Muskmelon Bay, Guana Island, BVI			N 18° 28.5', W 64° 35.0'
Dive Number 150		Buddies Martin, Terry	Surface temp warm	Starting pressure 3000psi
Depth 60ft	Visibility good	Time 43m	Water temp 26°C	Ending pressure 1500psi
Notes:	I knew that my 150th dive was set to occur sometime this week, but wasn't aware at the time that this was it. The visibility was less clear than we had become accustomed to, but still was better than I usually get to dive at home. Terry joined us making us a foursome for the remaining dives this week. Notable sightings here included a whitespotted filefish and a porcupinefish that Martin pointed out to me. The filefish is not well seen with the turbulence or my poor photography, but here it is anyway...

RMS Rhone, Salt Island, BVI			N 18° 22.1', W 64° 32.1'
Dive Number 149		Buddy Martin	Surface temp mild	Starting pressure 3000psi
Depth 72ft	Visibility excellent	Time 41m	Water temp 25°C	Ending pressure 500psi
Notes:	Two years ago, the night dive of the Rhone was made more challenging by strong currents which were attributed to effects of the full moon. This year, the moon was in it's first night of waxing, and my student knowledge of astronomy suggests to me that the effect ought to be similar. Unfortunately this meant that our third diver, a travel writer from Florida, felt uneasy and decided not to join us. Once descended, Maddy, Martin and I enjoyed seeing the coral "blooming" on the aforementioned columns, as well as a small octopus that was hanging out there. We got to experince the swimthrough again, where we also saw a large crab in the hull. The sleepy behaviour of the fish meant that I could enjoy closer approaches to the foureye butterfly (a common fish, but one of my favourites), as well as some parrotfish. When we emerged, we enjoyed Moroccan rack of lamb with ratatouille and couscous, and crème brûlée for dessert. Another great day!

RMS Rhone, Salt Island, BVI			N 18° 22.1', W 64° 32.1'
Dive Number 148		Buddy Martin	Surface temp warm	Starting pressure 3000psi
Depth 69ft	Visibility excellent	Time 52m	Water temp 26°C	Ending pressure 900psi
Notes:	Divers and snorkelers alike joined to see the stern of the Rhone wreck, and Martin and I were accompanied by our chef Tara in place of Maddy our usual divemaster (two years ago, Jason and I were joined by Kat - is there a tradition of the chef getting to dive the stern of the Rhone?) We swam around a little to find the wreck, and Tara had to endure ribbing about taking us to some of the "less visited" parts. Once there, we were rewarded with the views of the wreck itself (propellor, swimthrough, spoon, porthole) as well as a beautiful grey angel [pictured] and a group of four porcupinefish, a green moray and a large school of a fish that I now think were needlefish [I initially thought they looked like small barracuda, but there were about a hundred of them and so I looked them up in the guide on board and the fish I found said "could be mistaken for barracuda". I probably ought to have written that down instead of expecting to remember it]. Before the dive ended, Martin spied a fabulously coloured juvenile queen angel no more than 3cm long.

RMS Rhone, Salt Island, BVI			N 18° 22.1', W 64° 32.1'
Dive Number 147		Buddy Martin	Surface temp mild	Starting pressure 3000psi
Depth 73ft	Visibility excellent	Time 46m	Water temp 24°C	Ending pressure 800psi
Notes:	The RMS Rhone is considered by some to be the most amazing wreck dive in the Caribbean. Given its popularity, the Cuan Law wisely does dives of the bow by early morning and late night to avoid traffic. Since Martin and I were [as of yet] the only divers on board, this meant that when we arrived by early morning, we and Maddy were the only divers on the whole of the wreck. [I am still a little flabbergasted by this]. We enjoyed the swimthrough [pictured], which I was unable to do last time, and spent a while admiring the Roman column feel of the part of the flooring that now hosts an impressive array of coral. We also spied one of many lionfish that we'd eventually see over the week, as well as a southern ray under the tip of the bow.

Wreck Alley, Cooper Island, BVI			N 18° 22.5', W 64° 30.7'
Dive Number 146		Buddy Martin	Surface temp mild	Starting pressure 3000psi
Depth 83ft	Visibility excellent	Time 42m	Water temp 24°C	Ending pressure 1000psi
Notes:	Wreck alley contains several wrecks, and Jason and I explored around two of them last time we came here. For tonight's dive, we made two good decisions: First we dove at twilight, and were subsequently able to eat afterwards (this was such an enjoyable scheduling configuration that we continued it for the remainder of the vacation), and also I decided to leave my camera behind on night dives so I'd have more hands for working computer and lights etc. I didn't notice the garden eels this time, but saw plenty of reef fish around the well preserved steel hull of the wreck more distant from the buoy. For the first time in my dive career, my dive ended because I was running out of no deco time. We ascended along the wall, and returned to the line, before surfacing and supping on shrimp and scallops over rice, and finished with Tara's unforgettable Banoffee pie.

Thumb Rock, Cooper Island, BVI			N 18° 22.1', W 64° 30.4'
Dive Number 145		Buddy Maddy	Surface temp mild	Starting pressure 3000psi
Depth 54ft	Visibility excellent	Time 43m	Water temp 26°C	Ending pressure 1100psi
Notes:	Martin opted out of this extra afternoon dive, but I had heard great things, and was keen to get to another site I hadn't seen, so elected to join Maddy for an afternoon swim around "Thumb Rock" named for the appearance of the reef popping out from the bottom like a hitch hiker's thumb. The rock lived up to its reputation, treating us to plenty of fish, a fleeting view of a Southern ray, a turtle [pictured], and a goliath grouper measuring about a metre and a half at least!

Indian Head Rock, Pelican Island, BVI			N 18° 19.7', W 64° 37.6'
Dive Number 144		Buddy Martin	Surface temp mild	Starting pressure 3000psi
Depth 49ft	Visibility excellent	Time 51m	Water temp 24°C	Ending pressure 1200psi
Notes:	In addition to the divers, all other passengers on the boat came out for this great snorkeling site. The usual parrotfish, tang, yellowfin, and small reef fish were all in abundance, and there were also swimthrough opportunities, and a small cave, which was filled with a school of interesting looking little fish. Do you know what they were? Here's a picture of the scenery with no particular fish featured.

Santa Monica Rock, Norman Island, BVI			N 18° 18.1', W 64° 38.1'
Dive Number 143		Buddy Martin	Surface temp mild	Starting pressure 3000psi
Depth 61ft	Visibility excellent	Time 46m	Water temp 25°C	Ending pressure 1100psi
Notes:	Santa Monica Rock is one of the best diving sites we visit on the Cuan Law. I have realized that I won't be effectively able to track surface temperature this week (I look up on weather websites while at home), I'm sure no one cares about that except me. This dive, Maddy was followed around by a curious queen triggerfish. I found a bloody great lobster under a coral (although lobsters ended up being more common - even during the day - than I anticipated, and also I used the pinchy "crab" sign instead of the bullhorn on forehead "lobster" sign). There was also a honeycomb cowfish here.

Kelly's Cove, Norman Island, BVI			N 18° 19.5', W 64° 37.4'
Dive Number 142		Buddy Martin	Surface temp 22°C	Starting pressure 3000psi
Depth 44ft	Visibility excellent	Time 45m	Water temp 23°C	Ending pressure 1500psi
Notes:	Martin, Maddy and I returned to the site of our afternoon dive for a return visit by darkness before supper. The site still had plenty of fish, but we had the good fortune to spy a medium (~15") octopus [pictured]. One (or more?) large tarpin seemed interested in the lights as well. When we surfaced we sat down for a dinner of grilled duck with a raspberry pomegranate sauce, served with garlic mash, green beans and strawberry tart for dessert. This is going to be a great week!

Kelly's Cove, Norman Island, BVI			N 18° 19.5', W 64° 37.4'
Dive Number 141		Buddy Martin	Surface temp 23°C	Starting pressure 3000psi
Depth 52ft	Visibility excellent	Time 53m	Water temp 26°C	Ending pressure 1200psi
Notes:	I was shocked to find that there were only seven passengers on the Cuan Law this week, and was shocked a second time to learn that Martin and I were the only two divers in the group. This means that all week long, we'll be diving in the company of just each other and our talented divemaster, Maddy (who herself is from Whistler). On our checkout dive, Martin and I demonstrated we could recover our regulators and breathe from each other's secondary air supply. Then we took a short tour of the reef, saw lots of fish, a few arrow crabs, a sea turtle, and this remarkably geometric mollusc [pictured] on a sea fan which I understand is a flamingo tongue snail.