Caribbean Explorer II
Arrived in St Maarten a few days ahead of joining Explorer Venturer's live aboard the Caribbean Explorer II to check out the diving in St Maarten itself. Though you boarded the ship in St Maarten you did not dive St Maarten. I chose to try out Octopus Diving because they were on the opposite side of the Island from the cruise ship traffic and had fast boats that serviced both sides of the island. By Florida standards the pricing may have seemed a little high but when you considered they provided everything we needed except camera gear it was well worth the convenience of not having to unback our gear packed for the liveaboard. The two man crew loaded and unloaded our rental gear and we just got to walk away. One got an excellent tour of the island and the boats were new. The directions from the guides was very concise and clear. We dove 2 dives each on two days and both dive boats served us well. There were only 4 guest total and I think they only take a max of 6. You did have to walk out to the boat in about chest deep water but we were going to be getting wet anyway! The visibility was not good, nor was the reef, and the surge was rough to deal with for photography but it was another spot to pin on the world map and I did get to shoot a pair of nudibranchs. There were huge barrel sponges and feather dusters, and a number of crinoids.
