Travel Agent Dive Specialist - March 31, 2008 - (Page DS5) wreck diving in the islands Wreck diving offers the two-fold adventure of exploring a sunken vessel while also observing various coral formations that attach themselves to the hulls and colorful fish that swim around and through the wrecks. Here is just a sampling. Aruba: Antilla, a 400-foot German freighter, was scuttled by its crew to evade capture and sank 60 feet to the sandy bottom just south of Arashi Bay in 1940. British Virgin Islands: R.M.S. Rhone, a 310-foot royal mail steamer, was sunk in 1867 off Salt Island. Cayman Islands: MV Captain Keith Tibbetts — a 330-foot Wreck of HEMA 1, Grenada Russian frigate intentionally scuttled off Cayman Brac’s West End in 1996 — is a must. The half-submerged freighter Stingray City, which Gamma near George Town, Grand Cayman, is fun for snorkelers to explore. allows divers the opporCuracao: The Superior Producer is intriguing because the ship is upright, with its tunity to swim with more wheelhouse at 80 feet down and its hull rests at over 100 feet. than two-dozen “tame” Grenada: The most famous if the island’s 10 shipwrecks are the Bianca C., a 600southern stingrays. foot-long Italian liner that sank near the coast in 1961, and the freighter HEMA 1. St. Thomas, USVI: Cartanser, Sr., a WWII cargo ship, lays under 35 feet of water. The majority of the Turks and Caicos: H.M.S. Endymion, a 140-foot British warship sunk in 1790 off properties on Cayman Salt Cay, includes 18 large cannons and four anchors. Brac and Little Cayman Curaçao’s Healthy Haunts About 35 miles west of Bonaire is #2-rated Curaçao, which garnered top honors in the category of “Healthiest Marine Environment” in the Caribbean. The island has more than 60 identified dive spots surrounding its coastline, with 57 types of coral and more than 500 species of fish. These sites range from novice-friendly Boka Grandi, Harry’s Hole, Playa Lagun, Rif Sint Marie and Playa Kalki/Alice in Wonderland, to sites for experience divers with challenging names such as Hell’s Corner, No Way, Seldom Reef and Black Rock. In addition to having its share of shipwrecks to explore, Curaçao also offers something different at the aptly named site of Airplane Wreck, easily accessible from the Sunset Waters Resort’s beach. Car Wrecks is also a fun site, full of dozens of autos, and a great spot to take some unique souvenir photos. To really get away from it all, day trip dive operators and boat charters offer excursions to Klein Curaçao, a tiny island of volcanic rock located off the southeast coast of Curaçao—about an hour and a half by boat. Ocean Encounters Diving [www.oceanencounters.com] is a Gold Palm Five Star IDC PADI National Geographic Scuba Diving Center centrally located in the Seaquarium complex, with full-service facilities at several Curaçao resorts. Atlantis Diving [www. atlantisdiving.com], another well-regarded dive shop, is located on the Drielstraat 6 near the centre of Willemstad on the waterfront. For additional information, visit www. curacao.com. Cayman Islands: Thrills Times Three Following close behind Curacao in the estimation of Scuba Diving’s readers, the Cayman Islands are actually submerged mountain tops, so the destination boasts incredible walls around all the islands, many reaching 20,000 feet or more in depth. They are not mountainous and they don’t have rivers, so, with no run-off into the sea, reef development is not inhibited and visibility is excellent. The destination makes great efforts in terms of protecting and guarding its waters and reefs through Marine Parks and other conservation measures. Surrounded by some 60 miles of dropoffs, Grand Cayman offers more than 150 dive sites, many less than half a mile or just minutes from shore, offering a variety of reefs, wrecks, caverns, archways and swimthroughs, as well as abundant sea creatures. A must for any diver or snorkeler here is are small dive resorts that offer packages that include daily dives, meals and accommodations. Little Cayman’s spectacular diving opportunities include world famous Bloody Bay Wall. A short swim from shore leads divers to the wall drop-off, which begins at just 18 feet below the surface and plunges to more than 1,000 feet. Sponges, coral, chimneys, canyons and coral arches are abundant. Cayman Brac has more than 50 dive sites, three ship wrecks, an ancient anchor embedded in a wall, the sevenfoot tall bronze statue “Oceanic Voyagers” and a labyrinth of tunnels and swim-throughs that create an underwater “Grand Canyon.” For more information on all three islands, visit www.divecayman.ky. Grenada’s Grand Panorama Grenada‘s balmy ocean waters provide thrills for the expert divers among your clientele and awe-inspiring fun for less experienced ones as well — including families with children. Grenada has “some of the Caribbean’s most dramatic and unspoiled underwater scenery,” according to Sport Diver magazine (the official magazine of the PADI Diving Society), and Yachting magazine cites Grand Anse Beach as being among the 10 best snorkeling sites in the region Because Grenada does not cater to mass tourism, the reefs, wrecks and coral remain Cayman Islands Department of Tourism A TRAVEL AGENT UNIVERSITY PROGRAM DIVE SPECIALIST 5 http://www.divecayman.ky http://www.oceanencounters.com http://www.oceanencounters.com http://www.atlantisdiving.com http://www.atlantisdiving.com http://www.curacao.com http://www.curacao.com
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