Can you believe that all day yesterday the customers on the Undersea Explorer (glass bottom boat) were watching Dolphins play at Creole Rock and nobody told us ....... !! We weren't happy with thier dive guide Maki who explained what happened
Its been a while since we blogged but have been extremely busy, which is great !!
Spring break was fully booked but business has now slowed down until early April.
We want to Congratulate Jenn Yerkes (or should I say Madam J, founder member of “Les Fruits de Mer”) on the completion of her PADI Rescue Diver course. She worked extremely hard during the whole course including her Emergency Response Course (medic first aid).
The highlight of the course was the Minkie Whale swimming by us about 100 feet away from the boat, just outside our apartment.
The other hysterical moment was when JP pretended to have a Dive knife stuck in his leg and Jenn had to rescue him underwater. The knife penetration looked extremely realistic and I have never heard JP whine like a baby !!
We also certified 3 Open Water students:
Kelli
Joanne
Carol Ann
Congratulations to all of you for successfully completing your course.
Joanne’s Open Water dive 4 was particularly interesting as we saw 13 Turtles on Turtle Reef (a new record for the reef and me), 4 Stingrays, one was so big that it couldn't swim properly as its wings were too heavy !!
This week Tintamarre has been amazing, we actually managed to dive the Circus in near perfect conditions which produced 2 sharks, rays and the beautiful cave systems. Then onto Basse Espagnol, Sally was dry on the boat and snorkeled with a Black tip reef shark and the lobsters are still there, all 30 – 40 of them !!
The forecast is bad again for the weekend – 4 metre northerly swells. This is primarily down to global warming as the Locals have never seen the waves so frequent from the North.
We have a shiny new compressor being shipped from Miami as I write this blog.
Our old Bauer compressor is about 20 years old and a refurbishment would cost in the region of $5000. A new one cost $8000 – go figure…. So we bought a brand new compressor which is custom made to my specification.
No annoying electronics, so less to go wrong.
For all of you technical people out there, it’s a Coltri Sub (Bauer block) 10.9 CFM, 5000PSI, triple water separation, auto drain, open compressor. Closed compressors hate the humidity.
So we can now fill our banks to 4500PSI, I have to fit a pressure regulator inline and then we can fill 12 tanks to 3000PSI from the banks – at last !!
To those technically challenged readers – its, black, shiny and pumps tanks !!
The new boat is on hold until we know exactly what is going on in this crazy world, Sally and I have paid ourselves bonuses this year and the meal in Lolo’s was an unforgettable experience..!
We just had another two fantastic reviews on Trip Advisor keeping our ratings to 5 star and of course number one attraction on St.Martin which is great.
http://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g147351-d1092282-Reviews-Octopus_Diving-Grand_Case_St_Maarten_St_Martin.html
That's about it for this week so keep watching the blog.
Thanks,
Chris
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Monday, March 9, 2009
Updated Website!!!
I have just updated the website. Basically I just added some additional pages that I think offer more information about our awsome dive center.
So... you will now find a "Useful Links" Page. This only has a few links as yet, but if you can think of any that I should put on, then just let us know. We are hoping to get a small website for Les Alizes, (the hotel run by Reverend Hodge just opposite the center) Calmos (the really great bar/restuarant on the beach run by Alex... who just had a little boy!) and Skies the Limit (one of the Lolos restaurant run by Emile and his wife Jacqueline) and then link them all on our website. Kind of start a "Grand Case Hub" for information. That is the idea, anyway.
I also added an "Our Shop" page where there are pictures of the shop. And also a "Shop Transformation" page showing all the remodeling that we did to the interior and the exterior of the shop. Also on this page there is a "Directions" page so that people can find us.... always helpful!
There is also an "Octopus in the Press" page on the "About Us" page so that people can see what has been written about us in the press. Hopefully we will be adding to this page often!
I also added an entire section to the Gallery page called "People Gallery." When I went to the DEMA (Diving Equipment and Marketing Association) convention in Las Vegas they said that people want to see people underwater! So that is what this section is all about. Check it out, you may be in there....
What else did I add... just some more photos on the "Boat" page and the "Courses" page, for example. Making the site look nicer. I don't have as many dots... in the website... that I put in the blog... maybe I should think about better punctuation in this blog. Hmmmm.... nope... I like the dots.
Please let me know if everything works well, I think there may be a couple of links out that I need to fix, but after sitting at the computer for too long I start to lose concentration and see double... best to be diving really, but somebody has to do all this stuff! So a quick comment, or an email to me would be appreciated if you notice anything doesn't work. Also, any suggestions are welcome. How can I improve the site unless people let me know what they think?
On another note, Chris spent all weekend getting our little dingy all ready for use (with the help of JP of course). This means that on days when we have some more waves in Grand Case than normal, we can use the dingy to transfer people to the boat! It is really cool.
Alright, I'll keep you posted.
(this blog was written by Sally :) )
So... you will now find a "Useful Links" Page. This only has a few links as yet, but if you can think of any that I should put on, then just let us know. We are hoping to get a small website for Les Alizes, (the hotel run by Reverend Hodge just opposite the center) Calmos (the really great bar/restuarant on the beach run by Alex... who just had a little boy!) and Skies the Limit (one of the Lolos restaurant run by Emile and his wife Jacqueline) and then link them all on our website. Kind of start a "Grand Case Hub" for information. That is the idea, anyway.
I also added an "Our Shop" page where there are pictures of the shop. And also a "Shop Transformation" page showing all the remodeling that we did to the interior and the exterior of the shop. Also on this page there is a "Directions" page so that people can find us.... always helpful!
There is also an "Octopus in the Press" page on the "About Us" page so that people can see what has been written about us in the press. Hopefully we will be adding to this page often!
I also added an entire section to the Gallery page called "People Gallery." When I went to the DEMA (Diving Equipment and Marketing Association) convention in Las Vegas they said that people want to see people underwater! So that is what this section is all about. Check it out, you may be in there....
What else did I add... just some more photos on the "Boat" page and the "Courses" page, for example. Making the site look nicer. I don't have as many dots... in the website... that I put in the blog... maybe I should think about better punctuation in this blog. Hmmmm.... nope... I like the dots.
Please let me know if everything works well, I think there may be a couple of links out that I need to fix, but after sitting at the computer for too long I start to lose concentration and see double... best to be diving really, but somebody has to do all this stuff! So a quick comment, or an email to me would be appreciated if you notice anything doesn't work. Also, any suggestions are welcome. How can I improve the site unless people let me know what they think?
On another note, Chris spent all weekend getting our little dingy all ready for use (with the help of JP of course). This means that on days when we have some more waves in Grand Case than normal, we can use the dingy to transfer people to the boat! It is really cool.
Alright, I'll keep you posted.
(this blog was written by Sally :) )
Sunday, March 8, 2009
5 Green Turtles at Turtle Reef
I went diving on Friday with Doug and Molly, from Minneapolis. They have been diving with us all week, and we just had the greatest time with them. I thought on their last day that I would take my camera so that I could get some nice shots of them, and also because it was the birthday of Molly!!! 
As you can see here, we celebrated underwater with a birthday "hat bag." Molly was supposed to hook it around her ears, but I didn't explain it well enough under water! Anyway... Happy birthday Molly. Diving birthdays are always the best!
We were planning on going to the Dutch side to dive the Porpoise and Le Pont, but the weather was picking up, and also with the Heineken Regatta, it isn't the best idea to be travelling so far with so many sailing vessels around. So instead, we opted for our local reefs. I know that they are close, and not so shallow, but really they are the best sites! Doug said that they were his favorite dives and I have to say, that they were two great dives. 
I have contacted the Nature Reserve and sent them a photo, to hopefully see if they can do something about it. I'm not sure what they will do, but simply documenting it is a start. Then if we can figure out if it is a rare occurrence, or something more frequent we can start to see what the cause is.
(this blog was written by Sally :) )
As you can see here, we celebrated underwater with a birthday "hat bag." Molly was supposed to hook it around her ears, but I didn't explain it well enough under water! Anyway... Happy birthday Molly. Diving birthdays are always the best!
We were planning on going to the Dutch side to dive the Porpoise and Le Pont, but the weather was picking up, and also with the Heineken Regatta, it isn't the best idea to be travelling so far with so many sailing vessels around. So instead, we opted for our local reefs. I know that they are close, and not so shallow, but really they are the best sites! Doug said that they were his favorite dives and I have to say, that they were two great dives. We dropped in at the back of Creole Rock, diving it in the opposite direction that we normally do. This is fun to do if you have already dived Creole Rock, as you get to see different things. Well, we weren't disappointed as we saw two Spotted Eagle Rays, one of which stayed with us for ages, cut in front of us, and then doubled back. We also saw loads of fish, Molly saw a big sting ray in the sand, but doesn't have a tank banger, so Doug and I missed it. Here is a photo of the eagle ray that I saw.
This was the first, and bigger of the two eagle rays. They always look like they are smiling!
Then at Turtle Reef we saw so many Green Turtles. Usually we see more Hawksbill turtles as they are less skittish around divers, but that wasn't the case on Friday. We were following two, and then all of a sudden there was another one, and then again later in the dive we saw more. The Green Turtles aren't so easy to photograph, as with my fish eye lens I really need to get close to get a good shot, and the Green turtles usually swim away once they see us. However, I was able to get these shots below.
We did notice that one of the turtles had some kind of growth on it's eye. So I did some research on the internet and it looks like it is a fibropapilloma tumor. There were two on the turtle that we saw, one on it's eye and the other just under it's arm. You can see it in a couple of the photos.
The tumors look more like "a wart gone wild" than a malignant cancer, but they can be still be deadly. The tumors frequently occur near the eyes and throat, and as they grow in size they impair the turtle's vision and ability to eat and breathe. It is really sad, and we hope that we don't start noticing it in other turtles as well.
I have contacted the Nature Reserve and sent them a photo, to hopefully see if they can do something about it. I'm not sure what they will do, but simply documenting it is a start. Then if we can figure out if it is a rare occurrence, or something more frequent we can start to see what the cause is.
On a lighter note, in celebration of the Heineken Regatta we have the Wailer's playing at Kimshaw beach tonight in Simpson Bay. So the Octopus Team, plus a few others are going to go dance to some Reggae tonight.
All the information about the green turtles was from "Epidemic Levels of Tumors Found in Green Turtles" from http://www.turtles.org/lnturtle.htm, accessed March 8th, 2009.
(this blog was written by Sally :) )
Monday, March 2, 2009
Outstanding Visibility
We had such a great weekend, I thought I would just do a quick blog about it. Saturday and Sunday were fantastic in Grand Case, with great visibility, hardly any wind, and some fantastic diving.
Saturday morning we went out to Tintamarre where Chris said the vis at Japanese Garden must have been over 100 feet. Then over to one of my favorite dive sites, the Tugboat, and again, good vis. Not as good as on the eastern side of Tintamarre, but still good. In the afternoon I went to Creole Rock and Turtle Reef with a group of snorkelers. We really had a fun. We would see something big... like a barracuda or an eagle ray or a turtle and my group of relaxed snorkelers would suddenly pick it up about 10 notches and I would be racing behind to keep up with them. Sara, whose in the 7th grade, may have been little, but this made her cut through the water like a pro!
For me it was a really nice afternoon because I was surrounded by so many people who live really close to where I grew up in NY. There was Sara and her dad from New Jersey, Jennifer from Brooklyn, Tina from Manhattan, and then Chris from Mamaroneck, NY. Mamaroneck is really close to where I grew up... Croton-on-Hudson. I love those conversations:
"So where are you from?"
"NY."
"Me too... where?"
"Westchester."
"Me too... where?"
"Croton-on-Hudson, you?"
"Mamaroneck, but my cousins live in Croton now."
"Really, what are their names?"
With all the travels that Chris and I have done, we can truly say that it is a small world. Like Ingrid, who we worked with in Thailand coming by the shop one day to ask about buying some diving equipment. She looked at Chris, and Chris looked at her, and they said, "I'm sure I know you." And voila, reconnection made. We worked with Ingrid on a tiny island in Thailand called Koh Lipe, lost contact once we left, and found her again in St. Martin. She's been here over a year now! Weird, huh?
Anyway... wasn't I talking about diving and great visibility? These blogs are dangerous, as I feel like I am just typing away and can't imagine that anyone takes the time to actually read this (besides my parents of course). So I end up babbling on and on.
Yesterday I had loads of fun on the boat with some Advanced Open Water students... Eric, Julius, Sam and Peter. We did the Underwater Navigation Dive and all four succeeded in navigating a beautiful square. I had to make each length of the square a little longer than normal as I didn't want them to be able to see where they started, I wanted it to be from compass use and fin kicks only. Then we went to Sec de Grand Case (also known as Turtle Reef) for the Search and Recovery dive. The visibility was also so great that I really had to hide the object they had to search for well. I did a better job the second time, and it took Julius ages. hee hee. Then we went for a little wander around and saw three baby turtles. The babies are just too cute!
Then in the afternoon I went diving again, and Creole Rock was just amazing. These three gigantic Horse Eyed Jacks came through. I mean big, like 2 feet from top to bottom.
I am in the office this morning, hence having the time to blog, but the divers are off to Tintamarre, so I will let you know how it went when they get back.
Have a great week everybody!
(this blog was written by Sally :) )
Saturday morning we went out to Tintamarre where Chris said the vis at Japanese Garden must have been over 100 feet. Then over to one of my favorite dive sites, the Tugboat, and again, good vis. Not as good as on the eastern side of Tintamarre, but still good. In the afternoon I went to Creole Rock and Turtle Reef with a group of snorkelers. We really had a fun. We would see something big... like a barracuda or an eagle ray or a turtle and my group of relaxed snorkelers would suddenly pick it up about 10 notches and I would be racing behind to keep up with them. Sara, whose in the 7th grade, may have been little, but this made her cut through the water like a pro!
For me it was a really nice afternoon because I was surrounded by so many people who live really close to where I grew up in NY. There was Sara and her dad from New Jersey, Jennifer from Brooklyn, Tina from Manhattan, and then Chris from Mamaroneck, NY. Mamaroneck is really close to where I grew up... Croton-on-Hudson. I love those conversations:
"So where are you from?"
"NY."
"Me too... where?"
"Westchester."
"Me too... where?"
"Croton-on-Hudson, you?"
"Mamaroneck, but my cousins live in Croton now."
"Really, what are their names?"
With all the travels that Chris and I have done, we can truly say that it is a small world. Like Ingrid, who we worked with in Thailand coming by the shop one day to ask about buying some diving equipment. She looked at Chris, and Chris looked at her, and they said, "I'm sure I know you." And voila, reconnection made. We worked with Ingrid on a tiny island in Thailand called Koh Lipe, lost contact once we left, and found her again in St. Martin. She's been here over a year now! Weird, huh?
Anyway... wasn't I talking about diving and great visibility? These blogs are dangerous, as I feel like I am just typing away and can't imagine that anyone takes the time to actually read this (besides my parents of course). So I end up babbling on and on.
Yesterday I had loads of fun on the boat with some Advanced Open Water students... Eric, Julius, Sam and Peter. We did the Underwater Navigation Dive and all four succeeded in navigating a beautiful square. I had to make each length of the square a little longer than normal as I didn't want them to be able to see where they started, I wanted it to be from compass use and fin kicks only. Then we went to Sec de Grand Case (also known as Turtle Reef) for the Search and Recovery dive. The visibility was also so great that I really had to hide the object they had to search for well. I did a better job the second time, and it took Julius ages. hee hee. Then we went for a little wander around and saw three baby turtles. The babies are just too cute!
Then in the afternoon I went diving again, and Creole Rock was just amazing. These three gigantic Horse Eyed Jacks came through. I mean big, like 2 feet from top to bottom.
I am in the office this morning, hence having the time to blog, but the divers are off to Tintamarre, so I will let you know how it went when they get back.
Have a great week everybody!
(this blog was written by Sally :) )
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