Our first dive would be in approx 90' of water, with a bottom time of around 25mins and a short 3min decompression stop at 15-20'. They brought me a shorty 3mm wetsuit, and I forgot how nice it was to go with a dive outfit -- they take care of everything. Oh-! I forgot: Just prior to the dive boat picking us up, I moved the Madrid east about 2 miles to Little Bay. This would allow for prime snorkeling while Mike and I were diving. So back to the dive! These guys were great, they rig up your tank, BCD, and even put it on for you. They give you your own dive computer and flashlight, and help you enter the water if you want. After each dive they have fresh oranges waiting for you too! In the Navy I always kept oranges in my dive locker for after each dive -- really helps get that salty/parched feeling out of your mouth. So after donning our dive gear we entered the water, swam over to the buoy, and when our guide instructed -- we descended. Visibility today was only about 50'. So after descending for about a minute, the wreck slowly came into focus. Pretty eerie and exciting! The wreck's name is Commerce, and we saw lots of lobster, coral and schools and schools of fish. The wreck was pretty old, but we could still identify most everything. Mike even found the decaying remains of a vehicle, with 4 rubber tires, onboard the Commerce. Perhaps they were transporting a car somewhere. After a while it was time to return to the surface, and after handing our gear up to Pete and getting back onboard we enjoyed some fresh oranges. Pete shot us over to the shelter of Little Bay while we hung out and off-gassed/decompressed between dives. The ocean was windy (20-30kts) with lots of white caps everywhere. Little Bay was significantly calmer. We spotted our crew snorkeling in there too. Looked like they were having a great time!
When we came around the stern and worked our way along the wreck we came to the giant portion of the bow. It had literally ripped or torn off the other center and aft part of the ship, and sat at an angle with the bow pointed towards the surface. In the shadow underneath the opening I saw a large barracuda circling/stalking almost predator-like in the dark shadow. Personally, these fish are right up there and slightly beneath sharks on fish I'd rather not swim with. They have big teeth and are attracted to flashy things like a watch, ring or other jewelry. This large barracuda kept circling and disappearing into the dark of the shadows of the inner hull -- very dark in there. Then I watched as our guide followed right into that area as well. He disappeared in the darkness. His dive buddy, Josh, then went in, and I saw my dive buddy, Mike, go in too. I reluctantly followed, and just as I was eclipsed by the darkness of the shadow I saw that barracuda come shooting out with incredible speed! He took off, and I was happy. I turned my flashlight on and could see our guide up ahead making his way towards the more forward part of the bow. He then went up through a little hole in the inner hull, about 30" or so in diameter. We each followed, but it was a very dark tight fit and you had to twist and slightly turn to fit through with your tank on. Once up and inside the bow, we explored with our flashlights. The only way out was back down through that little hole. After a few minutes, with 4 divers in that space, things silted up quite a bit. The only light coming in naturally was from a few portholes, but once the silt kicked up it became even more dark. We slowly swam and felt our way back to the hole we came in through, and each one of us then inverted our bodies to go back down through it head first. Risky going up in there, but it certainly was exciting! Metro must've had a lot of confidence in us as divers.
A little while later and after touring the outside of the hull again, we started our ascent back to the surface. One thing to mention: After spending all that time inside the wreck, our bubbles had accumulated enough such that the old steam pipes and exhaust stacks trailed a long stream of fine bubbles after we exited that space. It looked eerie and cool at the same time, having those bubbles pouring out of that wreck. Once on the surface we had some more oranges and returned to the Madrid. Pete pulled right alongside and dropped us off. About that time the others who had gone snorkeling in Little Bay had returned so we quickly made ready for sail.
winds up to 30kts. Gabe was Captain today and did an impressive job of keeping us wing-on-wing without any problems at all. Then we practiced some man overboard drills, and while it's a little more tricky to swing the bow around, for example from a beam reach across the wind to a broad reach, with a little practice and crew members manning each of the lines we were able to dial in the maneuver. For me, this kind of thing is a lot of fun! I enjoy tacking and maneuvering the boat skillfully. Mike R.'s instruction is great and he always seems to have a very experienced handle on the situation at all times, even if things don't go as planned. After finishing up our M.O.B. drills we made a straight shot into Marigot Bay and set anchor as the sun was setting. We had dinner onboad of delicious orange roughy and mahi-mahi. After a long, packed-full day, we all went to bed shortly after dinner. The 8:15am bridge opening tomorrow will have us up at 7am and underway by 7:30am. The bridge opening is a small window of time, and the boat needs to be returned by 11am so we can't miss it. The narrow channel of the bridge gets the nerves pumping as our beam will only have a few feet on either side to get through. We had a pilot from the charter company take us out through it, but looks like we'll be taking it in ourselves tomorrow morning. Time to rest up. 
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