Go to an island and Dive!

The excitement built as we made our approach, anticipating the moment that the beach, the hotels, and the crowds would "fly" by our window - FLASH - for just an instant it's all there, almost at eye level.  Forty yards.  The narrow strip of sand known as Maho beach is all that separates the runway from the sea at Philipsburg's Princess Juliana International Airport on the west end of St Maarten.  Just 200 yards further there's a bump, the wheels chirp, and we've arrived.

After grabbing our luggage and a rental car, we head to the half of the crescent fronting Lilttle Bay and our home for the next week, a one bedroom condo at Divi's Little Bay resort on the small slip of land that separates Lilttle Bay and Great Bay. 

Day 1:
We head to Kim Sha beach on Simpson Bay to meet the folks at Ocean Explorers and do some diving.  Check-in was smooth - one of the owners, Lu, checked our C-Cards, we filled out/signed the "standard" waivers, and she asked if we had everything we needed. We met the other owner, Jef, who would be our captain and guide for the day.

Our gear was setup at the shop, and once checked, it was carried down to the boat and loaded. After crossing the beach and wading out to the boat, we climbed aboard the Undersea Adventures (a 28' Mako center console with twin Merc 225's).  Once loaded, the gear occupies most of the stern area, so we all squeezed onto the benches up front for the short ride to the site. We were told that with northerly winds and westerly seas, we would be staying fairly close in for the day.

After a short ride, we hooked up to the mooring ball at our first site, Turtle Reef. We were given a site brief, then 2 divers at a time geared up and entered, one from each side of the boat. The DM's helped everyone gear up and did air checks, including asking me if my computer had synced to its transmitter (I actually don't get asked this very often). Turtle Reef is a long, relatively flat reef with 5 feet or so of elevation and a wide sandy top. The site is average at best, with highlights being the turtle "Lily" and a dolphin sighting (though not by me). There were scattered hard corals, gorgonia, and sponges with typical caribbean reef inhabitants - spiny lobster, squirrel fish, a few parrots, blue surgeons, various wrasses, etc. The spotted trunkfish and a bevy of rock beauties were nice. Visibility was in the 50' range. After a nice 45 minute dive with only a very light current and a max depth of 60', my wife and I were the last up from our safety stop and after being assisted aboard, we did a run back to the shop for tank exchange.

Our second dive was around the rubble from the old Simpson Bay/lagoon canal bridge. Prior to dropping in, we were told to explore the artificial reef areas as we wished, but not to leave for the others unless guided as the bridge and two little wrecks were not visible from one another. This was a nice site with plenty of fish life. A short swim away are two small artifical reefs. Again, inhabitants on these included the typcial caribbean assortment mentioned above, plus a spotted moray, banded and pederson shrimp, a porcupine puffer, cowfish, grunts, yellowtails, etc. There is a cleaning station on a lower section of the bridge rubble - this visit saw two lizard fish lined up. In the sand/grass beds between the artificial reefs we saw a large southern stingray mostly covered and a porcupine puffer. Viz in the 50' range, this dive lasted 55 minutes with a max depth of 50'. In both cases, we were never rushed, and allowed to dive our air and computers. I would compare both of these dives to the keys, but with bluer water.

A great first day of diving and a great start to our vacation.