Caribbean Explorer II Liveaboard

[Colin]

Now for the dive conditions:
Since this part of the Caribbean is very volcanic, the hardest thing for us to get used to was the color of the sand.....kind of a brown/grey color. At first I though it looked a lot like the silt we encounter around here, but since it's sand, it settles very quickly. Due to the warm water temps all season (we had 86 degree water all week), there was evidence of coral bleaching on the hard corals. Visibility ranged from 100 feet + to about 40 on one of the night dives. This lower vis day was very windy and stirred things up a bit.
The surface conditions ranged from 2-3 foot swells to flat calm, depending what dive site we were on. As with most liveaboard boats, they always moored for the night or during meal times in protected areas to minimize the rocking. Mild current was present on almost every dive, with only one dive cancelled because of strong currents. I splashed on this particular dive, and before I knew it I was about 40 feet behind the boat. I managed to grab the weighted safety stop line at the stern, and proceeded to get pulled up the the surface in the current. A 35 foot dive for 3 minutes.....you should see the profile from my computer.....
Marine life was plentiful.....lots of tube and barrel sponges, soft corals, but was most interesting was the amount and variety of fish life. Nurse sharks, turtles, crab, lobster, octopus, along with the usual macro suspects, like arrow crabs, cleaner shrimp, corkscrew anemones.
Dive sites ranged from pinnacle dives to over 100 feet, to shallow reef/night dives in 40 feet or less.