Photos from the two dives:

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Over to the center at 8 am and book in for the dives.

Mine costs me 80CUC for a two tank dive. 35 each for the dives and 10 CUC rental for the equipment.

Can't remember the names of the dive sites but both dives are very good.

In addition to the dives, the boat guys caught a fish about 2 minutes after leaving the dock:

Anchor of MLG and go ashore and check-in.

Dave and I lay a bet that they search the yacht here; I'm pleased to say he won! This is the first time we've stopped and they haven't searched the yacht - a miracle!

The officials here are very friendly and the process is completed fairly quickly.

Over to the dive center and book two dives for the following day - yee ha!!

We push on for a couple of short days, anchoring each night. For some strange reason, being away from the prying eyes of the Guarda Frontera, Ministry of the Interior, etc., does wonders.

Obviously nothing illegal is going on but one detects a sense of paranoia in this country. Still, their laws, their rules.

We move out to the reef at the west end of Cuba and drop anchor. Gear up and then drop in in about 13m of water.

There's not much to see but it sure feels good to get the dive gear on and get in the water again.

Bridgets birthday today so Warren, Bridg, Simon, Jo and myself go and hire some gear from Dive BVI and go off and do a dive off the North Coast of Virgin Gorda:

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Booked another couple of dives with Dive Tortola again.

The first dive was another wreck dive - the Inganess. Got to say it wasn't the most exciting dive I've ever done and after around 30 minutes on the dive site, there wasn't much else to see.

Well you just have to don't you :-)

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(Link to the Pussers Rum website)

It's my niece Leanne's 18th birthday next month and I was advised to take the ferry across to St Thomas in the US Virgin Islands to do some shopping as Roadtown is lacking somewhat!

The ferry took about an hour and was a pleasant enough crossing. A very quick trip through customs and immigration and onto the main shopping area. I can honestly say that I have never seen so many jewellery shops in one area about 85 - 90% of the shops seem to sell jewellery! Unfortunately, 85 - 90% of those are probably selling the same or similar stuff.

Anyway, in traditional blokes style, I quickly locate what I think Leanne would like and then I can spend the rest of the day doing non-shopping things :-)

I take a stroll back to the ferry port and, whilst waiting for my ferry, spot one of the local chavs!

Two dives today on the RMS Rhone with Dive Tortola...

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Unfortunately Warren and Bridget went out on charter at around midday and won't be back until after I've flown to Antigua but it was good to see them if only briefly.

Have lunch with Damian and Kirsty and then, as they are leaving to go back down to Canouan first thing the following morning, take my leave and go across to the hotel I'm staying in for the next few days.

I phone Dive Tortola and book in to do two dives with them tomorrow morning; will hopefully get to dive the RMS Rhone, a world famous wreck dive - we shall see.

Got into Beef Island, Tortola and took a cab over to the Moorings in Roadtown.

Good to see Bridget and Warren again! Unfortunately they are preparing to go out on charter tomorrow and are out for six days...

Went over and saw Damien and Kirsty on their boat, had a few beers, some rum punch, some sambuca's and some red wine... guess you get the picture!

Called up Dive Grenada on the VHF and booked in to do a couple of dives tomorrow. Their dive boat is moored in the marina where we are so it's a straight-forward lift there and back.

The dives were okay, nothing brilliant about either of them but didn't really get any decent photo's. Would've liked to have dived the Bianca C but they weren't doing it that day.

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Sailed down from Carriacou to Grenada and moored up at the marina in St Georges.

The first thing you see as you enter the marina is the old hotel that was used as a base by the Cuban advisors back in 1983. According to the locals, this is the first thing the Americans destroyed when they invaded:

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We move from Hillsborough Bay around to Tyrrell Bay and then go ashore to book some dives with Arawak Divers. Owned and run by George and Connie, Andy and myself book two dives for tomorrow morning.

I'm pleased to say that there are only the three of us diving (Connie, Andy and myself) but I wish there were more people down here as the place seems like a ghost town - get down here, the dives we did were excellent!

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Down the dive center at 0900 and sort the 'usual' stuff out.

There's Jamie (the Jock dive instructor - recently started here); Lindsay, a Canadian divemaster, who's studying in Bequia; and two Americans, Nancy and Lorne who we pick up in Mayreau.

The first dive is Mayreau Gardens, which was a really good dive and the second dive out on Horseshoe Reef is a little harder with a very strong current to go against in the second half of the dive: not quite how I'd have planned the dive but...

Unfortunately, the seal on my camera housing is not performing today so only surface photos of the Cays:

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We arrive at Union around 1700 and I book two dives with Glenroy Adams' Grenadines Dive tomorrow.

Dinner in the West Indies restaurant and then head down!

Two dives today with Canouan Dive Center: South Cato and Bachelors Rest.

Only three of us diving: an Italian named Matteo, Andy and myself in the very capable hands of Tim:

We arrived in Canouan around 1400 hours and went ashore to the dive center located at the Tamarind Beach Resort.

Spoke with Julie and booked two dives tomorrow...

Managed to get hold of Rol again and was told there was no chance as they'd been out to have a look and the conditions weren't safe to dive!

Never mind but I'd already bought the t-shirt!!!! :-)

Decided to leave Mustique this afternoon and head down to Canouan.

Spoke to Rol (one of the commercial divers) and was told that there was no chance this afternoon as the current is way too strong! Maybe tomorrow...!

I went to the dive center on Mustique to enquire about diving the Antilles (a French cruise liner caught on the rocks and sunk in the seventies).

I was told that due to the sea conditions having to be right they probably only get to dive it once per year!! Guess that's not going to happen whilst we're here then.

Andy started taling to one of the commercial divers down by the beach and they said they might be able to take me out...

Dived with Dive Bequia today. We did two good reef dives and highlights of the dives were seeing the largest lobster I have ever seen, another sea-horse (which is always good), and an Angel Fish.

Definite low points of the dive were when everytime the guide, Didi, saw something and pointed it out a French-Canadian 'gentleman' (ah-hem!) would literally barge everyone out of the way to take a photo.

We wont talk anything about buoyancy because he didn't have any - I hope he got some good photos because he sure damaged a lot of reef getting them!

Did two dives today with Kay Wilson's Indigo Divers - Petite Bayhaut and Anchor Bay.

Two really good dives, excellent visibility, lots of marine life, only four divers :-) and excellent service. Gary (boat captain) also caught a big sailfish between dives.

Bad news though, I lost my WRU bandana in the water during the second dive - damn!

Left Simone's flat today, it was really great of her and Remond to put me up for a couple of weeks. Still haven't been for a single dive with her yet - ah well, maybe later this year or next year!

Moved my gear onto Andy's yacht, Modi, this afternoon and had a look round and familiarised myself with the systems and layout.

Had problems at immigration so we'll have to clear out tomorrow morning and then depart Barbados around 1600 hours.

Back diving again today after the three day break and we dived over on Castle Bank and then 'Pieces of Eight'.

Saw plenty of turtles, a couple of rays, a few pufferfish and, at the end of the second dive, the largest lobster I have seen...mmm!

After the Stav, we moved south and dived the Bell Buoy. A bit of entertainment during the surface interval...

and always a favourite (me and snake-like things :-)

We dived the Stav today. Mark, Ken, Jonathon, Thomas and myself...

There are some cement blocks near the wreck on Asta Reef and I managed to get this shot of a Puffer fish keeping an eye on me - got to be my favourite photo to date:

Had a few good dives this week with Roger's Scuba Shack.

We have done Asta Reef, Castle Bay, Pieces of Eight and the Boot.

Just bore you with some of my photos:

Down to the beach for a 10 oclock pick-up and they fail to arrive.

I telephone their dive shop and they plead a mix up in communication, they apologise of course and they will pick me up after the first dive. This turns out to be close to midday so I am a little peeved but the first dive, the Pinnacles turns out to be excellent.

The second dive, Supermans Flight, is not as good: a couple of divers have a complete loss of buoyancy control and destroy some of the reef and the visibility drops right down during the second half of the dive. Ah well, Barbados tomorrow!