Tortola Diving April 2008

Beata Tug Boat


Lobster



Highhat



Burr Fish



Elkhorn Coral




Barracuda



Nurse Shark




These are some of the things we saw on this dive trip. We do not use an underwater camera so these are courtesy of another Tortola diver. The logs of the dives talks about many of the other sights we saw. Again my descriptions are for logging purpose only and as such may not be quite as informative about the dive.

Tortola Dive sites visited April 2008

Water temperature was between 78 and 80 degrees
Steve used 16 pounds of integrated weight
Linda used 13 pounds of integrated weight


Day One:
Wreck Alley

Depth: 84 feet
Length of dive: 40 minutes
This triple wreck site consists of the Marie L, a cargo boat intentionally sunk in the early 1990s, the Pat, a tugboat sunk a few years later that now lies up against the Marie L, and the Beata, sunk in 2001. While the wrecks themselves provide an interesting feature to explore, there are lots of sting rays in this area as well as large turtles. We also saw lobster and eels. There are two old toilets between the tugs which make for a few laughs underwater. Time on the wrecks is limited due to the depth. We have been to this site on other trips and it interesting to see how time is affecting this dive site. The boats are deteriorating but the fish life is increasing.

Painted Walls

Depth: 46 feet
Length of dive: 62 minutes

After a surface interval of about an hour we arrived at this site near Dead Chest Island. It was a fabulous dive that we had never done on previous trips. There are parallel passages and vertical walls running perpendicular to the island. Three prominent fingers extend out to create color splashed canyons. The unusual underwater landscape and abundance of fish make Painted Walls one of the most popular dives in the BVI. The rocky ridges are coated with orange, purple, red, green and yellow encrusting coral accented by many hard and soft corals bouquets. In the second passage there are unusual rocks which are thought to have been ballast from a ship that went down.
The northernmost valley between ridges has an arch leading into a shallow pool where Silversides often gather and a pair of silvery Tarpon wait at the swim-through. We saw a nurse shark and turtle. On the smaller side there were numerous banded shrimp and other invertebrates under the ledges along the bottom of the pool.
The pillar coral has grown from several large colonies to a dozen or so healthy patches, with one particularly large colony on the most southern ridge.



Day Two:
Shark Point

Depth: 63 FEET
Length of dive: 47 minutes
The rocky southern tip of Peter Island continues underwater as a ridge rising above a fairly nondescript bottom but the site is so named because there really are sharks there! The mooring places the boat over a shallow, fire coral-blanketed saddle on the ridge. There is a small cave just to your left as you come over the saddle. As you turn right and follow the ridge away from shore, a condo-sized rock abuts a matching-sized dog leg dent in the ridge. We saw black durgon, horse-eye jacks and two marauding barracuda. Continuing out along the base of the ridge there is a small tunnel that cuts through it and into a canyon formed by a second parallel ridge. Queen angelfish, whitespotted filefish, groupers and all the different species of butterflyfishes frequent this area.
Deeper, there is a series of mini-ridges. We spotted a large jewfish and a sizable nurse shark resting on top in a low archway here. This is an exciting place to scan the blue water horizon as you never know what may pass by; turtles, large jacks and even the odd shark have been sighted here. Working our way back to the boat along the tip of the island we saw the largest nurse shark we have ever seen resting under a large rock ledge. It gets bigger with each telling and is now up to 15 feet long.  This site is in open ocean so the visibility was exceptional. Soft corals cover the reef and ridges.


Angelfish Reef

Depth: 59 feet
Length of dive:55 minutes
On the lee side of Norman Island is a spectacular rocky maze of canyons and ridges that finger off into the sandy bottom. There are lobsters here that are so big; you'll be reluctant to get too close! On the smaller side, tiny crabs, baby eels and stealth shrimp can be found living in the many anemones. The delicate orange ball anemone can be found under protected ridges near the sandy bottom.
Many tiny critters lurk on the sandy bottom and in the grassy area. The stingrays are easy to spot, but looking closely we saw many beautiful species of shrimps, anemones, and other crustaceans. There are usually 2 sea horses in this area but we were not able to find them.
 


Day Three:
Dry Rock East

Depth: 63
Length of dive: 57 minutes
A barely breaking ridge just east of Cooper Island, Dry Rocks East juts out into the channel between Cooper and Ginger Islands, and acts as a natural focal point for piscine activity. It is an open water site with good visibility and the promise of large pelagic fish. The trade off is rougher conditions and occasionally strong currents. At the bottom of the mooring line there is a car-sized boulder and under it a large collection of highhats. Looking up the craggy rock face to the breaking surf on the surface we spotted barracuda, schools of jacks, whitespotted filefish, pufferfishes and black durgons. In the scattered rock debris on the bottom, there are various small groupers such as hinds and coneys, and parrotfishes and trunkfishes. There are a few huge boulders scattered around as if they rolled down off the ridge. Under the first one, in addition to beautiful encrusting sponges and fans, a mixed school of goatfishes and grunts resides. This is a favorite site with local dive leaders because a dive here almost always provides some of the more unusual marine life. However, the currents that bring in life can also make for a challenging dive although the currents were very manageable.





DEPTH: 57FEET
Length of dive:52 minutes


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 although we did not see any on this dive. 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 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. Very interesting and colorful dive.


Day Four:
Alice’s Wonderland
Depth:68 feet
Length of dive: 53 minutes
Just off the dramatic rocky ledges of Ginger Island is a lush garden of Star Corals and Brain Corals. Huge mushroom-shaped coral heads adorn the long fingers of reef that protrude out from the shoreline hence the name. The coral here is healthy and happy and offers shelter to many unusual inhabitants. Extremely large pufferfish were spotted here as well as a barracuda, colorful parrotfish, squirrilfish, angel fish, rock beauties and schools of snappers.
Known for its clear, blue water, visibility here often exceeds 100 feet and was probably in that range for this dive. The reef is beautiful at all depths...you'll want to wind your way up the canyons so you don't miss a thing. Check under the ridges for huge lobster and sleeping nurse sharks. The sea fans and corals were amazing here although since it is an exposed area the surface conditions made for a more difficult entry and exit from the water.


Alice’s Backside
Depth: 64 feet
Length of dive: 61minutes
Around to the North side of Ginger Island, this site is almost always flat calm, providing a restful location for surface interval and second dive after Alice's Wonderland. Again, a huge healthy coral reef runs the length of the island starting at about 15 ft under the boat and falling away to the sandy bottom at about 60 ft. This was an easy out and back dive and although it was raining on the surface for much of this dive the light underwater was good. This is an outstanding area for large healthy corals especially brain corral and mushroom corrals.