St. Martin/Maarten

[SailNaked]

seems many questions answered already, so I will just second diving with scuba fun. very responsive, great crew, and they pick up at the local hotels. if you like diving with sharks turtles and rays then St. Maarten is great. the landscape is full of the usual Caribbean sea life including soft and hard colored corals, the sea may be a little rocky on the surface but rarely a current underneath. there may be other diving in other places but nothing lost diving on st. maarten.

 

[rick00001967]

it was posted above that caribbean dive college may not be open any longer. this is not the case. they are located neir the cruise ships in phillipsburg

CORRECTION......we just returned from st maarten last sunday and it seems the cruise ship dock location ran by caribbean dive college has been taken over by octopus diving. michel apparently is now working for them. this has happened just recently

 

[LarryHinDC]

if someone would explain the cab ride that is from the saba airport to the harbor would be helpful.

The cab ride is more like 30 minutes than 45 minutes. To give you a taste, here is a link to a video of the cab ride from the airport to the dock (sped up, of course!). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kC5jVbkv4og

 

[jlevine]

Larry,

What a great video! Thank you for posting this! This made my day!

 

[BHB ScubaTroll]

We're in Sint Maarten now. We have a place over at Divi Little Bay. There is a shop onsite here, but we opt to dive with Ocean Explorers at Simpson Bay.

When we shore dive out of Little Bay we get our tanks here onsite, make our way over to the SNUBA area and enjoy the underwater sites there.

We are diving on Wednesday and Thursday with Ocean Explorers. We are doing a jet ski tour tomorrow and finish off the day with a Sunset Sailboat tour

 

[Kmart4321]

+1 for Ocean Explorers. Group of 6 with 3 crew in water. 1 guy was soloist that went off fishing on his own. Group of 4 was one DM. I had a DM assigned to me. Slow relaxed pace.
They will organize shuttle from shop to shop

 

[BHB ScubaTroll]

Some photos I took yesterday during our dive with Underwater Explorers out of Simpson Bay

No, not all shots were of sharks... These sharks were only 3 - 4 feet and just learning to be sharks, which made them more informational when it comes to humans... and while the last picture might look like she is touching the shark, that is not so. It is an illusion based on how she has her hands folded behind the shark.

 

[jonhall]

Nice pics Jim!

I will be in St. Maarten on Oct. 24. Unfortunately my friend and dive buddy suffered a heart attack and won't be going, so it is just my wife and me. Haven't decided which dive op I'm diving with yet, but will probably now go with someone around Great Bay or Little Bay since those areas are closest to where I will be staying (Guana Bay one week and Little Bay the next.) Would have probably gone to Ocean Frontiers if buddy was going.

Question for you CoolTech or anyone else. My wife had an ear issue 3 years ago and gave up diving, but I'm hoping to get her to do a shore dive. How was shore diving in Little Bay? What type of depth did you get to where you went? Anything to see?

 

[BHB ScubaTroll]

Nice pics Jim!

I will be in St. Maarten on Oct. 24. Unfortunately my friend and dive buddy suffered a heart attack and won't be going, so it is just my wife and me. Haven't decided which dive op I'm diving with yet, but will probably now go with someone around Great Bay or Little Bay since those areas are closest to where I will be staying (Guana Bay one week and Little Bay the next.) Would have probably gone to Ocean Frontiers if buddy was going.

Question for you CoolTech or anyone else. My wife had an ear issue 3 years ago and gave up diving, but I'm hoping to get her to do a shore dive. How was shore diving in Little Bay? What type of depth did you get to where you went? Anything to see?

You are in luck. The point between Little Bay and Great Bay hosts the SNUBA area. This is a great "muck" dive especially when a cruise is in port. They usually SNUBA at 9:00 AM or 11:00 AM. You are looking at 20-25 max feet, but will see a submarine, airplane, helicopter and a bunch of people walking a PVC course. It's a blast to watch and even more fun to swim through those things while the cruise ship people watch you do it in amazement!

It is well worth your time to rent a couple of tanks and make your way out to the point (It looks further than it really is) and you get in 5-15 feet all the way out there.

We did a snorkel out to it today. We just got in from that... and some drinks at Gizmo's (By the way, Gizmo is a Parrot onsite, she can get bored and walk away from the bar at times, but look for her and ask about her)

 

[rick00001967]

"dive adventures" picks up at divi little bay as well if you want to boat dive on the outer reefs