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(from May '01 edition of Skin Diver magazine) …St. Croix only means one thing to me—wall diving—and that’s what I intended to do. The North shore of St. Croix is loaded with ledges and drop-offs, covered in coral and sponges, and teeming with marine life. Two of the most unique lie in close proximity to the Salt River Marina and are only a short five-minute boat ride away from each other. These two sites provided me with two very incredible and unparalleled diving experiences.
The first was Salt River East, which I dived early morning off St. Croix. In the light of an orange sunrise, I slipped into the crystal water, reaching the wall at 40 feet. Giant seam anemones, purple seafans and outcroppings of huge black coral jutted out from the wall, creating a canyon like effect. I swam back and forth along the wall’s edge, dizzying myself in a forest of Purple and Yellow Tube Sponges habitated (sic) by large schools of Blackbar Soldierfish. I felt an undying urge to explore further—past my limits—but decided against it.
Sure that my first dive of the day could happily have been my last, I proceeded just 300 feet west to the second site, Salt River West. The wall there begins at 20 feet and drops steeply to 90 feet and beyond. Seawhips, broad shelves of leaf, plate and sheet corals form many canyons. I cruised above and below each ledge, in search of the resident large Green Moray Eels. They played hide-and-seek, peeking out from inside their dens to tease me. Ending the dive, I was satisfied in fulfilling my search, seeing more than a dozen of the slippery, green creatures along the way.
Further exploration west of Salt River dive sites, just before Cane Bay, brought me to the Sea Mount. This site was a whirlwind of marine life. Each time I entered the water, I was greeted by a school of curious Horse-eye Jacks. The school would break formation and swim directly to me, circling quickly as if sizing me up, and then disappear. I navigated a mountain of rock that had a deep undercut ledge on the lee side. There was a busy school of eight butterflyfish nibbling away at polyps from deepwater gorgonians. Five Queen Angelfish, the most stunning of the Caribbean angels, flashed their bright colors, making yet another affirmation that attempting to describe all visible forms of marine life at this site would read like a Who’s Who of the Paul Humann fish I.D. books. The Sea Mount had quickly become one of my favorite sites in St. Croix.
A bit water-logged, I took a trip to the Dutch-influenced and picturesque town of Fredericksted, where divers can be seen during the evening hours gearing up for night dives along the Fredericksted Pier. There, divers can come face to face with Striped Sea Stars, several species of decorator crabs, file clams and three different types of octopi. |
