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Netherlands Antilles Caribbean Sea Playa Porto Marie
This is a small private cove and beach with a small entrance fee. The beach
is long and beautiful and you can spend a day diving here.
It’s a short swim to a double reef system that is very similar to a large
oval fish bowl. You can dive around the inside of the coral bowl or on the
outside of the coral reef on the wide-open ocean side of the coral reef.
It’s easy to navigate and on the far side there is a natural opening or
break in the reef about 10 meters that acts like a gateway to the open ocean.
Just follow the reef from the inside of the bowl to the outside then turn around
follow the reef back to where you started. Easy to dive and navigate. Max. depth
for us was 70ft. You could have stayed at 50ft. The water is always calm here
with great marine life. We saw several eels, a few turtles and many fish. Playa
Porto Maria also has fresh water rinse showers, Umbrellas, restaurant, bathroom
and a dive shop right there. A great day of diving, food and sun. A great place
to take divers and non-divers.
Playa Kalkai
This dive site is on the far west of the island and has a dive shop right
there. In fact you are better off renting tanks at West End dive shop and use
their shower and facilities after your dive. The rental tanks at West End are
only $6.00. It’s easy to do two dives here. The reef runs parallel to the
shore and is a short swim from the small beach. Easy parking and stairs down to
the beach and ocean. This site is the last shore dive on the island but well
worth the drive. The visibility was about 90ft. no current and beautiful reef
and lots of fish. eels, and lobsters.
more info about The Playas including maps, reviews, and ratings...
Virgin Islands (British) Caribbean Sea The reef diving in the Francis Drake Channel area is very extensive. The dive
at the Indians is not to be missed as well as Rainbow Reef and Painted
Walls . Each sight has its own character, and as is my custom, I prefer the
dive crew to pick the sights based on weather conditions and experience.
Visibility at all sights were never less than 60 feet with some sights having
80+ feet viz. Water temps were in the high 70's but my hooded vest was worn
under my 5 mm wetsuit for all dives since we were averaging about an hour per
dive.
Overall I would have to say the reefs that we visited were very healthy, with
no sign of abuse, overfishing, or bleaching. The National Park fees assessed to
dive certain areas were modest and were apparently well spent on multiple secure
moorings at each sight. Although there was an apparent lack of the 'big
stuff' like sharks and rays, we were blessed with several sightings of
smaller, but equally interesting critters.
We happened to locate two sailfin blennies in separate unattached pieces of
coral and when placed in close proximity, the show they put on for us lasted
almost 15 minutes. With sails out fully, they took turns posturing and chasing
each other in and out of the holes they called home. We finally had to separate
them as we laughed through our regs and their behavior. We also sighted several
male Jawfish (complete with a mouthful of eggs). A black spotted nudibranch was
also spotted and duly photographed and captured on video.
RMS Rhone This wreck is probably one of the most famous wrecks in the
Caribbean and has SO MUCH life on it. She sank in 1867 when she was pounded onto
a sharp rock during a hurricane. Almost everyone on board died.
The wreck of the Beata which is a tug boat sunk intentionally, where
you'll probably see sting rays as they feed on the garden eels living in the
sand.
more info about Tortola including maps, reviews, and ratings...
Aruba Caribbean Sea The Antilla was a German freighter that was sunk in
1940. The ship is 400 feet long and there is one large compartment that you can
penetrate. The viz was still low and there were tons of people and boats at this
site. The snorkel boats were there along with every dive company on the island.
The ship was neat to see but this site is way too crowded. There were groups of
divers going in all directions and it was pretty had to even figure out which
group you were with! Our DM did manage to keep our group together on this dive,
but again, we were not overly impressed with the crew. The most personality they
showed was when the boat got back to the dock and they were pointing out the tip
jar to all of us! Well, after these first 2 days of diving, we were about to
cancel some of the rest of our dives and put the money towards something else.
Fortunately, the next day we did a "South Coast" 2 -tank dive. WOW….
What a difference. The dive was great with beautiful reefs and much better
visibility. The boat left at 8:30am so you had none of the cruise ship crowd or
the resort course divers. There were only 8 divers on the whole boat. Our dive
master and boat captains on these trips were much better. We dove at a site
called The Fingers . It was a drift dive (we had never done one of these!)
The reef comes down like a finger and we went to 100 ft. There were beautiful
coral formations, sea fans, and a diverse amount of fish. The second dive was at
a site called Gino's Choice, max. depth was 60 ft. There was a neat drop
off at this site but we couldn't follow it too far down since this was our
second dive. There were large brain coral and star coral at this site. We saw
many moray eels on this dive.
more info about The wreck of the Antilla including maps, reviews, and ratings...
Trinidad and Tobago Caribbean Sea We were at Turtle Beach (Rex resort) and we went diving with the local
dive outfit on the spot at the hotel, as well as with Undersea Tobago ,
based at the Grafton Beach resort further down the coast.
Undersea Tobago picked us up from our hotel and we did a two-tank dive with
them. The Atlantic side can be very choppy and with some substantial swell even
at 25 meters, but well worth it, with masses of large fish (angels, rays, nurse
sharks, parrots, barracuda etc).
The Caribbean side, at Dutchman reef , is generally much more sedate,
but equally enjoyable, with beautiful fans and whip coral, and huge sponges.
The dive operators do not carry your gear or bottles for you. However, fair
is fair, the diving was well organized, and we had some very good scenic dives
further north.
You'll probably be sold 'the wreck'. My view is that, unless you want to log
it in your book, don't bother. It's the most boring 30 M/100’dive of a
relatively new wreck where you can swim through and that's about it.
The highlight of our holiday was to watch the huge leatherback turtles come
ashore at night to lay their eggs. Right in front of the bar, the rooms, it was
awesome. However, you are not very likely to see them except in May.
Tobago is not yet spoiled by mass tourism. Enjoy!
more info about Turtle Beach including maps, reviews, and ratings...
Jordan Red Sea The Cedar Pride is a Lebanese freighter sunk in 1986 at the wishes of
Prince Abdulha, King Hussain's son as an attraction for divers. She lies 150m
offshore and is approx. 80m long by 20m wide. Lying on her port side across two
reefs in a depth of 12-27m. It is possible to pass under the hull of the ship,
which lays across two reefs. She has been rapidly colonized by soft corals and
is home to several large sea bass, Grouper can often be spotted and she is also
patrolled by a shoal of barracuda!
Between the wreck and the shore and just off the starboard bow lies a reef
called Osama's Reef This has nothing to do with Bin Laden! The reef
slopes downward from 10m to 24m with a drop off on one side. Here can be found a
profuse and wide range of corals and fish life, including larger pelagic species
that approach the reef to feed. This site can be combined with the wreck, but
there is rarely time to explore more than a fraction of the reef and so this
site is worthy of a visit of its own.
more info about The Wreck of the Cedar Pride including maps, reviews, and ratings...
Maldives Indian OceanThe wreck of the
Maldives Victory lies on the western side of the airport-island, Hulule, precisely near the first quarter of the southern side of the landing strip. The wreck lies parallel to the reef on the sandy sea bed at a depth of 35 metres (115 feet), upright and with the bowsprit pointing north.
In the early morning hours of Friday, 13 February 1981, this 35,000-ton freighter ran at full speed onto the southern tip of the airport island. Since it had not been built with watertight bulkheads, the ship sank in the space of about an hour even though the hole was fairly small. The sailors and the few passengers aboard managed to make their way to the landing strip, only about thirty metres (a hundred feet) away; all were rescued, and none were even injured. The freighter was only ten years old, and hailed from Singapore; the holds were full of merchandise, chiefly for the tourist facilities.
Even just a few hours after the Maldive Victory sank, a great number of fish had begun to establish residence in and about the ship. For more than a decade now, the superstructures have been patrolled by a large school of batfish (Platax teira), while a number of barracuda (Sphyraena sp.) hover above the deck; those who swim around the wreck are provided with an escort of humphead wrasses (Cheilinus undulatus). Large schools of fusiliers (Caesio sp.) dart through the water, as a foreshadowing of the fact that in the pipes, passageways, nooks and crannies of this ship, one will encounter all of the animal species that can normally be found on reefs, and in grottoes and underwater caverns. During a number of dives, one will encounter a large sea turtle sleeping at the tip of the bowsprit of the Maldive Victory.
more info about The Victory Wreck including maps, reviews, and ratings...
South Africa Indian Ocean - Sodwana: The world’s southernmost coral reef is a system of parallel reefs and home to over 1,200 species of tropical fish, and is unique in that soft corals predominate over hard corals. With no major rivers flowing into the sea it benefits from near perfect visibility and diving midweek when the locals are hard at work, you’d be forgiven for thinking you had the reefs to yourself!
- Two Mile Reef: The excellent light penetration and shallow depth have created a beautiful underwater garden with a magnificent range of coral and invertebrate life. Anton’s Reef is a favourite site with dense schools of tropical fish and coral heads and overhangs forming interesting topography.
- Five Mile Reef: Five mile is an extremely delicate, large flat reef hosting an astounding variety of fine coral which is remarkably intact. The multitudes of colourful tropical fish that swarm over the reef and around divers create the sensation of diving in an endless aquarium.
- Seven Mile Reef: This wonderful little reef is popular because of its great diversity of tropical marine life, the drop-offs and mushroom shaped pinnacles. The larger specimens found here include Turtles and Rays, and there are regular sightings of bottle-nosed dolphins. The coral formations are delicate and in good condition.
- Nine Mile Reef: The dramatic scenery of Nine Mile offers drop-offs, pinnacles and big coral trees. Due to the distance from the launch site, this reef is not dived as often as the more accessible ones and is in excellent condition. The marine life is diverse and includes most of the tropical fauna typical of the region as well as big schools of passing game fish.
more info about Two mile reefs including maps, reviews, and ratings...
French Polynesia PacificA short Zodiac ride gets you to the site where there are Turtles, dolphins, and very boring coral (very dull).
The exciting part of this dive is the many grey sharks that are being hunted by the resident hammerhead and tiger shark.
more info about Tiputa Pass - Rangiroa including maps, reviews, and ratings...
Gibraltar Mediterranean SeaThere's not many dives you can do that give you two wrecks for the price of one!
We did this as an intro dive. We all wanted a shallow wreck.
This dive can be done from the shore but we did it as a boat. We headed south along the sea wall and basically where it finished we went in! You could easily find it from shore using the same rules.
There's a telegraphic cable you can conveniently follow to find the wrecks.
I was pleasantly surprised by the profuse marine life. Loads of small stuff but with plenty of fish too. The species here are hybrid Med/Atlantic.
The wrecks are both upright and small enough to explore in their entirety in one dive.
Nothing tricky or dangerous on this dive. Ideal to try out your gear before exploring one of Gib's other larger wrecks.
more info about Two wrecks including maps, reviews, and ratings...
Bermuda AtlanticThis was a deliberate sinking in the mid 80's. I haven't seen it recently but when I was on it there was not a lot of coral growth.
The boat has been stripped clean but there is still plenty of photogenic machinery inside. There's plenty to explore and worth a couple of dives. It is a most requested wreck on the south shore as it is the biggest and most intact (unless you know different).
The deck is around 60 foot so start deep and ascend later, leaving the wheelhouse till a quick swim thro at last.
There are loads of other wrecks nearby for a second dive. I'll tell you about them when I gety time!
Bermuda is a cracking place. Everything revolves around Hamiltion. Apparently there are more people per square mile than anywhere else (and most are well heeled).
It's a popular place with NY divers as it is the nearest bit of decent diving and the shortest flight. Steer clear in May/June as the humidity is opressive.
more info about The Hermes including maps, reviews, and ratings...
Jamaica Caribbean SeaThe dive starts by finning amongst coral and sponges and then you can see a gap in the reef. The opening is about 18 feet by 5 feet (be careful not to bash the coral) and as you come through you will gasp at the view. It is framed with colourful corals and sponges (almost like a window). There were several schools of fish and when they passed we could then see why the site was called the throne room. It has a sponge formation that sits on the floor in the shape of a throne.
more info about The Throne Room including maps, reviews, and ratings...
