I am here for the Fourth of July week and am loving every minute. The air is warm but tempered by the sweet sea breezes. This is a great time to dive . The water is pleasant, there is little current and the visibility is good.

Dive # 424 Date: 7/3/07 Location: Jimmy's Surprise, & Lobster Ledges / Type of Dive: Solo, DPV / Time: 50 minutes / Maximum depth 127 ft/ Average depth: 47 ft / Water temperature: 82 degrees.

       Nurse Ratchet

I head out into the back yard from our shore entrance just 100 feet from the villa. I drop down over the spur and groove formations and follow a sand chute till I am at the steep slope that leads to depths unknown. I make a left and stay at 100 feet watching the topography below looking for navigational clues. Suddenly I see a thick rope that doesn't belong here. I am soon able to spy a recently set fish trap below me. The only prisoners thus far are small tropicals. I continue on to the small cave behind Jimmy's Surprise (AKA Sea Mount) and find a large frying pan size red fin snapper along with other game fish that hope to someday grow as big. From here it is up to Jimmy's where I spot a departing turtle who seems to be uninterested in my company.

I dally here for several minutes taking in the magnificent beauty of this breathtaking pallet of many coral shapes and sizes. I then point my compass South with Lobster Ledges as my destination. Little do I know I will soon witness something I have never seen in over 400 dives on St. Croix. (I found Lobster Ledges when I first started diving this area. It is a veritable nursery for dozens of common species. Located in just 22 to 26 feet of water the deep undercut ledges also provide housing for turtles, morays, lobsters, and my personal favorite, nurse sharks.) It is not uncommon for me to see a nurse here so as I approached I was not that surprised to see a seven footer departing the area. As I got closer to the West ledges I was happy to see that the departing nurse Ratchet had not been alone. I stayed low & slowly approached the deepest part of the ledges. As I neared I realized this was no ordinary sighting. I could see large tails crisscrossing each other. Some were running parallel to the entrance of the undercut, while still others were pointing out toward me. When I dared to, I turned on my flashlight and illuminated a small portion of the area. Much to my surprise two previously unseen huge nurse faces where staring back at me.( I am sure their perceived size was in direct proportion to my shock.) Their bodies were completely enveloped under the ledge.

I tried to stay still and just watch these beautiful creatures rest as they pumped water over their gills and swayed slightly as the gentle ebb of the water moved them side to side. I have seen many nurse sharks large and small. But, I have never seen anything like this. By counting heads and tails I am positive there were at least 7 very good sized sharks taking their siesta at Lobster Ledges in preparation for their nocturnal Fourth of July celebration. With any luck they will be back at Lobster Ledges when you or I visit to enjoy the sight.

Contact Dave now to make your reservation. Plan now and reserve your spot in the sun.

Greg "Dishes It Out" on St. Croix

Greg "the dish keeper" and my son Nelson discuss the cosmos, scuba diving, and how to walk on a wet dish without slipping.

But can you take it? Recently my son Nelson and I visited St. Croix's giant radio astronomy antenna. If you have seen past "What's New " articles you know that I believed that the giant dish on the East End of our island was part of the SETI program that listens for ET phoning home. However, I recently found out that this 240 ton behemoth is part of a very long array of dishes that includes 9 others from here to Hawaii. The array collects electrical emissions from such things as black holes and stars all over our galaxy and stores it on magnetic tape that is sent via overnight mail to headquarters where it is combined with other data and analyzed so as to keep us abreast of what is going on in our planetary neighborhood. My grossly over simplified explanation was eloquently explained by our tour guide Greg in easy to understand terms. Of course he had at his disposal lots of audio and visual aids which makes the guided tour extremely fascinating and educational. Greg is an avid diver as well and would love to discuss his trip to the Galapagos Islands with you. Most importantly he will educate you about the

National Radio Astronomy Observatory and the amazing technological marvel he mans here on our humble island. So after you make your reservations to stay at 2DIVE4 be sure to contact Greg at 340 773 4448 or This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it and make a reservation for Greg to dish it out to you. Be sure to take along the kids as I did. Nelson is an English major in College and he kindly wrote a detailed story about our tour to share with you.

Just another dive on St. Croix

The US Virgin Islands holds a wealth of diversity when it comes to recreation. I happen to enjoy the underwater part of Virgin Islands the most. In fact I enjoyed it so much that it is now my backyard.

Following is a page out of my actual dive log as written during my recent stay at 2dive4.

"Dive # 336 Date: 9/21/05 Location: Jimmy's Surprise, The Trench & Lobster Ledges / Type of Dive: Solo, DPV / Time: 1 hour 11 minutes / Maximum depth 130 ft/ Average depth: 49 ft / Water temperature: 86 degrees

While on my usual route to the sea mount (AKA Jimmy's Surprise) I am 5 minutes into the dive. I am heading West along the slope that leads to a series of overhangs near Jimmy's when a big turtle crosses my path as if he wants to interact with me. I am 20 feet from the bottom in water about 110 feet deep, and he goes out his way to cross my path! I had to change course to keep from hitting him. I looked into his eyes and waved as I veered away from him suspended in mid water. In hindsight, I should have stopped to mingle, but I had my appointed rounds to keep, excuses, excuses....

About the same time I see a school of silvery fish (maybe 100 of them) moving West above the slope as if they are one. However, what I find unusual is that this school has a large barracuda directly in the middle of it. Very strange. Something tells me he wasn't there to swap recipes.

Next I arrive at the first overhang at 110 feet. Off to my right and 20 feet deeper I see a 6 to 7 foot black tip reef shark. Wow! He was going very slowly and was easy to watch.

I continue toward Jimmy's and find a 5 foot nurse shark resting under another overhang. Swimming up to the sea mound I peer into the undercut and find a good size red snapper chasing a black margate out of his home turf.

As I circle the Sea Mound, I rouse 2 other turtles that may have heard about my bad manners and want nothing to do with me.

I press on to the Trench for a meeting with a green moray's tail (I had to look for a while to find his head ). I say good-bye to a large white spotted file fish as I head toward my safety stop, Lobster Ledges.

Located in just 22 feet of water, Lobster Ledges is often home to sleeping nurse sharks, turtles and juvenile game fish. Today I find another green moray. This one is out and about, but he quickly hides when he sees me coming. And, as the ledges are so named, I find several lobster deep under the safety of their rock ceilings.

Now it is back to the entrance / exit at 2dive4 with 500 PSI still in my tank. Thank heaven for DPVs!"

Come for the beauty, stay close to The Beast.

This world class triathlon is famous for its uphill climb.
(Photo by Kristie Silvius)

The month of May on St. Croix saw the 17th annual running of the Half Ironman Triathlon. This is a qualifying race for the autumn Hawaii Ironman competition. World-class professional and amateur all-around athletes converge on St. Croix each year for this exciting event.

Participants face a grueling course in three parts: a 1.24 mile swim, a 56 mile bike ride, and a 13.1 mile run. A hill less than one mile from 2Dive4 is so challenging to bikers that it has become known as "The Beast," for its 600 ft climb in a stretch of highway 7/10ths of a mile long with an average grade of 14% and a maximum grade of 18%. According to the events web site (www.stcroixtriathlon.com) "Once you've conquered The Beast, you will never look at a hill the same way."   (The photos linked in this paragraph are courtesy of John Dukes Photography)

Plan now to attend the 2006 triathlon to be held on May 6. Contact This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it to secure luxury accommodations at 2Dive4 and watch the bikers ride by without leaving the comfort of your villa. A traditional "Half Iron Man Jump Up" street fair is held the night before the race. Restaurants cater to "carbo loading" racers, stores stay open late and Island style entertainment rocks the town all night long.

2Dive4 making the world a better place for divers.

Horseback riding in the lush tropical rainforest; an equine adventure in paradise.

During a recent stay at 2Dive4 my friend Peter and I rode horses with Paul & Jill's Equestrian Stables. Jill is a St. Croix native with a passion for the island, horses, and showing her customers a good time. I had not ridden a horse since I was a child, but Paul and Jill quickly made me feel at home with my new friend "Mr. McGregor". Starting with a bonding experience, I held a pan of oats and other horse-goodies as Mr. McGregor licked up every last bit. We began our ride through the rainforest with some basic horsemanship. The paths were easy to navigate. Most of the time the horses walked but we also got a chance to trot and canter as well. Jill and her horse led Mr. McGregor and me, so there was not a lot of room for error on my part. On our nature tour we saw many things including:

• Very large termite nests
• Tarzan vines and wild Bromeliads
• Beautiful green and black zebra butterflies
• Kapok trees whose silk cotton pods were once used to stuff life jackets and pillows
• Tamarind trees, source of one of the ingredients in steak sauce
• Turpentine trees
• Mango trees
• Passion fruit (we sampled this excellent fruit on the ride)
• Papaya trees
• Mahogany and teak trees used for furniture
• Wild mongoose

Most of the time we were under the rainforest canopy , but we also took a short walk on the beach as well. I highly suggest the afternoon ride as the sun is much less intense than on the earlier tour. The perfect ending to our equestrian adventure was a visit to the near by Sunset Grill . Here we enjoyed an excellent meal and a beautiful sunset.

Later in my stay my friend, Chris, arrived. Aside from getting wet, he also got to further adorn the villa with new and beautiful sea life murals. I am particularly fond of the majestic spotted eagle ray that now keeps watch over our swimming pool.