The Fearless, Peter Island, BVI			N 18° 22.4', W 64° 35.5'
Dive Number 158		Buddies Martin, Terry	Surface temp mild	Starting pressure 3000psi
Depth 81ft	Visibility good	Time 48m	Water temp 24°C	Ending pressure 800psi
Notes:	With about 20 hours before my scheduled flight, I decided I had time to catch one more dive, the wreck of the Fearless, a wreck in good shape where we saw lots of small banded crab and arrow crab, and a crab inside the hull as big across as a serving plate. There was lots of coral life, and I saw a little squid at the end of the dive, but the learning lesson for me came at the end of the dive. While I was removing my fins to enter the boat, I dropped my flashlight in about 40 or 50 feet of water. The right thing to do would have been to let it go, make a plan and probably to recover it if enough dive time remained, complete with a new safety stop if indicated. Without thinking, I swam down, thinking I could catch it. I did eventually catch it, but ended up swimming down deeper than planned, probably about 30 feet. At that point, without adequately thinking, and worried that my mates would be worried, I surfaced more rapidly than I ought to have. I was uninjured, but I gave Maddy a fright, and spent a long time afterwards reviewing what happened in my mind. Thankfully, there were seared tuna steaks and chocolate truffle pie to distract me when we got back to the boat. Hooray for learning! Hooray for a great vacation!

The Aquarium, Virgin Gorda, BVI			N 18° 26.4', W 64° 27.2'
Dive Number 157		Buddies Martin, Terry	Surface temp warm	Starting pressure 3000psi
Depth 30ft	Visibility excellent	Time 50m	Water temp 26°C	Ending pressure 1500psi
Notes:	After our Friday beach bar-b-cue lunch, divers and snorkellers alike took a swim at this site, one I remembered being rich with lots of fish and turtles. From above, Cheryl was able to appreciate schools of sergeant major and yellowtail, but didn't see cowfish or porcupinefish or French angels [last two pictured]. She was also spared having to see a resting nurse shark or the pair of octopus that we saw together nestled in a nook in the reef [also pictured]. Normally I don't get too excited about nurse sharks since they "don't really do anything" and usually they're mostly out of sight underneath some low shelf, but this one was open enough to see all at once, and I also shot some video of it swimming away [I may get around to including this].

Mountain Point, Virgin Gorda, BVI			N 18° 30.2', W 64° 25.0'
Dive Number 156		Buddies Martin, Terry	Surface temp warm	Starting pressure 3000psi
Depth 37ft	Visibility excellent	Time 47m	Water temp 25°C	Ending pressure 1200psi
Notes:	The morning dive wound us around the rock that makes the Northwest tip of Long Beach, and we got to see plenty of jellies, I saw a few high hat, Maddy found a sun hat [pictured]. Thick schools of parrotfish were visible around the tip of the point, I have a closeup shot of one [pictured], and I managed to snap a reasonable shot of a queen angel [also pictured].

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!