Diving

Virgin Gorda 2007
  • virgingorda-divesites Thursday afternoon I did the classroom work for an advanced Nitrox course with Dive BVI. Friday morning were my first dives breathing Nitrox, followed by 3 more days of diving. Some of the dives were centered around the small islands along the Sir Francis Drake Channel: Salt, Cooper, and Ginger Islands. Other divesites were around the "Dogs", small islands just off the northwest coast of Virgin Gorda. : BVI, Diving, Virgin Gorda 2007-02
  • AliceBackdoor-02 Friday's second dive was at Alice's Backdoor off of Ginger Island. It is a relatively shallow site, with maximum depth of 50-60 feet. : BVI, Diving, Virgin Gorda 2007-02
  • AliceBackdoor-12 Blue Chromis schooling around a coral head : BVI, Diving, Virgin Gorda 2007-02
  • AliceBackdoor-13 A closer view of the Blue Chromis. Because I did not have the flash properly syncing with the camera yet, I tried to take as many pictures as possible using available light at the shallow depths. : BVI, Diving, Virgin Gorda 2007-02
  • AliceBackdoor-18 A Porcupinefish swims by, a member of the puffer family : BVI, Diving, Virgin Gorda 2007-02
  • AliceBackdoor-20 A school of Blue Tangs over the reef : BVI, Diving, Virgin Gorda 2007-02
  • AliceBackdoor-24 This huge Caribbean Spiny Lobster was hiding in its hole : BVI, Diving, Virgin Gorda 2007-02
  • CoralGardens-09 Sunday's second dive was at Coral Gardens, off of Great Dog Island. The site contains lots of coral heads and the remains of a plane fuselage. The plane wrecked at the end of the Tortola runway, was sunk intentionally, and used at one point as a movie prop. Here is a giant feather duster worm on the fuselage. : BVI, Diving, Virgin Gorda 2007-02
  • CoralGardens-12 We spotted a turtle swimming past scattered pieces of the plane wreck. : BVI, Diving, Virgin Gorda 2007-02
  • CoralGardens-17 Little juveniles hover close to the reef for protection : BVI, Diving, Virgin Gorda 2007-02
  • CoralGardens-21 Near the edge of the reef, a Sand Diver swims by. They are a member of the Lizardfish family. : BVI, Diving, Virgin Gorda 2007-02
  • CoralGardens-25 The Sand Diver usually likes to bury itself in the sand with only its head showing, but this one was content to rest and pose for the photo. : BVI, Diving, Virgin Gorda 2007-02
  • CoralGardens-26 A Blue Tang : BVI, Diving, Virgin Gorda 2007-02
  • CoralGardens-28 A Trumpetfish disguising itself by hanging vertically among a gorgonian : BVI, Diving, Virgin Gorda 2007-02
  • CoralGardens-38 A Smooth Trunkfish : BVI, Diving, Virgin Gorda 2007-02
  • CoralGardens-39 : BVI, Diving, Virgin Gorda 2007-02
  • MarieLandPat-04 Encrustations on the rigging. I was using my new Olympus SP-350 with Nikonos SB-105 flash. However, it would still take me another day or two to get the flash triggering correctly in slave mode. : BVI, Diving, Virgin Gorda 2007-02
  • MarieLandPat-05 I have no idea what these were doing by the wrecks. My guess is that someone thought they would make a nice addition to the scenery. : BVI, Diving, Virgin Gorda 2007-02
  • MarieLandPat-06 Friday morning's first dive was the wrecks of the Marie L and the Pat. The Marie L was a drug running boat and the Pat was a tugboat. They were sunk side by side just west of Cooper Island. : BVI, Diving, Virgin Gorda 2007-02
  • MarieLandPat-09 : BVI, Diving, Virgin Gorda 2007-02
  • MarieLandPat-11 Grunts and snapper inside the wheelhouse : BVI, Diving, Virgin Gorda 2007-02
  • MarieLandPat-13 I was pretty much diving alone with Steve, the divemaster. Just cruising the reef near the mooring line to use up our remaining air before surfacing. : BVI, Diving, Virgin Gorda 2007-02
  • RMSRhone-06 Tuesday was my last day of diving, both dives on the wreck of the RMS Rhone off of Salt Island. The story of the wreck is very tragic, but it makes for some dramatic diving. Here are some Snapper and Grunts hanging out under a coral outcropping. : BVI, Diving, Virgin Gorda 2007-02
  • RMSRhone-08 I spotted this Red Hind swimming across the wreck. A member of the Sea Bass family, it is also goes by the common name of Strawberry Grouper. : BVI, Diving, Virgin Gorda 2007-02
  • RMSRhone-14 The wreck is surrounded by schools of Snapper and Grunts : BVI, Diving, Virgin Gorda 2007-02
  • RMSRhone-17 Blue Striped Grunts are distinguished from the French Grunts by their dark tail and dorsal fin with yellow edging : BVI, Diving, Virgin Gorda 2007-02
  • RMSRhone-26 This is the drive shaft of the Rhone, you can see that the hull split wide open like it was fileted : BVI, Diving, Virgin Gorda 2007-02
  • RMSRhone-28 Every diver is supposed to rub "lucky porthole #26" for good luck. This is supposedly the porthole of the only passenger that survived the wreck. : BVI, Diving, Virgin Gorda 2007-02
  • RMSRhone-30 The driveshaft terminates at this gearbox : BVI, Diving, Virgin Gorda 2007-02
  • Visibles-02 By Sunday, I finally got the flash slaved correctly to the camera. The first dive was at The Visibles, named because of the pinnacles that crest the surface of the waters just off of Cockroach Island. A school of grunts, called Tomtates, swims by. : BVI, Diving, Virgin Gorda 2007-02
  • Visibles-06 Towards the end of the dive, looking out at a sandy patch beyond the reef we spot a Southern stingray resting partially buried in the sand : BVI, Diving, Virgin Gorda 2007-02
  • Visibles-09 With all of the attention from us, the stingray decides to take off : BVI, Diving, Virgin Gorda 2007-02
  • Visibles-11 Trailing the sand it was buried in, the stingray heads off to look for a new resting spot : BVI, Diving, Virgin Gorda 2007-02
  • Visibles-15 A Spiny Caribbean Lobster advances out of its hole : BVI, Diving, Virgin Gorda 2007-02
  • Visibles-18 This is actually an animal, a Feather Duster Worm : BVI, Diving, Virgin Gorda 2007-02
  • WallToWall-02 Still struggling with getting the flash to sync properly with the camera, I decided to switch to available light for most of the photos on this dive. Yet more Blue Tangs, which are a member of the Surgeonfish family. : BVI, Diving, Virgin Gorda 2007-02
  • WallToWall-08 French Grunts in yellow, and Snapper : BVI, Diving, Virgin Gorda 2007-02
  • WallToWall-14 Friday started off with diving Wall to Wall, a site off the southwest corner of West Dog island. You can see the Foureye Butterflyfish in the center with its distinctive black spot. A couple of Blue Tangs and lots of blennies populate the reef. : BVI, Diving, Virgin Gorda 2007-02
  • WallToWall-16 Blennies congregating around one of the many coral heads : BVI, Diving, Virgin Gorda 2007-02
  • WallToWall-19 Wall to Wall is like a vast underwater garden, home to the Blue Chromis and blennies that you see here. : BVI, Diving, Virgin Gorda 2007-02