Spotted Eagle Ray

Eagle rays (the Myliobatidae family of fish) are a family of mostly large rays living in the open ocean rather than at the bottom of the sea. Eagle rays feed on snails, mussels and crustaceans, crushing their shells with their extremely hard teeth. They are excellent swimmers and are able to jump several metres above the surface.

The spotted eagle ray, Aetobatus narinari, also known as the bonnet ray or maylan, belongs to this genus. It is a very beautiful ray, bearing numerous white spots on its inky blue body. It has a span width of 2.5 m (8 ft) and a maximum reported weight of 230 kg. Including the tail, it can reach up to 5 m (16 ft) in length. The spotted eagle ray is distributed in the tropical areas of all oceans, including the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico. Source Wikipedia

This beautiful creature gets a post on the blog just to herself. She was graceful and appeared from no where. It just glides effortlessly in the water.

RMS Rhone

One of the best known dive sites on the BVI. The Rhone is a must see wreck. It is really exciting as you can swim through bits of the ship without it being confined etc.

You can tell how big the ship really is just be looking at the size of the propeller against one of the divers.

History of RMS Rhone.

Built in England by Millwall Iron Works in 1865, she was part of the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company which provided services between England, Central and South America, and the Caribbean. Iron-hulled, 310 feet long, powered by both sail and steam, she was a fine vessel–but her promising career was cut short. On October 19,1867 she was one of about 75 vessels damaged or lost in a hurricane so violent that people talked about it for decades afterward. The storm caught her at anchor while transferring cargo to another ship, Conway, near St. Thomas in the (then) Danish Virgin Islands. The two vessels survived the first onslaught of wind and sea, but during a lull–possibly created when the eye of the hurricane passed overhead–they raised anchor and made a mad dash for the open sea. Conway got underway immediately, escaping the brunt of the hurricane’s renewed force, yet she still suffered moderate damage, losing her funnel and some rigging. Rhone was not so fortunate. Struck by strong winds and heavy seas just before gaining the open sea, she was driven onto a reef near Salt Island, and holed. Seawater flooded the engine room, the boilers burst, and she went to the bottom in pieces. Only 23 of the original 147 passengers and crew survived.

Dive photos of fish

Barracuda under a ledge

A pair of Puffer fish

Grouper hiding amongst other fish

Peacock or flowery flounder

Agitated trunk fish.. see its flourescent colour given off when I began to chase it.

School of Horse Eye Jacks

Puffer fish

Horse Eye Jacks

Parrot fish

Yellow tail snapper

I am afraid that there are some more boring shots of fish!

Bit of everything here

C&F Souvenir Shop

There is one souvenir shop in town that you must visit when in the BVI and this is found at the back of the C&F Restaurant.  Anyways, tonight the waitress kept looking at me when I got in.  Then she walks up to me and says "Did you live in Virgin Gorda?" I replied no I only got the BVI in January and have only visited VG for a weekend... she scrunches her face and then says to me.. "You are spitting image of man who gone missing in Gorda last year, presumed dead!" and then walks away.

 

Me dink me need new image!  So me get to grow de dreadlocks to look local man!

 

Advanced Open Water Certified

Hooray!  Got my Advanced Open Water Certification today!

First pictures of fish using my underwatercasing

Love Puffer fish with those big eyes!

Could not believe it when we came across this 4ft nurse shark taking a break under this ledge. It just watched us. In the meantime we got two black tipped reef sharks circling us, magic!

You don't normally see lobsters taking a walk on the sea floor during the daytime. Supposse he was tiered of the same surroundings!

First taste of using my underwater casing for my Canon compact digital. Could have been better, but not a bad 1st attempt!

Underwater Gardens

Some photos of reefs and corrals.