In July, ten members of USA Dive Club went to St. Vincent.   We stayed at Young Island Resort and dove with Bill Tewes’ Dive St. Vincent.The divers on the trip were Anne and Norm DuPont, Tom Ferguson, Mary and Larry LePage, Patrice Marker, Susan and Jim Mears, and Bob Weybrecht and Linda Ianniello.

Since the eighth night was free at the resort, we booked an extra day and did six days of diving, instead of the normal five.  We also booked three dives a day, and an optional night dive.  So we maximized the amount of diving for a one-week trip.  That is, assuming your luggage (containing dive and camera gear) arrived on time…….    Due to slow check-in with Spirit in Fort Lauderdale Larry and Mary’s luggage was one day late, and due to slow check-in with Liat in San Juan Bob’s and my luggage was two days late.  It is a real hassle flying around the Caribbean now, with Liat being the only carrier to many of the islands.  They are overwhelmed, the luggage allowances are very restrictive, luggage is often late, and their attitude is that it will get there when it gets there.

Young Island Resort was excellent – the resort is on its own beautiful island, just across the channel from the dive shop.  We were all quite impressed with the layout, service, and most of all the food.  Every meal was an occasion, but we especially enjoyed the five-course dinners, and the Saturday night barbecue buffet included music by a steel band.  However, we were too busy diving to take advantage of the pool, spa, and tennis courts, or the relaxing hammocks on the beach, though Tom Ferguson did manage a beach dive one night.

The ocean was calm, the water was warm, and the visibility in most sites was excellent with gorgeous blue water.   Most dives were on reefs on the west side of the island, which generally included the diversity of a sandy area and some sea grass.  A few dives were done at “Critter Corner” off Young Island, and were more like “muck dives”.  We all fit on Bill’s largest boat, and stayed out for three dives each day.  The resort packed us a box lunch, and one of Bill’s other boats ferried new and used tanks back and forth (and Norm occasionally jumped ship after the second dive to get back to the resort and the latest Harry Potter book!).

Like many of the Caribbean dive sites, St. Vincent has been heavily fished and there are no large fish or pelagics (though there are many long-spined urchins to ambush photographers).  So Bill Tewes has changed the focus of his dive operation from fish to critters, and advertises St. Vincent as the “critter capital of the Caribbean”.   We photographed a variety of shrimps, crabs, eels, pipefish, headshield slugs, octopus, blennies, a few seahorses, etc.   There were many small fish, and most were quite approachable, so Susan Mears got some great shots of cleaning station activity.  When viewing our shots, Rob Myers commented on the schools of blackbar soldierfish which are normally nocturnal but apparently were out in the daytime due to the lack of predators.  Noticeably missing were the frog fish that were so photogenic last time we were there (4 years ago); we saw one frog fish, on the last night dive of the trip.   Bill’s theory is that they have gone deeper due to the warm water…..

Overall we had a great trip and everyone enjoyed the diving and the resort.

Linda Ianniello