Dive #239 - Rich Torkington's Dive Log

The swim through the underwater habitat
Videocap by Rich Torkington in the USVIs 2006

Dive Journal: To supplement our shore diving from the house, we’ve contracted with a local dive shop, N2 the Blue, to take us out to other sites. We link up with Derrick and Anna the day before and make all the arrangements.

The four of us meet them the next morning at the Fredericksted pier on the far west end of the island. There is a fair amount of construction and possibly dredging going on in the pier vicinity.

We’re diving the “Wrecks at Butler Bay” today and we start first with a pretty fishing boat called the Suffolk Maid submerged in 60 feet of water a bit north of the pier.

Next is an interesting old tubular underwater habitat. It appears to be fabricated from concentric flanged pieces and it is just big enough to allow a swim through its axis. From the side it looks something like this: Rocky

We reach a huge barge, probably 200 feet long, called the Virgin Islands. At 80 feet in depth, it takes us a while to swim from one end to the other, and I am starting to watch our gauges for nitrogen, since we’re now diving on air. It is a huge cool wreck, apparently without much sea life.

Finally, we arrive at a most beautifully decorated cargo boat, the North Wind, this one bigger than the first fishing boat, and it is strewn with colorful sponges and corals. We see several very nice sea turtles here and there are some cool bearded fireworms on the wreck as well. The North Wind has a large opening on its topside and Janel settles down into it to explore, assuming the Zen position.

With the somewhat deep profile and breathing air, Johnny is exhausted following this dive and practically goes to sleep during our surface interval.