Daniel Giannini
photo Caribbean Travel and Life

Daniel Giannini, a lawyer and restaurateur from Long Island, New York, decided late last year to buy a home on St. Croix. But after scouting the island with his brother, Mitchell, they ended up going bigger - purchasing the 37-room Hibiscus Beach Resort. Just a week before they were to take over the operation, though, the island was deluged with 22 inches of rain, half its annual rainfall in just three days.

"The next three weeks," recalls Giannini, "were days from hell. The first floor had 18 inches of standing water, the beach was eroded...and the hotel was fully booked for the Christmas holidays. I offered some of my Long Island staff the chance to spend time on a Caribbean island in return for their labors. We had to rip out the walls, replace doors, buy all new furniture, phones and TVs. We redecorated, refurbished, and replaced everything in the restaurant. And, to the surprise of everyone else on the island, we managed to reopen the day before Christmas." The hotel's new restaurant, now one of St. Croix's hot spots, is fittingly named H2O.

Excerpt taken from Caribbean Travel and Life, August/September 2004