Just got back from a week bareboat charter with The Moorings. Beneteau 44, 3 couples, 4 divers. We dove the Indians as a tune-up, pretty easy and no current. Water was pretty much 81 degrees the whole time. Shorty or rashguard was plenty. (I have a 1mil that was toasty) My dive buddy brushed up on some fire coral on the first day. She wore her full rashguard the rest of the week.
Next was Rainbow Reef off Pelican Island. Lots of coral and our first turtle. We then did a rendezvous dive on the Rhone with UBS Divers, great outfit, Kate and Tony are great. They offer exclusive trips (fondly referred to as Gucci Diving) also rented us tanks and equipment and swapped out the spent tanks throughout the week. We did a late afternoon dive on the Rhone, did our surface interval watching the sun set and then did the same dive again. My first night dive and INCREDIBLE! Amazing the difference in sea life when the sun goes down.
Next was The Visibles off Cockroach Island. One of my faves - Huge pinnacles, black coral and and a spotted eagle ray came in to check us out. Giant spiny lobsters, angel fish, not to be missed! We did another rendezvous with UBS off Great Dog, saw the airplane wreck, fun swimming through it. Lots of barracuda and beautiful coral. Glad we had some "local knowledge" to navigate to the wreck. Don't think we could have found it on our own.
Lastly we dove off Scrub Island at Platinum Reef, 50 feet and almost an hour down time. Really nice dive. Spotted Drum, coral bandit shrimp, lots of sea life. Our first school of squid. They flashed, checked us out, flashed some more. Pretty amazing. UBS took us to a "secret spot" that I'm sworn to not talk about, but I'll give you a hint. It's near Great Camanoe and misnamed in someone's dive book. Great topology, lots of cave-like diving.
Being a novice diver I'm amazed by the diversity of diving in the BVI. No two dives were alike, abundant fish and coral, and felt somewhat empowered looking for Lionfish with my washer, ribbon, and cork marker. I'll be back, it was an amazing trip.
jK
Next was Rainbow Reef off Pelican Island. Lots of coral and our first turtle. We then did a rendezvous dive on the Rhone with UBS Divers, great outfit, Kate and Tony are great. They offer exclusive trips (fondly referred to as Gucci Diving) also rented us tanks and equipment and swapped out the spent tanks throughout the week. We did a late afternoon dive on the Rhone, did our surface interval watching the sun set and then did the same dive again. My first night dive and INCREDIBLE! Amazing the difference in sea life when the sun goes down.
Next was The Visibles off Cockroach Island. One of my faves - Huge pinnacles, black coral and and a spotted eagle ray came in to check us out. Giant spiny lobsters, angel fish, not to be missed! We did another rendezvous with UBS off Great Dog, saw the airplane wreck, fun swimming through it. Lots of barracuda and beautiful coral. Glad we had some "local knowledge" to navigate to the wreck. Don't think we could have found it on our own.
Lastly we dove off Scrub Island at Platinum Reef, 50 feet and almost an hour down time. Really nice dive. Spotted Drum, coral bandit shrimp, lots of sea life. Our first school of squid. They flashed, checked us out, flashed some more. Pretty amazing. UBS took us to a "secret spot" that I'm sworn to not talk about, but I'll give you a hint. It's near Great Camanoe and misnamed in someone's dive book. Great topology, lots of cave-like diving.
Being a novice diver I'm amazed by the diversity of diving in the BVI. No two dives were alike, abundant fish and coral, and felt somewhat empowered looking for Lionfish with my washer, ribbon, and cork marker. I'll be back, it was an amazing trip.
jK
