Woke up this morning and got a quick breakfast in the Windjammer cafe with Ed and Angie, grabbed the scuba gear and headed through the U.S. Customs check. Since it is a U.S. port all passengers must go through customs. After that we headed out to the pickup point and waited for the boat.
For those who I have not told the story... we decided to dive this trip awhile back and decided a private dive would be much better than a cruise sponsored trip. After looking around the internet we chose Blue Island Divers and after a half a dozen emails we decided to use them. A quick tour around the site revealed that they were affiliated with the Atlantis submarine, the same sub that the other three in our group would be doing while we were diving! So a couple of emails later we had a once in a lifetime dive set up... and it was Angie and mines first dive!
The boat picked us up and we headed out to the dive site BID had never done this before and so we were having to wing it a little, but the timing was perfect. We got to the bottom and waited about two minutes when this HUGE! sub came into view. They stopped right in front of us and we waved and they waved and Ed fed some fish. We could see C,K and K inside and video cams were running full tilt. We had paid for a video of our dive trip so we had video from inside and out and it was spectacular! After 5 minutes or so the sub took off and we went exploring. I saw so many fish... lots of tropical varieties and couple of baracuda... great fun and an incredible way to start our diving career. Even the experienced divers with us were going on and on about how cool that was.
Dive two was just a mile away, by the time I was there I was starting to get seasick so I got in first. We went down and dove over two wrecked Navy barges. Saw some more baracuda and huge Queen Angel. It would have been a prize fish in any marine aquarium! After cresting the 2nd barge we came up on two stingrays in the sand. As I tried to circle to get a picture, they took of we me chasing them. I swam side my side for a good 30 feet within reach of this stingray, it was so cool! We got to swim through the barges and we got to hold on to and play with an Arrow crab. I cannot wait to see the video! I sucked my air down in no time and had to come up after only 37 minutes but I had seen enough, I am hooked! I can't wait to get wet again. Judging by the reaction Angie has had she's in too.
Afterwards we hooked back up with C,K and K and heard thier side of the story... the people in the sub thought it was the highlight of the trip! After a quick lunch on the boat we decided to go shopping in St. Thomas. We headed out and as soon as we got out the bottom dropped out... it rained, we got wet and that was that. As I sit here now we have dried out and are about to go to dinner, Caribbean night tonight. I think they are going to make us dance tonight. ughhh... I'll try to get it on video.
