(by Tim Hunt and Inger Jönrup)
Barbados seems like a long way to travel just for a week, but the idea of some Caribbean sun away from a dreary English Autumn could persuade anyone; and the prospect of some warm water diving was the clincher. The upshot was that 4 of us flew Excel out of Gatwick; met by 2 other friends who had warmed the place-up for us the previous week.
We stayed in an apartment rented from some other friends (http://www.holiday-rentals.co.uk/p79744), details available from me!
The apartment is in Speightstown. It should be about 20 minutes drive up the west coast from the airport, but Bridgetown traffic can be a bit chaotic.
Spieghtstown is not too touristy and a bit rundown and all the better for it; there are some really swanky resorts, but overall it feels like a real “local “ town with friendly people.
Only 4 of our group are divers so we only arranged 3 days diving with the local operation called Reefers and Wreckers (http://www.scubadiving.bb/). Everything ran at Bajan pace, which is at the well-chilled end of relaxing. They checked our qualifications, and the first dive gave them a chance to see if we knew what we were doing. After that they gave us brief covering info. on the dive site and safety considerations, but generally just asked us to keep the dive time to 50 minutes.
Our first dive-day coincided with the first full day’s use of their new boat; their previous boat had been stolen; the twin Yamahas really did hum nicely.
We have dived in other areas of the Caribbean where the coral is better and the fish more abundant, but the water was 28-29C, with lots of stuff to look at and photograph without being spectacular.
This maybe some of the motivation of the authorities to create artificial reefs by sinking wrecks, and we did the Pamir as our second dive. In a shallow sandy bay in 20 metres of water the wreck is only about 50 metres long, but well incrusted with corals and sponges. This was the first time I had seen garden eels before they retreated into their burrows in the sand.
The wreck the next morning was an altogether different prospect. The Stavronikita is 120m long and sits upright at 40 metres to the sandy bottom. The main deck is at about 23 metres, with towers rising above that, so there are plenty of depths for divers to explore. Many surfaces have corals and sponges in great variety, with all the usual species of fish plus lobsters and crabs. A first for me were yellowline arrow crabs with small triangular shaped bodies and very long spindly legs. Extra time spent meant deco stops at 9 and 6: it was a spectacular dive which we hope to repeat at some time!
A little way up the coast from Spieghtstown is a large complex called cement pier. When no ocean-going vessels are docked it is possible to dive around the pilings. 10 metres down to a sandy bottom, it is quite eerie to dive around the uprights, not being sure what might be lurking in the shadows. Every upright is covered with corals and sponges and Christmas-tree and fan worms providing habitats for crabs and lobsters. We also found 6-7in. long sea horses; a white and a grey/brown one; we thought they were large, but Michael, the dive guide, said they were normal size for this part of the world. Just as we were preparing to return to the boat a shoal of 50 bar-jacks and a green turtle drifted past us; brilliant dive.
When we return to Barbados we want to repeat those 2 dives, but apparently there are many more wrecks in Carlisle Bay a little further south, so the prospects are looking very enticing!