From: jms@tennis.tucson.az.us (Patience, unlike stupidity, has its limits)
Newsgroups: rec.scuba
Subject: Re: Virgin Gorda vs. Grand Cayman
Date: 22 Jan 93 04:07:00 GMT
Organization: University of Arizona MIS Department - Mosaic Group
NNTP-Posting-Host: spring.tucson.az.us
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.50A

In article <BUZZ.93Jan21152507@lion.bear.com>, buzz@bear.com 
(Buzz Moschetti) writes...
>For a long weekend (3 days diving, 4 nights), which is better?  I
>dove GC w/Don Foster's outfit about 3 years ago and it was terrific.
>I hear, however, that Virgin Gorda is "even better," although I have
>no handle on the dive operators there.

Well, I don't know anything about Grand Cayman, but I can give you a handle 
on the BVIs.  We spent a couple of weeks on a bareboat charter this summer, 
leaving from Tortola.  We rented tanks from Dive BVI, which gave free 
fills.  Per-dive, it was a cheap trip!  

Here are the dives I did:

Place		Depth/BT Abbreviated Comments
Carrot Shoal	55/1:10	 High seas.  Small critters. Beautiful sponges,
			 few fish.  Lots of fire corals.
The Indians	54/1:12  Sponges, corals, nice assortment of tube worms.
			 B & W feather dusters, magnif. feather dusters,
			 Lots of flamingo tongues.  OK site.  Bristleworms!
Norman Island	37/1:34	 (night dive) Wow!  Picked up a 3 ft. long tarpon
			 as a mascot the entire dive.  4 ft. stingray. 
			 Bunches of basket starfish.  Spotted morays.  A
			 parrotfish in a mucous nest.  Huge urchins.  This
			 is where fat urchins go.  Pufferfish, burrfish.
			 Beautiful spotted drum!  Several very interesting
			 Carribean reef squid.  Fed sea gnats to colonial
			 cup anenome.  Full size carribean reef octopus,
			 plus white encrusting zoanthid.
The Chimney	40/1:30	 Overdove site.  Lots of yellowtail snappers.  Nice
			 assortment of half-moon jellyfish.  Beautiful 
			 spotted drum.  Two small lobsters, well hidden.  
			 Lightbulb anenome (Jan thinks was eggs).  
			 Parrotfish and butterflyfish out in force.  
			 Chimney formation is fun, but only lasts 10 
		 	 minutes.
The Visibles	86/1:04	 Barracuda, millions of half-moon jellyfish.  A 
			 real minefield.  Evil looking brown jelly fish
			 with 15-foot singing tentacles.  Beautiful queen
			 triggerfish.  Spotted moray.  Medium-high current.
			 Cowfish, purple tunicate, corkscrew anenome.  
			 Decompressed @ 10ft for 3 min.
Diamond Reef	35/1:04	 (night dive) Enormous pufferfish.  School of 
			 3' to 4' tarpons hanging around.  13" to 18" 
			 sea urchins.  Lobsters.  Squid photos at 6".  
			 Decorator crab (first time!), sand dab.  Mantis 
			 shrimp in tube sponge.  Banded shrimp got abused
			 for pictures.  Batwing coral crab.  Nice variety
			 of anenome and night-decorative coral life.
Guana Island	69/1:18	 Excellent coral growth on a wall down to 80 ft or
			 so.  Zillions of silverside fish in a polarized
			 school.  Lots of different types of anenomes:
			 corkscrew, knobby, branching, hydroid zoanthid,
			 warty corallimorph, etc.  Pretty banded fireworm,
			 and a beautiful black spotted sea goddess.  
			 Excellent site.  Nice coral and reef fish.  
			 Morays, lobsters, pederson and banded cleaner
			 shrimp. Playing in fish school was fun.
Vanishing Rock	57/1:00	 Nice site for fish.  Enormous angels.  Queen conch
			 population was outstanding; lots of specimens to
			 10" to 20".  Huge moray in cave.  Caught a slipper
			 lobster with bare hands.  
Wreck of Rhone	74/1:04	 Overdove.  Interesting large schools of fish--
			 schoolmasters, other snappers.  Coral was 
			 interesting.  Saw a black branch coral with pure
			 white polyps.  Very beautiful, never saw it 
			 before.  Pure white tube sponges too.  Site is
			 too big for one tank at that depth.  Need to do
			 two tanks to really not rush it. 
Alice Wonderland 79/1:16 Land of psychedelic triggerfish.  Pair of white
			 spotted filefish & queen triggerfish.  Schools of
			 squirrelfish were unusual and unafraid.  Lobsters
			 huge and small.  Big barracuda guarded mooring
			 buoy.  Wonderful site.  Deep (2 minutes 
			 decompression), but nice coral heads.  
			 Unprotected; not good if there are any seas.  
			 Worth a 2nd trip.
Mountain Point	69/1:36	 Not many swimming critters.  Enormous puffer.  
			 Whole area was defended by masses of psychotic
			 damselfish.  Found several spaghetti worms.  Black
			 spotted sea goddess nudibranch.  A lot of reef, 
			 but not much in way of fish.  Lot of damage, 
			 probably due to storms.  Don't go back.
Peter Island	62/1:44	 Most boring dive I've ever done.  Also the 
			 longest (104 minutes, egad!).  But boring.  Ugh.


I'd definitely go back.  The people were very nice; the British have a more 
laid-back attitude than much of the rest of the Caribbean.  No shopping, 
which was fine with me.  

jms

Joel M Snyder, 1103 E Spring Street, Tucson, AZ, 85719 
Phone: 602.882.4094 (voice) .4095 (FAX) .4093 (data)
BITNET: jms@Arizona  Internet: jms@arizona.edu  SPAN: 47541::telcom::jms
Newsgroups: rec.scuba