Today Chris and Sally closed the dive shop so we could hunt for new dive sites together. Accompanied by another Chris, the five of us headed in search of new and exciting dive locations.

Our first stop was on the Dutch side of the island near the mile marker buoy. Despite the rolling surf, we were able to spot the buoy above the wreck of The Prosthelyte. We entered the water unsure of what we would find, and were pleasantly surprised. The wreck itself was right below us, and just beyond were large coral heads with many swim throughs. The fish were plentiful, including many small Barracuda. As we were performing our safety stop at five meters, we spied a shark below.

Our next stop was another wreck, the Roro, a large, largely intact barge. We swam through the ship and around the outside. Again there were many fish. Nearby perhaps 25 concrete pods marked the beginnings of an artificial reef project. All in all, another terrific site.

After lunch, we headed to the French side of the island and out towards the heel of Anguilla. We stopped about a third of the way to Anguilla near a series of fish trap buoys and descended, uncertain of what we would find. Our first encounter was with a large Spiny Lobster. We then traversed a large reef prairie with many beautiful sponges adjoining some interesting coral formations. We saw two turtles, including one resting under a coral ledge and were joined by a pair of Almaco Jacks, who followed us on much of our dive. We christened this newly discovered dive site Chris’s Reef.

On our way back we stopped at Creole Rock to practice our underwater navigation skills. On the grassy sea bed, Madam J spotted a large Stingray. We also deployed our banner underwater to commemorate a successful expedition.

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