Corinne: For me, diving with UBS was a perfect extension
to our Guana Island experience. Diving with UBS, we had the boat
and dive-master to ourselves for up to six hours. How you spend those
six hours is “up to you,” as Tony, the owner of UBS told us. On the
first day, Tony met us at the Guana Island dock in a boat that could easily
fit six divers. As Max and I climbed on board, Tony asked us a few
questions about our diving experiences, and what we were looking for in
a dive site. For our first dive, we explored “Muskmelon Wall” – the
area under and near the Iguana rock on Guana Island.
 Max: Tony told us that for eight months of the year, the north swells off Guana Island limit the Atlantic side diving. We happened to be on the island during the four month summer window. For our first dive, Tony took us around the main dock to Iguana rock. While the visibility on the Atlantic side is not as good as the Caribbean side, we had an amazing dive. Jumping off the boat, we landed in the midst of clouds of bait fish. As we swam, the bait fish broke in different directions as if we were flying through a cloud. The cloud erratically dispersed when a formation of twelve five-foot tarpon swooped through the fish. Meanwhile, a spotted eagle ray glided on the other side of this scene. Our dive continued through gullies and underwater boulder formations. Where on land, we would have to scramble around the rocks, underwater we could glide in and out, over and under the nooks and crannies of the rocks. When we finished our dive, Tony pointed to the
other side of the bay, and casually mentioned that a ten-foot long bull
shark had recently been sighted there. Would we be interested in
diving there tomorrow?
 Corinne: While diving the Atlantic side of Guana Island limited our visibility a bit, we had the chance to see some fairly large fish that we don't normally see on the more protected reefs: schools of tarpon, lots of rays, and the possibility of seeing the shark that Max obsessed over during the trip. Max: The whole day, I fussed about the possibility of diving with a shark. I guess whenever we dive there is always that remote possibility of having a shark encounter. However, usually in our experience, it is a nurse shark in all likelihood, or a small reef shark. The possibility of seeing a mature bull shark both intrigued and terrified me. Corinne:
“The Bull Shark is considered by many people to be the most dangerous
shark alive. Its close proximity to populated shoreline areas and its aggressive
behavior makes it extremely dangerous to humans. Despite the notoriety
of other sharks such as the Great White and the Tiger Shark, the fact that
they live in deeper ocean waters makes them less dangerous.”
Max: Statistically, I know about the low odds of shark attacks -- we were more likely to get run over by a Mac truck -- but something about the remoteness of the island preyed upon my imagination. The next morning, we greeted another divemaster from UBS, Scott, at the dock for our second day of diving. We went to one dive site along the North side of the island where there was an underwater cavern. The thought of dealing with the swell inside a dark cavern did not appeal to us, so we passed on the dive site. With that, Scott took us to the next closest dive site right off of Long Point, which happened to be where the shark had been seen. As we geared up for dive, Scott described the dive site, and went through the dive procedures with us. He casually mentioned the shark, but he did not think we were going to see it since we were on the wrong side of the current today from where they had spotted the shark. Only when we jumped into the water did Scott mention the litany of shark encounter etiquette. “If you see the shark, stay low and don't act like a wounded fish.” The dive site is a nice shallow wall that ends
along the sandy bottom. The coral looked really nice, although I did notice
I kept checking out into the foggy blue horizon.
 Corinne: On the dive off of long point, we followed an under hang of coral – passing by all sorts of nooks and crannies looking out for moray eels, soap fish, spotted drum, and of course our bull shark. Max: As our dive continued, I chastised myself for getting worked up about seeing the bull shark. And then I saw a brown tail sticking out from a ledge. I knew instantly that it was a shark tail, and a nurse shark at that. I swam over to Corinne and gave her the shark and sign. I could see her eyes getting bigger. The three of us swam over to where the shark lay. Annoyed that we were disturbing it, the nurse shark glided away to find a more secluded spot. While both relived and disappointed about not seeing the bull shark, I was consoled that at least we saw a shark. Corinne: On our second dive with Scott, we went into a more protected
reef by Marina Cay. The little diamond reef that we explored was
full of little stuff – smaller fry seeking shelter in clumps of coral on
the sandy bottom, and several morays that had set up residence so close
to the abundant food supply. Peppermint shrimp peeked out from inside
thick blue sponge straws, collaborative cleaning stations with several
banded shrimp and arrow crabs seemed to be waiting for their next customer.
 With Dive UBS, we explored a variety of different habitats – Atlantic side reefs and nursery reefs like the one at Marina Cay. The geology around the BVI also lends itself to exploring vibrant underwater canyons. Tony took us on one dive on “Mary's ground” that was full of brightly patched canyons, fingerlets, and swim throughs. The scenes, views, and experiences of diving these underwater canyons can be really breathtaking. |