Page 568 - The Dutch Caribbean Isles
P. 568
ALLS: Dives start at 80′ or 25m and and blue runners which pulsate around you a super mall back then. Most of the wrecks
as you swim through them. There is also the of those days are buried under sand but
W coral buttresses form canyons as the possibility of penetration on the Charley there are a few in the harbor that make for
Brown wreck with its 130′ or 40m swim surprisingly good dives. While all the wood
slope off the island shelf down to the deep through where the exit is visible from the is long gone the ballast stones used to keep
ocean. Hard corals and gorgonians thrive time you enter. Technical penetrations are the ships upright have become coral and
here and while cruising along the drop off also possible on special request into the sponge encrusted and being in a sand field
it gives you a feeling of flight. We will often cable reel rooms or main engine room. • C/S they are an oasis for life. Most divers have
times drift from the wall dives to shallow Charles L. Brown length 300′ or 100 meters a hard time remembering all the differ-
lava flows covering two or three dive sites max depth 100′ or 33 meters • Chien Tong. ent species they saw while diving on the
in the process. It makes for an interesting Length 174′ or 53m max depth 70′ or 21m sites. One of the things that everyone is
dive watching the reef change from deep to • Wreck City impressed by is the number of large female
shallow and greatly extends the dive time. • sting rays which are found around the
Off the Wall • Down South • Drop off East O LD SHIPWRECKS: From the 1700′s Sta- wrecks every day between 10am and 2pm
tia was one of the key trading ports for just resting in the sand. This is also a good
M ODERN SHIPWRECKS: Statia has sev- the new world and during this time it was place to look for one of our signature fish;
eral modern shipwrecks and these ar- known as the “Golden Rock” and back in the the normally elusive Flying gurnard which if
tificial reefs are located in sandy areas. Be- day there might be several hundred ships you haven’t seen is a must.
ing isolated makes them a popular hangout of different sizes in the harbor all moving
for a large diversity of life. We will always cargo to and from the colonies, it was like
expect to find large horse eyed jacks, barra-
cudas, sting rays, as well as schools of scads
