Saturday, March 16, 2013

Diving in St. Thomas

At our stop on St. Thomas, I went on a diving excursion with Blue Island Divers, a local dive shop that some of my mother's friends had recommended. It was a very nice day of diving - extremely personal, with just me and 2 other tourists, plus the divemaster, we had a lot of freedom to do and see whatever we wanted underwater. We went to two sites: the first was the more exciting and spectacular, the wreck of the tugboat WIT power. Sitting upright in about 90 feet of water, this wreck was an interesting place to see marine life, including many schools of fish and big turtles. My diving companions were interested in hunting for lionfish, an invasive species that divers often try to eradicate whenever possible, and also catching lobster. The second site was a reef close to shore, just off some cliffs. Because it was very shallow, we spent almost an hour underwater, swimming from one mound of coral to another and taking in the tropical flora and fauna. It had been a long time since I'd had an opportunity to dive (the last time we went on this same Caribbean cruise, actually), so this experience was a lot of fun for me. The Blue Island captain and divemaster were very friendly and professional, and it was overall an excellent excursion.

I had a disposable underwater camera with me, and will post some pictures after returning home and getting them developed!

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