TIMELINE St. Thomas
By Mary Hull
Every February, the St. Thomas Synagogue holds its annual ANTIQUES, ART AND COLLECTIBLES AUCTION featuring West Indian and Danish furniture along with artwork and a silent auction. Proceeds help maintain this historic landmark. www.onepaper.com/synagogue
It’s CARNIVAL! Every spring, carnival queens and calypso kings brighten downtown Charlotte Amalie during a week filled with food fairs, music, colorful costumes, parades and kiddie rides. www.vicarnival.com
Mix together competitive sailing, live music and good food and you get the INTERNATIONAL ROLEX REGATTA.
Sailing fans and yachtsmen from around the world breeze into St. Thomas for this premier sailing event every spring; there are races of all categories and classes. www.rolexcupregatta.com
In the summer, the East End plays host to sport-fishing events such as the USVI OPEN/ATLANTIC BLUE MARLIN TOURNAMENT. Anglers from all over come to test their skill and mettle as they enjoy some of the best marlin fishing in the world. Spectators enjoy the celebrations as the boats race home and the crews party into the night. www.abmt.vi
St. Thomas says farewell to summer by holding a chili cook-off. Serious competition meets serious fun on the beach, with live music, dancing and mixing with the locals. The winner of the U.S. VIRGIN ISLANDS’ ANNUAL TEXAS SOCIETY CHILI COOK-OFF goes to Terlingua, Texas, to compete with the nation’s best in the mother of all chili cook-offs. 340-776-3133
Who needs a white Christmas? At MIRACLE ON MAIN STREET, stores aglow with holiday lights stay open late for last-minute shoppers while steel-pan music and dancing fill the streets. Boats dressed in holiday style parade by the waterfront as vendors sell seasonal treats. www.usvichamber.com
TIMELINE St. John
By Lynda Lohr
Renew your wedding vows at the annual Valentine’s Day ceremony at Trunk Bay Beach. Led by a non-denominational minister, the event brings out dozens of couples, from lovebirds married that morning to others hitched for half a century. No need to sign up; just show up by 5 p.m.
340-693-5153
The annual 8 Tuff Miles race, held on a Saturday near the Presidents’ Day weekend in February, brings out hundreds of runners and walkers who brave hill and dale on the 8.375-mile course from Cruz Bay to Coral Bay. 340-779-4045, www.8tuffmiles.com
St. John has a wee St. Patrick’s Day parade that lasts only 10 minutes, if that, but provides great fun for all. Just show up wearing green at the public tennis courts in Cruz Bay at 11:30 a.m. on the Saturday closest to St. Patrick’s Day. The parade starts at noon. 340-779-4799
The annual Blues Festival runs for nearly a week in March, with professional musicians from the region and the mainland taking the stage. After several smaller events at bars around the island, the festival wraps up with a big show at the Winston Wells Ballfield in Cruz Bay. 340-693-8120
Every winter and spring, the Friends of Virgin Islands NationalPark sponsor a lengthy series of educational seminars to raise funds. Some lectures are scholarly, a few require short hikes, and several involve day-long boat trips. All are led by park rangers or island residents with extensive knowledge. 340-779-4940
The Friends of Virgin Islands National Park sponsor a Beach-to-Beach Power Swim from Maho Bay Beach in late May. The event has three courses: one mile to Cinnamon Bay, 2.25 miles to Trunk Bay and 3.5 miles to Hawksnest Bay. Reservations are mandatory. 340-779-4940
St. John has its own carnival called the July 4th Celebration. The fun continues for more than a month at a whole slew of events beginning in June. Look for steel-pan players along the Cruz Bay waterfront in early June, a Food Fair in late June and a parade of colorful floats and marchers on the July 4 holiday. The entire shebang ends up with fireworks over Cruz Bay Harbor on the night of the fourth.
A very able amateur group, the St. John Singers, entertains several times during December with traditional Christmas carols, Caribbean Christmas favorites and an original song or two. Performances are held at the Emmaus Moravian Church in Coral Bay and the Nazareth Lutheran Church in Cruz Bay.
TIMELINE St. Croix
by Chris Goodier
Islanders keep the holidays
going well into January with the Crucian Christmas Festival, complete with food, fun and fireworks. Reggae, calypso, Latin and quelbe (unique to the Virgin Islands) keep revelers moving. 340-773-0495
Spinnakers fly in the waters around Buck Island when sailors kick off the Caribbean’s spring racing season at the St. Croix International Regatta, held on Presidents’ Day weekend. A simultaneous kids-only regatta is held inside the reef at Teague Bay. 340-773-9531, www.stcroixyc.com
Gourmet chefs, beachfront grill-masters — even hospital cafeteria cooks — serve up samples made from their favorite recipes at Taste of St. Croix, an April event that always sells out fast. Live bands rock and fine wines flow during this moveable feast that benefits the St. Croix Foundation.
340-773-9898, www.tasteofstcroix.com
Top international athletes turn out each May for St. Croix’s Ironman 70.3™ Triathlon — which involves a 1.2-mile swim, a 56-mile bike ride and a 13.1-mile run. Altogether the course offers 70.3 miles of beauty and “the beast,” the nickname for a steep hill that challenges even the most experienced cyclists. 340-773-4470, www.stcroixtriathlon.com
Locals call it the “Buck to Buc” — the five-mile St. Croix Coral Reef Swim Race held annually in late October. Swimmers line the Buck Island beach at dawn and plunge in for an open-water swim that ends at the Buccaneer resort’s Mermaid Beach. Proceeds benefit the Nature Conservancy’s program to protect coral reefs. 340-712-2100, www.swimrace.com
Sunset Jazz is a mellow St. Croix tradition. Free live concerts are held on the Frederiksted waterfront the third Friday of every month. Listeners of all ages bring lawn chairs or blankets and watch for the sunset on the horizon. 340-277-0692
