Scuba diving in USVI

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• Publié par: brucemarc1
• Publié le: 07 juillet 2017
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scuba diving in usvi U.S. Virgin Islands: St. Croix Remembrances of your first love might leave you, in turn, giddy, sappy and sentimental - this mix of emotions perfectly sums up my feelings for St. Croix after a visit more than a decade ago. And now that I'm back, I'm all choked up. "You've dived here before?" Rick Meyers, my observant dive chaperone with Cane Bay Dive Shop, half-asks while I suit up. I spill my long-cherished St. C memories. After hundreds of dives elsewhere, returning to the USVI feels like an old lover's warm embrace. http://www.stthomasscubadiving.com/ Mention St. Croix to any diver, and talk immediately turns to the wall. Born from a tectonic plate separate from the other Virgin Islands, St. Croix is a mountain poking from the depths. After a series of vertical shelves, the north shore slopes to 2,500 feet a meager 200 yards offshore, and eventually plummets to 13,500 feet. The underwater topography triggers upwellings that supercharge marine life with a nutrient-rich buffet. St. Croix's dramatic diving complements the island's wild-child demeanor. As the largest of the USVI triplets, it's the most undeveloped and has largely turned its back on armadas of cruise ships. Dreadlocked Rastas are plentiful, and one of the island's signature attractions is the Mt. Pellier Domino Club's 650-pound beer-swilling pigs, albeit nonalcoholic brew. Turn seaward and divers get bug-eyed at the encircling 50-mile fringing coral reefs, with at least as many named dive sites. Rekindling my love affair here keeps me busy. From the island's main town of Christiansted, I hook up with St. Croix Ultimate Bluewater Adventures for dives along Long Reef, a 3-mile barrier reef section outside the town harbor. With divemaster Mark Fuller, we leap into Scotch Banks, named after a colonial Danish ship's attempt to increase its draft and avoid the shallow reef by jettisoning its cargo of hooch. This underwater mountain soothes with a gentle drift that shuttles us over elephant ear sponges, and pillar and brain corals, to limestone ledges that drop into a wall descending 1,000 feet. I'm eager to glimpse manta rays that occasionally do flybys here, but in their absence I'm still ecstatic with the reef sharks, barracuda and one wide-eyed pufferfish the size of a microwave. Three more days and I'm privy to other magnificent St. Croix sites barely 10 minutes from the dock. Turquoise Bay comes up big with two loggerhead turtles and eagle rays, plus the sensation of gliding over a backlit jewelry box glittering with a rainbow coalition of sponges, corals, wrasses, and parrotfish. At Eagle Ray, just outside the harbor entrance, I descend to 85 feet and spy the site's burly namesake southern rays and an affable 6-foot green moray. It's a dive-eat-sleep rhythm that could make any recreational diver abandon his 9-to-5 routine to go pro. When I pack my bags for my next USVI stop, I realize that everything on St. C reminds me why I began diving in the first place. Divers Guide to St. Croix

http://www.stthomasscubadiving.com/ Average water temp: 79 degrees F winter / 83 degrees F summer What to wear: 3mm wetsuit or shorty Average viz: 60 to 120 feet When to go: year-round, with chance of hurricanes from July through October DON'T-MISS DIVES Salt River Canyon East and West Wall The East Wall begins at 40 feet and drops like a 5,000-foot elevator shaf. Across the submarine channel, the West Wall gets vertical from 20 to 90 feet and sprouts fshy narrow passages. Cane Bay Wall This famed north shore dive begins over sandy fats and slopes to the drop-off, craggy with corals until the bottom drops into the 13,500-foot Virgin Islands Trough. Watch for hammerheads and reef sharks. Frederiksted Pier Your ticket to night-diving bliss lies 40 feet beneath this aging pier, a macro dive renowned for spectacular corals and sponges, plus a cast of characters like frogfish, batfsh, seahorses, spotted eels and lobsters.

DIVE OPERATORS Cane Bay Dive Shop / canebayscuba.com N2theBlue Scuba Diving / n2theblue.com St. Croix Ultimate Bluewater Adventures / stcroixscuba.com U.S. Virgin Islands: St. John If I had any regrets about leaving St. Croix, St. John lovingly consoles me. The ferry from St. Thomas arrives in Cruz Bay, endearingly dubbed "Love City," not just for its heart-shaped bay but also for the island's warm, welcoming attitude. In the mood for mellow? Try this: St. John - "The Park Island" - has protected nearly half of its 20 square miles, plus 12,708 underwater acres of federal sub- merged land that make up Virgin Islands Coral Reef National Monument. Divers drool for its north-shore sites like Carval Rock and other rocky outcroppings and cays, replete with canyons, pinnacles and coral-encrusted rock formations teeming with Spanish mackerel and tarpon. My ticket to St. J's diving begins and ends with Low Key Watersports in Cruz Bay, where I wade to the dive boat, board with a handful of newbie divers, and meet my divemaster, Sarah McCutcheon. "I've been here only one month, and I'm still learning about all the sites," she tells me. I quiz her about the better dives, and she provides me the perfect answer. "I think that applies to everything here."

Mingo and Grass cays are our first stops, a duo among several cays with vast fringing reefs in the protected waters of Pillsbury Sound. We drop in 55 feet on the south shore of Grass Cay, and I feel like I've invaded someone's aquarium. The 100-foot-viz water explodes with reef fish, swaying lavender sea fans and purple tube sponges, hefty barrel sponges, and on and on. Predictably, perhaps, reef sharks make a showing. An hour later at Mingo, we enjoy a repeat of the same idealized Caribbean marine show, only this time a hawksbill turtle makes a courtesy showing. I'm not averse to celebratory happy-hour cocktails after diving, but St. John nudges my sober side, and I spend afternoons wandering some of the park's 22 unique nature trails. In 1976, UNESCO designated the area a Biosphere Reserve, paving the way for long-term preservation status. Among the benefactors is the Cinnamon Bay Trail, where I walk beneath a canopy of guavaberry and mango trees, and the marvelously aromatic bay rum tree, whose leaves are used in fragrances and flavored rums. After perusing the ruins of the Cinnamon Bay Estate, where settlers processed sugar cane, the trail deposits me at its namesake Cinnamon Bay. The paper- white crescent sand beach lapped by water that's every shade of blue is as perfect as they come- a scene I want to stash in a bottle and keep forever. A couple more days and I'm smitten by the island's marquee dives, like Lind Point, Ledges of Little St. James, Cow and Calf, and my favorite, Carval Rock. Carval reminds of me of a giant ring- toss game, with a core jutting from the surface and surrounded by a coral valley base. Like paratroopers, we hit the water on the sheltered south side and immediately kick hard into current to thread through a cut leading to the north side. We swim fast over a ridge formation, then drop 80 feet to the coral and a reverse archway. All our work is rewarded when one of the divers in our group becomes enveloped by thousands of silversides corralled by a nearby school of huge tarpon, which take turns strafing the baitball like silvery incoming missiles. Whoever coined St. John's mellow reputation hasn't dived here. Divers Guide to St. John Average water temp: 80 degrees F winter / 82 degrees F summer What to wear: 3mm wetsuit or shorty Average viz: 60 to 100 feet When to go: year-round, with chance of hurricanes from July through October DON'T-MISS DIVES Carval Rock This legendary rocky upthrust has divers going in circles. You'll muscle through a stiff current to navigate a shallow cut leading to a sheer 80-foot north wall, where platoons of tarpon hit baitballs. Watch for nurse sharks and octopuses. Cow and Calf Rocks The sister rocks barely jutting above the surface are a labyrinth of swim-throughs and caves that

max out at 45 feet. Fin into Cow Rock's "Champagne Cork," a narrow opening where the surge sucks in and spits out divers like a cork. Ledges of Little St. James This funhouse of coral ridges, alcoves and ledges (also accessible from St. Thomas) runs at two depths, 45 (out) and 25 (back) feet. Fin out and see angelfish, parrotfish and the occasional eagle ray snoozing on sand fats. http://www.stthomasscubadiving.com/ DIVE OPERATORS Low Key Watersports: divelowkey.com U.S. Virgin Islands: St. Thomas The last stop - the first, for most - in my USVI trifecta is St. Thomas, a quintessentially Caribbean cruise-ship port where pricey duty-free jewelry stores outnumber kitschy T-shirt shops 10-to-1. I'm struck by cosmopolitan Charlotte Amalie's emerald-green hills, dotted by red-tiled roofs, all spilling down into a stunning azure harbor. The mile-long shopping district buzzes with gleeful cruise-ship day-trippers, and there's no shortage of open-air bars filled to the brim with revelers. It's not for me to say St. T is being loved to death. Because, really, I can't say I blame them. http://www.stthomasscubadiving.com/ I soon make a beeline for Bolongo Bay, a picture-perfect slice of Caribbean where my digs and St. Thomas Diving Club await. It's worth knowing that the Club comes with some dive history; namely, that Andre Webber founded the shop years ago and was instrumental in putting diving on the USVI map. Since his passing last year, his widow, Pam Balash, has run the shop. Of its siblings, St. Thomas has the monopoly on wrecks, and WIT Shoal II is a favorite. The 327- foot freighter sits at 90 feet with expansive, easy-to-explore passages and plenty of resident marine critters, including one 600-pound goliath grouper. Another is the USS John F. Kennedy, just outside the city harbor, that lies at 65 feet and is home to large southern stingrays. But on this day, it's captain's choice - captain being Club divemaster David Tracy, a gregarious Oklahoma transplant who seems like your best friend in minutes. "Enough talkie, talkie; let's do some divie, divie," he says as we giant-stride off the boat. We drop in 35 feet at Wye Reef, a hangout for massive schools of Bermuda chub that make me dizzy as they thread around us. We explore a multitude of grottoes, swim-throughs and caves that amount to a virtual Hobbit's shire, inhabited by spotted drum, spotted morays, angelfish of all stripes, and a snoozing nurse shark. We fin 75 yards to what's left of the Cartanzar Sr., a derelict freighter- turned-drug boat thrashed by Hurricane Hugo and broken into three main pieces. Countless wrasses, gobies, grunts, squirrelfish, and yellow snapper have taken up residence in the wreck's cracks and compartments. Tracy tugs my fin, and as I pivot, I see the gauzy form of a sizable shark (lemon, blacktip ... tiger?) in the distance. http://www.stthomasscubadiving.com/ Like St. John, St. Thomas sits on a subsea plateau that makes for relatively shallow reef dives,

and I'm loving the long bottom times with four dives per day. Armando's Paradise is hands-down the fishiest of my USVI dives - not surprising since it's named after renowned photographer Armando Jenik, who used this site as his go-to for images of an A-to-Z list of species. Following Tracy's lead, we cruise scenic passageways, explore shallow caves and enjoy the company of surly sergeant majors pecking our masks. Another dive at Packet Rock, and I'm fanning away sand at 50 feet to find pottery shards and clay smoking pipes from the HMS Warwick that sank here in 1816 - just 2 miles from shore and after a 2,000-mile journey from England. http://www.stthomasscubadiving.com/ Back at Iggies Beach Bar at Bolongo Bay, I buy a couple of rounds for Tracy and other St. Thomas Diving Club staff. Tongues gradually loosen; people talk. Most all hail from stateside, and each has his own stories about the USVI - favorite islands, favorite dives. But what connects everybody is a sense of community and appreciation that diving is their job, and that, technically, we're still in the U.S. "Think about it," says Tracy. "We're diving the Caribbean, the ocean's 84 degrees, rum is cheap, and we're still in the States. How cool is that?" And, once again, my long- standing love affair with the USVI is confirmed. Divers Guide to St. Thomas dive st thomas Average water temp: 80 degrees F winter / 82 degrees F summer What to wear: 3mm wetsuit or shorty Average viz: 60 to 100 feet When to go: year-round, with chance of hurricanes from July through October DON'T-MISS DIVES WIT Shoal II The islands' most notable wreck, this 327-foot freighter is on its keel at 90 feet with its pilothouse at 30 feet. Five decks offer plenty to explore, but the poop deck is the standout with its bounty of orange cup corals and numerous sponges. Armando's Paradise This site, named after the celebrated underwater photographer, hosts a who's who of Caribbean critters. Swim-throughs, forests of sponges, coral-encrusted outcroppings and passageways make this 50-foot dive one of the islands' most scenic. http://www.stthomasscubadiving.com/ French Cap Cay Rock pinnacles spiral upward from 80 feet at this small mountain piercing the surface 6 miles south of St. Thomas. As crashing waves create a foamy surface halo, divers below can spot trumpetfish, angelfish and spotted eagle rays. DIVE OPERATORS St. Thomas Diving Club / stthomasdivingclub.com Special thanks to: USVI Tourism, Cane Bay Dive Shop, St. Croix Ultimate Bluewater Adventures, N2theBlue Scuba Diving, Low Key Watersports and St. Thomas Diving Club.

Looking for more information on the USVI? Check out these other great articles: • 10 Reasons to Travel to the USVIU.S. Virgin Islands: St. Croix Remembrances of your first love might leave you, in turn, giddy, sappy and sentimental - this mix of emotions perfectly sums up my feelings for St. Croix after a visit more than a decade ago. And now that I'm back, I'm all choked up. "You've dived here before?" Rick Meyers, my observant dive chaperone with Cane Bay Dive Shop, half-asks while I suit up. I spill my long-cherished St. C memories. After hundreds of dives elsewhere, returning to the USVI feels like an old lover's warm embrace. http://www.stthomasscubadiving.com/ Mention St. Croix to any diver, and talk immediately turns to the wall. Born from a tectonic plate separate from the other Virgin Islands, St. Croix is a mountain poking from the depths. After a series of vertical shelves, the north shore slopes to 2,500 feet a meager 200 yards offshore, and eventually plummets to 13,500 feet. The underwater topography triggers upwellings that supercharge marine life with a nutrient-rich buffet. St. Croix's dramatic diving complements the island's wild-child demeanor. As the largest of the USVI triplets, it's the most undeveloped and has largely turned its back on armadas of cruise ships. Dreadlocked Rastas are plentiful, and one of the island's signature attractions is the Mt. Pellier Domino Club's 650-pound beer-swilling pigs, albeit nonalcoholic brew. Turn seaward and divers get bug-eyed at the encircling 50-mile fringing coral reefs, with at least as many named dive sites. Rekindling my love affair here keeps me busy. From the island's main town of Christiansted, I hook up with St. Croix Ultimate Bluewater Adventures for dives along Long Reef, a 3-mile barrier reef section outside the town harbor. With divemaster Mark Fuller, we leap into Scotch Banks, named after a colonial Danish ship's attempt to increase its draft and avoid the shallow reef by jettisoning its cargo of hooch. This underwater mountain soothes with a gentle drift that shuttles us over elephant ear sponges, and pillar and brain corals, to limestone ledges that drop into a wall descending 1,000 feet. I'm eager to glimpse manta rays that occasionally do flybys here, but in their absence I'm still ecstatic with the reef sharks, barracuda and one wide-eyed pufferfish the size of a microwave. Three more days and I'm privy to other magnificent St. Croix sites barely 10 minutes from the dock. Turquoise Bay comes up big with two loggerhead turtles and eagle rays, plus the sensation of gliding over a backlit jewelry box glittering with a rainbow coalition of sponges, corals, wrasses, and parrotfish. At Eagle Ray, just outside the harbor entrance, I descend to 85 feet and spy the site's burly namesake southern rays and an affable 6-foot green moray. It's a dive-eat-sleep rhythm that could make any recreational diver abandon his 9-to-5 routine to go pro. When I pack my bags for my next USVI stop, I realize that everything on St. C reminds me why I began diving in the first place.

Divers Guide to St. Croix http://www.stthomasscubadiving.com/ Average water temp: 79 degrees F winter / 83 degrees F summer What to wear: 3mm wetsuit or shorty Average viz: 60 to 120 feet When to go: year-round, with chance of hurricanes from July through October DON'T-MISS DIVES Salt River Canyon East and West Wall The East Wall begins at 40 feet and drops like a 5,000-foot elevator shaf. Across the submarine channel, the West Wall gets vertical from 20 to 90 feet and sprouts fshy narrow passages. Cane Bay Wall This famed north shore dive begins over sandy fats and slopes to the drop-off, craggy with corals until the bottom drops into the 13,500-foot Virgin Islands Trough. Watch for hammerheads and reef sharks. Frederiksted Pier Your ticket to night-diving bliss lies 40 feet beneath this aging pier, a macro dive renowned for spectacular corals and sponges, plus a cast of characters like frogfish, batfsh, seahorses, spotted eels and lobsters. DIVE OPERATORS Cane Bay Dive Shop / canebayscuba.com N2theBlue Scuba Diving / n2theblue.com St. Croix Ultimate Bluewater Adventures / stcroixscuba.com U.S. Virgin Islands: St. John If I had any regrets about leaving St. Croix, St. John lovingly consoles me. The ferry from St. Thomas arrives in Cruz Bay, endearingly dubbed "Love City," not just for its heart-shaped bay but also for the island's warm, welcoming attitude. In the mood for mellow? Try this: St. John - "The Park Island" - has protected nearly half of its 20 square miles, plus 12,708 underwater acres of federal sub- merged land that make up Virgin Islands Coral Reef National Monument. Divers drool for its north-shore sites like Carval Rock and other rocky outcroppings and cays, replete with canyons, pinnacles and coral-encrusted rock formations teeming with Spanish mackerel and tarpon. My ticket to St. J's diving begins and ends with Low Key Watersports in Cruz Bay, where I wade to the dive boat, board with a handful of newbie divers, and meet my divemaster, Sarah McCutcheon. "I've been here only one month, and I'm still learning about all the sites," she tells me. I quiz her about the better dives, and she provides me the perfect answer. "I think that applies to everything here."

Mingo and Grass cays are our first stops, a duo among several cays with vast fringing reefs in the protected waters of Pillsbury Sound. We drop in 55 feet on the south shore of Grass Cay, and I feel like I've invaded someone's aquarium. The 100-foot-viz water explodes with reef fish, swaying lavender sea fans and purple tube sponges, hefty barrel sponges, and on and on. Predictably, perhaps, reef sharks make a showing. An hour later at Mingo, we enjoy a repeat of the same idealized Caribbean marine show, only this time a hawksbill turtle makes a courtesy showing. I'm not averse to celebratory happy-hour cocktails after diving, but St. John nudges my sober side, and I spend afternoons wandering some of the park's 22 unique nature trails. In 1976, UNESCO designated the area a Biosphere Reserve, paving the way for long-term preservation status. Among the benefactors is the Cinnamon Bay Trail, where I walk beneath a canopy of guavaberry and mango trees, and the marvelously aromatic bay rum tree, whose leaves are used in fragrances and flavored rums. After perusing the ruins of the Cinnamon Bay Estate, where settlers processed sugar cane, the trail deposits me at its namesake Cinnamon Bay. The paper- white crescent sand beach lapped by water that's every shade of blue is as perfect as they come- a scene I want to stash in a bottle and keep forever. A couple more days and I'm smitten by the island's marquee dives, like Lind Point, Ledges of Little St. James, Cow and Calf, and my favorite, Carval Rock. Carval reminds of me of a giant ring- toss game, with a core jutting from the surface and surrounded by a coral valley base. Like paratroopers, we hit the water on the sheltered south side and immediately kick hard into current to thread through a cut leading to the north side. We swim fast over a ridge formation, then drop 80 feet to the coral and a reverse archway. All our work is rewarded when one of the divers in our group becomes enveloped by thousands of silversides corralled by a nearby school of huge tarpon, which take turns strafing the baitball like silvery incoming missiles. Whoever coined St. John's mellow reputation hasn't dived here. Divers Guide to St. John Average water temp: 80 degrees F winter / 82 degrees F summer What to wear: 3mm wetsuit or shorty Average viz: 60 to 100 feet When to go: year-round, with chance of hurricanes from July through October DON'T-MISS DIVES Carval Rock This legendary rocky upthrust has divers going in circles. You'll muscle through a stiff current to navigate a shallow cut leading to a sheer 80-foot north wall, where platoons of tarpon hit baitballs. Watch for nurse sharks and octopuses. Cow and Calf Rocks

The sister rocks barely jutting above the surface are a labyrinth of swim-throughs and caves that max out at 45 feet. Fin into Cow Rock's "Champagne Cork," a narrow opening where the surge sucks in and spits out divers like a cork. Ledges of Little St. James This funhouse of coral ridges, alcoves and ledges (also accessible from St. Thomas) runs at two depths, 45 (out) and 25 (back) feet. Fin out and see angelfish, parrotfish and the occasional eagle ray snoozing on sand fats. http://www.stthomasscubadiving.com/ DIVE OPERATORS Low Key Watersports: divelowkey.com U.S. Virgin Islands: St. Thomas The last stop - the first, for most - in my USVI trifecta is St. Thomas, a quintessentially Caribbean cruise-ship port where pricey duty-free jewelry stores outnumber kitschy T-shirt shops 10-to-1. I'm struck by cosmopolitan Charlotte Amalie's emerald-green hills, dotted by red-tiled roofs, all spilling down into a stunning azure harbor. The mile-long shopping district buzzes with gleeful cruise-ship day-trippers, and there's no shortage of open-air bars filled to the brim with revelers. It's not for me to say St. T is being loved to death. Because, really, I can't say I blame them. http://www.stthomasscubadiving.com/ I soon make a beeline for Bolongo Bay, a picture-perfect slice of Caribbean where my digs and St. Thomas Diving Club await. It's worth knowing that the Club comes with some dive history; namely, that Andre Webber founded the shop years ago and was instrumental in putting diving on the USVI map. Since his passing last year, his widow, Pam Balash, has run the shop. Of its siblings, St. Thomas has the monopoly on wrecks, and WIT Shoal II is a favorite. The 327- foot freighter sits at 90 feet with expansive, easy-to-explore passages and plenty of resident marine critters, including one 600-pound goliath grouper. Another is the USS John F. Kennedy, just outside the city harbor, that lies at 65 feet and is home to large southern stingrays. But on this day, it's captain's choice - captain being Club divemaster David Tracy, a gregarious Oklahoma transplant who seems like your best friend in minutes. "Enough talkie, talkie; let's do some divie, divie," he says as we giant-stride off the boat. We drop in 35 feet at Wye Reef, a hangout for massive schools of Bermuda chub that make me dizzy as they thread around us. We explore a multitude of grottoes, swim-throughs and caves that amount to a virtual Hobbit's shire, inhabited by spotted drum, spotted morays, angelfish of all stripes, and a snoozing nurse shark. We fin 75 yards to what's left of the Cartanzar Sr., a derelict freighter- turned-drug boat thrashed by Hurricane Hugo and broken into three main pieces. Countless wrasses, gobies, grunts, squirrelfish, and yellow snapper have taken up residence in the wreck's cracks and compartments. Tracy tugs my fin, and as I pivot, I see the gauzy form of a sizable shark (lemon, blacktip ... tiger?) in the distance. http://www.stthomasscubadiving.com/

Like St. John, St. Thomas sits on a subsea plateau that makes for relatively shallow reef dives, and I'm loving the long bottom times with four dives per day. Armando's Paradise is hands-down the fishiest of my USVI dives - not surprising since it's named after renowned photographer Armando Jenik, who used this site as his go-to for images of an A-to-Z list of species. Following Tracy's lead, we cruise scenic passageways, explore shallow caves and enjoy the company of surly sergeant majors pecking our masks. Another dive at Packet Rock, and I'm fanning away sand at 50 feet to find pottery shards and clay smoking pipes from the HMS Warwick that sank here in 1816 - just 2 miles from shore and after a 2,000-mile journey from England. http://www.stthomasscubadiving.com/ Back at Iggies Beach Bar at Bolongo Bay, I buy a couple of rounds for Tracy and other St. Thomas Diving Club staff. Tongues gradually loosen; people talk. Most all hail from stateside, and each has his own stories about the USVI - favorite islands, favorite dives. But what connects everybody is a sense of community and appreciation that diving is their job, and that, technically, we're still in the U.S. "Think about it," says Tracy. "We're diving the Caribbean, the ocean's 84 degrees, rum is cheap, and we're still in the States. How cool is that?" And, once again, my long- standing love affair with the USVI is confirmed. Divers Guide to St. Thomas dive st thomas Average water temp: 80 degrees F winter / 82 degrees F summer What to wear: 3mm wetsuit or shorty Average viz: 60 to 100 feet When to go: year-round, with chance of hurricanes from July through October DON'T-MISS DIVES WIT Shoal II The islands' most notable wreck, this 327-foot freighter is on its keel at 90 feet with its pilothouse at 30 feet. Five decks offer plenty to explore, but the poop deck is the standout with its bounty of orange cup corals and numerous sponges. Armando's Paradise This site, named after the celebrated underwater photographer, hosts a who's who of Caribbean critters. Swim-throughs, forests of sponges, coral-encrusted outcroppings and passageways make this 50-foot dive one of the islands' most scenic. http://www.stthomasscubadiving.com/ French Cap Cay Rock pinnacles spiral upward from 80 feet at this small mountain piercing the surface 6 miles south of St. Thomas. As crashing waves create a foamy surface halo, divers below can spot trumpetfish, angelfish and spotted eagle rays. DIVE OPERATORS St. Thomas Diving Club / stthomasdivingclub.com Special thanks to: USVI Tourism, Cane Bay Dive Shop, St. Croix Ultimate Bluewater Adventures,

N2theBlue Scuba Diving, Low Key Watersports and St. Thomas Diving Club. Looking for more information on the USVI? Check out these other great articles: • 10 Reasons to Travel to the USVI • Scuba Diving in the U.S. Virgin Islands http://www.stthomasscubadiving.com/ • Wreck Dives of the USVI Tags: U.S. Virgin Islands Travel Caribbean And Atlantic• Scuba Diving in the U.S. Virgin Islands http://www.stthomasscubadiving.com/ • Wreck Dives of the USVI Tags: U.S. Virgin Islands Travel Caribbean And Atlantic