The VIERS wetlab and dock was located on Great Lameshur Bay.  This was the starting point for most of our snorkel and diving trips... Here, we wait with our equipment for Sandy in the Sadie Sea to come pick us up.  The SCUBA divers in training also started off the open water dives in Great Lameshur.  We had to watch out for many long-spined sea urchins, and the water was quite murky near the dock as we inexperienced ones stirred it up, but it was a good first experience. 

Then for our last open water dive, we boarded the Sadie Sea and went to the Tektites at the mouth of Great Lameshur Bay.  In 1969, the Tektites were built by NASA, Navy, and Department of the Interior, and General Electric Co. to examine the effects of confined living similar to space travel.  Only a few concrete platforms are left today, but the whole area was teeming with life.

One night, we also hung a large diving light off the dock to see what would be attracted to the light.  We managed to catch a baby barracuda about 2 inches long, several leptocephalous larvae (immature stages of eel, tarpon, or ladyfish), many hyperied anthropods and crustacean larvae, and one baby crab about a millimeter wide but seen to be fully formed under the microscope.

The dock was also a great place for star gazing.  With almost no light pollution, the stars dazzlingly bright and clear.  The constellations were generally the same as up north, since St. John is still in the Northern Hermisphere, but the closeness to the equator does throw off the star charts a bit.  Here is a printable star chart from Sky and Telescope for March 2001.