Long Beach, Virgin Gorda, BVI			N 18° 30.0', W 64° 24.9'
Dive Number 155		Buddies Martin, Terry	Surface temp warm	Starting pressure 3000psi
Depth 32ft	Visibility excellent	Time 46m	Water temp 24°C	Ending pressure 1800psi
Notes:	The reef life was abundant, but there were few new fish of note tonight per se. I was captivated by the changes in colour of goatfish. They seemed to change from pink to white before my eyes. I'd never noticed that before. In addition, we spied several large sea baskets, and realized that the irritating larvae that we have been calling bloodworms were attracted enough to our lights that we could draw them into the baskets and give them a feeding! Speaking of feeding, we noshed on Beef Wellington with roast asparagus and potatoes, with white chocolate and raspberry mousse for dessert.

Coral Gardens, Great Dog Island, BVI			N 18° 28.8', W 64° 27.4'
Dive Number 154		Buddies Martin, Terry	Surface temp warm	Starting pressure 3000psi
Depth 49ft	Visibility excellent	Time 55m	Water temp 26°C	Ending pressure 1300psi
Notes:	This was another new dive, and too full of sights to post only one picture. Story has it that a crashed plane was moved to this site for a movie that was being filmed, and it now remains for the benefit of divers. Highlights of the site include gratuitous swimthrough opportunities on the wreck itself [pictured, above], and highlights of our dive included seeing barracuda swimming through the wreck, more lionfish speargun fun [pictured, middle], and two juvenile spotted drum [pictured below]

Grand Central, Guana Island, BVI			N 18° 29.4', W 64° 34.9'
Dive Number 153		Buddies Martin, Terry	Surface temp mild	Starting pressure 3000psi
Depth 69ft	Visibility excellent	Time 43m	Water temp 25°C	Ending pressure 800psi
Notes:	Whereas the name would suggest it's quite busy, this dive is one that I suspect is less commonly visited, both because it would be miserable with large groups, and because it's far enough out of the way that few boats come to it unless like us they are anchored in nearby Muskmelon Bay. Our divemaster Maddy had never yet been to this site, so we were joined by Miss P. herself! This did no harm to my sense of nostalgia, since Emily was our divemaster on my previous Cuan Law trip. We braved a bracing cool shower with splashes from the waves over the open sea on the North end of the BVI to the site, where we quickly descended and were led to the entrance to the cave (a small octopus at the entrance). The cave goes up and down through a few large caverns, including one shaft referred to as the "elevator shaft) from which sunlight comes in from 60 feet above. The cave is full of lobsters which make a bunch of eyes reflecting at you in the dark of the cave, and we saw a weird looking crab in there as well. Once safely outside again, we toured the reef where I saw a large black and white hogfish as well as a spotted moray [pictured]. When we surfaced, Martin remarked that we'd had a boat ride, a cold shower, a dive, a horror show, and all before breakfast! It should be noted that in my case, breakfast included a blueberry pancake in the shape of a maple leaf!

Muskmelon Bay, Guana Island, BVI			N 18° 29.1', W 64° 34.7'
Dive Number 152		Buddies Martin, Terry	Surface temp warm	Starting pressure 3000psi
Depth 32ft	Visibility good	Time 53m	Water temp 24°C	Ending pressure 1200psi
Notes:	A southern ray was visible at the start of this dive, and along the way, we saw hermit crabs, and a spotted eel. But the defining feature of this dive was the patch of coral that had no fewer than ten lionfish, including the largest one I'd ever seen (about 30cm). After returning to the boat, Maddy picked up a speargun, and she and I returned to the offending patch of coral. After I helped her load the speargun, she managed to spear the greatest among them. We considered staying to spear more of them, but got fed up of trying to mess around with the speargun, and returned to the boat, where crisply coated red snapper was being served with artichokes for supper.

Muskmelon Bay, Guana Island, BVI			N 18° 29.1', W 64° 34.7'
Dive Number 151		Buddies Martin, Terry	Surface temp warm	Starting pressure 3000psi
Depth 52ft	Visibility good	Time 42m	Water temp 26°C	Ending pressure 1500psi
Notes:	Here's a return to the first site that Jason and I dove our "checkout dive" in 2009. Appropriately, we were joined on board by the captain of the boat from 2009, who visited with us before and after the dive. We saw little in the way of new fish for this trip, but I got to follow around a smooth trunkfish for a while (another one of my favourites), and we saw a good sized green moray, which is pictured peering at the camera here.

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.