My first dive day was at Nags Head. This is a reef that has formed at the end of the island and starts just 200 yards from the rocky cliffs.(The reef got its name from the shape of a horse's head that the rocks form.) This makes the conditions here very changeable. You can have good viz and no current one minute, then surge and poor viz the next. We lucked out and the viz was 80 feet. Besides the usual suspects, like parrotfish, damsels and wrasses, we saw lots of nudibranchs. I tried to get some pictures of the Flamingo Tongues, but I lost the framer for my macro lens, so I could watch them, but I couldn't shoot them. Our dive master beckoned to us to come over and he showed us a White Tangled Bryozoan, a small colonial animal. They look like a bird's nest.
My second dive day was at Monkey Shoals. This is an extensive reef with interesting mounds, that from a distance appear to be the shape of monkeys. I found this amusing, since the island has a large population of Green Vervet monkeys that live in a variety of environments, from the rainforest to the arid areas on the other side of the island. We found a lobster hole here, which held so many of the "bugs" that they were walking upside down on the ceiling of the hole. They were crammed in there. Fortunately they were young and small, so the "hunters" in our group of divers had to let them be. We saw a beautiful pair of scrawled filefish, gracefully moving along with us. They seemed curious and followed us for a while, but when I tried to get close they sped away. The highlight of the dives for me was being able to add a new fish to my sightings list. I was trying to get a picture of a small damselfish, and put my hand down in the sand to steady myself, when I looked down at it and saw to my astonishment, that I had nearly put my hand onto the back of a Spotted Scorpionfish. His camoflage was perfect. Needless to say, I would have not been happy if I had stuck my hand on his spines.
Considering that St. Kitts was hit hard by Hurricane Georges, the corals were in decent shape. The last two years have been difficult for the reefs. Beside the hurricanes, the volcano eruption on Montserrat sent ash to St. Kitts. Last year you could see the ash coating parts of the reefs.
If you would like more information on St. Kitts and Nevis go to my links page and look at A Well Kept Secret."
