Subaqua Sternal Rubs

This morning, along with three other medical students, I went scuba diving. Yes, for those stalkers that know my schedule, that means I missed lecture. I remind my readers that 1) I was able to coerce 3 others into deliquency with me, and 2) I scored above the mean on recent quizzes.

The first site was the wreck of the King Mitch, about 6 miles south of Grenada in open water. Due to this there is usually a pretty consistent current, making it an attractive home for sharks. Formerly a US Navy minesweeper, the King Mitch was a 200ft long inter-island cargo vessel carrying concrete. (Incidently, there are 3 other wrecks of concrete-carrying cargo vessels around the island, so this doesn't seem like a good business to go into…) It sunk in 1981, after a bilge pump failure. It currently rests in 120ft of water, so Nitrox came in handy Despite there not being any coral or reef fish, this was a very good dive. We saw a number of reef sharks hanging out on the bottom, a school of large barracuda, a group of 3 eagle rays "flying" through the water, and even a large turtle. The instructor even saw a reef shark, but he said it swam away after hearing all of us jumping in the water. (The instructor went down first with a DPV to secure a descent line so we wouldn't miss the wreck due to the current.)

The second dive was to the wreck of the San Juan, a rather small (80ft) fishing trawler sitting in 90ft of water, about 2 miles south of Grenada in the Atlantic. Again, this means there is generally a moderate current, and nurse sharks like to make this their home. We saw 3 large nurse sharks, and 1 smaller baby nurse shark, as well as a stingray and Atlantic Spade Fish cruising around the wreck. This boat was carrying a load of whiskey and cigarettes when it sank in rough seas in 1975. However, the survival of all the crew, the nature of the cargo, and the misreporting of the final position lead one to believe it was scuttled instead of sunk of natural causes.

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