TimG

I’ve been to Bonaire 7 times over the years and logged 235 dives there. I like it for the shore diving and, generally, for the macro critters. I love the laid-back feeling. But, for me, the reefs are not what they were and marine life now seems a bit limited: reef fish, shrimp and arrowcrabs. Slight exaggeration I know but no big things (yeah, the odd tarpon, some turtles) and even the macro life now seems to take some hunting. Very little, if any, schooling fish. Yes, I know it usually wins all the prizes for diving in the Caribbean. But, frankly, I had to admit to myself I was getting bored diving there. By the happiest turn of fates my partner, bless her, was seconded to a job in Sint Maarten and I felt obliged to join her (NB: British irony). Almost three very happy years followed and 436 dives. Sint Maarten is another of those curious Dutch outposts in the Caribbean. Although not part of the Netherlands (Bonaire is actually a city in the Netherlands), Sint Maarten (or SXM as it’s known) is in the Kingdom of the Netherlands so similar in status to, say, Jersey or Bermuda. It has a significant international airport and is a stone’s throw from the British hold-out of Anguilla. I read that Anguilla to Sint Maarten is the world’s shortest international flight. In addition, the northern part of the island is actually an area of metropolitan France and as such part of the EU. One island, two cultures. Best part: two cuisines – the Dutch part slightly more American plus Heineken; the French part, oh la la, French. Think top quality pain au raisin or croissant for breakfast, patisserie for afternoon tea. Excellent inexpensive wines, good restaurants, great supermarkets and entrecôte…… Unlike Bonaire, Sint Maarten is hardly known as a dive destination. But if you are into macro, there are all sorts of shrimps; you can trip over arrowcrabs; lots of reef sharks, turtles, gobies looking out of crevices, loads of morays, SCHOOLS and I mean serious schools of grunts, blackbar soldierfish, snappers…. I was teaching the West Atlantic REEF fish identification course there and the place is a Caribbean fish spotter’s dream. Plenty of wrecks covered in marine life and schools of fish….. and some intriguing coral mazes which are playgrounds for divers. Yes, you must boat dive which means, probably, a max of 3 dives a day. Shore diving is, sadly, minimal verging on the negligible. If I don’t get bored after 436 dives this place has to be good, right? So if you dive in the Caribbean and you fancy a change from Bonaire, check out Sint Maarten. Pack your camera, charge your GoPro, pack your snoot. You won’t regret it. I can recommend diving with Ocean Explorers (info@stmaartendiving.com) run by a super Brazilian couple, Lu and Jef. Jef knows the reefs there like the back of his hand and he and Lu have been running Ocean Explorers for decades.