Divers Down
Diving, at last
Tiny Statia, or St. Eustatius Netherland Antilles, is well known for its excellent shallow and medium depth dive sites, many of which are located on ancient pyroclastic flows that oozed out into the ocean forming humps and canyons. Helen and I had done our basic Open Water dive certification about 4 years ago in Memphis, but had never been able or willing to follow it up with “real” dives in the big ocean. I had experienced some intense ear pain on one of the checkout dives at Vortex Springs in Florida due, I think in retrospect, to having a slight head cold or some allergic sinus condition. In Statia we encountered some younger cruisers who we had previously met on Antigua. They were dive fanatics, and convinced us easily enough to get some tutelage from the folks at Golden Rock Diving. Irish divemaster Gary agreed to take us on a refresher dive in the bay where we were anchored.
The Quill, volcanic cinder cone on Statia, with the open roadstead “harbor” in the foreground.
In the late 1700’s Statia was known as the Golden Rock due to its tax free status and resultant slave trade and associated rum market. For several decades in the late 1700’s until the collapse of the sugar market, it was the busiest port in the Caribbean. There was a huge wharf complex for docking ships. All that remains now are the stone foundations, a pleasant ecosystem of fish, turtles and coral. After some coursework, which we “passed”, and having donned our gear we waddled down to the water in the nearby small shallow beach bay and practiced our skills: clearing the mask, removing and replacing the regulator, and hand signals. We swam a hundred meters or so to the 5 meter depth along the submerged quay and eased down into the crystal clear water- it was magnificent. We swam very slowly along the bottom with the rays, turtles and the odd crusty iron cannon or two. By the time our air was exhausted Helen and I had both settled down and gained that vital breathing and buoyancy control. Now all we needed was to jump back in for a proper deep dive.
The Golden Rock Dive center-basic but extremely friendly and competent.
Unfortunately, that next dive had to be delayed. During Covid times the timing of moving from one country to another has gotten very complex. If a pcr test is required there is usually a strict time limit. Departures also have to coincide with a good weather window. And the Immigration departments have curtailed their hours and access for checking out. So when Gary found out we were planning to leave on the weekend he advised us to proceed post haste to Customs as they frequently were not available on the weekends, or even Friday afternoon. Then the weather report showed increasingly unfriendly winds arriving sooner than expected. So our big dive had to be postponed and we sailed away from friendly Statia.
Helen at the bottom under the pier at Frederiksted, St. Croix.
The good news is that our new destination, St. Croix (STX), United States Virgin Islands, was renowned for the clarity of their water and quality of their diving. Gary recommended we seek out Nep2une Dive in Frederiksted on the west coast. This is a small dive shop that takes no more than 6 divers at a time on their boat. Many of the good sites are just out of the anchorage and easily accessible and calm on typical trade wind days. With spring break in full, albeit abbreviated, swing, the dive shop could not accommodate us for a few days. Our friend Dan from SV Bebe wanted to dive the cruise ship pier that juts 1500’ from the town center, so we gamely rented some gear from the shop and waddled down to the pier. Entry into the water consisted of simply stepping off the edge of the quay to water 6’ below. With a huge splash and ok signs all ‘round we then proceeded submerge and swim out between the enormous coral covered pilings under the pier. We all easily equalized our ears and sinuses and made our way along the bottom at a depth of 25’. I reached a new record of 31’-somebody call Guinness! It was a fascinating dive with lots of colorful tiny fishes swimming in and out of the vertical coral garden. It was also a huge confidence booster for us.
Brian is O-K!
A couple of days later we went out in Nep2une’s little dive boat to a couple of sites just south of the pier. The day was overcast and the bottom was stirred up by the wind and waves- not ideal conditions. Nevertheless we soldiered forth to The Aquarium. This reef was 50-90’ deep. Our dive master Paul was awesome, taking the time to keep us relaxed and comfortable. The other two divers both had hundreds of dives and were patient with taking newbies down to the bottom. Numerous technical hiccups with the gear kept us floating for awhile as Paul skillfully swapped o-rings and repaired faulty inflater valves. One of the divers had forgotten her mask. Finally we descended. It was bizarre not being able to see the bottom as we started sinking slowly down the mooring line. Helen had a bit of trouble at first getting her ears right, but persevered and eventually joined us at 50’. We then drifted down to around 60’. I couldn’t believe it-we had finally gotten down deep! What they say is true- there’s not much difference between 30’ and 60’. Despite the limited visibility we had an excellent swim and saw several new fish, including a large Filefish. I seem to use more air than anyone else, a classic big guy beginner issue, so I ascended a few minutes early. I took the opportunity to get some breathing pointers from Kay, the dive shop owner and boat captain. Slowing the exhale is the key, count 1-2-3 in, then up to 8 out. Our next dive spot was The Swirling Reef of Death, a joke name for a very mellow 30’ popular dive spot. Here Paul showed us a pretty little seahorse that had been hanging around a crevice in the reef for several months and a couple of tiny yellow jawfish making their home on the bottom. These shy little critters live in holes in the sand and emerge vertically to spit out the sand from their excavations. We also came upon a fairly large Southern Stingray. It is amazing to be right next to these glorious creatures.
I know in the grand scheme of things, and in the diving world, our small accomplishments underwater are trivial. Yet, oddly, it feels like a burden has been lifted by finally consummating the relationship we started with the sub-aqua world 4 years ago. There’s no more “Will I be able to?” or “Can I do it?”. We did it, and look forward to many more explorations under the sea.
