. It’s contrary to a covenant and restriction for the land in question, limiting development to 4 stories or less, that has been included in the VI code, so until the law is changed, the current permit is illegal. The new permit request is asking to allow buildings up to 8 stories, exceeding the limits set forth by the covenants and restrictions by 4 stories, as well as the limit of 6 stories set forth in the Casino Control Act. So the new permit, if granted, would violate two different sets of VI Code. Golden Resorts response to this is that they will deal with the various illegalities later. First they just want to get the permit for the height increase. If it is illegal for a blind man to operate a motor vehicle, would it make sense to grant him a license to drive today, based on the possibility he may succeed in changing the law in the future? I don’t think so.

Supporters of the project always bring up the same two issues, jobs and tourist development. Like most critics of this project, I agree St. Croix could use more jobs, more economic development and more tourists. However, Great Pond is not the place for it. Has Mr. Golden ever gone swimming at the Great Pond Bay beach? Has he ever seen anyone swimming at the beach nearest to where he wants to build this monstrosity? Does anyone who lives on St. Croix ever go down to the west end of the Great Pond beach to go swimming? No. Why? Because it’s a terrible beach for swimming or bathing, arguably one of the worst on St. Croix.

I have been swimming in that bay and up to that beach. Far out in the bay it’s beautiful. The water is clear. There is sand and sea grass. You can see sea turtles, spotted eagle rays, sting rays, queen conch, on occasion, a shark. As you get closer to the beach you get bogged down with seaweed, silt, and muck. It is the messiest, smelliest beach to exit from a swim. In short, it’s fantastic for marine wildlife, terrible for tourists. Golden Resorts never mentions this. What are they going to do after they’ve built this massive casino hotel complex and no one wants to stay there? The beach will be muddy and mucky and covered with smelly seaweed. Wonderful southeast sea breezes will be blowing the sulfurous smell of the salt pond through the resort day and night – a Tropical Paradise! Where will the tourists be then? And where will the jobs be? Of course, by then, the VI Government will have spent $30 million from the taxpayers pockets to build a convention center no one want to use and Paul Golden will have spent all those millions of his investors dollars. Those will be the arguments used to justify dredging Great Pond Bay, trucking in sand, and further destroying this fragile ecosystem. What hasn’t yet been ruined by the silt run-off, noise and pollution of construction, choked from the algal bloom resulting from golf course pesticide and fertilizer run-off, will be dredged up or covered over, in the name of progress. By then, all that is now beautiful about the Great Pond will be gone. Our inheritance will be a carbon copy resort on an empty smelly beach and another casino that draws more local dollars out of the community that it does tourists to the territory.

There are some worthy development projects on the drawing boards for St. Croix. This is not one of them. I think Golden should be given a hearty slap on the behind and sent packing. It’s time to pull the plug on the Golden Resorts project. The re-zoning permit should be denied, the convention center should be partnered with another project, or with one of our existing resorts that already provide jobs in the community. The only silver lining here is that others might learn to take better care in choosing a location and planning their developments.

Don’t be Golden’s fool – protect Great Pond Bay.

Its a Miracle!
Our Miracle Fruit Seedling
begins to grow.

On our recent trip to the rainforest Terry and I took a quick tour of Robin’s Organic fruit tree farm, perched precariously on the steep uphill side of the road. After climbing several hundred feet up to his rental eco-cabin and back down to his house, we were rewarded with fresh fruit and some rare treats.

First we sampled sprouted coconut, the light airy “puffed up” insides of a coconut that has recently sprouted. I’m not a big fan of those dry flakey white shavings that are sprinkled on cakes and whatnot, but this stuff was really good. The big surprise was still to come.

Just to set us up, Robin had us try some sour grapefruit, and some limon. They were tasty, but certainly puckered your mouth. Then we each tried a small unremarkable red fruit about the size of a cherry that hadn’t quite reached maturity. It didn’t really taste like much of anything, and hardly had any meat on it. We pretty much sucked on the single seed. After this, we tried the grapefruit and limon again. Unbelievable! I’ve never tasted lemonade sweeter than this unadulterated limon.

The shriveled little berry from Africa turns out to be remarkable after all. Called The Miracle Fruit, it’s filled with molecules that block sour taste receptors. For an hour after eating one, you can taste all the natural sugars in otherwise sour fruits, beverages, or other dishes, but nothing sour.

We smuggled home two magic seeds, taking care to wash off any saliva that might hinder germination, planted them in little pots and waited. Eventually we had to stop holding our breath. After a couple weeks, still nothing. We got worried. Maybe we’d buried our miracle beans too deep. I started slowly escavating the top layers of potting soil. A tiny leafless stem appeared, maybe all was not lost! A few days later now, our miracle fruit tree has a few open leaves and is stretching toward the sun. The second one still hasn’t germinated, but we haven’t given up hope. And hey, Jack only needed one beanstalk, right!

Tags: St. Croix
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