Dawn our diminutive but dynamite diving buddy from Belize and the Bahamas has arrived and gone. A whirlwind week of diving, partying, diving, shoping, diving...! After picking her up in St. Thomas we proceeded to go out to Christmas Cove, at Greater St. James Island for a shakedown dive and a welcome to the islands beverage.



Don wanted to checkout our gear that hasn't seen the light of day since the Turks and Caicos and to see if our compressor still remembers how to work. Here in the USVI all the easily accessible dive spots are relatively shallow so free diving and snorkeling has been our focus, hense our gear is a little lonely. Luckily between the two of us Dawn and I had one dive computer and one depth gauge functioning as well as all our other gear in working order, yahoo all set!



As usual Captain Don kept us well fed and happy, a big breakfast everyday, so luckily swimming and diving were not only enjoyable but a necessity. Anybody who has been onboard the Starship knows the Captain puts on a good spread!



Dawn and I also took a dive trip with Coki Beach Dive Club and had a great time with divemasters Pete and Brian. The first dive the current was wicked but things quickly improved and we spied many colorful reef fish and a coral munching nurse shark. Gliding through canyons and arches, multiple fan coral and sponges, schools of tarpon and a few rays all left me bemoaning the fact that my underwater camara had no film!!! I think Santa needs to bring me a digital one this year, hint...hint. The crew of the diveboat enjoyed my friend Dawn's visit as well I think!



The need to reprovision and get more ice, sent us into Cruz Bay on St. Johns. The iguanas there are quite friendly and plentiful. This guy posed patiently and was very uncurious about us.



After a couple of more dives we headed to Charlotte Amalie, the second busiest cruiseship port in the Caribbean. The largest cruiseship in the world was in port when we arrived, Oasis of the Sea, as well as three others and this is the off season!



Our boat looks mighty small compared to these floating cities. Can you see it?



On her last day Dawn and I did what everyone else in port was doing, shop for bling!