A Gatorade Mystery

Every couple of months or so I see our maintenance crew saving a bunch of Gatorade bottles during the morning "trash run." Typically all plastic we collect gets thrown into the trash, as we still do not have any type of recycling facility here on St. John or St. Thomas (remind you of 20 years ago perhaps?). Every now and then we try to think of ways to reuse plastic, and one of those ideas was to use these bottles as dish detergent containers in each tent.

The problem is that for some reason we continually need new Gatorade bottles to use as soap containers in each tent; it's not as if we've been building new tents everywhere, and plastic lasts forever right? So why do we always need new bottles?!

It finally made sense after reading one of our latest guest surveys on the condition of the tent upon arriving: "very clean, except for the half-empty Gatorade bottle left in the tent." - AH HA!

Making skirts like the ones pictured below doesn't happen quickly, but once they're made they do tend to sell quickly. This is the time of year when our art department has the time to "catch-up" on production for sales during our season.



Each of the skirts shown above have been custom made and none of them look exactly the same. Why? We use a process called batiking, which is a method of dyeing fabric so that parts of the fabric not intended to be dyed are covered with removable wax. The hand-created design and colors can be completely different for each skirt, and are.

Shown below are a few skirts with wax (and thus part of the design) being applied.

How often do you get to wear a piece of clothing that nobody else in the world owns? They make great gifts for that special someone in your life! hint: almost all women visiting our gallery are drawn to their originality and design, and once they try them they almost always buy one. Interested in trying a class while you're here this winter? Give us a call or send us an email and we can sign you up. 340 776 6226 x248 or ginger@maho.org

What did you do on Wednesday?

Here at Maho we spent the day boarding up windows, securing tents and bagging everything we own in trash bags and bins.......for a storm named Isaac. All guests left at 10am and it was a race to get everything prepared before nightfall.

A tent is about the last place you'd want to spend the night during a Tropical Storm or worse, with high winds, lots of rain and the potential of a tree falling overhead. For this reason we have to take things quite a bit more serious than your average resident or visitor of St. John.

Did we make the right decision? So far yes, but even if it was a beautiful sunny calm day on Thursday we'd rather be safe than sorry.

Below, our Pavilion Restaurant has seen better evenings. With our office sitting below the seating area and the potential for lots of rain meant putting tarp down on the floor and flipping the tables over the tarp. If you look closely you'll see the wires that anchor the roof are in place (so the roof doesn't take off like a hot air balloon and end up at Little Maho).

At 6pm it looks like there will be at least a handful of boats spending the night on National Park moorings in Big Maho bay.

High winds and lots of rain lately have caused a bit of trouble for some of our taller "top heavy" trees on property. It's amazing how fast some of the trees around here grow; the tree pictured below probably grew too fast for it's own good this past spring and summer, and is now paying the price this "H-word season."



Those eating the pavilion tonight will have the regular view back!

Love City Triathlon

We're approaching that time of year again - The St. John Land Sharks will be hosting the Annual Love City Triathlon and Aquathon on Sunday, September 2nd 2012. This event is held every year over Labor Day weekend and Maho Bay Camps is one of the major sponsors. We provide a free night stay for all participants! Call or email us at our reservations office with any questions: reservations@maho.org 800 392 9004

For more information and to sign-up please visit: http://www.stjohnlandsharks.com/

You're looking at almost 100 starfish...... made yesterday and pulled out of the "oven" this morning.

The benches you see in the picture are typically used by guests to watch us blow glass during the day and night all season long. What do we do with those benches in the off season when we have nobody to watch us blow glass? use them as temporary starfish tables! The starfish in this picture will eventually make their way up to storage, where they'll wait to be purchased this season through our art gallery here at Maho or online.

Staying healthy by living on the coast

There was an interesting article yesterday on Businessinsider.com about how living or even spending time near coastal areas can improve your health. That sounds good to me and every other staff member that calls Maho "home!"

Naturally, they decided to use a picture of St. John, one which we're all very familiar with.

Thinking a little more about our lifestyles here at Maho, the article started to make a lot more sense. After work or on days off we tend to spend our time out on or in the water, snorkeling, diving, kayaking, sailing, surfing, swimming or paddleboarding. When you add a relaxing dinner overlooking the water each night to the equation our lives look very healthy, relaxing, stress-free, and revitalizing indeed.

If living down here isn't an option, don't worry, the article says "just visiting these areas can help people relax and revitalize." - So get that vacation planned!