Lameshur Bay or Salt Pond Bay

We are chartering with Virgin Island Yacht Charters (Compass Pt Marina, St Thomas) for the second year in April. Loved our overnight stop at Maho Bay last year on the north side of St John and planning to stay there for the last night this year. Would like to explore the south coast - Lameshur and Salt Pond Bay and choose one for our first overnight. Then planning to clear customs at Soper's Hole enroute to Indians, Rhone and overnight at Cooper for 2nd night. Does anyone have any advice or suggestions for the Lameshur or Salt Pond Bay stop?

Both are excellent stops and two of our favorites. You can hike Ram Head from Salt Pond and the Europa trail from Lameshure. Both have good diving and snorkeling. Great Lameshure, where there is a dinghy dock and a trash drop, has a rocky beach. Little Lameshure has a sand beach, but is less sheltered. I would just check conditions and pick whichever looks best, they are ten minutes apart and you can dinghy between them.

Cheers, RickG

We were in Salt Pond Bay on Friday night. Very nice anchorage. It is a bit rough getting there as it's upwind and you're exposed the whole way. We had a newbie on board and for her it was a bit tense. It was, however, our last night out so she had some conditioning. If you have anyone a bit green I would recommend not using this anchorage as a first stop. A last stop is probably better.
From Salt Pond to the CYOA in CA it's straight downwind. It took us 3 hours and I think we probably averaged around 5.5 knots.

The pay station in Salt Pond Bay is not operational btw.

We were at Salt Pond Thursday night. As mentioned above it's a nice anchorage and a great hike to Ram's head. There was a bit of odor from the salt pond but not that bad.

For more isolation we like the single mooring by Ram's head/Booby Rock and Little Lameshur.

On your way around the island be sure to drop the hook in Hanson bay for a stop at the new floating taco bar, the Lime Out, which opened in the last couple of weeks. A bit pricy at $12 a drink but pretty cool. You can't miss it, it's the bright lime green houseboat looking thing. They are only open between 11:00am-5:00 and are closed on Mondays.

The wind on Friday was consistently SSE which certainly made the Cruz Bay to Salt Pond much more of an upwind sail than the friendlier E wind blowing many days. But it is a windward sail into a possible chop most days.
Salt Pond is a peaceful relief in any case, and beautiful underwater features or shore side hiking make it even better.

Thanks for the great information!

Never done Salt Pond Bay but Little Lamsheur is always an overnight stop on our itenirary. There have never been more than 3 boats in there and usually we're the only overnight. So peaceful! We've been there in some snotty conditions and always had a comfortable nights sleep. Great short hike to Yawazzi Point and access to the Reef Bay trail and Petroglyph Trail. Great sand beach and snorkeling too!

We are in a 38’ monohull with no AC so rolly conditions are bit more noticeable and no breeze can be hot. We sailed around Rams head this week and went to Little Lameshur and it was a bit rolly, gentle breeze. We motored over to Great Lameshur, very settled but NO breeze. We motored to Salt Pond, it was calm and had a great breeze. We stayed there for the night. The entrance is cautious but fine.

You're exactly correct in your description:
- Little Lameshur is the most exposed, but you've got a lovely beach with few visitors
- Great Harbour moorings closest to shore get backwinded or no wind, BUT you have beautiful unobstructed sundown views to the horizon
- Salt Pond Bay is perfectly protected from virtually any surge with a crescent beach 50 yards away and almost always a light breeze blowing

On our visit in October, we spent a day at Salt Pond Bay and then at Little Lameshur, and then motored to Great Lameshur both evenings to enjoy the sunset.