okiejeff
Contributor
I have finally taken a little time to get pictures from my trip to Aruba last month posted.
Here are a couple of my favorites and a link to more for anyone interested.
More can be found here: okiejeff - Aruba 2009
I was only able to get 4 dives in on this trip with Clive from Dive Aruba. For anyone planning a trip, Dive Aruba is the 3rd operator I have tried. I can definitely say I would certainly use him again, followed by Mermaid Dive Center. Clive is a one man operation. His basic mode of operation is tie up the boat at a dive site, provide a detailed briefing, jump in and show you around for about 15-20 minutes, head back to the boat, and let you enjoy the rest of the dive on your own (w/ your buddy of course), and then either navigate back to the boat on your own, or drift dive and be picked up upon surfacing de[pending on the site. He will take the boat out with a minimum of 2 divers and I believe 6 was his personal limit; although the boat would comfortably hold probably 8. The most number of people on the boat during my visit was 5.
Dive locations were such that you could easily swim to the shore, but at locations not accessible as a shore dive. Dive site to be visited follow a weekly schedule that is posted on his web site. My first dive was at the plane wreck off shore from Renaissance Island and Sponge Reef for about an hour. My next dive was on the wreck of the Jane C which is a sunken concrete freighter. My third dive was a drift dive from the Jane C to Renaissance Island and my fourth dive was the southern section of Sponge reef. Total time in the water was around 4.5 hours over the 4 dives. Water temperature was 77 deg. F. If you aren't comfortable being on your own or you are new to diving I would recommend you choose someone else who can provide you more supervision; however, for those of you who dive Florida or California style...you'll be right at home. The only negatives I can say about the Dive Aruba is that you need to bring your own post dive snacks and your own water bottle. Water is provided on the boat via recycled water bottles. Environmentally it's great thing that the water bottles are not ending up in the island dump, but personally I would rather save the environment in some other manner. For the photog's water buckets are not provided for camera gear; although, I can say that I am pretty confident that if you requested one before your trip he would probably accomodate you. Also, Nitrox is available for $10/tank.
All in all the reefs are in very good condition. Amazing amounts of healthy finger coral that in one case covered an area the size of half of football field sloping from the shallows to the murky depths. Large fish are not as common as one my expect; however, I did see a couple of schools of monster sized barracuda. Lots of smaller fish (the kind that aren't spear fished) can be found in large numbers. My favorite thing of all is the orange cup coral that seems to be found everywhere on the night dives. The is very little to no current on the sites I visited. Aruba may not be at the top of your list of places in the caribbean to dive, but the diving is by all means good.
As always, if you have any questions regarding this destination you are welcome to ask.
Jeff
Here are a couple of my favorites and a link to more for anyone interested.
More can be found here: okiejeff - Aruba 2009
I was only able to get 4 dives in on this trip with Clive from Dive Aruba. For anyone planning a trip, Dive Aruba is the 3rd operator I have tried. I can definitely say I would certainly use him again, followed by Mermaid Dive Center. Clive is a one man operation. His basic mode of operation is tie up the boat at a dive site, provide a detailed briefing, jump in and show you around for about 15-20 minutes, head back to the boat, and let you enjoy the rest of the dive on your own (w/ your buddy of course), and then either navigate back to the boat on your own, or drift dive and be picked up upon surfacing de[pending on the site. He will take the boat out with a minimum of 2 divers and I believe 6 was his personal limit; although the boat would comfortably hold probably 8. The most number of people on the boat during my visit was 5.
Dive locations were such that you could easily swim to the shore, but at locations not accessible as a shore dive. Dive site to be visited follow a weekly schedule that is posted on his web site. My first dive was at the plane wreck off shore from Renaissance Island and Sponge Reef for about an hour. My next dive was on the wreck of the Jane C which is a sunken concrete freighter. My third dive was a drift dive from the Jane C to Renaissance Island and my fourth dive was the southern section of Sponge reef. Total time in the water was around 4.5 hours over the 4 dives. Water temperature was 77 deg. F. If you aren't comfortable being on your own or you are new to diving I would recommend you choose someone else who can provide you more supervision; however, for those of you who dive Florida or California style...you'll be right at home. The only negatives I can say about the Dive Aruba is that you need to bring your own post dive snacks and your own water bottle. Water is provided on the boat via recycled water bottles. Environmentally it's great thing that the water bottles are not ending up in the island dump, but personally I would rather save the environment in some other manner. For the photog's water buckets are not provided for camera gear; although, I can say that I am pretty confident that if you requested one before your trip he would probably accomodate you. Also, Nitrox is available for $10/tank.
All in all the reefs are in very good condition. Amazing amounts of healthy finger coral that in one case covered an area the size of half of football field sloping from the shallows to the murky depths. Large fish are not as common as one my expect; however, I did see a couple of schools of monster sized barracuda. Lots of smaller fish (the kind that aren't spear fished) can be found in large numbers. My favorite thing of all is the orange cup coral that seems to be found everywhere on the night dives. The is very little to no current on the sites I visited. Aruba may not be at the top of your list of places in the caribbean to dive, but the diving is by all means good.
As always, if you have any questions regarding this destination you are welcome to ask.
Jeff
