St. Thomas - 1st dive day (logged dives 21 and 22)

OK. I am still waiting to get copies of photos from the manfriend.

But in the meantime, I need to get moving on this whole blogging thing before it gets too far out of my recent memory.

We flew from LAX to Boston on the red eye then on to St. Thomas, getting there mid-afternoon on Nov. 10.

The first night was spent at the Marriot at Frenchman's Reef, which is a huge hotel/resort/timeshare complex.

The view of Charlotte Amalie from the room at the Marriot.

The view overlooking the main pool as a
Royal Caribbean ship heads of of Charlotte Amalie.

Sunset from the Marriott.

We were pretty exhausted, and after some free rum punch we were also tipsy. With pretty much no sleep on the plane, I fell asleep by about 8 p.m. that night.

The next day we got up and went into town to have breakfast at place called the Delly Deck. MF had yummy blueberry pancakes.

After that we headed to Coki Beach to meet with Peter of the Coki Beach Dive Club for the first of our four days of diving.

MF took photos on the first dive. Once I get those I will post the good ones. For now, here are just a few and the details of the first two dives:

Calf Rock, off of St. Thomas, USVI

Nov. 10, 2008

Logged dive: No. 21

Max depth: 40 feet

Bottomtime: 50 minutes

Apparently, according to Peter, visibility had not been great in the few days before we got there.

It was only about 40 feet.

Um. Yeah.

Seemed pretty good to me.

Though the boat can take out six divers, MF and I were the only ones that afternoon. We had Peter along with Derek, a new divemaster learning the dive sites.

We saw lots of sponges and reef fish and coral.

I was worried about the new housing leaking, so I took it down on the first dive without the camera in it to make sure it was really water tight.

Anyway, while we were on this dive we saw a nurse shark sleeping under a dark ledge.

There also was a hawksbill turtle. MF may have got a picture of it, but it was not inclined to stick around and pose.

It was a nice, easy first dive with a lot to see.

We then had short boat ride to the next spot.

Stragglers, off of St. Thomas, USVI

Nov. 10, 2008

Logged dive: No. 22

Max depth: 30 feet

Bottomtime: 60 minutes

So after the first dive it looked like the camera housing was going to be OK, so I took a few pictures on the second dive of the day.

I love the textures and patterns of the various corals and sponges and various strange living things underwater.

This looked like a reverse starfish. Not quite sure what it was. But it was interesting.

Our dives were in the afternoon, which meant by the time we were done, we could check into Bluebeard's Beach Club, where we would be spending five nights.

This is the same place I stayed in July, so I did not take too many new pictures of this place.

Click on this link of you want to see pictures of the place from July.

The room this time was a studio type on one level. There was one large room with a sofa/dining table area and a bedroom area. We had a kitchen with mini fridge, stovetop and microwave. We didn't cook anything, but made use of the toaster for bagels and the fridge for our supply of beers, milk and juice.

The sun was starting to set just after we checked in, so we took a quick dip.

MF does the sunset float.

What a beautiful sunset. I took this one from in the water.

After our swim, we got ready and went to dinner and rum punch at Iggies at Bolongo Beach Club.

So, that was pretty much the first full day in St. Thomas: diving, eating and rum punch.
It was a good start to a great week.

I will have much more to post on this, but this is it for now. I still need to get through more photos and even some underwater video. Woo hoo!

Not quite home

It's my last night in St. Thomas.
Most of the week was spent without Internet access.
It was so nice.

I went diving four days while I was here for a total of 10 dives. I took hundreds of pictures. Many will not be good. But the handful that are will be great.

I will have much to blog about when I get home.
But for now, a little more relaxing while I can.

Harbor lights at night

This post is just to get in a few of the shots I took as the dive boat came back into Long Beach on Saturday evening.

I liked the way the sea wall made a dividing line between the water and the sky.

Looking back toward the mouth of the harbor.

The sunset was amazing that day and the whole port just glowed.

This is the Gerald Desmond Bridge. Poor thing. It is not as famous as its neighbor, the Vincent Thomas, which is one of my favorite bridges.

Normally this bridge doesn't do much for me visually. But seeing it from this angle for the first time, I had a new appreciation for it.

Cranes and cargo ships operate around the clock at the Port of Long Beach, the second-busiest port in the country.

Someone once told me that George Lucas modeled the walker things in Star Wars on cranes like these. I am not sure that is true, but I can see why it might be.

One of the old port buildings very close to Queen's Wharf, where we docked. Some of the buildings of downtown Long Beach are in the background.

11/01/08 - Dive boat to Santa Barbara Island - third dive

Arch Point off of Santa Barbara Island, Calif. (Channel Islands)
Nov. 1, 2008
Logged dive: No. 20
Max depth: 60 feet
Bottomtime: 35 minutes

This was the last dive of the trip.
No sea lion rookery.
Boooooooooooooooo!

Conditions were not good apparently. So it was better to be safe.
Still, I really wanted to play with those sea puppies.

But all was not lost, we saw a frisky little sea lion at the end of the dive.

Read on to find out more about him.

Me, heading down the anchor line.

Me again, clearing the pressure in my ears.

Once we got to the bottom, there were large sandy areas dotted here and there with rocks that were home to coral, stars, brittle stars, sea urchins and anemones - all in multiple sizes and colors.

A shot of some coral with a plant growing in the middle of it.

Star surrounded by brittle stars.

More stars, more colors.

There was an angel shark just hanging out in the sand not too far from the end of the anchor line.

Same angel shark from a different angle. When we swam back by this way about 10 minutes later, it was gone.

My gauge. Here we are at just above 60 feet. The red hand shows the max depth of the dive at that point, just over 60 feet.

Visibility here was not as good as the first dive, but it was still really good. Far better than the second dive.

Another star. I love the texture on this one.

I am not sure what this is. MF said maybe a welk of some kind. I liked the shape of it, so I took a picture.

Here is just a pile of the brittle stars. They were everywhere here, all over the rocks and all over everything else. MF said he got a little creeped out thinking about them just covering everything.

Another creepy crawler.

There was what looked to be an old lobster trap. It had become home to a few urchins inside and some more brittle stars hanging around outside. I really like this shot.

At this point, MF took the camera and got some really nice shots of some anemones. The series is below.

Finally, it was time to head back to the boat. The water was colder here and we were getting low on air, so I was about ready.

Another diver, heading up the anchor line after doing a safety stop. That dark blob above him is the boat.

We came up the anchor line after a safety stop of our own then headed toward the back of the boat. As we got almost to the swim step to get out of the water... SEA LION!!

One fun little guy wanting to play.

I was so happy, I forgot to take pictures at first. But he kept coming back around to play, swimming and spinning.

They are soooooo fast! It was hard to get any photos of him up close.

At this point, we hung out at the surface, just using our masks and snorkels to keep our faces in the water and watch him.

I was trying to get the camera to work, but the reaction time was too slow for the speedy sea puppy.

Just when I thought I had a good shot, the little fellow darted up and away!

This one is my favorite. Just the tail and bubbles. That was pretty much what I kept seeing of this guy. He was so cute.

Finally, he took off. We waited a few more minutes to see if he would come back, but he did not.

So we got back on the boat.

It was good to finally get out of all the wet gear that we leave on between dives while the boat moves from site to site. It was good to get into dry clothes and have some lunch.

Now, just a 6-hour boat ride back to Long Beach. Perfect time for a nap.

11/01/08 - Dive boat to Santa Barbara Island - second dive

North of Three Sisters off of Santa Barbara Island, Calif. (Channel Islands)
Nov. 1, 2008
Logged dive: No. 19
Max depth: 42 feet
Bottomtime: 35 minutes

Between Santa Barbara and Sutil islands are three rock formations, the Three Sisters.

This was the second dive spot for the day.
The divemaster pointed out some kelp beds off to the side toward Santa Barbara Island.
Since kelp usually provides good cover for lots of fish, we headed that way.

Visibility on this dive was no where near as good as the first.




We saw a lot of kelp. There were some fish there. But really, it was just a lot of kelp.
And the visibility was not at all good. At one point I stopped to take a picture and when I looked up, MF was gone. I could see only about 10 feet in any direction, and it was all kelp.

After a split second of WTF??? panic, I settled down and swam a short distance in the direction he had been heading. I remembered the dive training that said to look for a minute then surface if you don't find your buddy.
Luckily, I didn't have to search long. In the moment it felt like a long time, but really, it probably was only about 20 seconds before MF came swimming back my way.
He had a worried look on his face, but it probably nothing like the look I am sure was on my face.

I definitely do not like that feeling. We stuck much closer after that as we turned back to head to the boat.


MF took a picture of me in the kelp.


This is a shot of what is basically like the root ball of some kelp.




On the way back to the boat we saw a jellyfish. There was another one farther away at the surface. MF said they looked dead since they were not really pushing through the water the way jellies move. Mostly they were just floating along with whatever current there was.

A shot of the boat as we swam back to get onboard and head to the next site.

Really, the name of the boat sums up the trip.