BVI - Settling In....Boats and Diving
Our biggest challenge has been to try to dive as many of the 70 odd dive sites as we can and get confident guiding them, which is no mean feat as none of them are simple walls but have loads of swim through’s and complicated routes to follow. We’re also lucky in the fact that we are the furthest east of all the Dive BVI locations so we get to dive all the way down the Sir Francis Drake channel and explore the most sites.
We’ve done most of them so far and really enjoy the diversity of marine life that we get here, regulalrly seeing sharks, eagle and sting rays, plus loads of bigger fish like barracuda, permit and tarpon as well as the smaller tropical fish and crtitters that we love. That said the coral isn’t a patch on Curacao as the islands suffered a bad bout of coral bleaching back in 2005 and some spots are still recovering. The dives are mostly shallow with no walls although they have got a good couple of wrecks here, with the most famous being RMS Rhone which was shipwrecked in 1867 but is still quite well preserved and the Chikuzen an abandoned Japanese refrigeration ship which is also amazing – makes the Superior Producer in Curacao look like the Tugboat in comparison!
We also offer what they call 'Gucci diving' which basically means we do everything for the customers including putting their gear together, taking it to the back of the boat for them so all they have to do is sit on the platform and roll in, then wash it all down for them inc their pissy wetsuits at the end of the days diving! At first we thought it would be horrible but it's actually a much quicker easier way for us to get peeps into the water, and the tips we get as a result are well worth the effort!
We are now fully trained boat captains which was quite a daunting thought at first, but Andy took to it like a fish to water (scuse the pun). I took a little longer to get confident and to be honest much prefer being ‘crew’ and chatting to the guests but am proud to say I haven’t crashed into anything…yet!
It’s an extremely physical job compared to our last ones with lots of tank hauling and caring for the boats, with long days starting at 6.45 every day, hence us being so tired at the moment. We generally do 3 dives a day and then head home about 6pm. One of the biggest bonuses though is that fact we very rarely do night dives - yay! In fact we've only done 1 in the 8 months we've been here :-)I’m hoping we’ll get used to the long days over time and I will lose enough weight to fit into my bridesmaids dress for Sheena’s wedding in November. So all in all we're still loving it here and the thought of ever going home to the 'real world' gets less and less appealing as time goes by.
Read MoreWe’ve done most of them so far and really enjoy the diversity of marine life that we get here, regulalrly seeing sharks, eagle and sting rays, plus loads of bigger fish like barracuda, permit and tarpon as well as the smaller tropical fish and crtitters that we love. That said the coral isn’t a patch on Curacao as the islands suffered a bad bout of coral bleaching back in 2005 and some spots are still recovering. The dives are mostly shallow with no walls although they have got a good couple of wrecks here, with the most famous being RMS Rhone which was shipwrecked in 1867 but is still quite well preserved and the Chikuzen an abandoned Japanese refrigeration ship which is also amazing – makes the Superior Producer in Curacao look like the Tugboat in comparison!
We also offer what they call 'Gucci diving' which basically means we do everything for the customers including putting their gear together, taking it to the back of the boat for them so all they have to do is sit on the platform and roll in, then wash it all down for them inc their pissy wetsuits at the end of the days diving! At first we thought it would be horrible but it's actually a much quicker easier way for us to get peeps into the water, and the tips we get as a result are well worth the effort!
We are now fully trained boat captains which was quite a daunting thought at first, but Andy took to it like a fish to water (scuse the pun). I took a little longer to get confident and to be honest much prefer being ‘crew’ and chatting to the guests but am proud to say I haven’t crashed into anything…yet!
It’s an extremely physical job compared to our last ones with lots of tank hauling and caring for the boats, with long days starting at 6.45 every day, hence us being so tired at the moment. We generally do 3 dives a day and then head home about 6pm. One of the biggest bonuses though is that fact we very rarely do night dives - yay! In fact we've only done 1 in the 8 months we've been here :-)I’m hoping we’ll get used to the long days over time and I will lose enough weight to fit into my bridesmaids dress for Sheena’s wedding in November. So all in all we're still loving it here and the thought of ever going home to the 'real world' gets less and less appealing as time goes by.
