Guide to Scuba Diving from Your Yacht
| DIVE SITES #12, 13 and 14 |
DIVE SITE
#12 - St. Barthelemy / St. Barths (French)
LA BALEINE OUTSIDE GUSTAVIA HARBOUR
Depth:
24ft -
57ft 1 7m - 17m CORAL PINNACLE
Yacht
Anchorage:
Anchor off Ans de Corossol or off Fort Oscar. Both are
well protected in normal trade wind conditions, but can
be rolly in northerly or westerly swells. Corossol has a
nice beach while the Fort Oscar anchorage is a shorter
dinghy ride into Gustavia Harbour.
Dive Site:
Anchor your dinghy over the shallow patch (24ft /17m)
north of La Baleine, which is the small rocky pinnacle
which just breaks to surface ESE of the navigational
(Cardinal) buoy shown on the sketch chart. This is an
excellent dive site with very pretty hard and soft
corals and plenty of reef fish. Here you will see giant
barrel sponges reaching to five or six feet in height.
Sea
Conditions:
This dive site is only affected by strong trade winds
and rare onshore winds, or northerly and westerly
swells.
DIVE SITE #13 - St. Barthelemy / St. Barths
(French)
NONSTOP WRECK OUTSIDE GUSTAVIA HARBOUR
Depth:
2Oft / I6m to top of keel of upside down wreck and 50ft
/1 5m to sand bottom next to wreck.
Yacht
Anchorage:
The same as for Dive Site #12.
Dive Site:
The wreck of the Nonstop lies just to the east of La
Baleine. The 200ft Nonstop, which was a well known,
luxury motor yacht, sank during hurricane Hugo, the
centre of which passed approximately 40 nautical miles
southwest of St. Barths during September 1989. After
unsuccessful salvage attempts, Nonstop now lies upside
down with its bow pointing approximately south and its
upper superstructure crushed. Many varied hard and soft
corals have taken hold on the steel hull and the wreck
is teeming with a large variety of reef fish. Do not
attempt to penetrate the wreck and exercise caution as
this wreck is reported to be breaking up as of August
1997.
Sea
Conditions:
As per Dive Site #12
DIVE SITE #14 - St. Barthelemy / St. Barths
(French) GROS ILETS
Depth:
30ft-45ft / 19m - 13.5m
Yacht
Anchorage:
The same as for Dive Site #12.
Dive Site:
There are two white buoys for dinghies but please note
that Gustavia dive clubs have preferential use of them.
This is the best easily accessible dive site in the
Gustavia area with very pretty hard and soft corals and
abundant reef fish. This is also an excellent snorkeling
site.
Sea
Conditions:
As per Dive Site #12.
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A guide to
SCUBA DIVING FROM YOUR YACHT
In the waters of St. Maarten / St. Martin
and the surrounding islands |
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Dive Where You Want When You Want!
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