12 March Deep Bay

We've moved clockwise around the island from Jolly Harbour to Deep Bay, a small bay with a lovely sandy beach and a high end resort with anchoring in 3m to 10m. We came for a change of scenery and with the hope of diving a wreck at the entrance to the bay. There is also the obligatory walk to a fort on the hill.

Crazy us did the walk on a hot day; the path up is steep. From the top there are great views over Deep Bay and to other side over the channel into the main port, and capital, St Johns.

Deep Bay

uphill to the fort

wreck is right of centre

The day after our walk to the fort the sea is calm and clearer then we've seen it for a week so a good time for an exploration dive on the wreck in the middle of the bay. I did some researching and found that this was a cargo boat carrying tar out of St Johns in 1908. Shortly after departure a fire was discovered in the hold and the boat driven into the shallower waters of Deep Bay where it sunk. Today the top of the main mast is visible above the water and the hull sits in 8m to 10m with the bow towards the beach rising to 2m.

We tie our dinghy to the mast and drop into the water above the centre of the ship. There is much sand in the water and vis is 5m. I glimpse David's yellow fins disappearing towards the bow and follow. It is an old wreck with three masts broken off and lying to the starboard side. There's some coral growth, some fish and a couple of stingrays nestled into the sand. We do the tour, swim into the hull and finish our dive. A pleasant swim, not a bad wreck, though better visibility could have made it more dramatic.

With our kits set up and plenty of air in our tanks we did our second dive of the day – maximum depth 2.2m for an hour while we scrapped our dirty hull. It's been more than two years since we last antifouled and it is holding up very well. There aren't barnacles though there is a luxuriant growth of red algae which has been slowing our progress. We need a clean hull to sail to Grenada at the end of the week.

special sunset tonight