DIVING & TOYS

THE AQUARIUM

DEPTH: 15-30 FEET (5-9 M)

LEVEL: NOVICE

Just between Spanish Town and the Baths is a shallow shoal of a reef with pillar coral formations, shy schools of French grunts and moray eels tucked under ledges. It's not a large site, but a slow circumnavigation and thorough exploration of the reef should use up a tank. The Aquarium is rather densely textured with lots of rocks and boulders piled up on one another creating a network of small grottos and dens filled with fishes. Sergeant majors, blue tang and chromis fill the mid-water region. Sponges, fire coral and various crawling invertebrates cover the rocks. Nurse sharks can be found napping under the larger ledges.

BLONDE ROCK

DEPTH: 10-65 FEET (3-1 8 M)

LEVEL: ADVANCED

Located between Dead Chest and Salt Islands, Blonde Rock offers good visibility, lots of big fishes, fascinating topography, a taste of adventure, and photo opportunities galore. Blonde Rock is a set of two pinnacles, out in the middle of nowhere, that rise from 60 feet to within 15 feet of the surface. Occasionally current-swept and the only topographic feature of any significance in the Salt Island Passage, Blonde Rock is a natural magnet attracting all kinds of marine life including turtles, schools of jacks, cobia, barracuda and even the occasional shark. The twin fire coral-encrusted peaks (hence the "blonde" designation) rise from a gorgonian-covered plateau at 35 to 40 feet. All the way around this sheer-walled plateau is an amazing system of undercuts, ledges, canyons, tunnels and companion rocks. With a flashlight, the brilliant colors of the sponges, coralline algae and cup coral will leap out at you. The craggy upper lip of the wall is adorned with sea fans, deep-water gorgonians and a strange green-stalked colonial hydroid. After fully exploring the extensive undercut and the bowl itself, with its school of brilliant yellow French grunts, climb out of the back of the bowl and stop at the pit right at the edge. A small cave in the back of the pit hosts a perpetually spiraling school of glassy sweepers. Seen here: blackbar soldierfish, schools of chub, horse-eye and bar jacks, creole wrasse, tomtates, coneys, parrotfishes, angelfishes, triggerfishes, pelagics, glasseye snapper, graysby, large crabs.

BREWERS BAY PINNACLES
DEPTH: 25-1 10 FEET (8-33 M)
LEVEL: ADVANCED
An enjoyable summer dive when there's no north swell, Brewers Bay Pinnacles is located just off the western tip of the bay. It's too far from the beach to be dived as a shore dive. The massive pinnacles are of varying height and bulk. They rise steeply from the ocean floor, some of them come within 30 feet of the surface. The gaps between the sheer granite structures comprise a confusing maze of alleyways, dead ends and narrow passages. The rocks are covered with deep-water gorgonians, sea fans and fire coral. Large jacks, eagle rays and turtles are often spotted by the observant diver. Amid the rocks and reef look for lobsters, skittish queen angelfish and whitespotted filefish.

BRONCHO BILLY'S
DEPTH: 15-50 FEET (5-15 M)
LEVEL: NOVICE TO ADVANCED
Situated at the northwestern tip of George Dog, Bronco Billy offers a meandering course of coral ridges and corresponding canyons. Two coral archways lead into the canyons. Follow the canyons and the bottom topography around the tip of George Dog into a large steep-walled box canyon and boulder field. Swing a little wider around the tip of the island on your return trip, and you should find the other coral canyon that will lead you back to the second archway. Large pillar coral formations grace the site, but the highlight is the arches. When lit with a diver's flashlight or a photographer's strobe the colors just explode. The brilliant reds of the encrusting sponges and the oranges of the cup corals, combining with the lavender of other sponges and the lacy frill of hydroids, makes for a Technicolor extravaganza. However, without a light or strobe there is nothing there but shadow and muted colors.

BROWN PANTS
DEPTH: 10-40 FEET (3-12 M)
LEVEL: ADVANCED
The south shore of Norman Island is compelling in its primitive beauty: rugged cliffs descend into the breaking surf, long tortured fingers of rock reach out just beneath the surface of the sea, and nowhere can the hand of man been seen. It's a world away from the yachting lifestyle found on the other side of the island. Many years ago, when Annie and Duncan Muirhead were running Misty Law, the first live-aboard in the BVI, they were exploring this point as a possible dive site. Several large bull sharks rounded a corner and chased them back to their boat, and the site was named.

The point rises abruptly from the flat, almost barren sea floor. The water is usually clear here. When you first descend, look out into the blue for turtles and eagle rays. Then move up shallower, toward the underwater cliffs. Small gangs of curious barracuda loiter outside the rocks. The dive consists of exploring the numerous canyons and grottos that are defined by the network of ridges extending from shore. There is a large open cave in one of the canyons. A dive light will reveal all the glorious brilliant colors of the encrusting sponges that grow in the shadows. Seen here:
large whitespotted filefish, Black durgon, schools of palmetto, queen angelfish, turtles, eagle rays, barracuda

CARROT SHOAL
DEPTH: 15-60 FEET (5-21
M) LEVEL: INTERMEDIATE
Carrot Shoal, off the southwest tip of Peter Island, is another open water site with all the adventure, superior visibility and big fish encounters this promises. Carrot Shoal is shaped like a railroad train parked on an underwater platform. The platform rises abruptly from a 60 to 70-foot bottom and levels off at 40 feet; then the shoal itself rises straight up to scratch at the surface. It's quite narrow and extends for several hundred feet. It is cut through in several places, which gives it the appearance of separate railway cars. Spend the time to fully investigate the abundance of creatures living under the ledge on the edge of the platform: large green moray eels, tiny fairy basslets and reclusive lobsters. Toward the far end of the formation a large overhang rears up. Beneath it look for the uncommon longsnout butterflyfish, as well as colorful Spanish and spotted lobsters. Past the end of the "train" there is a lovely low archway worthy of the side trip.

Contact

1. Corporate Mailing: Laura Lewis, PO Box 798, Winter Park, CO 80482
2. Phone: 907-726-2844 OR 970-281-2022
3. Fax: 877-581-2536
4. E-mail: seachateau@aol.com

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