St. Thomas submarine, I have to tell someone!

Please register or login

Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.

Benefits of registering include

  • Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
  • A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
  • You can make this box go away

Joining is quick and easy. Log in or Register now!

sgmorton

Registered
Messages
7
Reaction score
0
Let me jump right in 3 couples decided to go on cruise recently and one of the stops was in St. Thomas. I decied I wanted to dive there so my wife and I got certified before we went. One other person in our group was already certified so the 3 of us booked a trip with Ble Island Divers. The other 3 in our group decided to take the Atlantis Submaine Tour.

It turns out the sub tour is run out of the shop next to the BID shop we asked if it would be possible, since we were going to be in the water at the same time and all, if we could dive near where the sub was going to be. Well after a halfd dozen emails they had arranged it to happen!

We were met at the dock next to the cruise ship by H and his crew. They were trining some new dive masters so here I was on my first "real" dive with one DM and 4 DM's in training... the 3 of us were the only rec divers on the boat. I later found out that the word had gotten around we were diving with the sub and everyone at the shop jumped at the chance to do this dive.

We got in and went down to about 70' and waited about 3 minutes when we noticed the fish activity had deciedly increased. One minute I'm looking at a yellow headed jaw fish and the next I'm looking up and the sub is there! It was huge! I was told it seats 30-40 people. We stayed back a bit for safety but we were able to be close enough(10'-15') to find our friends inside. We got pics and video(we hired a pro) they got pics and video and I have a first dive to remember! After a few minutes the sub turned around so the other side could see and then it took off.

We went on with the rest of our dive in a location called Snapper Valley. Lot's coral here and pretty good fish life too. We were told it was common to see turtles and the ocasional reef shark but we didn't see either. The sub however, saw both, I guess they scared them away. Anyway once after we got back to the ship we watched the video and I think the people in the sub were more excited to see us than we were them! Incredible!

Our second dive was at the Navy Barges site. There were 2 barges sunk by the Navy in the 60's in about 35' of water. Both were fully encrusted and had lots of life on them. Saw a bunch of Baracuda, some trumpet fish, a big beautiful Queen Angel and some Stingrays. We got to penetrate the 2nd barge where once inside I saw a basketball sized urchin... now I have no point of reference here but I was told that that is pretty big. Anyway being the a male and a new diver I sucked my air down to quick so I went up to wait with one of the DM's while the rest of the group stayed down.

All I can say is "I'm hooked now!" Now I can't wait to go on a real dive trip.

i.am.sam
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/perdix-ai/

Back
Top Bottom