Breezes Curacao, November 2006
Flopnfly and JohnnyCastaway
Before heading down to Curacao, I booked online with Ocean Encounters Dive Shop, they have a location onsite at the Breezes Curacao Hotel, and their main location is at the Lions Dive Resort a few minutes away by boat, or about 15 minutes walk. The Dive shop at Breezes is fairly basic, all they have there are Air tanks for the shore diving, and rental equipment for the resort. If you want to dive Nitrox on the shore dives, you need to order your tanks for the next day. The resort offers free shore diving for certified divers, and if you want to store your gear down at the dive shops lockers, you just have to leave your C-card, otherwise it's free, and saves you from hauling your gear back and forth from your room. The boats they have are nice and big, we had 20-24 divers on the boat, and for the most part had enough room to kit up and move without tripping over one another, a sort of controlled chaos. All reviews that I had read before heading down had all mentioned in one form or another that the boat trips can be rough, so beware if you're prone to motion sickness. All I can say to that is that it is true. The open water can be quite the ride, fun if you enjoy boats, not so much fun if you are not comfortable on a boat. I had a blast, as did everyone on the boat. No one turned green, nor fed the fish.
A minor glitch for the first days dive, I was supposed to be on the morning boat, but the boat came and went without picking me up. It turns out that the guys at Breezes booked me on the boat, but the people at the main store did not actually add me to the list. So to compensate, they booked me on the afternoon dive, and gave it at no charge for my troubles. While waiting for my afternoon dive, I donned my snorkeling gear and took a tour around the reef right off shore. It was the best reef I've seen so close to shore, nice schools of fish, lots of good coral, and more growing. I was really quite impressed by that first impression, so I couldn't wait to get to the first dive.
Logged Dive#62 (Dive#1 this trip)
Directors Bay: (Nov13th 2006)
It's about a 15 minute boat ride to this site from Breezes, my first taste of the wild rides. There were only 4 of us on the boat, including the Dive Master (Jeremiah) so the captain opened it up for the trip. It was a great way to start off the diving. The dive started around 15 feet, then led to a wall that dropped down to about 300+ feet. I thought the snorkeling that I did before was amazing, but this first dive left me speechless. The sheer amount of marine life that displayed itself before us as we were descending was among the best I've ever seen. HUGE tube sponges, more Christmas Tree worms that I've ever seen on an entire trip, let alone at the beginning of a dive. We followed the wall keeping to about 40-50 feet on the average, deepest I hit was 65' to get a picture of a black speckled Moray Eel. The return trip along the wall we stayed at the top of the wall, and as we approached the boat, there was a huge "cage" that now has some coral formations growing on it. It was large enough to swim through and between the bars. 
The rest of the dive was spent around the 15-18' mark, before doing the 3minute safety, then back onto the boat. An excellent first dive and a promise of great things to come this week.
Two problems, first my BCD's inflator hose blew, half way through the dive, made buoyancy control a bit tricky, and my mask leaked. My mask ended up leaking for almost all of the dives, so it's probably time to replace "old faithful".
| Max Depth=65feet | Total time=43 minutes | Normal Air | Water temp=29c |
Logged Dive#63 (Dive#2 on this Trip)
Sandy's Plateau (Nov14th 2006)
This time I made it onto the morning boat. The main dive master on the boat was Kees who was extremely apologetic for the mix up yesterday, no probs, let's just get wet! We stopped by the main shop at Lions Dive to pickup a couple more divers as well as Jeremiah and my repaired vest. Jeremiah had taken it with him yesterday to repair, and brought it back for this dive, repaired, and $10 added to my bill. Can't beat that. This time we were off to Sandy's Plateau. Another wall dive, this time you could not see the floor, I made a mental note to check my gear and secure the weight belt. Same method as with Directors Bay, we followed the wall along deeper going out, between 50-60 feet, and took the top of the wall on the return trip. 
This time there was a slight current (nothing like Coz) coming at us as we made our out but it was a gentle push on our return trip. The dive ended at 15' again (extended safety stop) where there was this beautiful shelf absolutely covered in healthy coral, and other marine life. Lots of nooks and cranny's to peer into, but the current was still prevalent at points. After this dive we headed back to the main shop for Ocean Encounters to take our surface interval. I was able to see Heather for a few minutes while she was doing her course.
| Max Depth=60 feet | total dive time=41 minutes | Nitrox 32% | water temp=29c |
Logged dive#64 (Dive#3 on this trip)
Cornellius Bay (Nov14th 2006)
This was one of the nicest dives I've done in a long time. Fantastic coral, very healthy, vibrant and mature. There were quite a few Anenomies and more Christmas Tree worms as well as Fan Worms and Feather Dusters. Each coral head had a small group of 3 spot Damsels that would challenge any of the divers that got too close, and give them a nip in the fingers, or anything else that was exposed. They weren't only going after the divers, but other fish that ventured too close. Very brave little buggers, and very territorial too. 
We came across a large propeller about 4 feet high, with a 15 foot drive shaft still attached. A short distance away was a huge old anchor, probably about 8 feet tall laying on the bottom. Looks like it had been there for a little while. Finally, there was another propeller laying on the bottom, maybe about 3-4 feet in height, this one without the shaft attached. The end of the dive was spent again at the 15 foot mark providing for an extended safety stop. Getting back on the boat from this site was a bit different as there was no where for the boat to anchor, so we all came up together, held on to the tow line while everyone tried to get on board, when the boat drifted too close to shore, the captain started up the engines (making sure we were all at least 10 feet or more off the back of the boat) and slowly towed us out to deeper water where the boat would be safer. It was a different way to end a dive, but the crew of the boat and dive masters had this routine down to a fine art, and taught us very quickly.
| Max Depth=59 feet | total dive time=53 minutes | Nitrox 32% | temp=29c |
Logged Dive#65 (Dive#4 this trip)
Shore dive from Breezes. (Nov14, 2006)
After being dropped off by the boat at Breezes and having lunch and a 2 ½ hour surface interval, I joined the group doing the shore dive in the afternoon from the hotel. Exit out the channel and head to the right (the same way I snorkeled on Monday). First thing we saw after descending was a "ball" of small silver fish (may have been Silver Porgy's or Spotfin Pinfish?) There were thousands of them, quite the site to see and be in the middle of them. More marine life and coral than I saw when I snorkeled but then the dive went a bit deeper and further away from the break wall. Coral was abundant and healthy, although not as healthy as what I've been seeing on the dives from the boat. Just at the "turn around" point of the dive,
we started seeing some tires and other debris that I'm guessing is a lead into the CarPile dive site where they've dumped cars and other debris (after cleaning any of the toxic material from them) to form an artificial reef. On the way back there was a scorpion fish hiding in between a couple of rocks, tried pointing it out to my dive buddy, but he couldn't see it. It was hard to see unless you saw the fin tips, then the shape of the fish came through. Heading back, this time we stayed under the water until we reached the doc and ladder and surfaced there. It was a nice relaxing dive, worth while doing this again. I did get a severe leg cramp at the end of the dive that ended up hurting for a couple of days. Not bad enough to stop me from diving though ;-)
| Max depth=55 feet | Total Dive time=46 minutes | Regular Air | water temp=29c |
Logged Dive#66 (Dive#5 this trip)
Beacon Point (Nov15th 2006)
This dive site turned into a bit of a challenge for everybody, starting with the boat captain. All the anchor buoys were missing so there was no where to tie up the boat, so we had to get all kitted up, and exit the boat as fast as we could (without jumping on one another) and drop down as best we could as a group. 
There was a bit of a current there so it turned into a drift dive that brought us through 2 other dive sites, with the boat following our marker. As with all the dives it started out shallow and gradually deepened until we hit the wall which dropped off over 100 feet, we could see the bottom this time. Right from the start there was a magnificent forest coral and massive sponges, Loggerhead sponges, Tube and Stovepipe sponges 4-8 feet in length! It was really beautiful to see. We had a few Barracuda's "escorting" us along this dive, keeping with in site, but just out of reach. The most impressive site on this dive was the forests of coral, it was something that you don't see on most dives. Again, we spent a considerable amount of time at the 15-18 foot depth at the end of the dive, allowing for an extended safety stop. A special treat on this dive was one of the divers on the boat logged his 500th dive. The dive masters and everyone at Ocean Encounters had given him a T-shirt to commemorate this dive, with the dive site, location and date, and signatures of everyone involved with the days dive. Kees gave a little speech congratulating him with the presentation of the shirt. Very nicely done by the people at Ocean Encounters, and an inspiration to the rest of the divers not to mention a respectable goal to shoot for. Congratulations Roger.
| Max depth=58 feet | Total dive time=50 Minutes | Nitrox 32% | water temp=29c |
Logged Dive#67 (Dive#6 this trip)
Divers Leap (Nov15th 2006)
Another amazing wall dive, but the big thing here was some massive sponges during the shallow beginning of the dive. The wall had lots of good coral on it, this time we were able to spy a lobster hiding in one of the crevices, no current to speak of so all of the photographers were able to get in nice and close and get some good pictures, poor lobster was probably blind by the time we left him. The coral formations never ceased to amaze me here, there was just so much of it, every picture just shows a small bit of what was actually there, good buoyancy was a plus here, so that you could take in all there was to see at close up. 
There were a couple of huge French Angels hanging around as well as a few pairs of Banded Butterfly fish. The big treat on this dive was near the end of the dive, out of the corner of my eye I noticed a fish coming over a small ledge, but it looked different, it had wings! It looked a bit evil at first, but as it got closer it looked beautiful. It was a Flying Gurnard, first time I'd even heard of it, but even the dive masters were excited to have seen it, as they told me that it was not something you see every day there. Unfortunately, my camera battery was dying on me at that point so it was all I could do to try and get the shot, and I got two, as well as the last shot of a Scorpion fish in the sand. Each dive just keeps getting better and better.
| Max Depth=51 feet | total dive time=54 minutes | Nitrox 31% | water temp 29c |
Logged Dive#68 (Dive#7 this trip)
Shore dive - Oswald's Drop (Nov15th, 2006)
This time in the morning before heading out on the boat, I ordered a Nitrox tank for the shore dive in the afternoon. My buddy today was one of the guys from Heather's certification course, he only did the two day course as he was flying out earlier, but he was able to get the dive in this afternoon. This was his first open water dive outside of the course. This time as we headed out the channel, we turned left and went along the other side of the reef. There was a bit of silt in the beginning, but then it cleared up once we past the opening to the marina. Almost right away, we ran into that huge school of small fish that I saw on the last shore dive, this time there was a half dozen Jacks and a couple of Barracudas preying on the edges of the school, picking off the stragglers. There was better coral on this side than the other shore dive, but still not as nice as what we have been seeing on the boat dives. Lots of the Stag horn (or Elkhorn?) coral on this side, and sponges again. A couple of large Angels about halfway through the dive, I was trying to point out as much as I could for Dan to see, as this would be his last time in the water before they left. No camera on this dive as the batteries were dead and I didn't have time to back up to the room to change them.
| Max Dept=62 feet | Total Bottom time=48 minutes | Nitrox 31% | Water temp 29c |
Logged Dive#69 (Dive#8 this trip)
Old Smokie (Nov16th, 2006)
I got a treat to go on this dive, as it's so far away from the resorts that it's not one of their usual dives, and there is no way to get to from shore, as its off private property. They had to get permission to go here today. The group that was on the boat was a dive club from the US, Ocean Encounters had arranged this special trip for them, and fortunately I was included in it. Thanks Guys! This was the best dive of the whole trip. The boat ride to the dive site was about 45 minutes, quite the ride at that. It was well worth the trip. Into the water at 15 feet, the visibility and coral was AWESOME! 
The reef was in pristine condition as hardly anyone ever dives there, and there was nothing around there to stir up the bottom. It gradually descended to a wall that was just as spectacular. Porcupine puffer fish hiding under some coral heads, not quite sure what to make of us, probably because there's so few divers that come there. Schools of Blennies, Parrot fish, Creole Wrasse and everything else you could imagine, it was like diving in someone's well stocked aquarium. If you get a chance to do this dive, jump at it. It is well worth it.
After the dive, we went through Spanish Waters and toured around the beautiful homes and properties there while we took our surface interval.
| Max Depth=53 feet | total Dive time=54 minutes | Normal Air | Water Temp=29c |
Logged dive#70 (Dive#9 this trip)
The Corner - Off Directors Bay (Nov16th, 2006)
Before we took our stride off the boat, we were reminded by Jeremiah to make sure we had our weight belts on good, and to keep a hand on it, because he didn't want to do a tech dive to go and recover them. Once in the water, I took a look down below, and it was nothing but deep, deep blue. No bottom. It was an exhilarating feeling. A short swim during our decent and we came up to the wall. Nothing short of amazing, with all of the marine life, a couple of large French Angels again, a black speckled moray in the wall, there was even a good sized crab inside one of the barrel sponges,
some beautiful Feather Duster worms, as well as some different types of coral that I've never seen before. I did spy another Porcupine puffer fish hiding under a ledge here too. Again, the last part of the dive was at the 15' mark for the extended safety stop, and then out to the boat on the surface as it couldn't get in close to the shore. The entry onto the boat was similar to what we did at Cornellius bay, this time we were pros at it. ;-)
| Max Depth=58 feet | Total Dive time=57 minutes | Normal Air | Water temp=29c |
Logged Dive#71 (Dive#10 on this trip)
The Car Pile (Nov17th, 2006)
Just off the beach at Breezes, they dumped a bunch of cars, old barges/boats, and other materials in 100+ feet of water to start an artificial reef. Of course they cleaned all the contaminants out of what was dumped. This time, it was about a 1 minute boat ride to the site. Kees during his pre-dive briefing described this dive as "something out of a Steven Spielberg movie, the carnage of a long gone civilization, and by the end of the dive you'll see the Vipers swooping down on you". It was a surreal experience. We broke off into two groups, the advanced divers who were going to 100 feet and the non advanced divers who were to stay at 60 feet. In preparation for the dive, they dropped a tank off the side of the boat, tied down at 15 feet, with regs attached, and Kees carried a pony bottle with him, and let us know that both tanks would be closed, so if we needed them, to make sure to open them first. It gave me a good feeling to see a dive operation take those precautions on a deep dive. I was very comfortable with them before, and even more so now. It's something that you never want to find yourself in need of, but comforting to know it's there. No one needed either spare bottle. The plan was to stay deepest for about 15 minutes, and then work our way back up to shallower levels and do a 5 minute safety. The Dive descends rapidly down to 100 feet (I think the bottom is around 110-120 feet, I maxed out at 102 feet according to my computer.
As you descend, you start seeing some of the junk that's been dropped down, a barge, some huge pipes, there are cars too, but we didn't really see anything that was immediately distinguishable as a car, however there were a few bumpers showing through, various divers have kept them shined up. Lots of coral is growing on the pile, but there is still a lot to grow to make it a full blown reef. Marine life was plentiful all through out the dive. Visibility was lower than what we had seen during all of the other dives, but that had to do with the depth of the dive. As we ascended Kees computer forced a 6 minute deco stop at 25 feet, which we all took as a precaution, as well as our 15 foot safety. If you go to Curacao, it's a dive that you have to do, it's certainly one of the more unique dives that you'll log. It was interesting to see on the boat, when everyone compared NDL, NoFly and saturation times on the various computers, everyone had different information. Goes to show how conservative (or not) various manufacturers of dive computers are.
| Max Depth=102 feet | Total Dive time=38 minutes (including 6 minute deco stop) | Nitrox 32% | Water Temp=29c |
Logged Dive#72 (Dive#11 on this trip)
Misha's Mischief (Nov17, 2006)
Final boat dive of the week for me, as we were flying on Sunday, and Saturday was an excursion on the Bounty. I had read up before we went down to Curacao, and there were a few pictures of the Nudibranches, so I had set a goal to see one, and take some pictures of it/them. Well so far I had not seen one. That was going to change on this dive. As with every other dive we did, the views were spectacular, I can't even begin to describe them, and the pictures don't do them justice. 
Lots of Feather dusters and Christmas tree worms, but then I started noticing other things on the Gorgonians. I realized that they were the Nudibranches, and the Flamingo Tongue Nudibranches to boot. The only problem here was that there was a bit of current, so I had to do station keeping, watch my buoyancy and try to keep the camera still to get the pictures of these little guys that are only about an inch long. It took a few tries but I got a few good shots of them. Mission accomplished. There were also a few Reef Squid hanging around, and another porcupine puffer fish, who was not amused at me following it around trying to get a picture. Those big green eyes just kept on me for the whole time. I tried to get a good picture and leave him be as quickly as I could. The majority of this dive was in the shallows again, in the 13-15 foot range, it was a nice way to end the boat dives.
| Max Depth=44 feet | Total Dive time=59 minutes | Nitrox 32% | Water Temp=29c |
Logged Dive#73 (Dive#12 this trip)
Shore dive - Oswald's Drop (Nov17, 2006)
Last dive of the week, and first open water dive for Heather who just finished her course and got her open water certification, and my first official dive with Heather. Back to Oswald's drop, this time Kees came off the boat to do the shore dive with us. Out through the channel and to the left. Kees showed us the "tomb" of the gentleman who owned the property before Breezes was there, he had a little dive shop and was very popular. When he died, they cremated him in his wetsuit, and entombed him on his reef. Visibility was poor on this dive unfortunately due to the construction going on next door, they were digging up part of the Marina so all of the silt was filtering out into the water. Heather and I were a bit too eager to go out ahead and got called back by Kees a couple of times so that we'd stay under the dive flag that he was towing. We were looking for an eagle ray that had been spotted there earlier, but there was no sign of him.
There were a couple of schools of blue tangs that passed us, as well as a school of Creole Wrasse and the Barracuda's ever watchful of a quick meal. We used the same method that we used on the boat with Kees, deeper on the wall on the way out, and along the top of the wall on the way back in. A bit of confusion and disorganization with some of the divers, as well as being all packed together in the group led to some bumping into one another. While doing the shore dives it's a good idea to stay near the flag because of the jet ski's that come out of the marina next door don't seem to even pay attention to the dive flags, let alone someone out in the water. It's unfortunate, but a fact of life there. Hopefully they will stop the idiots going out, or at least make them aware of what the dive flag means.
| Max Dept=46feet | Total Dive time=43 minutes | Normal Air | Water Temp=29c |
Summary:
12 Dives in 5 days, Total Dive time for the week: 586 Minutes (9.8 hours)
Total cost of the dives, 4 day package 2tank boat diving + repair for my BCD + Nitrox extra =$250 US
Not a bad deal, shore dives were free courtesy of the resort, still a good price. Ocean Encounters was seemed to be a good company to deal with, a couple of hiccups at the beginning with the scheduling mix-up on the boat, but they admitted their mistake and gave me the afternoon dive for free to compensate (without being asked for compensation), the dive masters Jeremiah and Kees were top notch, safety conscious and a pleasure to dive with. Boats were a good size, Water and fruits available after your dive, lots of room up top to sit while waiting. It was an enjoyable time. I would have liked to have done the Mushroom Forest and the Superior Producer, but time just did not permit. Oh well, we'll just have to go back.
I had an opportunity to do a lot of practice on my buoyancy, which made a world of difference to my photography, as I wasn't struggling to keep off the coral, allowing me to take some better pictures. As a result, my bottom time improved dramatically, with the 48-50-59 minute bottom times. (Those following along with the tables and cringing, most of the dives were Nitrox, and all were done with a computer strapped to my wrist.)
They had a good methodology for diving, with the walls, go out deeper, come back shallower, and then spend most of the time at the shallowest point, and that being at 15 feet or so allowed you to do your safety stop, while still diving, and extending that safety stop out for 20 minutes or more.
In short, Curacao was some of the best diving that I've done yet. I'd love to go back for more, and catch the sites that I didn't get to.
All of the pictures can be viewed at www.7daysinparadise.com