Jellies at The Dogs.

We hit Great Dog this morning. We tried both the west side and the south side and found the jellies thick at both. They were small and not vicious stings, but enough that you didn’t want to keep getting stung.

At Bitter End now, hot and no breeze.

Move over to a ball off Saba. You don’t want to be on a BEYC ball when the wind is not blowing. The small clear jellies generally don’t sting enough to keep us out of the water. Wear a long sleeve skin and you won’t feel them at all.

Thanks, George. Breeze turned back to north and cooled off nicely. We’re on a ball in between basically, right next to the channel. Took the dinghy out to Eustatia and had some great snorkeling out there. It was glass calm and Southerly breeze when we went out and we came back just as the northerly filled back in. No jellies.

Not sure if you’re just tougher, but we were wearing long sleeves. I got stung on the face/head a couple times, once on my upper lip that stung bad. We had a decent little swim, but would have gone longer but everyone had their fill of getting stung.

There were lots of jellies at Diamond Reef the last week in April. Also tried Monkey Bay, and there were enough there to keep some folks out of the water. We were back at DR last Tuesday and Wednesday and they were all gone. Snorkling at other islands has been jelly free.

I am wondering if we are talking the same jellies? We don’t have issues with the clear non tentacled small blobs. Now the bigger jellies with the tentacles are a quite different story!

Jellyfish come out just shy of 2 weeks after the full moon. The last full moon was May 23 - 11 days ago

Yes, these are essentially baby tentacled jellies. They are clear/white. Seems like the day or so of southerly breezes we had condensed them into some places. Finding them at Cooper this morning as well.

Interesting info, Zanshin. I was not aware of that correlation.

That explains things. If they have tentacles I am done even if small!

is there a dinghy line or mooring ball? Or do you have the dinghy tied to you while snorkeling in Eustacia? Want to do this in July but have never explored this area.

There is currently no dinghy line. Two of us took the dinghy and the other two kayaked out. It was a very calm afternoon. We tied the kayak to the dinghy and took turns staying with the dinghy while the others snorkeled.

There used to be a dinghy line, but it no longer exists.

Just another thought I wanted to add, but to your question beachgal, there is a decent chance in July that your weather will be calm enough to do the same as we did, or as you suggested, tow the dinghy behind you while you snorkel (although I would never recommend actually tying the dinghy painter to your body) and holding on to the dinghy like that would necessitate a significant amount of additional caution. Among other reasons, you would need to be careful to keep the dinghy far enough from the reef to not damage the coral. There can also be currents around Eustacia that can be unpredictable.

I'm not sure of the legality, but there were sandy areas close enough to the reef where I think one could reasonably use the spare anchor from the boat to anchor the dinghy in a sandy spot a reasonable distance from the reef so as to not cause damage to the reef and still be close enough to swim to the reef and back. If considering this approach, I would recommend only doing so with a high level of expertise and swimming skill/strength for both personal safety and safety of the reef. I briefly considered doing the same with our dinghy anchor, but didn't trust it to hold even in those calm conditions, and didn't want to take any risk of damaging anything or getting us into trouble with anyone.

We have anchored the dinghy at Eustacia reef many times, there are plenty of nice sandy areas.

There are two unmarked passes out of Eustacia sound, they are a few hundred yards apart.
Be careful of current and the occasional barge if snorkeling the reef near the passes.

We've also towed the dinghy while snorkeling. Not a bad idea to inflate the beach ball dive marker and attach to the dinghy to make the situation clear.
Tilting up the outboard can reduce the draft to a minimum.