Diving

1 Thursday afternoon I did the classroom work for an advanced Nitrox course with Dive BVI. Friday morning were my first dives breathing Nitrox, followed by 3 more days of diving. Some of the dives were centered around the small islands along the Sir Francis Drake Channel: Salt, Cooper, and Ginger Islands. Other divesites were around the "Dogs", small islands just off the northwest coast of Virgin Gorda.	2 Friday's second dive was at Alice's Backdoor off of Ginger Island. It is a relatively shallow site, with maximum depth of 50-60 feet.
3 Blue Chromis schooling around a coral head	4 A closer view of the Blue Chromis. Because I did not have the flash properly syncing with the camera yet, I tried to take as many pictures as possible using available light at the shallow depths.
5 A Porcupinefish swims by, a member of the puffer family	6 A school of Blue Tangs over the reef
7 This huge Caribbean Spiny Lobster was hiding in its hole	8 Sunday's second dive was at Coral Gardens, off of Great Dog Island. The site contains lots of coral heads and the remains of a plane fuselage. The plane wrecked at the end of the Tortola runway, was sunk intentionally, and used at one point as a movie prop. Here is a giant feather duster worm on the fuselage.
9 We spotted a turtle swimming past scattered pieces of the plane wreck.	10 Little juveniles hover close to the reef for protection
11 Near the edge of the reef, a Sand Diver swims by. They are a member of the Lizardfish family.	12 The Sand Diver usually likes to bury itself in the sand with only its head showing, but this one was content to rest and pose for the photo.
13 A Blue Tang	14 A Trumpetfish disguising itself by hanging vertically among a gorgonian
15 A Smooth Trunkfish	16
17 Encrustations on the rigging. I was using my new Olympus SP-350 with Nikonos SB-105 flash. However, it would still take me another day or two to get the flash triggering correctly in slave mode.	18 I have no idea what these were doing by the wrecks. My guess is that someone thought they would make a nice addition to the scenery.
19 Friday morning's first dive was the wrecks of the Marie L and the Pat. The Marie L was a drug running boat and the Pat was a tugboat. They were sunk side by side just west of Cooper Island.	20
21 Grunts and snapper inside the wheelhouse	22 I was pretty much diving alone with Steve, the divemaster. Just cruising the reef near the mooring line to use up our remaining air before surfacing.
23 Tuesday was my last day of diving, both dives on the wreck of the RMS Rhone off of Salt Island. The story of the wreck is very tragic, but it makes for some dramatic diving. Here are some Snapper and Grunts hanging out under a coral outcropping.	24 I spotted this Red Hind swimming across the wreck. A member of the Sea Bass family, it is also goes by the common name of Strawberry Grouper.
25 The wreck is surrounded by schools of Snapper and Grunts	26 Blue Striped Grunts are distinguished from the French Grunts by their dark tail and dorsal fin with yellow edging
27 This is the drive shaft of the Rhone, you can see that the hull split wide open like it was fileted	28 Every diver is supposed to rub "lucky porthole #26" for good luck. This is supposedly the porthole of the only passenger that survived the wreck.
29 The driveshaft terminates at this gearbox	30 By Sunday, I finally got the flash slaved correctly to the camera. The first dive was at The Visibles, named because of the pinnacles that crest the surface of the waters just off of Cockroach Island. A school of grunts, called Tomtates, swims by.
31 Towards the end of the dive, looking out at a sandy patch beyond the reef we spot a Southern stingray resting partially buried in the sand	32 With all of the attention from us, the stingray decides to take off
33 Trailing the sand it was buried in, the stingray heads off to look for a new resting spot	34 A Spiny Caribbean Lobster advances out of its hole
35 This is actually an animal, a Feather Duster Worm	36 Still struggling with getting the flash to sync properly with the camera, I decided to switch to available light for most of the photos on this dive. Yet more Blue Tangs, which are a member of the Surgeonfish family.
37 French Grunts in yellow, and Snapper	38 Friday started off with diving Wall to Wall, a site off the southwest corner of West Dog island. You can see the Foureye Butterflyfish in the center with its distinctive black spot. A couple of Blue Tangs and lots of blennies populate the reef.
39 Blennies congregating around one of the many coral heads	40 Wall to Wall is like a vast underwater garden, home to the Blue Chromis and blennies that you see here.