Laid-Back First Family Makes a Big Splash in Tropics

President Clinton and his family plunged into their Caribbean vacation Friday, sailing on a 53-foot catamaran, spying a barracuda while snorkeling in azure waters and then dining on gourmet seafood while cruising back to their temporary island hideaway.

Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton spent more than an hour underwater, examining intricate coral and colorful fish. They then offered a full briefing to the sailboat crew upon resurfacing.

“They were pretty excited about the marine life,” reported Brian Heath, captain of the catamaran, the Lady Lynsey.

Crew members said they were struck by how laid back and chatty the vacationing Clintons were. They also pronounced themselves impressed by the first lady’s aquatic abilities.

Instead of riding in the small boat that had ferried the Clintons to the shallow waters where they snorkeled, the first lady swam the quarter-mile back to the catamaran. “It was like, unbelievable,” said first mate Debbie Noonan. “She didn’t want to get back into the boat.”

The five-hour excursion was the most exotic activity the Clintons had engaged in since arriving in St. Thomas early Wednesday evening. They spent their first night and the whole next day relaxing and reading in the spacious, adobe-style house where they are staying. The house overlooks Magens Bay, a beautiful half-mile crescent beach on the north side of the 12-mile-long, 3-mile-wide island.

The house has a small beach of its own and sits a few hundred yards from a famous nude beach. But locals said the nude beach cannot be seen from the Clintons’ house.

The use of the house is a gift of its owners, Jay and Dolly Grebelick, but the Clintons will have to report it on their income tax forms. The cruise was also a gift from the Ritz-Carlton Hotel, which owns the catamaran.

Although the crew of the Lady Lynsey commented on how normal the Clintons seemed, taking the first family on an outing was not like hosting any other family.

For weeks, rumors spread around the island about which boat would be selected. Heath first had a hint that he might be the lucky skipper when Secret Service agents sailed with him on Sunday and checked out the boat and the crew.

As the Clintons snorkeled, five boats, most of them provided by the National Park Service, surrounded the area, preventing gawkers from getting close enough to get a peek, Heath said.

Accompanying the Clintons as they snorkeled were three Secret Service agents, according to Lucy Portlock, a self-described “snorkologist” who guided the Clintons on their underwater adventure.

As the Clintons prepared to splash into the water, they debated whether to wear wetsuits, Portlock said. Hillary Clinton opted to wear hers, but the president decided to go in with just his swimsuit and a T-shirt. Chelsea skipped the wetsuit too.

Once underwater, they viewed brilliant purple coral fans, a 3-foot-long barracuda and a courtship dance that a male blue-headed wrasse performed for some nearby females of the species, according to Portlock. The Clintons also swam through schools of tiny herring and watched foot-long jacks gobble them up, she said.

“They were really getting into it,” said Portlock, a former high school marine biology teacher who gave up classes on the mainland to live full time in the Virgin Islands and guide snorkeling tours.

Hillary and Chelsea Clinton asked the most questions, but the president also surfaced several times with queries about what he was looking at, Portlock said.

She added that the topic of politics never came up. The president and first lady “acted just like any other tired executives who came here to relax,” she said. “[Clinton] looked like he needed a vacation.”

As he snorkeled, she said, “I could really see him relaxing. I could tell it was really therapeutic for him.”

Back on the catamaran, crew members said the Clintons chatted about issues of interest to them--particularly the environment--and asked about crew members’ lives.

“They were quite easygoing,” Noonan said. “I was amazed. I thought the trip would be uptight, but even the Secret Service agents were relaxed.”

Heath said Hillary Clinton told him that she hoped the first family’s visit would help stimulate the local economy after a series of disastrous hurricanes battered St. Thomas during the last year and a half.

Indeed, several local residents have said they hope the presidential visit will encourage more people to pick St. Thomas as their next vacation destination and help the island’s economy return to its healthy, pre-hurricane level.