The Complete Diving Guide : The Caribbean (Vol. 3) - Puerto Rico, The US Virgin Islands, and the British Virgin Islands(BVI): Puerto Rico, US Virgin Islands, British Virgin Islands Vol 3 [Paperback]

The Complete Diving Guide - The Caribbean (Volume 1) is exactly what it professes to be. Intended to be the first in a series, it looks at the southern islands of the Eastern Caribbean. Each chapter starts with a short island introduction followed by a very specific description of the dive sites, operators and hotels. The write-ups of the dive sites are full of interesting personal experiences. The rest of the chapter provides just the sort of information you need, such as which operators have English speaking dive guides and which recognise the depth limitations of BSAC rather than PADI. Throughout the book's 390 information-packed pages are numerous interesting side panels. One describes the ships that sank in St. Pierre Harbour on Martinique when Mount Pelee erupted in 1902. The resulting dive sites sound so fascinating that I at once booked a trip to the island. Surely this is the acid test of a dive guide?

At last, the Eastern Caribbean has the dive guide it deserves. The series is meticulously researched and packed with useful information. The book describes over 240 dive sites and covers 50 extensively, and includes full-color underwater site plans. All in all, the guide contains everything a diver needs to know to...

The book includes descriptions of over 200 dive sites, and 60 dive stores in the area. Full colour island maps show the location of dive sites and dive stores. Full description of the island, including apres dive activities - other water sports, golf, tennis, horse riding, hiking, and nightlife. An overview of the diving environment including underwater terrain (walls, caves, reefs) and a list of all wrecks and their condition. Colour underwater maps and descriptions of all dives. Minimum and maximum depths plus a description of the underwater terrain, dive route and marine life. In-depth descriptions of dive facilities based on interviews with all operators. We describe any specialties and capture the style of the dive operation. There are photographs of the dive boats. Summary tables of operator facilities giving details of:
Number of bases
Number of Instructors
Diving Association Affiliations
Languages
Number of dive boats and number of divers per boat
Dive boat facilities: toilets, shade, fresh water showers
Time taken to reach dive sites
Equipment for rent and sale
Photographic equipment for rent and sale
Nitrox availability
Regulations, and safety information, including marine park rules and fees.
Informative sidebars about local marine life, what to look for and where to see it.

As far as the eye can see tiny islands surrounded by turquoise water line the horizon, offering a fascinating mix of cultures - British, American, and Spanish. The region has a wide range of diving: shallow water sites (where white sand reflects the sun so brightly that you need sunglasses underwater), seemingly bottomless walls and numerous wrecks. This guide is packed with information giving vacationers, local divers, and yacht crews everything they need to know to dive the area.

Virgin Islands - St Croix dive site 19, Cane Bay Wall, 0' - 3000'
In recent years, the term awesome seems to have entered the vocabulary to describe everything from an ice cream to finding a parking place. But because we are English and very reserved we have resisted such inappropriate extremes of language. When we are impressed with something we have stubbornly persevered with terms like 'pretty good', 'quite nice' or even 'rather special', as our idea of a superlative. As we leave the water, having dived Cane Bay Wall, we look at each other and say simultaneously "that was awesome". It is a dive where we wanted simply to change our tanks and do it again. Immediately. And, you can dive it by just walking straight in off the beach. Dive Profile Click on image for larger map We begin the dive at the dinghy ramp. By starting here you can snorkel out through the shallow gap in the reef. Starting at the ramp makes it easier to find the buoy marking the beginning of the dive. Keeping the sides of the ramp in line, we swim out in a straight line until we reach the small training buoy. The distance to the buoy is about 50 yards. We drop down to 20 feet and swim north toward the wall. A steep sand chute in front of us has a careless pile of three old anchors. We examine them only briefly as we are excited by the prospect of descending down the chute. It is steep-sided with plate corals on one side and large patches of elephant ear sponge on the other. It is the view ahead that draws us on. The chute descends sharply through the doorway-shaped gap ahead. We see only an all-consuming expanse of deep blue. The slight current draws us down, the dark blue doorway looming closer like a scene from a Steven King film. We shoot down the funnel, gaining speed and depth, until we are spat out through the doorway into the ocean at 100 feet. We turn around to face a vertical wall of exceptional beauty. The regal sweep of this stunning wall stretches in both directions. We choose west. The top of the wall has a spur and groove formation caused by thousands of years of surge, so above 100 feet every 30 yards or so we find another doorway marking the end of a sand chute. Below 100 feet the wall forms a continuous line. The areas between the chutes are overgrown with huge plate corals that look like petrified waterfalls, tumbling down the dizzying precipice of the wall to the depths below. At the exits of sand chutes swirls of plate coral form eddies off the main cascade. We hang in the expansive blue, the silence broken by the tinny pop of our exhalations, and admire this dramatic seascape. The site would have quite enough to offer if there was no other life, but the wall is teaming with a variety of other creatures. As we move west we see the extended body of a tiger tail sea cucumber, a pair of French angelfish gamely swimming along the wall with nothing below them for 3,000 feet, and wire corals growing defiantly straight out from the wall face. When our computers demand, we take the next sand chute doorway up through the wall to the top of the reef. This chute is narrow, perhaps 4 feet across, and the coral has formed a bridge across the top in places. The chute winds up through the reef like a back street through a crowded medieval town. Holes in the reef on both sides of the path lead to secret staircases and habitations. These dark passages are gaily painted with yellow star encrusting sponges, brightening the way for those who live within. The round beseeching eyes of a porcupine fish stare out at us. It is a squeeze to emerge through the passageway (swim over the top of the wall if confined spaces bother you) out into brilliant sunshine on top of the wall. The second half of the dive, swimming back east, takes us over a beautiful coral garden. This area is worth a dive in its own right and is used by local dive operators for training and night dives. We swim at an angle to the beach until we find ourselves in shallow water again and find the gap in the reef that leads us back to the boat ramp. Trudging up the beach gasping superlatives to each other we are brought back to the real world as we look both ways before crossing the road. They are obviously used to divers emerging from this site in a state of awesome wonder, as a road sign declares "Give way to divers".