Sea Dragon
is here!
She's a Newton 36 Dive
Special that is custom fit for diving in the British Virgin Islands.
Sea Dragon will be powered by a 500 HP Yanmar diesel engine, will have
freshwater showers, a water level swim platform, upper level seating and a
marine head. This boat is based at our Virgin Gorda Yacht Harbour
location and we look forward to showing you around a great boat!
Joe and
Jeff traveled to Slidell, Louisiana in June to pick up Sea Dragon and drive it
to Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. They had a few adventures along the way.
Excerpts from their journey to be added soon. Here's a few pictures to
hold you over! Stay tuned to get more of the story.
Monday, June 6, 2005 Slidell Louisiana
Here's a shot of Brian and Tommy finishing up
some installation on the boat prior to our departure from Louisiana. The
guys at Newton Boats went above and beyond to help us out and they turned out a
fantastic dive boat in a short amount of time. They worked in the middle
of some heavy thunderstorms to get Sea Dragon ready for us to head out.
On the sea trial Saturday, we had a recorded
speed of 24.1 knots. Not too bad for a dive boat. I'm sure our trips
to the Rhone will become even more popular now! The boat handles extremely
well and is a very dry boat. That is until you stand under one of the twin
shower heads for your post-dive freshwater rinse.
Wednesday,
June 7, 2005 250nm from Tampa FL
We are making
great time crossing the Gulf of Mexico. The water is freakishly flat.
We've seen several varieties of dolphin, fish and even a manta ray! This
is going to be a long day as we left Dauphin Island Alabama and are going to
Tampa FL. Almost 400 nautical miles and 22 hours in order to make this
jump. Glad I brought my hammock along!
Sunset on the
Gulf of Mexico
Not much to say
about this one. A very memorable experience with no one else around.
This one is going to stay with me for a very long time.
While passing through the Okeechobee Waterway,
we were blessed with rains from Tropical Storm Allison. I didn't get many
pictures of this portion of the trip due to the heavy rains, high winds, and
otherwise fun conditions. I believe that it rained for 36 hours straight
and there was this one particular cloud that followed us the whole way.
July 19, 2005 - We met another tropical system on the trip over
from St. Thomas USVI en route to Virgin Gorda that dumped inches of rain, 50 mph
wind gusts, and a tremendous display of lightning. We were really excited
when we made that last turn into the marina and saw everyone standing in the
rain welcoming us back home.
After adding a few things, we think we've got
the nicest dive boat in the business now.
Sea Dragon - cruising the Baths on Virgin Gorda
DIVE BVI
