Two Weeks of Diving in St. Croix 1991

In packing for the move I found a small spiral notebook with what appears to be some of our first dives with Dive Experience after getting certified the trip before in 1990 with VI Divers. Here is what it says:

April 23, 1991
1. The Barge 80ft 30min - boring
2. The West Wall of Salt River Canyon 50ft 40min - Great!

April 25, 1991
1. The East Wall of Salt River Canyon 80ft 30min - Great!
2. Little Cozumel - OK

April 27, 1991
1. Two Anchors 70ft 40 min - Great
2. Wapa Gardens 50ft 30min - OK

April 30, 1991
1. Rust op Twist 80ft 30 min
Schools of black durgen. Followed pipe on top of wall over the side. Quite a change in temp over the wall. Nice fan coral and other soft corals.
2. Little Green Shack 50ft 40min
Mostly hard corals. Funky mushroom shaped corals with lots of neat crevices to poke under. Saw two trumpet fish. Strong current. This was probably my favorite site after Salt River. I think Scott liked Rust Op Twist better but he says "It's hard to tell they are all so good."

May 1, 1991
1. Japanese Gardens or Spotted Ray 80ft 30min
Fun feathery soft corals. We dove along the wall. Saw two spotted rays. They were huge!! They looked like they were flying through the emptiness off of the wall A big turtle was swimming along with them. We saw a ray of some sort in the sand in the shallows. Saw Barbara, a huge barracuda.
2. Scotch Bank 50ft 40min
A mountain ridge which includes Buck Island. The site is close to the harbor. We dove along the wall a little bit. We saw a hawks bill turtle and these two fish that looked like giant angel fish about 1.5 ft long. They followed us as we swam along the wall. We spent alot of time up in the shallow sandy part on top of the ridge. We saw a nurse shark at the end of the dive.

May 3, 1991
1. Gentlewinds 80ft 30min (really 60ft 30 min)
Mediocre. Woman lost weight belt. Clueless people with no buoyancy control at all mowing down coral.
2. Wapa Gardens 50ft 30min - OK

Night Dive off Beach at Cane Bay - 60ft 40 min
Scott - really funky but I wouldn't do it again Nice swim out, warm water, phosphorescence neat, saw 2 octopuses, squid changing color, 6 finger star fish, worm, baby eel, relative of puffer fish, sleeping fish, "hair net" coral, creepy looking out into nothing, jellyfish changing colors, colors more intense.
Linda - I couldn't really see anything. I totally forgot I am night blind until I got down there. The swim out and back was beautiful, zillions of stars, it was as smooth as glass and St. Thomas glowed on the horizon. Down there I couldn't really see a thing and the flashlights were very confusing. I could really only tell where Scott was if I kept the light on his fins. My contacts would help but I don't think with my night blindness night diving will ever really be a real option for me.

May 5, 1991
1. Cane Bay - buoy East of dock - 80ft 30min
Gradual wall. Very pretty. Michelle said it was a spot less visited by divers. Beautiful soft coral as well as funky hard coral and lots of fish. This ranks up there with Salt River.
2. Scotch Banks - way out in front of Buccaneer. Sandy top, gradual sloping sides of ridge. OK dive site. We came across a huge ray, at least 5 ft, it was sitting in the sand mostly buried. Michelle poked it and it flew away. Rays are so beautiful and big! I was diving with a smaller tank than the normal compact 80s and it was more comfy. Michelle stuck her finger in a morey eel's mouth and it bit her.

Summary - Dive Experience - Sam, Michelle and Scott

Linda's favorite sites:
1. Salt River East and West
2. Cane Bay East of dock
3. Green Shack

Scott's
1. Cane Bay
2. Salt River
3. Rust op Twist
4. Green Shack
5. Two Anchors