St. Maarten Dive charters

Going to St. Maarten 1/7/05. Looking for any recommendations on dive
charters.

The best advice would be too eat in St. Maarten and dive in Saba! That being
said, I did dive with Dive Safaris and found them to be good and reliable
and reasonably priced. You will find that most of the dive sites around St.
Maarten are relatively uninspiring and not much deeper than 60' due to the
generally flat terrain around the island. No major walls nor abundent marine
life. Going to Saba by ferry will be more rewarding. I also dove with Scuba
Fun in Anse Marcel and found them so-so. Not particularily professional in
the way they monitored divers in the water. Again, not great sites. If you
are looking to buy dive gear at good duty free prices and still get
warranties not available from on-line merchants this is the place.

Before I went to St. Maarten I did collect diver's comments from a variety
of web sites and they are pasted below...hope this helps. As for
eating...tons of outstanding spots!

Ocean Explorers/Dive Safaris, Pelican Resort, Vis: 50-75 ft. Water: 86-87 F.
Dives accrued: 2000+. Dive restrictions enforced: maximum bottom time 40
min. or 700 psi, not strictly enforced. Fifth trip to St. Maarten. Leroy
French of Ocean Explorers runs a great small dive operation. Carry your gear
through the water to the boat. Expect a wet ride. Leroy will bring you to
site that no other operation is diving. Therefore the reef and fish life are
better than other sites that are heavily dived. This trip I went with Dive
Safaris on their shark dive. Only a few divers went each time. About 12-15
Caribbean reef sharks showed up each time. Feed individual chunks of fish on
a stick. On the second trip I joined the owner next to the feeder for up
close and personal photos.

Make the short air or ferry trip to tiny Saba to dive. However, if you do
decide to dive here, do it with Ocean Explorers....


Aqua Mania/Pelican Resort, February 1999, Vis: 60-80 ft. Water: 76-77
degrees. Very large Resort and Casino on Simpson Bay, on the Dutch side of
St. Maarten. Our one-bedroom unit was roomy and well-equipped but old and a
little worn. Nice restaurant on premises and other excellent ones nearby.
Aqua Mania on the premises. Personnel were congenial but they baby-sat the
divers too much. Strict regulations of depth (60 ft.) and time (40 minutes)
on all dives. Dive boat was roomy and new. Diving so-so. Large barracuda,
some eels, a ray and a variety of tropical fish.

Ocean Explorers, July 1997, "Third year. LeRoy and Dominique run a first
class operation. Well stocked store and great boat. Dive sites are healthy
and getting better each year. LeRoy and Dominique will always find something
unusual on every dive."

Leeward Islands Divers/Mullet Bay Resort, July 1995, "Resort overpriced,
staff apathetic and indifferent. Leeward Islands Divers had new building,
excellent drying facilities, friendly crew. My wife's first dive trip. The
crew did a good job of selecting dive sites that weren't difficult for the
novices, nor uninteresting for the experienced divers."

Ocean Explorers/Ocean Club, May 1995, "Excellent diving, better than I was
told. Friendly dive operation, experienced, makes everybody at ease. 10
divers with 1 instructor and 1 divemaster. Assistant stays onboard and helps
with equipment. Nice store with brand name equipment from mouthpiece to
computers. 1 guy could not dive because he had no C-card."

Ocean Explorers/Pelican Divers/Beach Side Villas, April 1995,
"Professionalism exceeds that of other operations. Reefs abundant with fish;
coral in good shape. Dives 45¬55 ft. LeRoy and Dominique provide enough
supervision and guidance to ensure enjoyable diving without being
overbearing. Allowed us to explore on our own. . . . Pelican Divers has a
nice boat, but I was unimpressed with the divemasters; too much bravado, and
not enough care for either the environment or the divers. They were
particularly rough on passing pufferfish and corals. No walls, but the
diving is enjoyable. No mooring buoys."

Ocean Explorers, September 1995, "Leroy and Dominique are great diving
hosts. Hurricanes stirred up water, but they managed to get me wet. A number
of small wrecks on their trips kept me happy. Reefs not the best for
advanced divers. Saba a 15 min-ute flight. vis: 30-75 ft. water: 81°¬83°"

Pelican Divers/Pelican Resort & Casino, July 1996, "Water: 78¬82 degrees,
Vis: 25¬60 feet. Boat left untended while divers down. 6¬7 feet nurse shark.
Took fast ferry - the Edge - for day trip to Saba: arrive, dive, eat, dive,
ferry back. $140 for ferry and 2 dives."

Scuba Fun/Le Meridien, August 1995, "Diving average. Try to get to Islet
Tintamarre or Rocher Creole. Le Meridien is lovely, secluded (Presidents
Bush and Mitterand met here in '89) with many activities. Fly to quaint
island of St. Barthelemy, where diving & snorkeling are better (10 minutes
flight or 1 hour's ferry). A 15 minutes flight to Saba, where we hiked &
dived with Sea Saba."

Trade Winds Dive Center, April 1995, "Disappointed. After first dive, the
boat returned to the dock to pick up cruisers from our ship who had signed
up for the 1-tank dive excursion. Both sites maximum of 30 feet, 30 ft vis.
Little coral, most damaged. No moorings so boats anchored at dive sites.
Divemaster assumed all divers novices, but most, if not all, at least
intermediate. 55 minutes at 30 feet, $75/person, but include all gear; no
discount for using own."



"Glenn Appleton" <gappleton@adelphia.net> wrote in message
news:<x9Gdneyy9JaWq0bcRVn-pA@adelphia.com>...

> Going to St. Maarten 1/7/05. Looking for any recommendations on dive

> charters.

"Glenn Appleton" <gappleton@adelphia.net> wrote in message
news:x9Gdneyy9JaWq0bcRVn-pA@adelphia.com...
> Going to St. Maarten 1/7/05. Looking for any recommendations on dive
> charters.
>
>

In message <5HYCd.56943$KO5.1279@clgrps13>, Ross Ruddick
<rossruddick@repswest.net> writes
>The best advice would be too eat in St. Maarten and dive in Saba!

Any comments on St. Eustatius?

My club are running a trip there in April and I'm not sure whether to go
there, or to Turks & Caicos in May.

--
Richard Faulkner

"Richard Faulkner" <richard@estate.demon.co.uk> wrote in message
news:USLCtANdVJ3BFw1h@estate.demon.co.uk...
> In message <5HYCd.56943$KO5.1279@clgrps13>, Ross Ruddick
> <rossruddick@repswest.net> writes
>>The best advice would be too eat in St. Maarten and dive in Saba!
>
> Any comments on St. Eustatius?
>
> My club are running a trip there in April and I'm not sure whether to go
> there, or to Turks & Caicos in May.
>
> --
> Richard Faulkner

My pick would be T&C.