Jul 262014
 

Woke up again at 630am after another solid 8+ hours of sleep feeling fantastic and went back to Rituals coffee for breakfast. Another great triple iced espresso, but instead of the bagel sandwich today they had amazing double chocolate chocolate chip muffins….yum!

Met Jeff in the lobby again, and Dive St Kitts picked us up right on time for another morning of diving. When we got to the shop, we learned we were the only two people diving today so we could get going as soon as all the gear was set up. Sweet!

Out first dive site was called “The Rocks” and the coolest feature is that the last couple of months a reef shark had been hanging around the site, and we’d try and find it. Strategy was to try and find a lionfish to spear, and then dump it on the ground and wait for the shark to smell blood. The dive was in a fairly narrow “channel” between two reefs, and dropped from about 50 feet where we entered to about 75 feet further down where we turned around and swam back on top of the reef.

It didn’t take long to find a spear a lionfish, and no sooner was the divemaster chopping it up, than this guy started circling:

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A couple of slow circles around us and the dead lionfish, and he darted in a snapped it up and swam away.  For maybe the next 5-10 minutes he followed us around as we swam down the reef, probably hoping we’d feed him another easy meal.  Laziest shark ever!

Along the reef:

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Another lionfish:

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Unfortunately, this dive was much shorter at about 38 minutes.  Part of this was due to being a bit deeper between 60-75 feet most of the time, and part of it was probably that I was really sucking down air because of the adrenaline from seeing the shark.

Surfacing was a bit of a challenge, because the waves, which had already been pretty serious, had gotten even rougher when we were in the water.  The boat was really bobbing all over the place, and it took several attempts to grab ahold of the ladder and haul myself up.  Once we were on the boat Captain Crabby decided to head back to shore for the surface interval since the chop was so bad.  One thing I forgot to mention in the previous post…Dive St Kitts also provides homemade snacks between dives…and today it was delicious pumpkin bread.  Yum!

Back out on the water, for a short trip to the “Ponds Bar” dive site.  This site was known for “A mini wall of 30′ – 55′, Ponds Bar is a nice reef top where you will get an opportunity to see hawksbill turtles as well as a very large Barracuda (which is always under the boat.) This site also holds a secret known only to Dive St. Kitts. After you see it, don’t share it or it will be gone!”  No clue what the secret was, and unfortunately we didn’t see the barracuda either, but there was plenty of other great marine life.  It was a shallower dive with a max depth of 57 feet and was also my longest dive ever at 55 minutes.

Some of what we saw:

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Another ray buried in the sand:

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GIANT lobster:

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Brain coral:

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Back to the surface after several great dives – I can’t say enough great things about Dive St Kitts.  They were an absolutely first-rate operation in each and every way!  After diving we stayed around for a bit and had a few rum punches with the divemaster and Captain Crabby, before heading back to the hotel for the afternoon.  I was finally ready to do absolutely…NOTHING!

After showering up and rinsing my gear, I headed to the pool bar for a quick lunch first.  Rum punch and a blacked grilled fish sandwich which was really quite tasty.  Next, I went and found a pool chair, before grabbing one more drink.  I asked the bartender to recommend something not on the menu that was really tasty.  “Because I like you, I recommend something I invent myself mon. I call it naughty and pregnant.”  I asked why.  “the name tell da whole story. I make you one ok”

So…yup, here it is:

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After an hour of reading by the pool, it was time for more refreshment….I don’t remember what this was, but it had ice cream, banana liqueur and rum in it.  Yum on a hot day.

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Weather station by the pool:

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Pool view:

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Sun beginning to set:

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After about 4 hours of relaxing, unfortunately the sun was mostly down.  But, the free show by the drunken southern tourists was just beginning:

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After the sun was gone, it was time to unfortunately start wrapping up a great trip.  Walking back to the room to get ready for dinner:

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Decided to head back to Rock Lobster for dinner, since I wasn’t awake enough to go too far.  Started with the fried conch this time, which was awesome:

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Decided to go with the lobster once again, and was told “we have a treat for you our special return customer!  We have an over three pound lobster for you tonight.”  OMG it was HUGE and DELICIOUS.

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Finished it off with some delicious coconut cake with vanilla ice cream:

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…and then it was back to the hotel to crash since my flight the next morning was unfortunately super early.  What a great relaxing long weekend away!


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