Scuba diving day

Saturday 19 January, Statia day 2: Scuba dives on nearby reef, one with nitrox.

Today we go scuba diving, after what seems like forever since we last dived properly in Zanzibar. So we are quite excited, especially after reading that the main source of tourism here is diving driven.

We are not so excited though about the very early start, we need to be at the dive shop by 8am. Don’t they know we are retirees??Scubaqua is a very nice scuba diving center, very well equipped and run by Mike, a very friendly Dutch guy. Well, all Dutch we have ever met are friendly and funny, it must be in their DNA.

The usual drill with paperwork to sign, sort out the equipment we need etc. Then we jump in the truck and head off to the boat in the port. There are only 2 other divers with us but a crew of 3 Dutch guys accompany us, 2 dive masters and one to drive the boat. Our own personal dive master is Ralf. He has been here for 4 months and was previously a dive instructor in the Philippines.

First dive site is just 10 minutes away from the port. As we get ready Glen has a small problem… the rubber strap on his fin breaks. Well, his fins are 38 yrs old now! There are no spare fins on board but being a yachtie he soon fixes the problem with a piece of borrowed elastic.
We have to enter the water by rolling backwards off the side of the dive boat. I’m not a fan of swimming but I do like to scuba … I know, a bit odd! So surface time, in the waves with the dive boat bouncing up and down just a meter from my head is not my favorite part of the operation. But once underwater and descending, peace prevails as the underwater beauty comes up towards us. Or at least that’s how it should be. As usual I struggle to sink. Glen jokes that I have an unsinkable bum… ! But on this occasion he is wrong, it’s the extra thick wetsuit I have on that is the problem. Nothing that an extra kilo of weight won’t fix. Luckily Ralf had some spare weights with him. And soon we are at the bottom, 15m down with a nice neutral buoyancy.

The site is over an old lava flow from the last eruption 1600 yrs ago. So by now coral and life has grown over the volcanic rock and ledges. There’s lots of life and not bad colors too. We see several lobsters which don’t seem shy at all. Lovely to see how they move in the natural state rather than on a dinner plate! We also see a baracuda gracefully swimming slowly along, ready to pounce on prey. The coral is also plentiful and diverse. Being our first dive for a while we soon use up our air and we are back out after 41 minutes.

While having a rest back at the dive center Ralf explains the advantages of using nitrox compared to just the normal compressed air. nitrox is not an ideal name because it is actually an oxygen enriched blend that reduces the nitrogen content allowing you longer bottom time and less post dive fatigue. So we sign up for the training and will use nitrox on this afternoon’s dive.

In between dives we pop back to Cloudy Bay and feel VERY sleepy. Most unlike us to want a nap at midday! Let’s hope the nitrox takes away this effect.
At 2pm we are back at the dive center and soon out on the reef again. A very similar location with another lava flow covered in coral. We kind of wished they’d taken us to something different for a second dive. But at least we are more relaxed for this one and we last for 53 minutes this time, and much deeper. Beautiful sea life again and our time below passes quickly.

Back at the dive center they start making cocktails and soon we are enjoying chatting to the dive center staff and hearing all about the early and recent history of St. Eustatius. Apparently of the 2000 people living here, 600 are in “government” jobs. Salaries of course from Netherlands. Again, like Martinique (French), this support from Europe certainly allows the inhabitants to live much more comfortably than the islands under self-rule.

At sundown we say our goodbyes and head back to Cloudy Bay to study for our nitrox exam tomorrow. Only neither of us feels like studying. Instead, we feel like going to bed! We are both thoroughly pooped.
Oh, and we also plan to hike the volcano tomorrow, before sitting for the exam. Really? Let’s see.