Everything Melanie and I had seen and done our past week in St. Croix had been more amazing than we could have imagined. Even with all our fun, there was still one thing on my bucket list we hadn’t accomplished: seeing a sea turtle. Knowing I love to snorkel, our friends on the island always said one of the most popular places to snorkel in Frederiksted was the Frederiksted Pier. With a free afternoon, we grabbed our masks, snorkels, and towels and went to cross off a lifelong goal of mine.
Frederiksted Pier is commonly known as a cruise ship dock for St. Croix. However, some may not know that it is also known as an incredible micro-dive spot. Unsure of what to expect when we reached the pier, Melanie and I were happy to see that there were already several diving groups out in the water. We knew then that at least there would be something to see. What we didn’t realize was the thing the divers were watching was the exact thing we were searching for!
After we walked down the rocks and strapped our snorkels to our faces, it didn’t take me long to approach a big gathering of divers. As soon as I saw the four flippers and shell, I raced across the water. My sea turtle bucket list was fulfilled in the first two minutes of snorkeling! The pier really was a snorkeling gem!
We spent a solid 10 minutes taking GoPro footage of the sea turtle. The pictures are everything I could have hoped for. Though I was captivated, I knew that I would eventually have to say goodbye and explore more of the pier. We waved goodbye to our turtle friend and continued our swim toward the bottom of the pier.
The swim by the pier was fun because there were pieces of old wrecks or boats on the bottom of the ocean. Melanie and I had a fun time poking our heads out of the water every couple of minutes trying to piece together what each thing we saw was. We can only imagine some of the history that those wreckages have.
We finally made it to the “coolest snorkeling spot in Frederiksted”. Underneath the pier felt like an entirely new snorkeling area. The first thing that glided across the water was the oddest, most fascinating stingray I have ever seen. It had a square body and a long tail. Melanie and I had never seen one like it. The posts of the pier had the most insane amount of sea life growing on them. With coral in so many colors, the sight was truly breathtaking. There were schools of fish just below our feet, shimmering as they moved together cohesively. I had never been surrounded by so many fish before. Also, while we were out there, four other sea turtles swam by us! We couldn’t believe our luck!
We floated under the pier and watched the variety of different sea life surrounding us, such as tarpon, starfish, flounder, tang, the occasional stingray, and, of course, sea turtles. Unaware of how much time had gone by, we had no clue that we had been snorkeling under the pier for about an hour. I guess time really does fly when you’re having fun. After a swim back to the shore, we looked back to the pier and realized how lucky we were to be in such an enchanting place. We know we have to go snorkel the Frederiksted Pier another day.