Curacao Sunshine
Contributor
- Messages
- 632
- Reaction score
- 66
- # of dives
- 200 - 499
Couple of disclaimers here....
I like not carrying tanks around and go for the ease of Alice In Wonderland but Gustele is right, Westpunt Bay/Piscado is an extension of the same reef and just as nice. Throw in exploring under the fishing boats on the way in and it adds another aspect. I snorkel from the dive shop home.
I once did not go on a boat dive in Puerto Rico because of conditions. When David got back he said a woman had slipped on the ladder. She did not fall off but the ladder scraped her shins. This is always in the back of my usually carefree brain. The East Coast is almost never flat and the "getting hit with a ladder or boat" scare is just another reason not to go with Ocean Encounters.
We went with Neils of Dive Charter Curacao. I'd like to be real cool and say I leaped from the helicopter but, no... we went on his Zodiac. The seas were rough and we never made it to the point. Our first dive was near The lagoon at the end of the island. We spent our surface interval in the lagoon looking at giant star fish. This was my favorite of our 2 dives; with large elk horn, stag horn, even pillar corals and different varieties of fish I had to look up when we got home. Our second dive was near Awa Blanku. It was another spectacular dive with nurse sharks, the biggest porcupine fish I've ever seen and my first ever sighting of a manta ray. The seas were rougher when we surfaced and it was a challenging experience to get into the boat. Lets just say Neils and his crew have very strong arm muscles....
Would we go again? Not just the 2 of us. I am an admittedly not a 6AM kinda girl. With the morning traffic, it's an hour and a half from Westpunt. But with friends looking for something special, most likely. There were 6 of us. We had all been diving together, had great air consumption and were not likely to panic so we had 2 fantastic 70 to 75 minute dives.
We'll go with JD and family to San Juan this year and wait until the boys are a little bigger before taking them to the East Point.
One other note. Ocean Encounters will be the dive op at the New Hyatt in Santa Barbara. I would like to think they would go to the farther east end sites often. I would estimate that leaving from the Hyatt instead of Lions Dive would cut off 45 minutes of boat time, one way. Neils leaves from Spanish Waters near the Hyatt.
I like not carrying tanks around and go for the ease of Alice In Wonderland but Gustele is right, Westpunt Bay/Piscado is an extension of the same reef and just as nice. Throw in exploring under the fishing boats on the way in and it adds another aspect. I snorkel from the dive shop home.
I once did not go on a boat dive in Puerto Rico because of conditions. When David got back he said a woman had slipped on the ladder. She did not fall off but the ladder scraped her shins. This is always in the back of my usually carefree brain. The East Coast is almost never flat and the "getting hit with a ladder or boat" scare is just another reason not to go with Ocean Encounters.
We went with Neils of Dive Charter Curacao. I'd like to be real cool and say I leaped from the helicopter but, no... we went on his Zodiac. The seas were rough and we never made it to the point. Our first dive was near The lagoon at the end of the island. We spent our surface interval in the lagoon looking at giant star fish. This was my favorite of our 2 dives; with large elk horn, stag horn, even pillar corals and different varieties of fish I had to look up when we got home. Our second dive was near Awa Blanku. It was another spectacular dive with nurse sharks, the biggest porcupine fish I've ever seen and my first ever sighting of a manta ray. The seas were rougher when we surfaced and it was a challenging experience to get into the boat. Lets just say Neils and his crew have very strong arm muscles....
Would we go again? Not just the 2 of us. I am an admittedly not a 6AM kinda girl. With the morning traffic, it's an hour and a half from Westpunt. But with friends looking for something special, most likely. There were 6 of us. We had all been diving together, had great air consumption and were not likely to panic so we had 2 fantastic 70 to 75 minute dives.
We'll go with JD and family to San Juan this year and wait until the boys are a little bigger before taking them to the East Point.
One other note. Ocean Encounters will be the dive op at the New Hyatt in Santa Barbara. I would like to think they would go to the farther east end sites often. I would estimate that leaving from the Hyatt instead of Lions Dive would cut off 45 minutes of boat time, one way. Neils leaves from Spanish Waters near the Hyatt.
