Dinghying to the main dock and a short walk to the JVD health clinic, there were seven people in line ahead of us. Once things got started (the porch had to be carefully swept first, etc :-), it didn't take all that long. The swab procedure is still pretty stinging, but I'm holding out hope that it will be our last one.

Our scuba trip was scheduled to begin 9:30, which left time for a quick coffee at the Tipsy Shark. Ordered Cappuccinos, but the espresso machine was acting up so we had to settle for drip.

Afterwards we got our rental equipment at JVD Scuba and had a chat with the owner who is a long time JVD resident and business owner and expressed passionate misgivings about the coming protocol changes, because as it stands the arrival quotas of 120 air passengers and 50 ferry passengers remain unchanged, making the relaxed protocols somewhat moot if people are finding that they are unable to get transportation to the islands. Apparently, BVI residents who want to travel to USVI are now finding increased motivation to get vaccinated and vaccination rates are increasing, but these day travelers are also taking a large share of the incoming travel quota when they return. Incoming ferries are booked out for months.

Having done all our diving with Sail Caribbean Divers, there was quite a contrast in how this dive was run. It was a fairly small boat (with no head), but the biggest difference was that we were 5 customers to one dive leader who also drove the boat. We have never gone on a dive excursion where someone did not remain onboard. The equipment was all a bit older as well.

The other three guests were quite inexperienced, so the first dive a fairly shallow (40'-45') dive at Sandy Spit. One guest in particular used his air supply rather quickly and my wife and I were signaled to stay together and continue diving on our own while he returned the other party to the boat. Not exactly worrisome, but we weren't quite mentally prepared for it.

One bonus of going with a different outfit is that the sites were unfamiliar to us and the second site "Playground" is on the back side of Green Cay and deeper at around 75'. One of the other party elected to stay on board, possibly because he was self conscious about having cut our first dive short.

This was a really nice dive, we were approached by several small reef sharks, spotted an eagle ray and most remarkably, a manta ray - the first we have seen outside Hawaii where they are attracted with lights.

We left Great Harbor early afternoon and mostly motored back to Norman and picked up a ball near the Willy T.