Saint Martin Grand Case Check Dive?

[Alucard]

Was wondering if someone could help me out - we had to change our dive vacation plans from Saba due to some surgery and have ended up in Grand Case on Saint Martin. I have been able to dive for a while and would like to do a quick check-dive in the afternoon when we get there (this coming Sunday, in fact). We are staying in Grand Case and will have a car. Is there some place convenient and sheltered that is good for a quick weight check, etc? Nice dive a bonus, but not mandatory.

Any tips would be appreciated.

Thanks.

 

[DeputyDan]

Do the turtle reef dive site with Octopus diving!

It's out in the Grand Case harbor - not a lot of reef structure but ALOT of food sources that turtles like. We saw 10 - 12 turtles when we did that dive as the second of a two tank dive

the first dive was creole rock - which would appear to be a hit/miss on what you see - it was our first dive of the season so we were happy just getting wet - a great dive Nope - good dive maybe - Ok dive yes - and a good check out dive site!

Neither dive is deeper than 50 feet - creole rock is probably 35 feet

 

[Alucard]

OK, maybe I wasn't clear - since we'll be getting there in the afternoon, the idea is to do a check dive from shore, rather than pay for a boat - I like it because it allows me to get the"feel" back, sort out my gear and weights, etc, and to review the safety drills with my dive buddy without wasting the time of the others on the boat.

So - is there a good SHORE dive I can use as a check dive?

Sorry about the confusion.

 

[Tjack]

You could do a dive in the bay off Grand Case, lots of yacht moorings out there might find some stuff. Be careful of boat traffic though.

 

[marcaumarc]

Grand Case Bay is pretty much all sand and seagrass. There are no reefs you can realistically reach from the shore. As mentioned above, there are moorings with morays and arrow crabs, etc. There are also stingrays and sometimes a turtle here or there, but not too much.

The most interesting spot is the pier, which has tons of decorator crabs and blennies. If you scroll down to the bottom of this page there is a description and links to lots of photos:

Grand Case Bay Area | Les Fruits De Mer

Also on that page are descriptions of everywhere else one might snorkel around Grand Case, but there's no spot with reef where you would really want to lug scuba gear.

If you do go in the bay, be very careful of boat traffic. Ideally, I think one should have an SMB deployed the whole time.

 

[Alucard]

OK thanks for the information - don't have an SMB yet because we always boat dive so far.

Definitely appreciate the info.

 

[Alucard]

Just wanted to follow up on this, now I have returned, with information that might be useful to others in a similar situation.

We had a great time diving with Octopus Diving in some challenging conditions - definitely not the best diving I have done, but certainly one of the best small dive outfits. If I get the chance later I shall post more.

But as to the check dive thing, according to the folks at Octopus, the regulations on the French part of the island say that all divers have to be equipped with a guide. Therefore no shore dives without a guide.

That having been said, the guys were great at giving us a nice easy couple of first dives to "get our feet wet" and get me back into the routine again.

I would heartily recommend them to anyone visiting Saint-Martin/Sint Maarten.

 

[Tjack]

No diving without a guide on the French side, mais non?

 

[frostfire]

We just came home from Sint Maarten. I was truly shocked by the absolute lack of coral and reef structures. Losts of little man made wrecks with sea life, but nary a speck of coral (except fire coral!), sponges, etc.

 

[Alucard]

frostfire, I am very surprised - I don't know which dive sites you dove at but we saw fairly abundant coral at every site we went to. Where were you diving?