Returned from our annual trip to St. John USVI. We spent two weeks on the Island and I did six days of diving, including a trip over to BVI to dive the Rhone and Wreck Alley. Diving was with Low Key Watersports. Been diving with them for years, and it is great to see the same people working at the shop and on the dive boat. There is always some changeover, but love seeing familiar faces. The dive boats are typical Newton dive boats. Never felt over crowded, but there were a couple days with quite a few people. Boats have fresh water and coolers if you brought your own drinks. They also had oranges to help get the salt taste out of your mouth. They do morning and afternoon 2-tank dives. The afternoon dives tend to have DSD and students, so I generally opted for the morning dives.
Most of the diving around St. John is relatively shallow coral reefs; max depth is about 60-80 feet. Most of the dive sites are within 30 minutes of the dock. The reefs were in good shape, didn't see much bleaching or other problems. Fish life was abundant. I only saw a few lionfish over the course of the two weeks. Dives were all guided and were mostly 40+ minutes. One exception was a shorter dive when there were storms in the area. They got us into the water for our second dive, but we were told we had a relatively small window as more storms were coming.
Low Key typically runs BVI trips on Wednesdays, but since they were relocating one of their boats to Puerto Rico, they moved it to Sunday. The dive ops manager contacted a bunch of people she knew would want to go, including me, and easily met the diver minimum to make it worth it. Diving on the Rhone is always fun. Spread out wreck with a couple swim-throughs. The huge propeller is still distinctive. Second dive was at "Wreck Alley". We dove two of the three wrecks and spent some time on the reef with a sting ray. After diving, we stopped at the Willy T for lunch. For the BVI trip, the boat is stocked with various beverages included.
My sister-in-law did a DSD, so I moved my morning dives to the afternoon. Of course that is the morning they made it out to French Cap for spectacular diving in deeper water with sharks. I was able to join the instructor and my sister-in-law while they did the DSD, following them around and taking pictures.
Took pictures on a few dives. Shooting a Sealife DC2000 in natural light. Tried the macro wet lens a bit. Here are a few pictures.
Most of the diving around St. John is relatively shallow coral reefs; max depth is about 60-80 feet. Most of the dive sites are within 30 minutes of the dock. The reefs were in good shape, didn't see much bleaching or other problems. Fish life was abundant. I only saw a few lionfish over the course of the two weeks. Dives were all guided and were mostly 40+ minutes. One exception was a shorter dive when there were storms in the area. They got us into the water for our second dive, but we were told we had a relatively small window as more storms were coming.
Low Key typically runs BVI trips on Wednesdays, but since they were relocating one of their boats to Puerto Rico, they moved it to Sunday. The dive ops manager contacted a bunch of people she knew would want to go, including me, and easily met the diver minimum to make it worth it. Diving on the Rhone is always fun. Spread out wreck with a couple swim-throughs. The huge propeller is still distinctive. Second dive was at "Wreck Alley". We dove two of the three wrecks and spent some time on the reef with a sting ray. After diving, we stopped at the Willy T for lunch. For the BVI trip, the boat is stocked with various beverages included.
My sister-in-law did a DSD, so I moved my morning dives to the afternoon. Of course that is the morning they made it out to French Cap for spectacular diving in deeper water with sharks. I was able to join the instructor and my sister-in-law while they did the DSD, following them around and taking pictures.
Took pictures on a few dives. Shooting a Sealife DC2000 in natural light. Tried the macro wet lens a bit. Here are a few pictures.
