0.00131663067 leagues

under the sea, part 1

One of the main reasons to go to St. Croix is for the diving and snorkeling, and it was great. We stayed just a few blocks away from the Frederiksted Pier, which is possibly the island’s best-known site. Situated on the West end of the island (“west is best” in that part of the Caribbean, as it is the leeward side, so calm and clear), the pier was built after the old one was demolished in 1989 by Hurricane Hugo.

We got our SCUBA certification back in 2007, and have been diving on a few vacation trips, but we hadn’t been since 2011, so we got a quick refresher before our first dive from Sean the Divemaster, who was very supportive and encouraging.

The Pier’s legs support an amazing variety of corals and other invertebrates, and there are lots and lots of different kinds of fish and critters as well. It’s an easy dive: walk there from the dive shop, jump in, swim around, get out, have a beer. It’s really shallow, essentially impossible to get lost, and yet, like almost everything on the island, we could walk in almost any time of any day and feel like we were the only people down there. 

I’ve tried a lot of the kinds of hobbies and pursuits that people quit their jobs to pursue and become an “xyz bum,” but I’ve got to say I’ve never heard the siren song as loudly as I have while underwater… 

These pictures are, at least as far as I know, 

a cute and friendly trunkfish

a frogfish (he’s the bright yellow part of the picture), who I guess is kinda rare

purple coral-things

a peacock flounder, and 

a sand diver lizardfish