USVI-On-Line

SOTB II Day #8 Part One - Friday - The Divers

At the end of our dive yesterday, Colette said that there was room on her boat the next day because she just had one other couple on board. Diana (Wounder Woman) said, "I can dive tomorrow. I don't fly until Sunday". I thought, well I don't fly until 4:00 Saturday so we both decided to come back. Maggy's flight was earlier on Saturday so she didn't want to risk DCS. Augie and Leslie had a sailboat trip planned.

So on Friday morning we went out with 6 paq SCUBA and Diana wanted to go to the same reefs because well, they were beautiful!

So we went to Little St. James and Cow again. The dive times and depths were about the same as yesterday.

The diving was great!
It was so much fun! The only other dives I had done since my certification in Kauai in May of this year were in a quarry in Illinois, so this was absolutely heaven to me! I just love diving and I feel so comfortable down there. I am not scared of anything and all of my anxieties seem to disappear. Anyway, enough of that....
At Little St. James We saw the same eel from yesterday. Sorry, it is a little blurry.

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/sea-nile/3032562420/" title="Nov 08 sotb 2 527 by jtmmrut, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3271/303 ... 287a02.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="Nov 08 sotb 2 527"></a>

We watched a ray for awhile:

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/sea-nile/3032569964/" title="Nov 08 sotb 2 509 by jtmmrut, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3209/303 ... 63dc62.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="Nov 08 sotb 2 509"></a>

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/sea-nile/3031728029/" title="Nov 08 sotb 2 517 by jtmmrut, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3193/303 ... 7fa587.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="Nov 08 sotb 2 517"></a>

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/sea-nile/3031725565/" title="Nov 08 sotb 2 522 by jtmmrut, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3174/303 ... 8daaf6.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="Nov 08 sotb 2 522"></a>

At Cow we saw:

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/sea-nile/3031722235/" title="Nov 08 sotb 2 533 by jtmmrut, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3209/303 ... ef197b.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="Nov 08 sotb 2 533"></a>


Queen Triggerfish:

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/sea-nile/3031695081/" title="Nov 08 sotb 2 538 by jtmmrut, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3006/303 ... eacec2.jpg" width="375" height="500" alt="Nov 08 sotb 2 538"></a>

Interesting Crab:

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/sea-nile/3032531284/" title="Nov 08 sotb 2 548 by jtmmrut, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3145/303 ... 2f15f1.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="Nov 08 sotb 2 548"></a>


We dove through tunnels like this:

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/sea-nile/3031692069/" title="Nov 08 sotb 2 549 by jtmmrut, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3181/303 ... f8e2e5.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="Nov 08 sotb 2 549"></a>


My best shot. Queen Angel fish:

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/sea-nile/3032529450/" title="Nov 08 sotb 2 553 by jtmmrut, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3203/303 ... e128b2.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="Nov 08 sotb 2 553"></a>


At the very end of the second dive at Cow, my left ear was giving me trouble, so Colette told me to ascend some. The others went through some more caverns but I opted not to since I could not clear my left ear. Before I knew it I was at the top and the boat was very near. I was basically snorkeling and watching them below. Then I saw that Colette was acting a little panicked because she could not see me so she went back to search for me. The others were at the line at 20 feet doing a safety stop so I went over there and ascendeded down by them. The guy that was with us went to get Colette to tell her that I was OK but she was so fast he couldn't catch her. She was back in one minute and saw me so all was OK.


Afterwards we went to Deli Grotto to get some lunch. We thought that the others were at Maho and Diana really wanted to snorkel there again. The snorkeling was great there! We saw some squid. They are hard to see in the picture:
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/sea-nile/3050479096/" title="Nov 08 sotb 2 558 e by jtmmrut, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3072/305 ... b5fa42.jpg" width="375" height="500" alt="Nov 08 sotb 2 558 e"></a>

We saw 3 turtles and a group of 5-6 rays all together. I tried to get a picture of the rays but the visibility was poor because they were kicking up a lot of sand.
The turtles were awesome and we followed them a long time.

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/sea-nile/3050479566/" title="Nov 08 sotb 2 568 e by jtmmrut, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3001/305 ... c2ee1b.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="Nov 08 sotb 2 568 e"></a>
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/sea-nile/3050479958/" title="Nov 08 sotb 2 572 e by jtmmrut, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3203/305 ... 074902.jpg" width="375" height="500" alt="Nov 08 sotb 2 572 e"></a>

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/sea-nile/3050480602/" title="Nov 08 sotb 2 588 e by jtmmrut, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3159/305 ... b8798b.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="Nov 08 sotb 2 588 e"></a>

Now let me tell you, Wounder Woman is a fish! She would be in the water 24/7 if she could be, either snorkeling or diving! My family could not believe that there was someone who wanted to be in the water as much as me!
I know that there are lot of scuba divers out there that say snorkeling isn't good enough, but I still love snorkeling; especially on STJ!
The snorkeling was awesome at Maho that day and I have so many pictures, but I won't bore you with all of them. We saw giant tarpon and actually schools of them! We saw angel fish and squirrelfish, etc, etc. Here are a few more pictures:

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/sea-nile/3032299378/" title="Nov 08 sotb 2 607 by jtmmrut, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3031/303 ... 20262f.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="Nov 08 sotb 2 607"></a>
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/sea-nile/3032278554/" title="Nov 08 sotb 2 627 by jtmmrut, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3071/303 ... 2eab9e.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="Nov 08 sotb 2 627"></a>
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/sea-nile/3031461907/" title="Nov 08 sotb 2 602 by jtmmrut, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3063/303 ... 2d5845.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="Nov 08 sotb 2 602"></a>

we snorkeled almost until sunset.

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/sea-nile/3031438333/" title="Nov 08 sotb 2 631 by jtmmrut, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3228/303 ... e2e555.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="Nov 08 sotb 2 631"></a>


We went back to the villa and everyone was there.
7 of us went to the beach bar for dinner. More to come on that from the landlubber group...

What an awesome day in the water!!!!

It's amazing how the water cleared in the afternoon.

Maggy and I tried snorkeling toward Little Maho in the morning and the visibility was really poor (not just due to the fry fish), so we turned back and went in search of turtles. Lots of turtles that day, but I only saw one ray.

And yes, Wounder Woman must have been a mermaid in another life

I am loving all of ya'll's reports and look forward to the next ones.

Great report and pictures Sea-nile! I love your Queen angel.

I wish I could have joined you, but I didn't want to risk anything, since I had not only an earlier flight, but also three flights in total inluding a long flight over the Atlantic.

I'm so glad you had great dives.

GREAT pictures!
You really know how to party, little lady! -Love it-
Thanks for the pix.
Smiles-
MJ

Gorgeous pictures! I've got to get my certification!

Super job sea-nile! It's amazing all the different kinds of fish you got to see. Great pictures. Im working on Day 8 part II - landlubber version.

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Great report!

Do you know what kind of crab you saw? I saw one of those at Trunk and have never been able to decide for certain what it was.

what great photos! thanks for posting them!

Nice!

I agree about the snorkeling. I thought that diving might make snorkeling less interesting, but if anything it's made me appreciate the things I see snorkeling even more!

liamsaunt wrote:Great report!

Do you know what kind of crab you saw? I saw one of those at Trunk and have never been able to decide for certain what it was.

Red reef crab or coral crab? I can't find it either, but I am getting some Reef fish, coral and creature identification books for Christmas (I hope) and maybe I can find it there!

Absolutely amazing....so beautiful! Thanks for sharing!