Dive Sites in St. Lucia

For my 50th birthday, I went with 8 friends to St. Lucia.  Five of us are divers, and we bought the dive package at Anse Chastenet which includes a room, all-inclusive food, and 14 dives for the week.  We didn’t get in all 14 dives, as American Airlines stranded us for a day, but we did make several.

In general, the diving for my birthday week mid-April featured a significant amount of marine life, but the visibility was mediocre and at times the currents were strong.  I’m certain both the new moon and the erupting volcano in St. Vincent. had something to do with it.

SUBMERGE!

SCUBA Diving in Turks and Caicos

Getting to Turks and Caicos

The travel day to Turks and Caicos was one to forget, but the island is one to remember. Well, I guess the travel wasn’t that bad…only significantly long. We left the house at 2:45am, took our first flight at 5am after waiting in the long, non-TSA precheck line because it didn’t open until 4am. At 4am, we got in the TSA precheck line only to follow a bunch of people who didn’t want to wait in the other line and got turned away. Then three people pretended not to speak English and cut in front of us as we were waiting to put our bags through X-ray. Next the train on either side decided it didn’t want to accept passengers. But, the flight was on time! As was the next one out of Dallas…so that was a plus!! Continue reading “SCUBA Diving in Turks and Caicos” →

Elegant Eagle Ray Glided By Us as We Exited Spooky Channel

El Aguila Dive Site

Today we dove a wreck site called El Aguila. I agreed to go on the deep, wreck dive in an attempt to be open minded, to try once again and to not spoil Danielle’s and Cat’s fun, but honestly I’m not terribly fond of deep dives or wreck dives, and this was a combination of both! Wrecks aren’t my favorite probably because I’m afraid of running into sharp, rusted objects, and I’m slightly claustrophobic. Deep dives are more dangerous should equipment malfunction and from a photographer’s point of view, they are dull as there isn’t much marine life or color to shoot. Having said that, another dive shop chums the waters so we did see some big grouper and a free swimming eel. But I don’t really agree with feeding the fish either, so I was challenged from that aspect as well. Adding on to that, my mask kept filling with water and my camera on the wrong setting and jammed for part of the time, so needless to say I was rather unsettled!

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Baby Conch and Free Swimming Eel Spotted During Our Dives in Roatan

The diving changed yet again today. Mickey, the presenter from the other night, suggested diving Texas. The dive site is near West Bay, and perhaps a twenty minute boat ride or more, so we planned a two tank dive and completed our surface interval in West Bay. It was rough again this morning, though it’s all relative. Compared to many places, it really wasn’t, but in a small boat, we bounced through some rolling swells and caught some spray. Continue reading “Baby Conch and Free Swimming Eel Spotted During Our Dives in Roatan” →

Canyon Dive, Reef Dive, and Night Dive in Roatan

Another day in Roatan, another day of diving! I’m not sure I’d come here for any other type of vacation. Admittedly, I’ve hardly explored the island, so I could be jumping to conclusions, but with the second largest barrier reef five minutes away by boat versus days away like the Great Barrier, there are quite a few dive sites to explore. Today we dove Canyon Reef and Gibson Bight. What a variety!

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seahorse

Roatan’s Reefs – Seahorse, Octopus, Scorpionfish and More!

We began our day with a baleada for breakfast at the hotel restaurant. A baleada is a local cuisine consisting of egg, refried red beans, cheese, cream, and avocado tucked into a thick flour tortilla. It was mouth-watering good!

After scarfing down our meal, we organized our gear with the on site dive shop, Octopus Diving School and loaded on a small, bimini covered boat to go to our first dive site Melissa. We got there in about three minutes! We zipped up our wetsuits. I added a vest and hoodie because I get so cold despite the 83 degree water temperature. We continued with our fins, masks, BCD, regulator and tanks and rolled backwards into the water.

Continue reading “Roatan’s Reefs – Seahorse, Octopus, Scorpionfish and More!” →