The festive holiday season kept Sail Caribbean Divers busy both on and off the boats. Now, with many of the bareboats back in their marinas, and the cruise ship traffic slowing down, we have a week to catch our breath and offer our first posting of 2014.
Our new retail and equipment rental facility at the Mariner Inn and Marina, home of the Sunsail, Moorings and Footloose charter boats, proved very popular with visitors heading out on a Christmas sailing trip.
Cooper Island Beach Club recently extended their facilities and opened an impressive new boutique and coffee shop. We have a new retail shop and rendezvous dive booking office in the prime spot next to the two. Throughout the last few months, many people have discovered diving for the first time on the Cooper Island beach. Dive boats departed the Cooper dock, and the compressor was kept whirring throughout December.
Moving west to Salt Island, the Wreck of the RMS Rhone was even more spectacular than usual in the first week of January. A resident dolphin was flipping and clicking his way around the wreck and our divers for a whole week!
Next stop Norman. After a devastating fire destroyed the Pirate’s Bight Restaurant in October, they wasted no time building a temporary structure to house the restaurant and a new Sail Caribbean Divers shop. Tank fills, beach training sessions and plenty of rendezvous dive trips have kept a dive buzz around the Bight.
Six new PADI instructors joined the Sail Caribbean Divers team in October and have been finding their feet and exploring the beautiful dive sites around the BVI. Marcus from Sweden, Kelly the Aussie, Mickael from France, Emily from the US and Gina and David from the UK make up the new multi-national team. Turtles, nurse sharks, octopuses, and that friendly dolphin have made them feel very welcome! Most of the regular faces remain, however we will be wishing Dale farewell at the end of this month. He is off to explore the waters of the Pacific.
Back on land over Christmas the annual Sail Caribbean Diver sleigh ride through Road Town was a great success, unfortunately our darts teams were not so successful. Best of all was Melisande’s famous Christmas dinner; we were filled with Turkey and festive cheer.
We are anticipating a busy and successful year ahead as CooperIsland continues to grow, NormanIsland continues to re-build, and Sail Caribbean Divers continue to dive, dive, dive. Happy 2014 and we look forward to welcoming you on board our boats very soon.