What's up at Caribbean Dive College

Returning to Sint Maarten from a three week vacation in the USA I was lucky enough to be on time for another Sunday Funday. This event which takes place every last Sunday of the month is one of the special treads the Caribbean Dive College offers to local and visiting certified divers. On the menu are; reduced rates for a two tank dive trip, visiting special more remote dive sites, BBQ on the beach, plenty of (exotic) drinks, good music, great Caribbean ambiance and the renowned Sint Maarten friendly island happy faces.

For this occasion we deviated a little bit from the regular menu which is always good to do every now and then. Of course the diving was on there, but food this time was provided for by 12 metres restaurant who did a great job on that. The exotic drink this time didn‘t earn its name from its origin (Holland), but more so from its composition: vodka with a mineral named ammonium chloride dissolved in it. Commonly this rare mineral plays a role in the refining of precious metals like borax, silver and gold. NH4Cl is also used as a flux in the soldering of stained-glass windows. In Europe this stuff is named salmiak and there it finds its way into cookies and candy. Anyway, the bottle was empty before it touched the table and left memories that will last. Thanks to Trevor for the generous donation of this special drink! Let´s go into the diving earlier this Sunday!

The normally very reliable windguru.cz website predicted a calm ocean so at 10.00 AM we set sail to the small rock islands known as hen and chicks. Due to a passing thunderstorm the ride out there turned out to be wilder than anticipated. Nothing our old but trustworthy boat Peter Pan and captain Mich can´t handle though and the group of some 12 divers was delivered safely to this great dive site. Knowing this site is very rich in coral diversity and other marine life, everybody was geared up and ready to enter the 30C 86F water in no time. After entering the water I immediately noticed the high water temperature. Bad news for our reefs! Let´s hope for some colder currents coming our direction before real damage is done. This will also scare potential passing hurricanes away from the island. After these short thoughts we went down in smaller groups led by Abbey and Hillarey. Trevor navigated both groups to the crater. This not so easy to find place got its name from the volcanic crater like shape. The feeling dropping down from the edge into this relatively deep and dark hole is so special. On our way down we encountered a big school of juvenile fish under the overhanging edge of the crater. Half way I looked up to see a group of medium size tarpons (3 to 4 ft long) that was keeping an eye on us from the surface. This was the second time that I saw a group of tarpons at this dive site and that makes me very excited about this place. In the crater we found a cute baby drum fish which is always worth mentioning. We left the crater thru a narrow canyon on the other site to do some more exploration of the reef. Coming out of that canyon and overseeing the colors of the reef and the fishes, I had to remind myself to keep tension on my mandible. Not actively thinking about that makes my jawbone drop down and my regulator swim away from me! It´s just so beautiful out there. Unfortunately the thunderstorm that was harassing captain Mich on board the Peter Pan casted its shadow over the already dark crater so I left my camera unused on this dive. After 55 minutes Abbey and Hillarey launched their surface marker buoys and after our safety stop we ended a great first dive.

For the second dive of this funday we did a drift towards a site called the Maze. Mich found somebody (again thank you Trevor) to guard the boat and supervise from above so he could join in for this one. Mich geared up in a way to small BCD and had to improvise with fins but he made it work. Even after thousands of scuba dives he is still very enthusiastic to do one more.

experimental site mount

Shortly after reaching the bottom Mich decided that diving a to small BCD provides the perfect opportunity to experiment with sidemount diving. This kind of configuration is growing in popularity in the TEC and cave community. He gave it a try and actually made it look like this regular BCD was designed for sidemount purposes.

Mich must have seen this one comming

Half way thru this second dive we found ourselves surrounded by the big stuff. Two curious reef sharks were circling us at ever smaller distance. We decided to stick to that spot to offer the sharks a chance to explore divers even more up-close which they slowly and prudently did.

reef shark taking a closer look at us

At the end of our 10 minute playing time with the reef sharks, additionally two nurse sharks joint the party. That’s two times two sharks, Mich and myself! Sharks are very friendly and beautiful company. We were able to take close up pictures and continued to explore more reef before ending yet another great day of diving the reefs of Sint Maarten.

nurse shark swimming by

We badly need to do a better job to protect these impressive predators. They are of vital importance to the ecosystem of the reefs. Although we encounter sharks on many of our dives, also on Sint Maarten sharks get killed (see archive in this blog).

If you were not there this time, make sure you don´t miss the next opportunity to join a Sunday funday at CDC.

Marc