BVI SCUBA diving

I think I left you about dinner last night. It was good, and we ate lots of seafood. I opted for a ham and cheese sandwich.

I think it was an early night all the way around...and today we spent most of the morning enjoying the snorkeling at Monkey Point. Brent took them on a snorkeling safari and took some great underwater pictures.

The Sergeant Majors at the bottom of the boat...

Snorkeling...

I am not sure which is the right way up on this picture the fish are so thick!







Brent's Flamingo Tongues...



BLue Tangs...

Turtle...

More blue tangs...

and the turtle again! They snorkeled for quite a time.

And then hung out on the noodles...

The territory is quite busy this week with boats, there were boats circling waiting for our ball, so we threw up the spinnaker and made our way down to Jost Van Dyke. I had to take this picture as we actually PASSED someone under sail! Does not happen that often!!

We had lunch under sail...

Here is my green onion and herb focaccia bread...

We made it to a very busy Soggy Dollar Bar at Jost Van Dyke. There were boats everywhere. Most of the younger crew went in for a drink (or maybe three!) and some took a well deserved nap after the strenuous sail....

It appears that a couple tuna appeared in my galley sink while I was in my cabin...

But that is OK as Bazza taught Brent how to not only clean the fish, but also sear and serve it! So Brent was promoted to head chef and I wandered away until the fish was gone out of the galley...

We only had one person who was determined they were not missing the tuna!

Sunset came around, we are now anchored down at Great Thatch after ANOTHER stop at Pussers Bar at Sopers Hole....

And the rest of the guests showed up for cocktail hour eventually as well...



There was a ton of bird and fish activity off of Little Thatch while the guests were in at Pussers, so I took the opportunity to jump in the water while the boat circled above me waiting.
Lots of pretty black coral....



See the spotted drum in this picture?

Tons of Mackerel...

Tons of different kinds of Angel Fish as well! I see more here then at any other spot in the BVI.

I just liked these unusual (healthy) coral...



Although these are showing quite a bit of damage...

Horse Eyed Jack with the sun in the background...

Lots of Squirrel Fish. There were actually some healthy sized schools of fish down here. Of course, right in the current lines...

Tarpon everywhere following the bait balls...



I am not even sure you could call these silversides yet, they are so tiny. There is many in this picture, but you may not be able to see them...

Steak for dinner tonight! and it is 930 and officially past my bedtime! I hear the women have been whooping the guys behinds at Catch Phrase every night, although each side seems to be accusing the others of cheating every morning!

Bazza must be going back to his Australian roots here! I have to remind him that it is MY hat not his!

Brent laptop had a problem. Brent was quite concerned when Bazza said he would look at it and it was in a billion pieces in his workshop. Apparently they all went back where they belonged and are working again any how...

First up today was a trip to the Baths. I am sure Irma is just snorkeling, but she looks like a seal who has lost her way to me...

Brent herded cats around the Baths I understand this morning, they were going every which way and when he came back he said I had to give them less options. For example, "You have two choices here guys, you can either take the dinghy to shore, OR you can go to shore by dinghy" He thinks that might help solve his problem! We will see...

Anyways they had a nice walk through the rocks, some just went backwards and double back as well...





After all that exercise it was time for some napping on board...



I saw Bazza come out the south side of the Baths and thought maybe he was
1) going trolling
2) getting out so he could get the spinnaker up
3) going to st martin
after this happening for awhile I finally had to give in and ask, and the answer was, hitting the south drop off so we could troll along it....I understand that we caught half a dozen fish, sushi grade tuna and sushimi grade tuna, mackerel (that somehow was let loose while someone went to find a knife...so much for dinner)...a rainbow runner and a couple barracudas...

This gave Brent a promotion from sous chef to chef as it is quite a bit of work to get the sushimi ready. I happily went down to sous chef and gathered up plates and drinks and took them upstairs for him!

IT all went at cocktail hour anyways...

We had a flat enough day that by the time we made it to the Rocus on the Anegada Reef we stopped for a snorkel, and a dive...
A school of some type of Jacks right under the boat. They were not the usual ones we see...

The winches on the 380 foot long wreck...

Fish...

Snorkelers...

More snorkelers...







Found our diver....

I quite like this picture...



A few groupers hanging around...











and an anemone right out in the open...

Some hummed the theme song of Titanic I am sure!

Some gathered to watch the hunters...

Some just assumed the afternoon position...



Some waited around for cocktail hour...

We are anchored right up by conch mountain, and of course, the scenery and sunset is spectacular. There is a nice breeze, the humidity is low and there is not a boat in sight. We cannot complain about that too much!

Barbecued ribs for dinner tonight...

I think the main entertainment is going to be watching the stars tonight. They will be gorgeous out here, tomorrow is a trip to see conch mountain, a snorkel and then probably to the beaches of Anegada...

The BVI Tourism Board and the BVI SCUBA Operators were hosting various SCUBA writers and photographers from around the world here this past week. Some were freelance, some were not. They spent the entire week in the BVI diving our sites, staying in our hotels and getting a feel for our beautiful island. Although they attempted to get around and dive with everyone, we were on charter this past week.

Abi O'Neal, who is Director of Watersports Marketing at the Tourism Board (I am sure I am paraphrasing your title Abi! Sorry!!) did a great job of hustling all her little "chickens" around as she called them. I was especially pleased that she took the extra time to ensure that those who could not visit with these journalists during the week, had a venue last night where we could come and show off our wares. This was held at "Ginnys" in the new Moorings Expansion. A lovely spot it is too. There were actual honest to god FLUSH toilets (modern ones) with NO waste basket beside them to throw your toilet paper into!! That was pretty impressiveI thought..No sign on the door either telling you not to put paper in the toilet...
Anyways, I digress, you can tell that i have lived on an island for too long!
One of the main purposes of this event was to start promoting WRECK WEEK 2010 which will be held June 12th through 19th, 2010! Now that is exciting!

I made the Director of Tourism, and Abi stand still for a billionth picture of the week!

When I arrived everyone was busy setting up their little tables, although most have had an opportunity to visit already this week........

My little spot for Promenade looks pretty bare, but considering I managed to do all my appetizer and dinner prep work at lighting speed on Friday so I could make if from Salt Island INTO Roadtown at 5:00 on a Friday afternoon for this, I did ok. My guests will be glad to know that I did manage to put on a Promenade Tshirt!

Jim Scheiner of Rainbow Visions was showing some of his beautiful photography that he mounts on canvas...

Mike Rowe of Sail Caribbean Divers is looking very professional here at his space...

Muffy from Blue Water Divers...

Colin from Jost Van Dyke SCUBA, talking to the "tall fellow", John Bantin the Technical Editor for DIVER magazine out of the UK...

The beautiful buffet set up in Ginnys.

Did you know that Ginny's has an ice cream bar in it? Well, neither did I! Although it appears that Abi knew exactly where it was!! She deserves it after a week of taking divers around the BVI!

Jim Scheiner is doing some beautiful panoramic photography which he displayed. Here is one he did of the saloon on Cuan Law, calling it the "SpaceSHIP Cuan Law!" Very nice...

I could not convince Mark from Peter Island Divers to stand at his table, so I just took a picture of the table!

I seem to have misplaced this nice young gentlemans card. He is based out of Puerto Rico and works with the BVI Tourist Board as well as writing travel articles for Puerto Rico's largest newspaper. He covers the BVI extensively as we all know that the Puerto Ricans LOVE the BVI!! We also found a shared love of COSTCO in Puerto Rico. Sigh...

Here are all the writers and photographers coming in, I believe they were stolen from Charley"s Bar!


I felt a lot of enthusiasm from everyone, and even with just that short time, I was glad I had made it over. I am sure all who dove with them this week have many photo's and stories, which hopefully we will hear about!

Our group included an Editor who wrote for a group of Magazines in Germany, A photo editor from Argentina, A photo Coordinator for a travel group in Mexico, Contributing Editors to Dive Training magazine, and a Canadian that I would not let get away until we talked and bonded over "ehs" Rob is an Executive Producer for Dive Zero in Kelowna BC and not having lived in Canada for awhile, I promised him that I would go on the website and see what it was all about! I believe they do many web TV channels on SCUBA and travel, but our internet is never fast enough on the boat to do too much of those things. COnsidering it has been off for the past 18 hours.....

It was also nice to run into Mauricio Handler, (great photographer and friend) who is coming over for dinner in a couple weeks (you hear that people! I have a few days OFF and I am voluntarily going to be COOKING DINNER for friends!!!! GO figure!)

I quickly scurried back to East End to drop off the car, the dinghy picked me up, took me out to Beef Bluff and I managed to get dinner on the table right on time and then make discs of pictures for the guests to take home!

I just about wrote that we were up early and on our way out to the Chikuzen to dive. That would be a lie! We were not up early, we were up at the normal time, threw up the spinnaker and made our way out to the Chikuzen. I was anticipating a great dive, as I could see the wreck from the surface.. There were some funky currents though and both Simeon and I zigged and zagged a bit looking for it!
Good visibility though!

One of those dives were everyone was pointing at something special, and mostly that is what i have pictures of...people pointing! Here Brian is pointing at two eagle rays that were circling at the surface...

And here they are....

Wandering down the wreck....



Hunter pointing at "something"

Alicia and Sammi pointing at "something"

and finally I found it! It was a goliath Grouper, the smaller of the two! He is more skittish then the larger one is and quickly ducked away. Still amazing to see!

The barracuda were hanging straight up and down on the lee side of the wreck to be cleaned I imagine....

And we also saw the Cobia...

A good dive on the wreck even though we always seemed to be kicking into the current no matter which way we went...Sammi put it best, wherever the Eddy was, well, we were not in it!

Watching our resort diver on the top of the wreck...We have now ruined him for any normal diving!

Sammi in silhouette coming back up to the boat.

It was a sail into Muskmelon Bay on Guana Island for a bit of a lazy afternoon then, some hung out, some snorkeled, Sammi caught an octopus on his fishing line and Brent took too long bringing the net over I understand!
Sunset came around as it always does...

The boys went looking for some live bait for fishing...

Seafood Scampi was served for dinner...



We had a trivia game at cocktail hour so the pirate tattoo's came out....

And they finally landed a decent sized fish tonight, a Tarpon...



Had a bit more of a breeze this afternoon, which was very welcome after the hot sticky days we have had. You know what happens right after blogging though, I go to bed! Good night!

I just about wrote that we were up early and on our way out to the Chikuzen to dive. That would be a lie! We were not up early, we were up at the normal time, threw up the spinnaker and made our way out to the Chikuzen. I was anticipating a great dive, as I could see the wreck from the surface.. There were some funky currents though and both Simeon and I zigged and zagged a bit looking for it!
Good visibility though!

One of those dives were everyone was pointing at something special, and mostly that is what i have pictures of...people pointing! Here Brian is pointing at two eagle rays that were circling at the surface...

And here they are....

Wandering down the wreck....



Hunter pointing at "something"

Alicia and Sammi pointing at "something"

and finally I found it! It was a goliath Grouper, the smaller of the two! He is more skittish then the larger one is and quickly ducked away. Still amazing to see!

The barracuda were hanging straight up and down on the lee side of the wreck to be cleaned I imagine....

And we also saw the Cobia...

A good dive on the wreck even though we always seemed to be kicking into the current no matter which way we went...Sammi put it best, wherever the Eddy was, well, we were not in it!

Watching our resort diver on the top of the wreck...We have now ruined him for any normal diving!

Sammi in silhouette coming back up to the boat.

It was a sail into Muskmelon Bay on Guana Island for a bit of a lazy afternoon then, some hung out, some snorkeled, Sammi caught an octopus on his fishing line and Brent took too long bringing the net over I understand!
Sunset came around as it always does...

The boys went looking for some live bait for fishing...

Seafood Scampi was served for dinner...



We had a trivia game at cocktail hour so the pirate tattoo's came out....

And they finally landed a decent sized fish tonight, a Tarpon...



Had a bit more of a breeze this afternoon, which was very welcome after the hot sticky days we have had. You know what happens right after blogging though, I go to bed! Good night!

Mountain Point has flies. It is summer. We killed a billion! I then shut up the boat and every little nook in the galley, kept the a/c on all morning, as I seemed to have a ton of prep work to do today that was not getting done very quickly for some reason...
The guests slowly woke up this morning. Lets just say that some along with our youngest crew member were up until the VERY wee hours of the morning!

I tried to be multitalented in the galley this morning and set up my computer so I could play my scrabble games with Lisa in between cooking, but after about 3 words I had to give up as I was getting even less done that way then I was before! Some days are like that! When my chartering career is over with I plan on NEVER making some of these dishes again! My mom thought it would be a good idea if she got in some of these ingredients in bulk for me, so when I went home I could cook for them daily!!!

Simeon had all the guests in the palm of his hand today. They went snorkeling into the Moon Pool and then jumping off cliffs into the pools!
THey have to hold their breath and duck down under for a bit to even get in there...








Then it was time for some heart stopping action from my point of view anyways watching these people climb around and jump off rocks!

OK, not heart stopping here, more like deciding whether he should actually be doing this or not!

And just like climbing Mount Everest they made it!













We then left Mountain Point to get away from the flies! THey wanted to go wakeboarding so we sailed up to the outside of Preckly Pear and Eustastia...less flies!
We had lunch under way...

Along with a pitcher of Margaritas...

Which led to someone looking for a shady cool place for a nap in the afternoon!

We were right up on the beach, and it was HOT, so the lounger came out and they lazed around in the water for hours....

Really pretty day out here...

We went and anchored over by Saba Rock tonight, for some shark fishing (no luck) some went for a walk around Saba (??Did I just say that, it was more a stroll to the store and then maybe a stop at the bar!) and dinner tonight was chicken sate with cous cous and homemade ice cream!

Way too warm for me out in the sun at this time of year, I have to hide mainly down in the air conditioning, except for when I am in the water...Tomorrow is a potential trip out to the Chikuzen for a dive!

Viking Dream dinghy was retrieved finally today, very dirty, but all there. It had been tied to the back of the boat in Trellis between 8 and 9 PM with the cocktail lights on and it was stolen then, so lock then at all times it appears!