January has been fantastic here in St. Croix. Our first week was filled withcritters, beautiful weather, gorgeous dives, and fantastic people. A few new faces and a lot of Juliet regulars came together and made for a near-perfect week. Dives at the pier, endless seahorses, turtles, critters galore. One diver found a gorgeous orange seahorse on King’s Reef. On our night dive on the Swirling Reef of Death we were treated to not one but three tiny baby octopus – somewhere nearby a clutch of eggs must have hatched!
Conditions in Butler Bay and Cane Bay were outstanding, with visibility approaching 100 feet. We took advantage of the good weather and dove our hearts out until Wednesday when we were forced to hang out on the West Side of the island due to strong winds.
The following week, a large and very uncommon ground swell kicked up, making conditions a little uncomfortable and reducing visibility in some areas. Luckily, the next group of passengers were super laid back and dedicated to ridding the world of lionfish so we spent a good amount of time hunting on drift dives on the sheltered west side – and also hunting for a calm place to sleep at night. Local Cruzans told us (thankfully!) that this crazy ground swell was a one-in-eight year event so while we’re happy to be a part of weather history, we were more excited when it was all over. We had a great time and got some pretty cool photos to prove it! You can see videos on our YouTube Channel.
