SCUBA Dive Travel - British Virgin Islands (BVI)

Non- Smoking Travel - Well, some will hate it, some will love it, but the fact is that in May 2007, the BVI government passed new smoking regulations. According to the new law, smoking is no longer permitted in hotel rooms, bars, restaurants, buildings and open-air facilities. To accommodate smokers, most hotels and other businesses have set aside "designated smoking areas." Need to know more about the SCUBA diving the British Virgin Islands and BVI vacations? Email me at AtlantisWWT@yahoo.com.

SCUBA Dive Travel - Lake Tahoe, California

Yes, that’s right – I said Lake Tahoe. As a travel agent specializing in SCUBA dive travel, I enjoy sending clients to exotic locations where they bring back tales of 150 foot vis and amazing reef walls. But I would be remiss not to include locations that may provide SCUBA dive travelers with a unique, and possibly close to home, experience. So, recently, I journeyed to the Sierra Nevada Moutains to dive the cool, crystal waters of Lake Tahoe. We were shore diving from Meek’s Bay Resort, a great little undiscovered find, on the west side of the lake, just 15 minutes north of Emerald Bay. The resort sits along a perfect crescent of a bay with the beach running almost true north to south, which makes underwater navigation super simple. The beach is long, but narrow with only a few steps to waters edge - I’ve walked further on some dive boats to get to the water. The lake greeted us with clear, pale blue water in the shallows to the intense sapphire color in the deeps that is usually associated with the Caribbean. The small bay is relatively sheltered and even when the wind decided to gust a little and send the beach umbrellas for a ride, the bay only received minor ripples. Buoys mark the 100 yard wide swim area, which runs the length of the beach and provides a smooth, sloping entry into the water. A leisurely due west surface swim takes you to the middle buoy where you can descend to the sandy bottom at about 15 feet. Continue finning west, away from the beach and you’ll find the bottom gradually dropping away to the abyss that is the bottom of Lake Tahoe. Choose your depth, hang a left, and head north over the slanting bottom. On my first dive, I was surprised by two things. One, was the clarity of the water. The visibility was amazing and the sunlight penetrated the water to dance across the sand and boulders on the bottom, even at depth. The other thing that really astonished me was that I was not cold! Being from northern California, I know cold water and I know I don’t like it. But bottom temp in Tahoe was around 67 degrees and I was very comfortable in a 7mm farmer john wetsuit, jacket and hood. I started my day with gloves, but decided later on to leave them behind and never really missed them. Even the hood was optional, and not all the SCUBA divers in our group wore them. So what’s to see when SCUBA diving in Lake Tahoe? The underwater sights are drastically different from salt water ocean. The Meeks Bay environment is vast and open and serene. After descent, I found myself gliding deeper over a barren sandscape, punctuated by enormous, submerged tree trunks with thick arm-like branches sticking out at all angles. The trees have been submerged for countless years and have taken on a ghostly, unearthly look, but on closer inspection, I discovered that they are the alpine lake version of an artificial reef or, in Tahoe terms, crawdad condominiums. Vast numbers of crayfish, or crawdads, live on, in and under the submerged trees, as well as any other submerged object they can find. As we approached the logs, threatened crawdads would hunker down in their knotholes or come racing out to stand their ground with mini-lobster claws raised in defense of their home. Because of the proximity to the beach swimming area, the crawdad’s natural predators avoided the area, allowing them to become prolific and grow to sizable proportions, some closely resembling small lobsters. When surprised, or spooked, they would leave the bottom for the open water, rising in a cloud of herky-jerky, backward swimming shellfish, moving away from us as fast as they could fan their tails. Further north, the sandy bottom was littered with gigantic boulders, some with mammoth tree trunks laying crisscrossed over them, providing short swim throughs and boulder swim arounds well worth exploring. The boulders gradually give way to rock fields that eventually led to shallower water. I was impressed with what SCUBA diving in Lake Tahoe had to offer and I’m ready to try out other nearby mountain lakes when the fin-jitters have me itching to get back below the surface. A word of warning though – Lake Tahoe sits at an altitude of 6,250 feet above sea level, so DO NOT dive this, or any, high mountain lake without first completing the PADI approved (or other equivalant training) High Altitude Specialty course. But I hope wherever you are, you’ll take the opportunity to experience all the wonders a high mountain lake has to offer.

TRAVEL INFO: Lake Tahoe sits in a mountainous basin, surrounded by high peaks covered to the timberline with pine trees. The State line runs north to south through the center of the lake, dividing the Golden State from the Silver State, so that at the southern tip, you can actually cross the street from California and enter Nevada. And you know you’re there. Four huge casino hotels, Harrahs, Harveys, Ceasars and the Horizon occupy the first few blocks of Nevada and are the only high rises visible from across the lake. This brings a wide range of accommodations to the area - from rooms at the casinos, hotels and motels within walking distance, or at most, just a short drive from the gambling, nightlife and headliner shows - all while still being no more than 30 minutes from the dive site. Nice. Tahoe also offers an assortment of tourist attractions. Rent a jet ski, take a tram to the top of Heavenly Valley ski resort for postcard vistas of the lake, ride a horse, hike, rent a mountain bike, dine on a paddle-wheel river boat, or just drive around the lake. For more information about Lake Tahoe travel click here You won’t be disappointed with all Lake Tahoe has to offer. Shameless self-advertising - If you need more information about SCUBA diving, Lake Tahoe, or would like me to book you a room, cabin or lakefront chalet, email me at atlantiswwt@yahoo.com or click here to visit Atlantis World Wide Travel.

SCUBA DIVER TRIP “NEED TO KNOWS”: First - THERE ARE NO AIR FILL STATIONS IN THE LAKE TAHOE BASIN.

There are no SCUBA shops and the nearest air fill is in Reno, over an hour away. Plus, I was unable to find anyone who actually knew where the air station was or what times they were open. So, suffice it to say, bring all the tanks you’ll need for the trip with you. Four tanks per person works, since at altitude you really only want two dives a day, and that works well for a weekend. Don’t forget your save-a-dive kit and any other extra goodies you might think you need. Better to carry the extra gear and be able to keep diving when disaster strikes. Second – At Meeks Bay Resort.

There is a $10.00 per car day use entry fee. You can pull right up to the beach to unload and then move your car to the very nearby parking area. During summer weekends, there is a snack shack serving the usual burgers, fries and such. There is also a small general store that has sodas, sunscreen, ice cream and assorted provisons you might need. Port-a-potties are available along the beach (very well maintained) and two "real" restrooms are inside the store.

Bring a tarp, sheet or blanket to lay your gear on when you get out of the water at Meeks Bay because it is, well, a beach and sand gets in, and on, everything. Of course, you can bring a blanket for you, too, and beach chairs and ice chests with cold sodas are a welcome comfort during surface intervals.

Lastly, Meeks Bay is a resort in the truest sense of the word. While not luxury accomodations, fully equipped cabins and rooms in a long "bungalow" are all steps from the lake and offer fabulous views. A little far from the nightlife of the casinos, but you can really recharge your batteries at this wonderful spot.