St Marteen, St Bart and surrounding islands

[tadzio]

I would like to reccomend St Eustatius (Statia). big range of dive sites and good dive ops. St. Maarten has good diving if you know who to go to, avoid cattle boats.

 

[Scubadonna]

scrub island off of anquilla. GREAT dive.

and for a really nice but easy dive, Little bay in anqulla. nice for any snorkelers you have with you as well.

Oster deep wreck Anquilla is nice.

I dove St. Maarten but didn't enjoy the diving.

 

[oddswiz]

Hi

Chartering a cat in St. Maarten, you will have a blast. I am going to try and give you some must dives, and then you can ask me specifics if you like.

Must dives are Saba, Statia(St Eustatius), St Maarten/St Martin

Saba
Diamond Rock
Eye of the Needle
if the weather allows Green Island

Statia
Charlie Brown
Double Wreck

St Maarten
If the weather allows
Hens and Chicks
Tintamare aka Flat Island

There are a couple tid bits of info that i think you need to know. Saba is located 28 miles south of St Maarten. It is pretty easy to get to and basically if you are leaving from Philipsburg, you would just head south. Based on the fact that you are chartering a cat you might be leaving from oyster pond or possibly Marigot.

If you are departing from Oyster Pond, you would have to go right past Hens and Chicks heading south to head towards Philipsburg. If you are heading toward Marigot you would have to pass Tintamare aka flat island on the way there from Oyster Pond.

I would recommend heading to Saba first and then on to Statia. It will make for an easier sail if you take that route. In January it will more that likely let you run with the swells most of time.

If you would like to see a list of St Maarten Dive Sites check out

If you have more questions please let me know.

Regards

Jason
stmaartendivers.com

 

[boston-todd]

Does anybody know if there are surface buoys at each of the dive sites around Anguilla, St. Martin, St. Barts and St. Kitts?

 

[rickcavanaugh]

I sailed around st martin about 6 years ago. We had tanks on the boat.

We were not able to dive much due to an uncommon north swell. This mucked up the water pretty bad and the surge was very strong. Not safe diving conditions.

What we did see was not impressive. There was one or two islands off of Anguilla that looked promising, but we were unable to dive them for safety reasons.

they are Prickly Pear east large shoal and reef to the north and Sandy Island (surrounded by reef). Seal Island reef could be dove, but you will need to keep someone in the dingy as you dive.

 

[Michael31]

St. Martin has surface buoys so that anchors do not damage the dive sites. I am told that it is first come, first served, so leave early.

 

[Docc]

I recommend Chris and Sally:


Octopus Diving - Scuba Dive in Saint Martin