2001...
the "real" millennium.......We decided we need to be somewhere fun for
that! Last year a few of us tried to put a trip together, but because of
the Y2K bug, nobody was willing to be adventurous and travel out of the
country. New Years dive trips have been something I've done for the past
three years, last year being an exception brought on by that evil Y2K. So
this was an important tradition to uphold. We started planning this trip
early, in February to be exact! We decided to that a trip on the 
Caribbean Explorer and Saba / St.Kitts was in order. Dale, my friend who I
met in Belize, had been on this boat before, and he contacted some of his
friends in Georgia and also some friends from New York City and within a
short amount of time, we had chartered the entire boat. Along with Dale,
was Rick and Don. (I met Rick and Don when I ran into Dale in the Cayman
airport two years ago! The NYC group Beth and Patrick, Ann and Ted, Jude
and Dennis, Jane and Frank, and Shep. I am also pleased to report that we
now have a friend who lives in Cayman Brac! Her name is Amy and she is a
hoot! Sherrie, Amy and I developed a whole new meaning to the word
Valium! (mainly for those who were around us for any length of time!)
Winter hit the US early this year. On December 30th, we all attempted to depart for the Eastern Caribbean. Everybody was departing from different places flights, leaving from a mix of starting locations which meant different flights and arrival times. Rick, Amy, Sherrie and I were the only ones to get out of the country without major difficulty. Dale and Don ran into problems with a broken American Airline plane. After much delay they were finally transferred to a Delta flight to San Pedro with a connection to St. Maarten, arriving six hours behind schedule and without any luggage. Their gear finally showed up on the next flight. As frustrating as their adventure had been, it paled in comparison to the travel Hell the NYC people were to endure. First their flights were canceled due to a huge winter storm that dumped tons of snow on the entire north eastern coast. The next day there were no less than four mechanical problems with one airplane. Those of us that were on the boat were able to get in four dives on Sunday. It goes without saying that Dale, Don & Rick didn't miss a dive the entire trip. They are diehard divers. We bow to them! Sherrie and I felt a need to support the local economy by doing a little sightseeing and shopping!
Dive 1:
Ladder Labyrinth --- Saba
77 feet for 42 minutes
79 degrees and 50 feet of vis
If I had to leave after this dive, my trip would have been worth it because we
got to see TWO seahorses! It was a first for me. They were
about four inches tall and hanging on a coral in open sand where we could get a
good look at them. Jennifer, our divemaster, told us to be very careful not to
spend to much time close to them because they are very fragile and stress
easily. There were six of these guys earlier in the year but four have
disappeared, very sad.
Dive 2:
Tent Wall --- Saba
62 feet for 49 minutes
80 degrees and 75 feet of vis
An big octopus and a spotted drum and a lobster condo with eight huge lobsters
were the highlights of this dive.
Dive 3:
Tent Wall --- Saba
52 feet for 48 minutes
80 degrees and 75 feet of vis
Black spotted moray, more lobsters, a huge peacock flounder, horse eye jacks,
several cleaning stations, and a sleeping shark made this a great dive.
Dive 4:
Wreck City --- Statia
68 feet for 36 minutes
Night Dive
A nice series of wrecks, kind of hard to navigate at night. Three huge hawksbill
turtles and tons of box file fish or, as Sherrie & I call them, Tammy Fay
Baker fish. (This is what Dale saw, because Sherrie and I skipped this
dive to get some zzz's)
With more than half our party still missing our planned New Years Eve dive was
changed to a "normal" night dive. Most of the crew went into
town to celebrate the millennium at a local bar. We shared a champagne
toast at midnight and watched the fireworks over the water! We had a great
time but were back on the boat at a reasonable time, well most of us were
anyway. (ahem, AMY!)
Six of the NYC group arrive in Eustatia on Monday morning the others were picked
up after a quick flight to Saba and back to Eustatia later that day. Finally we
were all on board and more than ready to dive. It was great to meet new friends,
but we had serious diving to do, and they were more than ready to get into the
water!
Dive 5:
Wreck City--- Statia
68 feet for 40 minutes
80 degrees and 75 feet of vis
Another Hawksbill, a small one this time and several Queen Trigger fish with the
addition of daylight made wreck city a really awesome dive site.
Dive 6:
Barracuda Reef--- Statia
70 feet for 30 minutes
80 degrees and 75 feet of vis
This dive site is named correctly, there must have been twenty 'cuda's hanging
around, some of them were five feet long. There were also several very cool burr
fish, yellow headed jaw fish and more of those huge lobsters. The reefs in
Statia are in incredible condition with almost no dead coral. Sherrie and
I had to ride the Dinhgy of Shame home on this dive due to surface current and
running low on air.
Dive 7:
The Ledges--- Statia
66 feet for 41 minutes
79 degrees and 75 feet of vis
More big Burr fish, they are just Too Cool. Tons of Trumpet fish of every color
and a small Nurse Shark. Huge Green Moray!
Dive 8:
The Ledges--- Statia
65 feet for 59 minutes
79 degrees and 75 feet of vis
Pretty much the same critters as the first dive with the addition of some
spotted drums. (Again, this is Dale's report, cuz Sherrie and I opted for
a shopping break!)
Dive 9:
The Ledges--- Statia
68 feet for 48 minutes
Night Dive
More lobsters, these are the biggest lobsters I've ever seen, you can see the
marine park is working well. A couple of Burr Fish and puffers and a just too
cute hermit crab. (Dale's the man! Sherrie and I were already asleep
by the time the divers returned to the boat! We were getting ready for the
next day's dives!)
After dinner there was a surprise celebration for Beth's 50th birthday, complete with gifts and a cake.
The crew moved the boat to St. Kitts during the night. It was a very easy
crossing, I never even woke up. We couldn't have asked for better weather for
this trip, once we got out of the USA of course. At 8:30 AM the sound of the
conch shell announced the first dive, this time on Twin Bowls.
Dive 10:
Twin Bowls--- St. Kitts
86 feet for 40 minutes
79 degrees and 75 feet of vis
This site was loaded with life. A small turtle greeted us almost as soon as we
entered the water. A school of Atlantic Spade fish must have swam past us three
times and a school of tangs swarmed over the reef like a teenage gang just
looking for trouble. I have no proof of this dive because I took my camera
housing down with no camcorder inside! I had been using it the previous
evening and forgot to put it in the housing! Also, Sherrie and I almost
went to the wrong boat when we started to surface! Laughed WAY too hard!
Dive 11:
Twin Bowls--- St. Kitts
57 feet for 43 minutes
79 degrees and 75 feet of vis
Pretty much the same cast a characters on the second dive. Flat worm.
Horse eye jacks, spiny puffer, small spotted eel.
Dive 12:
Corinthian--- St. Kitts
71 feet for 45 minutes
79 degrees and 50 feet of vis
The Corinthian is a great wreck dive. This wreck is covered with beautiful
feather dusters. The sand bottom next to the wreck was an endless field of
garden eels leading to a reef where we found drum fish, arrowhead crabs in more
of those feather dusters, more bristle worms than I could count, some of which
were almost eight inches long.
Dive 13:
River Taw--- St. Kitts
43 feet for 42 minutes
79 degrees and 50 feet of vis
The River Taw is another great wreck that is broken in two. This wreck is also
covered with those feather dusters. It is home to many juvenile angel fish,
arrowhead crabs and some huge porcupine puffers. Dale found an Octopus on
this wreck, but I missed it. :-(
Dive 14:
River Taw--- St. Kitts
43 feet for 69 minutes
Night Dive
Big Puffer lot of juvenile angles.
We are now heavy in diving mode and
the stories were flowing! There was a rather complex domino game going on
up on the sun deck after dinner, looked way too complicated for me. It must be a
Yankee thing!! The rest of us hung for a while in the lounge watching the video
that Dale had shot that past two days. Sherrie and I took this dive off,
so this profile, again, is Dale's.
We stayed on St. Kitts for the next five dives.
Dive 15:
Coconut Reef--- St. Kitts
65 feet for 51 minutes
79 degrees and 100 feet of vis
This was the best vis we had for the week. There was an abundance of life on
Coconut with many lobsters and puffers.
Dive 16:
Coconut Reef--- St. Kitts
73 feet for 55 minutes
79 degrees and 100 feet of vis
Same reef, same fish with a stingray and a massive school of tangs that were
being used by several trumpet fish for camouflage. (Dale's Profile!
Sherrie and I are now in full shopping mode, and we are missing this dive to
visit St. Kitts!)
Dive 17:
Paradise Reef--- St. Kitts
65 feet for 5 minutes
80 degrees and 50 feet of vis
Although the vis was quite a bit less here the reef was a great dive. More
stingrays and tangs and three old anchors.
Dive 18:
Paradise Reef--- St. Kitts
58 feet for 58 minutes
80 degrees and 50 feet of vis
We tried to find the eel again but couldn't even find the same coral head, too
bad. We did however find a black spotted eel and a golden eel. (We took
this dive off, in order to rest up for the night dive!)
Dive 19:
Paradise Reef--- St. Kitts
58 feet for 39 minutes - Night Dive
Dale saw what he thought was a small sea cucumber. It had tentacles coming out of both
ends, "Strange," he thought. As he looked closer he saw a hermit crab
coming out of the middle of the thing. "Very strange" he thought. As
he kept his light on it the tentacles retracted and the body shrunk as the hermit
crab tried to escape with this whole thing, "Too strange". After
returning to the boat he described what he saw to Jennifer. She immediately knew
what he had seen. It was a hermit crab that had moved into a sponge and two small
anemones had grown out of each end of the sponge. She said it has been around
that reef for quite a while. He was very disappointed that he couldn't get it on video,
but hopefully we got a picture at least. Sherrie and I had a great dive and we
found a moray eel on the move! I was able to get some video on
him. 
