Ritz-Carlton Magazine - Winter 2012 - (Page 76)

OutdOOrs MEET ING T HE LOC AL S From left: A damsel fish guards her territory of fire coral and sponges; a molting crab perches atop the author ’s head. OutdO O r di v ersi O ns i n st. thO m as SAILING Lady Lynsey — The Ritz-Carlton, St. Thomas’ luxury 53-foot catamaran — features a full bar, dining table and rooftop sundeck and is available for sunset sails, snorkeling excursions and visits to nearby St. John. GOLf Mahogany Run, St. Thomas’ only 18-hole championship course, was designed by George and Tom Fazio. Spread out over 110 acres and with wondrous views of the island’s coastline, the course is a golfer’s favorite thanks to three water holes located in the smartly named Devil’s Triangle. Mahogany Run is just a 15-minute drive from the resort. ISL ANd HOppING The resort’s proximity to sister island St. John and to the British Virgin Islands allows for easy visits to these gorgeous destinations’ beaches and attractions via power yachts or bareback power boats. Best of all, you’ll depart right from the resort’s beach. protrude beyond the darkness of their hiding place. Falcoff managed to wrest the beast from its cave so we could get a good look. What emerged was nearly 2 feet long, legs writhing in the light cone. After a couple of minutes of quality time, we returned it to the seafloor and watched it scuttle back home, annoyed at the unwelcome disturbance. Slowly, we, too, drifted “home” to the mooring line. On our way we did the thing I look forward to most: We switched off our lights. Once your eyes adjust, the ocean at night is a surprisingly luminous place. We swished our hands through the water and watched fairy dust of bioluminescent plankton sparkle in the wake. In the distance, mysterious flickers flashed around us like fireflies. The silence — especially to a New Yorker more accustomed to car horns and construction clatter — is unlike anything else imaginable. After 20 years of night dives, I am never eager to leave this fantastical world and return to the real one above it. “Wow,” Falcoff said as we pulled the regulators out of our mouths and made our way to the ladder in the moonlight, “really great.” My Zen state lingered as we piloted the dinghy back to shore, feeling like a couple of Navy SEALS on a night ops mission. Later that evening, I found myself seated at the sushi bar on the terrace at Bleuwater — the consummate seafood restaurant at The Ritz-Carlton, St. Thomas. I’m not saying I’d spent the last hour imagining I was swimming through some vast underwater buffet. But I will say that my interest in that lobster was not strictly biological. The next day, we set off for an entirely different kind of dive site. In 1972, the U.S. Coast Guard intentionally sank a 120-foot cutter ship called the Major General Rogers. Today, it sits upright on the sandy bottom of Pillsbury Sound, with its keel resting 65 feet below the surface. Watching its hull materialize in the blue water beneath us was enough to quicken my pulse and invoke the kind of excitement I can only describe as childlike. Schools of grunt and snapper congregated by the bow, almost making the ship appear as if it were moving. The real attraction, though, was inside. The open hatches made it possible to swim deep into the rusty interior, where we found a giant propeller blade encrusted in stalagmites of coral. Shafts of dim blue light angled in through the hatches. A thin layer of silt coated old gears and storage drums, giving the whole place a haunted feeling, and once again, I found myself in a realm that was difficult to tear myself away from. But the gillless can’t stay down here forever. Besides, this wasn’t the last dive on our roster today. As I ascended the mooring line, sipping the last molecules of air from my tank, I thought about the peculiar mindset of the scuba diver. It is, perhaps, odd that we expend so much time and effort traveling to the world’s sunniest places — only to spend every available second in relative darkness. All I can say is: We have our reasons. 76 w w w. r i t z c a r lt o n . c o m http://WWW.RITZCARLTON.COM

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Ritz-Carlton Magazine - Winter 2012

Ritz-Carlton Magazine - Winter 2012
Contents
Contributors
Editor’s Letter
President’s Letter
Falling in Love With ... Hong Kong
Design
Auto
Technology
On the Boulevards
Shopping
Jewelry
Watches
Palm Beach
Wellness
Santiago

Ritz-Carlton Magazine - Winter 2012