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Our first day of diving. The plan was to be out of the condo by 7 am to make our 7:45 check-in time. Sounded logical. It was only about five miles. Of course, it was rush hour and took us much longer than we figured. By the time we had arrived the people who ran Ocean Explorers were not happy. They hastily had us sign in, hustled us into our gear, and got us on the boat. The shop is run by a Dutch lady and her husband. She is a taskmaster, barking orders and not tolerating delays. She didn’t smile at me until the third day that we dove with them.
All was well once we got on the boat, however. There were just us and two other divers along with two divemasters, an excellent ratio. The other two divers were Zander, who looked like he might be from the island, and a South African young man who was a first mate on a boat and was going for his Divemaster certification. They were both friendly and cool. The dive masters were both young Dutch guys who were all business named Liam and Robin. We did exactly what they told us to do. Thus, all we had to do was put on our masks and fins, let them strap on the tanks, and in we went. The weather was fine. The wind was down and the water was like glass compared to yesterday. This is the southern end of the island and out of the prevailing winds. It was a short boat ride to the dive sites, probably less than ten minutes.
The dive sites are shallow, with a maximum of 50’. So we were able to do two dives without a surface interval. The highlights included pieces of a broken bridge that formed a nice reef, a sunken sailboat, a stingray, many barracuda, two octopuses, Lionfish, feather stars, huge schools of small fish, and a couple of curious sharks. The first dive site was called “Bridge”.
The second was called “Pitufo”. Pitufo is a shallow, flat reef. It doesn’t look like much but despite its sparse size, it supported a great variety of different species. Saw Lionfish, a lizardfish, many sea biscuits that carpeted the bottom, many barracuda, and schools of smaller fish. Plus, I got a first-hand up-close look at a small reef shark when I stuck out my GoPro selfie stick towards him. He literally came right at me and bumped the camera. I found out later that it probably thought that I had food (or I was food?).
After we surfaced, it was again a quick ride back to the beach and a few minutes to change clothes.
Susan’s Comment: While the guys were diving Jean and I explored the Simpson Bay strip. There was virtually NO sidewalk so we walked on the side of the road looking for shops and really just to see what we could discover. Coffee seemed like a good idea so we stopped at the Sint Maarten Yacht Club which overlooks the canal / lift bridge that connects Simpson Bay to the Caribbean. It was amazing to watch these HUGE yachts just barely glide through the canal. There was a big line of boats and yachts queued up to get through the canal, which resulted in a long line of cars waiting for the lift bridge to go down. It was a bit of a tangled mess. I was happy that we were sitting having coffee and just watching.
After coffee, we ventured to the other side of the bridge and discovered what looked like a public fish market. They had tons of lobsters and more were being brought in! It seems like lobsters are everywhere on this island! We looked in a few more shops then worked our way back up the Simpson Bay strip toward the dive shop to meet the guys.
The girls were waiting for us when we got back. Ocean Explorers is within a small cluster of bars and restaurants so after getting changed, we decided to have lunch right there at a little rib and chicken joint. The food was good and plentiful. We had a lot of leftovers. Afterward, we decided to check out Maho Beach, the beach at the very end of the runway to the airport. The planes swoop in barely 100’ above your head. It is quite spectacular and a great photo op. Unfortunately, it is also world-famous, meaning there were a million people there and nowhere to park. We decided not to fight the crowds and traffic and tried to extract ourselves from the mess. It was a clusterfuck.
The one road out of there takes you right through the middle of Phillipsburg which is a maze of roundabouts and aggressive drivers. It takes forever to get through. We eventually made it home, by now exhausted and ready for a break.
We decided to eat in tonight. We have a couple of day’s worth of good leftovers. We made a quick stop at Bread and Butter for more pastry delights, beverages, and cheese. Had a sumptuous dinner and then just enjoyed the rest of the evening on our porch. It didn’t take long for everyone to drift off to bed. It’ll be an early morning tomorrow.