Dive day No.2 - St. Thomas **UPDATED**

I forgot my dive log today, so even though I have time after work tonight to blog a little more, I can't do a complete post with the depth and time stuff.

So for now I will just post some pictures from the dives of Nov. 11.

I will update later with the dive details for those who care about such things.

That day we went to two sites: Cow Rock and Little St. James.

**UPDATED WITH DIVE INFO**

Cow Rock, off of St. Thomas, USVI
Nov. 11, 2008
Logged dive: No. 23
Max depth: 39 feet
Bottomtime: 50 minutes


Little St. James, off of St. Thomas, USVI
Nov. 11, 2008
Logged dive: No. 24
Max depth: 42 feet
Bottomtime: 48 minutes


This is Coki Beach. That white dome is Coral World.

Coki Beach, looking the other way. A few locals were happy to point out that this water is the Atlantic ...

but that if you go back past where the dive company is set up ...

and cross the street, the Caribbean is only a few hundred feet away, past this lovely catering truck that is a local hang out.

Anyway... We got on the boat. This time there was me, manfriend, another couple and a solo dude on the boat for the two dives.

We had Peter and Derek again leading the way.

As we headed out with St. Thomas on one side and a small uninhabited island on the other, Peter abruptly brought the boat to a stop.

"Well look at that!" he said.

"Deer!"

Indeed, it was a deer. He said he has seen that once or twice before. Apparently the deer swim from one island to the other.
I had no idea there were deer in the Caribbean. I also had no idea they could swim like that.

This is Cow Rock, the first dive site of the day.

This is Little St. James, the second dive site of the day.

A few interesting things we saw at these sites:

Sunken power boat at Little St. James.
That is a shot of the other diver couple that I took.

That is MF and me, taken by Peter with MF's camera.

I was just fascinated by the turtles. They looked so laid-back
and not in any rush. Just swimmin'.

The rest are various fish, sponges, plants and even a funny little shrimp.

Parrot fish

Sponge

Pipe fish

Tiny yellow fishies the size of my pinky finger

Parrot fish

Octopus!

Big stripey guy

Just hanging out, under a ledge

I saw a few of these on all the dives we did.
They were always hiding. So this is the best shot
I could get and I was happy to get it.

More yellow guys. Under a ledge.

Hello, yellow guys. These are called grunts.

Having a snack

Loved the spots!

Fish friends. Hanging out.

The undersea landscape

Tiny fish in a sponge

It's like the best aquarium ever.

'Nother tiny fish in a sponge

Inside a sponge

When these guys get agitated, the spiny fin stands straight up.

Odd-looking sponge

Pretty! It was far away. The camera's zoom works pretty well.

More spots

Tiny shrimp. Is that redundant?

Stoplight parrot fish

Just odd. Patterns, colors, textures. Just odd. And fascinating.

Pipe fish!

Blue tang

Stoplight parrot fish

Blue tang, catching a snack

Sponges

I like the worms. Those things that look all flowery
are worms that quickly retract into themselves when people get too close.

Manfish

MF's picture of a lobster

MF's picture of the shrimp

Under the sea

Here are some photos the manfriend took the first day of diving in St. Thomas.

People on Coki Beach getting ready to do snuba. Snuba is basically snorkeling, but you are hooked up to a long hose that is hooked up to air. So you can breathe underwater, no snorkel required.
I have never done it. But I do wonder how they keep all those hoses from becoming one giant knot underwater.


Me on the first dive. Notice the empty camera housing. After the first one I got leaked, I wanted to test this one without the camera. Just in case. This one worked out just fine.

This is Peter of Coki Beach Dive Club between dives. The first day was just me and MF on the boat with Peter and another divemaster, Derek.

This was the turtle on the first dive. Since I had no camera, I was glad MF got a shot. The turtle did not stick around long.

Mmmmm... lobster. I think I had his cousin for dinner a few nights later.

A school of small blue tang passing through. I like these shots a lot.

Some of that crazy, pretty, textural pattern that I dig.

A beautiful pair of angel fish. I didn't see a lot of these, so I am really glad MF got such a good photo of them.

I hope you all don't get sick of these types of pictures. I have a lot more!