After diving at the sculpture park and SeaTrek we went to our next site, The Bridge, which would include a Shipwreck.

So the history here, the old Simpson Bay Bridge was sunken in 1995 intentionally to create an artificial reef and dive site after a new and larger drawbridge was built to accommodate a mega yacht. It sits in approximately 55' of water. Rumor has it that a very wealthy mega-yacht owner wanted to bring his boat into the protected area of Simpson Bay but the drawbridge couldn't accommodate his ship. So, after some monetary "encouragement"...a new, bigger bridge was built and the remains were dropped in the water at this dive site. Since it has been there for so long, if you didn't know ahead of time that it was a bridge, you definitely wouldn't be able to tell now. Marine life has taken over and it's hard to tell what you are looking at. I mean it's been there for 20 years now!

Also at the dive site is a sunken ship, the SV Nightingale, that was a party boat for a popular floating bar named JabJabs and is 85' long. It was sunk in the Simpson Bay Lagoon during Hurricane Irma in 2017 and lifted and then taken to the dive site and sunk again to create an artificial reef habitat.

Here is what the boat looked like when it was in business (not my picture)

After Hurricane Irma, it sat in the Simpson Bay (not my picture):

Once they raised her from the ocean floor (not my picture):

We were told that we would probably see sharks there for sure. Wait, what???? About that time my heart sank. I don't want to see any sharks unless it's a nurse shark. Nope, they were talking about reef sharks. My anxiety kicked in and the hubby and kids were excited to see sharks. Me, not so much.

Our dive instructor was complaining that she didn't want to do another dive. She kept asking Daniel to go instead. He said he didn't have his equipment and someone needed to man the boat. She said he could borrow hers. He disagreed. Then she started saying she was cold. Cold? The water is 85° and it was hot out. How are you cold? She was making excuses at this point. I mean she even had a wetsuit on.

We were told that since this was a deeper site and that the water was a little more wavy in this area, we would be using a line to go down. They wanted us to hang on to it as we went down one by one. We were also told about the barnacles that were on the ropes we would have to touch. No worries, they won't do anything to you but poke back into their shells as you pass by.

Now mind you it was around 5:30pm at this time. The sun was mostly behind the clouds and you could tell it was getting later in the day. Later in the day, less sun, going down 55' meant the pictures were going to be horrible. The deeper we went, the worse it got (picture wise that is).

The next thing I noticed was my watch went dead. Are.you.fricken.kidding.me.right.now? I swear I was just not having a good day equipment wise. Everything was going wrong. Now I'm not going to be able to log my dive and see my results and would have to rely on the instructors. Blah!

Ok you certified divers, in you go! Sakari and I back flipped off the boat and waited for the Discover "guys". We grabbed ahold of the line and it was time to go down. Of course I'm immediately looking for sharks. I mean I still had ahold of the line and could pull myself back up quickly and head for the boat in fear right? Nope, no sharks. I also looked over at Karl and you could tell that fear had sat in now. He became nervous after looking down and seeing how far down we were going and the water being a little more wavy. He said "Give me a minute" as he tried to compose himself. It instantly brought me back to the time this happened to me in Cozumel and I had a freak out moment and the dive instructor yanked me down...several times. It was the worse experience I've ever had. Going down before you are ready is just a disaster waiting to happen and unsafe. You are taught this when getting certified. Don't go until you feel comfortable and it's ok to forego the dive if needed. Thank goodness we all waited for him to get comfortable and then he followed the instructor down, then the hubby, then myself and Sakari behind (or I should save above) me.

Ok, I'm now focusing on the Smooth Gooseneck Barnacles on the rope. She wasn't lying when she said there would be a lot. They were actually kinda cool to look at!

They have a black stalk that attaches itself to the rope. Then there's the shell that contains the muscle, mouth and stomach. Then you will see little black things that resemble feathers and those are their legs that filter food from the water.

Down we continued on the barnacle filled roped.

I know she said to hold the line all the way down but I'm now certified and I have practiced going down not holding the line many times during our open water check off. I felt comfortable to let go and just continue descending. I thought I did pretty good. Yep, still building my confidence.

I'm going to warn you now, my dive pictures during this dive were HORRIBLE. The sun was going down during our dive and it was pretty dark. Then factor in how deep we were and the deeper you go the more color you lose. I had to lighten a lot of the pictures otherwise, you would see a lot of dark BLUE instead. I'm going to be looking into getting a case for my camera so that I can slap on a filter for deeper diving. That's my next goal. Oh, and another camera to replace the other one that stopped working. Well, it actually works again but the hubby completely forgot to grab it on this dive.

We immediately spotted a boat. I'm not sure the history of it but did read that they have several down there.

Sakari still wanted to be in charge of the GoPro this dive so the hubby was getting off easy. I think she's like me, she has to have something in her hands when diving to capture everything...although this dive, she would miss the most important thing. More on that later.

There would be a lot of the gigantic stingrays down here too. They were just everywhere on our dives and so huge. This one thought he was hiding and had covered himself with sand.

Then we went over to the SV Nightingale. It was huge and interesting to see.

Then we spotted another Pufferfish coming out the wreck. They are so cute and have such cute personalities. They are very curious too.

Then we went over to The Simpson Bay Bridge. They did say if you didn't know what it was you'd never be able to figure it out and boy was they right. It was just piles of rubble with sea life in it but really cool. It would be the closest thing we would get to a reef while diving.

A bunch of Sergeant Major Damselfish and Blackbar Soldierfish in this area.

Then I look over and see Karl who looks like he's having a seizure...he's flapping his arms and legs and looking really odd....then he points...

IT'S A BLACK TIP REEF SHARK!!!

Oh my gosh they were right...we WOULD see a shark. I guess they frequent this area.

It was just swimming by and minding his own business. It came and it went and Sakari was NO WHERE TO BE FOUND! Did it eat her? Like where the heck is she with the GoPro??? Ok, now I'm considering getting yet another GoPro so that I have my camera and a GoPro with me at all times. I did end up taking a video with my camera, but I've said it before and I'll say it again, it's a camera and that's what it is intended for. Just because it also has a video button doesn't mean it takes good videos...because it doesn't. But, I will see how it turned out and what I can do with it.

I can't believe I wasn't even scared when it was swimming by us. I had worked myself up for nothing. I was actually excited when I seen it. I will admit that I kept my eye on it until it completely passed. Then there were several times I kept looking back to see if it would return unannounced.

Ok, back to The Bridge.

The instructor had motioned us over and was pointing. I was busy looking at something else...something real important in my opinion. It had to be more important than what she was looking at right? I kept trying to get Sakari to come over to see.

I had spotted a grouper, but...look at its friend. Can you see it poking its head out with its mouth open right beside it?

It was a Spotted Moray Eel. I was super excited to see it. Sakari had made her way over and I was looking down at it from on top of the ship and she was looking at it from down below and on the sand. She was able to get a lot closer. A little too close for my comfort.

Our instructor motioned Sakari to come over to show her what she was showing everyone else. I went with her. The instructor held her hand out briskly, giving the STOP sign. Um ok. We can't both see it? Sakari looked and then the instructor motioned me over. She pointed and I looked. I looked at her and looked again. I had no idea what she was pointing at. I gave a sign like I didn't know what she was wanting me to see and she threw her hands up in the air (actually water but you can picture what I mean) and waved me away as in "Never mind" and swam off. I thought it was pretty rude the way she did it. I already knew she didn't want to do this dive and she acted agitated but man...come on.

I waited for her to swim away and got in closer and then I could see it was an Octopus in the rocks. I took a few pictures but all you could see was one of its arms. Can you spot it?

Almost everywhere you looked you would see tons of Goatfish lined up on the rocks. It was so cool to see them all. Sakari kept pointing. She was thrilled with it too. I've never seen them do that before and so many of them everywhere.

Tons of schools of fish in the area. They were just everywhere and you could swim right through them.

A spotted Grouper:

Then we spotted a VERY LARGE Lobster under a rock. It was bigger than the one we had seen back at the resort. By the time I could get a picture it had curled up and pushed itself back as far as possible.

So many fish in the area. It was awesome.

I decided to make these photo's black and white. I thought they turned out cool.

I was able to capture another lobster while we were down there.

A big school of fish was swimming by:

Then out of that school of fish something else emerged and was coming my way:

It was a Barracuda. Now we had been warned that there is a rather LARGE barracuda that hangs out down here and they call him "Barry". Barry the Barracuda. However, it was not this one because although he was large, it wasn't that big compared to other ones we have seen in the past. However, this one started following me...like right beside me.

He seriously wouldn't leave me alone. Barracuda's usually won't do anything to you but they are very curious. I do know that one thing that attracts them is anything flashy. I'm not sure if he was curious about my camera? I was actually getting pretty nervous. My hubby was swimming beside me and completely oblivious to what was on the other side of me. I started picking up the speed in my kick to try to get away. I grabbed the hubby and pointed. We both picked up our speed...and so did Barry Jr. He came right up to me. Oh my gosh is he going to eat me? I like my arms and would like to keep them please.

I put my camera and arms tucked under me and kicked like I was in a swim team race going for the gold. By the time I reached the ship wreck he had stopped and then finally left me alone. Geesh! I've never had one follow me like that before.

A few more pictures of the shipwreck...

A large French Angelfish:

A Spotted Trunkfish:

Another Stingray trying to hide in the sand.

Ok now I'm going to show you Sakari's picture's used with the GoPro. They turned out more like what we were actually seeing instead of the crappy one's I ended up with using my camera.

Large Puffer Fish

Stingray. Man they were so big.

When Daniel had told us that Barry the Barracuda lived down there Karl was super excited to see a Barracuda. He kept saying how he wanted to see one. Sakari caught him looking up and....he found one! He would later say how exciting it was to see it and then I told him my story of the one following me and how not so excited I was. Maybe this was Barry the Barracuda? He was kinda far away so I'm not sure.

More of her pictures of the ship and bridge. Don't they almost look spooky?

More Goatfish hanging out and a Parrotfish swimming by.

Just look at all these fish!!! They were just everywhere.

The hubby decided he was going to swim through them and they parted ways for him.

Just look at how close Sakari got to this Spanish Hogfish! Like they trust her or something. This fish was following right beside her and actually went up underneath her. "Are you my momma?" You'll see it in the video. It was so weird.

She was able to get close to this Golden Coney Grouper as well. I have never seen this grouper before (and I can't say I seen it this time either darnit). So pretty and unique. Just look at his freckles. 😆I think it was a little more nervous about her being so close (as you will see in the video and the way it was moving its eyes).

A group of Blackbar Soldierfish.

Lobster

French Angelfish

Smooth Trunkfish

A Bi-color Brown and White Coney Grouper. Pretty cool looking and the lobster under the rock.

Well we were being motioned to go up. I guess our dive was over. It felt so short and I could have definitely stayed down there a lot longer exploring. One last picture of Sakari's before we head up.

We were told to use the rope going up and of course more Barnacles to touch.

After getting back on the boat I asked how long we were down there and she replied 38 minutes. Seriously? Only 38 minutes? Why so short? I was a little disappointed in this and we had plenty of air left over. I felt a little ripped off on this dive. According to my pictures (I always take one when we start and one when we end) it actually said we were only down there 32 minutes...which is even worse.

Here's a video of our dive. You won't believe the amount of fish that were under there. That was pretty amazing! Then that shark....eek!

So just for reference...this dive would cost us...for us "certified divers" it was $160 each. For the Discover Scuba Divers, it was $200 each. Then since we went to the sculptures, which is a National Park, he said they charge $20/pp to enter. So that was a total of $800 for all 4 of us to dive plus when using a card, we were charged another $35 fee. It's definitely expensive to dive for sure. I'm still waiting to see if all the money I paid to get certified is going to save us money in the long run. So far, it has saved me a whopping $80. Go me! (Being sarcastic of course)