[RTRski]

DIVE SITE BRIEF NOTES - PROBABLY REQUIRE SOME EDITING/CORRECTIONS

La Bym (The Abyss in creole). Wall dive, formation nearly vertical with only a little rounding at the top. Almost completely volcanic, the path from the mooring point follows one of a very few visible sand channels that falls down the wall. We did this site twice, heading left one day and right the other, and liked it a lot both times. Chromis and all sorts of juveniles hugged the corner of the wall, frogfish, gorgonians and the like spraying off the wall, sponges everywhere, turtles both near and swimming by much deeper, several spotted morays sighted and pictured. Sheltered in the curve of the shoreline and not too far down to the southmost tip, this dive had great visibility but could be darkish in the morning.

Soufriere Pinnacles: pinnacle formation with a bit of coral rubble near the top, but becomes very wall-like off the edges. A little bit of 'mustard water' occasionally mixes in here from one of the vent areas along the shoreline. (unless I'm mixing up this site with another...I'm pretty sure that was here). Vis was still good. This is where we saw a yellow spotted snake eel, more turtles.

Dangleben's pinnacles: really dramatic pinnacle formation with lots of bright colorful growth - you'll see pics in my gallery from here of me and Izzy dueling with cameras on either side of a neat bend in the 'wall'. Eels, turtles, etc here too. There's also a site Dangleben's north that we did not get to.

Carib's Leap. So named because of the mountain and cliff above, where according to local lore Carib aboriginal wives who strayed were given their last kiss before being 'divorced'. I think this was reported as part of the same formation as La Bym, just further in where it drops into another hole nearer shore. Come to think of it this might be where you could see the water staining from the vents? Sorry, it's all starting to blend together now...

Point Gunard (or Gunard Point). Named for the famed Flying Gunard which can still be sited here although they were hunted down quite a bit. More of sandy patches with scattered reef formations and a shallower slope as I remember it, although like all sites around the island deep water is never far away.

Scott's Head Drop-off or Wall or Outer (DM naming varies). Outside the point, so more dependent on wind and current conditions as a dive site; this is the outer edge of the Scott's Head bay formation. Nice drop, fair amount of rubble in the shallows, sand on top of the formation. This is the dive that current picked up a bit on our return. It was never too much for swimming against, fairly mild by the standards of a 'current' even compared to places like the FGNMS (definitely not near drift dive type current conditions). But enough that the sand whipped up and visibility got pretty low for the navigation back to the mooring line. DM had to double back and 'pick up' a couple stragglers on this dive who weren't playing follow the leader closely enough as the silt came up.

Swiss Cheese. This site is also on the outer edge of the marine park, way to the south, and so somewhat more limited access. But it was probably the most fabulous on the island in terms of coral coverage, gorgonians hanging off the wall in solid sheets, and had a couple of swimthrus. This is where we saw a couple of southern stings as well as more turtles.

Scott's Head Bay. As the name implies this is the dive site inside the bay, so it's very sheltered and calm with probably the best visibility we had the entire trip. Being a wide shallow(ish) bowl you just lazily head down to your target depth (as a second dive, usually in the 60s) and toodle along masses of reef with some sand channels and spurs until you turn back, make your way back toward the shallower part and then parallel that back to the mooring. I saw billions of harlequin bass here which until now hadn't been very forthcoming about being photographed - and of course had no camera with me this dive. This was our finisher on our last dive day, a nice 66-minutes of just relaxing and sightseeing in the sun. Puffers were also relatively prevelant here.

Coral Gardens. Used as a 2nd dive site as its a little shallower and less steep than the wall or pinnacle sites. This was the fishiest dive site we saw, complete with a couple very large schools of jacks passing thru like silver rivers. I think I got the most 'keeper' photos from this dive with Swiss Cheese as a close second - something about the lighting, the reef and sea life, and my strobe aiming just came together for this dive. Eels, schools of chromis and jacks, damselfish, the ubiquitous squirrelfish, lobsters, all the usual suspects and lots of pleasing sponge and coral cover. Vis was a little lower here perhaps (50s vs. 60s), but a sunny day and the sites own merits won out.

Champagne (Reef). This is the dive site where the 'champagne bubble' effect of volcanic gases can be found in the dive. Further in toward shore there's a shallower reef section good for snorkeling as well as a volcanically warmed area great as a shoreline hot-tub. The mooring point is in a sandy area in around 30 feet depth (turn away from shore where it slopes off to 35-40 feet or so and there are all sorts of garden eels again) and you head toward some scattered reef clumps which are just thronging with puffers (most populous I've ever seen in any one dive, both in terms of absolute number and relative number vs. other fish), to where it comes together into a more continuous reef formation where we spotted some really large lobsters and a green moray in an overhanging corner like area. I kind of lost my 'navigation sense' on this dive but somehow you end up where the vents are which are mostly just bubbles like the nucleation sites in a glass of beer or champagne, but one or two larger (almost fist sized, but don't test it if you don't want to try out a nice shiny new prosthesis) vents visibly emit really really hot water. There's also from the briefing a wreck on this site, mostly broken down with just a couple cannon visible, but this was one of the dives with that 'big group' so my wife and I hung back with one of the DM's and kind of made our own slower way since the DM and I were both lensmen. Vis here started at probably 45 over the sand until the masses passed and churned it down to about 30', but it settled back out as we let them get ahead. In the bubble region it was probably high-40s to low 50s again.