Caribbean Cruise 2020 (page 6 of 10)

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Greta's blog:

Day 6 - St Kitts - February 26, 2020

Dive day for Mike & Greta! We stopped for a quick breakfast burrito at Blue Iguana Cantina on the boat, packed up and were on the pier by 8:15 for an 8:30 departure. After waiting about 20-25 minutes we were ushered to the taxi section where our scuba group got on a small bus to take us to Dive St Kitts. We stayed in sight of the harbor most of the way on narrow little roads. It's right-hand driving AND right-hand steering wheels, so that always makes it a bit strange to watch (especially on the round abouts). It absolutely POURED for part of the drive in but was just sprinkling when we got off the bus. Our driver gave us a short history of the island, including the fact that "Kitt" is short for "Christopher" in Great Britain and was named by Columbus after himself when he discovered it in 1492. On official documents, the island is still referenced as St Christopher.

We got whatever dive gear we needed from the shop, had a quick meeting, then got on the boat named Dancing Lady. It was small catamaran motored boat with a large tarp roof. Ceasar was our captain, Geoff was our dive master who would be leading our dives, and Kramer shadowed our dive and helped out whatever diver needed assistance.

We headed out about a mile to Ocean's Paradise. The water was 81 degrees, and it was raining lightly when we got in the water. We descended and were not there very long before we saw a Caribbean reef shark! We'd been told they are used to divers and do not bother them, but eventually will come closer. This was the case for us, and we often saw one or two for a good part of the dive nearby. There were various fish to see as well as a few lobster. Greta loved using her new dive computer and the max depth for our 40 plus minute dive was 59 feet.

We had a little bit of quick bread and water on the boat as we motored to the second dive sight, the M.V. River Taw. It was purposely sunk a few years ago to create an artificial reef; the hurricanes a couple years ago tore it in half and now it also has concrete rubble scattered nearby from various storms. Not long after going down, we saw a logger-head turtle with a larger fish hanging on to its shell; that was very cool to see. There were also schools of fish hanging out on various parts of the wreck AND we got to see a frog fish which is apparently is not too common to see because it hides so well. There was a large lobster down a pipe (smoke stack?) that was also very interesting to see. This was also a 40 plus minute dive but max depth by Greta was 40 feet as this was a shallower location.

Then we motored back to the dive shop, dropped off the rented gear, and had a bit of rum punch while we noted our dives in our log, and got the dives signed off on by Geoff. It was a good day diving and the crew was great. The equipment was definitely a little worse for wear - Greta's BCD was missing the top clip but it still worked OK. Mike's tank was starting to slide out on the 2nd dive but Kramer noticed it and secured it.

We took another bus back to the cruise ship pier; there were about a dozen Carnival passengers on the trip (and only Carnival passengers). Once on, we rinsed everything again and showered. Jim and Trina were on their way back from wandering the island. They'd hoped for a beach day but were chased by showers on and off during the day.

Once we met up, we just relaxed most of the evening. It was a shame Mike and Greta didn't get to see the island at all but it can be added to a list of places to visit for a bit longer of a time sometime in the future. We were all a bit tired, so opted for eating earlier at the buffet where casual dress was allowed. The food was pretty good, and hunger is always the best seasoning, right? It was interesting, there was an announcement that anyone who'd been to China/Japan/Italy needed to check in with the ship - it sounds like St Lucia is concerned about coronavirus.

Afterwards, we wandered a bit more, and checked out the shops on the 9th floor. We thought we'd sit and listen to an acoustic guitar performer, but missed most of his show as it didn't seem to be performed as the scheduled time. We did stop in a piano bar for a performance but Mike and Greta left after one song as they were tired and wanted a good night's sleep before the dive in St Lucia.

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