I can't believe how long it has been since my last blog, so please let me sincerely apologise. I think that I had writer's block, or blogger's block I should say. Not that there haven't been really great things to Blog about...
Over Christmas and New Years we were really busy, taking out loads of people diving and snorkeling. We had lots of students, private charters, new divers, old diver, and divers in the middle as well. Some moments that really stick out for us are going to dinner with Jay and Bob at Pineapple Pete's. Jay and Bob are firefighters from the states, and the kindly took Chris, Aurelion, Stuart and I to dinner. It was great!
Also, we went diving with John and G, some of our favorite repeat customers. We also spent a lovely New Year's Eve dinner with them, so I must thank them for the invite!
Also we went to dinner with Lisa and Tim (also repeat divers with us) to Jimbo's and then drink at Soggy Dollar; they are also, really great people.
What I love best about having a diving center in Saint Martin, is when your diving customers become your friends, and then they come back, and they come back again, and then after awhile they become like family! Diving is so great in the way that it really does bring people together. We really cherish the friends that we have made by having our center here.
Something else that sticks out for me is all the certifications we have been doing. We must have certified over 20 people as new divers since my last blog, plus 5 Advanced and two Recue divers! Congratulations everyone...
Chris is in England right now... freezing his butt off! He called me yesterday and was telling me how cold the water is. It is 3 degrees Celsius. He is crazy! Chris is taking a rebreather course with Rich Stevenson from Deep Blue Tech http://www.deepbluediving.org in Plymouth, England. This is something that Chris has always wanted to do. We are hoping that in a year or two, when he gets enough training and hours using the rebreather, that we will be able to offer rebreather try dives. Sure beats diving in the cold UK. For those of you that aren't familiar with rebreathers, they are units that are used for breathing underwater, but they are closed circuit. This means that there are no bubbles as the air that you breath out is then re-used, cleaned of carbon dioxide, has a little bit of oxygen added to it, and the you re-breath that air in. It is pretty cool, but because it is a closed circuit you can't control your buoyancy using your lungs, so it is really strange (according to Chris) as you can't go over stuff, you go around it. Weird. He is enjoying his course, but not the cold.
We spent Christmas day at our house with the Octopus Family... this would be Stuart, Aurelion and also Jen and Mark who are doing a Divemaster internship with us. Roger was there as well (he is our great friend who hails from the same place as Chris in Plymouth, he lives on the island.) It was a great day!
On a sadder note, our hearts go out to all the victims of the recent Earthquake in Haiti. Saint Martin has quite a large Haitian community here, and many Haitians come here for a better way of life. They find it easier to get work here (as just like in Haiti the main language on the French side is French). Many of them live here illegally, don't get paid very well and often don't have very good accommodation to speak of, but this is still an easier way of life than in Haiti. So, there are lots of people here thinking about there family and loved ones at home. The local phone company has reduced the cost to calls to Haiti and many of the local businesses here are taking donations of clothes, supplies and food to send over. It is a tragedy beyond understanding the devastation there....
Well, I must talk about something positive, as I can't leave the blog on that note. So, I will tell you about Kevin. Do you all remember Kevin? I've blogged about him in the past, but not so much recently. He is a local kid, 10 years old, and he is always hanging out in the dive shop, usually making trouble. Well, the other day he came in and said to Chris "Chris, will you teach me how to swim? But don't tell Sally that I don't know how to swim, I don't want her to know." Chris said it was the cutest thing ever. So Chris started taking him out every Saturday. The first session went great, and Chris said that he was doggie paddling like crazy. The second Saturday session Mark took over as Chris was in the UK, and this time they snorkeled. By this time Kevin had told me himself what was going on. All throughout the week he was coming in and trying on fins, wetsuits, etc. Then he would say, "Sally, this is the pair that I am going to use. Where can I hide them so that I know where they are?" And I would say "But Kevin, I may need to lend those fins out to someone else during the week, so let's just try and remember." Finally, once the snorkeling day arrived, Kevin and Mark snorkeled all the way to the Grand Case Beach Club and back! Too cool. Apparently next week Kevin has recruited a friend to go along as well... We love it though. We would love to take Kevin diving, but his mom thinks it is dangerous and won't let us, so obviously we can't. Perhaps we can change her mind one day.
Anyway... I promise not to take so long before my next blog. Speak soon and take care.
(this blog was written by Sally :) )
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Monday, December 14, 2009
New Reefs
Hey Blog followers,
We hope the weather isn't too bad where ever you are, I read this mnorning that the UK is bracing itself for snow and freezing temepratures.....brrrrrr...! Its nice and warm here!!
This is an update on our new reefs that we have been exploring.
Exploration diving is an important part of any dive shop and when a dive shop dives the same reefs over and over again, returning customers can get a little tired. However, here at Octopus Diving we are always searching for something different and interesting and so far we have found 3 new reefs that are awesome dive sites.
Chris's reef.
Out in the channel between St.Martin and Anguilla we found a beautiful reef, so Sally named it after me.
Its a long reef ranging from 50 feet to the sand and 35 feet to the top. It is covered in sea fans, at one end there are wrecks of old cars, creating a perfect artificial reef system. At the North there are some large rocks and crevices, full of lobster, two huge 6 foot Nurse Sharks hang out there and also we get turtles too.
Its position is quite exposed but we can dive it in most conditions, also its only 15 minutes from the dive shop.
Shark point.
Located quite close (5 minutes from our shop) we dived this site with Erb (who is the legendary DJ from Island 92 where we are now advertising http://www.island92.com/) and dived this site for the first time in rough conditions and it was great. Vis was low, but we found turtles, a baby nurse shark, large spotted drum and coral in great condition.
This is a really easy drift dive and great for an additional discover scuba dive site.
Kusasa Reef.
This site is a true gem.
Auree our French Instructor was out sailing his Yacht KUSASA a few days ago on his day off.
Sailing back from a nearby Island he kept well away from a known shallow reef (which will remain nameless - this is top secret information) when his depth sounder alarmed and he saw a reef system beneath him. To save his boat from certain fate, he changed course and headed away from danger.
However thinking like a true diver, he marked the position on his GPS.
This reef isn't marked on any charts or GPS and is certainly unknown on St.Martin amongst the local fishermen.
Two days ago we headed back to the same place in extremely rough conditions and dived it.
The reef is just out of this world and clearly un-touched by fishermen and divers. The fish and Turtles looked surprised that we were there.
The Platax or spade fish were the size of 21 inch TV's, so were the French Angel fish and the reef is just in perfect condition.
This will now be one of our main dive sites when conditions are good.
There are more and we are using Google Earth to pin point them.
Our aim is to stay well away from diving the Dutch side and the usual reefs that all the dive shops dive.
There has been rumours between the local Fishermen that a wreck exists out in the Channel and nobody knows where it is?? We are searching for it any chance we get!
Other news:
We are now live on Island 92 http://www.island92.com/, Mark and Jenn from Les Fruits de Mer have helped us to write some great commercials and we are starting to get some business from it, which is great.
Sally and I visited the Mega Yacht show and are now getting charters, from the private yachts.
The first two day charter is on SY Riela http://www.syriela.com/ this week and also on another Yacht (to be confirmed) next week where I may be staying on board overnight as the Dive guide!! Its a tough life!!
Our ratings are up for Trip Advisor - we are now number 4 in the whole of the Caribbean:
http://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g147351-d1092282-Reviews-Octopus_Diving-Grand_Case_St_Maarten_St_Martin.html
Snuba is doing well and our bookings and reservations are up. Also we have confirmation from Club Orient that they want us to operate a permanent dive centre on thier premises next year.
The busy season is officially upon us tomorrow so lets hope this season is better than last year.
Thanks to all of you for reading and we will update again very soon.
Chris.
We hope the weather isn't too bad where ever you are, I read this mnorning that the UK is bracing itself for snow and freezing temepratures.....brrrrrr...! Its nice and warm here!!
This is an update on our new reefs that we have been exploring.
Exploration diving is an important part of any dive shop and when a dive shop dives the same reefs over and over again, returning customers can get a little tired. However, here at Octopus Diving we are always searching for something different and interesting and so far we have found 3 new reefs that are awesome dive sites.
Chris's reef.
Out in the channel between St.Martin and Anguilla we found a beautiful reef, so Sally named it after me.
Its a long reef ranging from 50 feet to the sand and 35 feet to the top. It is covered in sea fans, at one end there are wrecks of old cars, creating a perfect artificial reef system. At the North there are some large rocks and crevices, full of lobster, two huge 6 foot Nurse Sharks hang out there and also we get turtles too.
Its position is quite exposed but we can dive it in most conditions, also its only 15 minutes from the dive shop.
Shark point.
Located quite close (5 minutes from our shop) we dived this site with Erb (who is the legendary DJ from Island 92 where we are now advertising http://www.island92.com/) and dived this site for the first time in rough conditions and it was great. Vis was low, but we found turtles, a baby nurse shark, large spotted drum and coral in great condition.
This is a really easy drift dive and great for an additional discover scuba dive site.
Kusasa Reef.
This site is a true gem.
Auree our French Instructor was out sailing his Yacht KUSASA a few days ago on his day off.
Sailing back from a nearby Island he kept well away from a known shallow reef (which will remain nameless - this is top secret information) when his depth sounder alarmed and he saw a reef system beneath him. To save his boat from certain fate, he changed course and headed away from danger.
However thinking like a true diver, he marked the position on his GPS.
This reef isn't marked on any charts or GPS and is certainly unknown on St.Martin amongst the local fishermen.
Two days ago we headed back to the same place in extremely rough conditions and dived it.
The reef is just out of this world and clearly un-touched by fishermen and divers. The fish and Turtles looked surprised that we were there.
The Platax or spade fish were the size of 21 inch TV's, so were the French Angel fish and the reef is just in perfect condition.
This will now be one of our main dive sites when conditions are good.
There are more and we are using Google Earth to pin point them.
Our aim is to stay well away from diving the Dutch side and the usual reefs that all the dive shops dive.
There has been rumours between the local Fishermen that a wreck exists out in the Channel and nobody knows where it is?? We are searching for it any chance we get!
Other news:
We are now live on Island 92 http://www.island92.com/, Mark and Jenn from Les Fruits de Mer have helped us to write some great commercials and we are starting to get some business from it, which is great.
Sally and I visited the Mega Yacht show and are now getting charters, from the private yachts.
The first two day charter is on SY Riela http://www.syriela.com/ this week and also on another Yacht (to be confirmed) next week where I may be staying on board overnight as the Dive guide!! Its a tough life!!
Our ratings are up for Trip Advisor - we are now number 4 in the whole of the Caribbean:
http://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g147351-d1092282-Reviews-Octopus_Diving-Grand_Case_St_Maarten_St_Martin.html
Snuba is doing well and our bookings and reservations are up. Also we have confirmation from Club Orient that they want us to operate a permanent dive centre on thier premises next year.
The busy season is officially upon us tomorrow so lets hope this season is better than last year.
Thanks to all of you for reading and we will update again very soon.
Chris.
Thursday, November 26, 2009
HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!!!
Chris and I just had our turkey dinner at Pineapple Pete's (we weren't in the mood for cooking) and I wanted to spend a couple of minutes mentioning what we are thankful for... so here it goes!
We are thankful for
1. All of our loyal customers who we have had the pleasure of diving and snorkeling with. Without all of you, we wouldn't be able to do what we love.
2. The joining of Swen and Aurelion to the Octopus Family. They are both great guys who work super hard, and are motivated to doing a great job.
3. All the wonderful people in the Grand Case community that help us every day. Like Reverend Hodge and his two sons Jhonny and Mickey. (They are the owners of Les Alizes and are always ready with a kind word and a smile). Or like Albert, who never passes the dive shop without saying hello. Or like Kevin, our little helper, who sometimes causes more trouble than help. Or like Emile, the owner of Sky's the Limit, who feeds us when we are hungry and too lazy to cook with a good bbq. Or our nieghbor Rick, from NY, who let us store our kayak next door!
4. The addition of our new boat Octopussy, which makes diving in Saint Martin a dream.
5. The health and well being of our family and loved ones.
6. The really cool octopi that seem to be around lately.
7. The addition of the members of Les Fruits de Mer, who are here for one whole year... yeah! I will blog more about them at a later date.... so stay tuned.
8. The fact that we get to meet so many wonderful people everyday, while living and diving in such a beautiful place.
9. Our lovely cat Max, who is so big he may as well be a small tiger!
10. All our family and friends that come to visit us, especially my family who are all coming for my 30th birthday in February... I know.... 30 years old.... ahhhhh!
11. A hurricane free season!
12. And of course, we are thankful to all of our blog readers (that means you!)
So, have a wonderful day everyone, wherever you are! I do believe that now it is time for bed, all that turkey makes me sleepy!
(this blog was written by Sally :))
We are thankful for
1. All of our loyal customers who we have had the pleasure of diving and snorkeling with. Without all of you, we wouldn't be able to do what we love.
2. The joining of Swen and Aurelion to the Octopus Family. They are both great guys who work super hard, and are motivated to doing a great job.
3. All the wonderful people in the Grand Case community that help us every day. Like Reverend Hodge and his two sons Jhonny and Mickey. (They are the owners of Les Alizes and are always ready with a kind word and a smile). Or like Albert, who never passes the dive shop without saying hello. Or like Kevin, our little helper, who sometimes causes more trouble than help. Or like Emile, the owner of Sky's the Limit, who feeds us when we are hungry and too lazy to cook with a good bbq. Or our nieghbor Rick, from NY, who let us store our kayak next door!
4. The addition of our new boat Octopussy, which makes diving in Saint Martin a dream.
5. The health and well being of our family and loved ones.
6. The really cool octopi that seem to be around lately.
7. The addition of the members of Les Fruits de Mer, who are here for one whole year... yeah! I will blog more about them at a later date.... so stay tuned.
8. The fact that we get to meet so many wonderful people everyday, while living and diving in such a beautiful place.
9. Our lovely cat Max, who is so big he may as well be a small tiger!
10. All our family and friends that come to visit us, especially my family who are all coming for my 30th birthday in February... I know.... 30 years old.... ahhhhh!
11. A hurricane free season!
12. And of course, we are thankful to all of our blog readers (that means you!)
So, have a wonderful day everyone, wherever you are! I do believe that now it is time for bed, all that turkey makes me sleepy!
(this blog was written by Sally :))
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Aurelions Photos
I haven't been able to take my camera diving lately... but Aure has been taking some photos. He likes the little stuff, so here are some of his photos.
Aure says "if you like my photos, please check out my website, where there are more."
http://divingprojects.evoserv.net/divingprojects/photos.html
He likes the little stuff, so there are shrimps, nudibranchs, but also some bigger stuff as well, like an octopus, an eagle ray and a turtle. Enjoy!
Aure says "if you like my photos, please check out my website, where there are more."
http://divingprojects.evoserv.net/divingprojects/photos.html
He likes the little stuff, so there are shrimps, nudibranchs, but also some bigger stuff as well, like an octopus, an eagle ray and a turtle. Enjoy!
Saturday, November 21, 2009
Time is moving....
Wow... I can't believe that it is almost Thanksgiving! Time has gone by so fast, it feels like we have just came back from our 2 weeks in NY, but that was almost 6 weeks ago now. To think of it, I haven't had a day off since then. Hmmmm. Maybe I need to rethink my career choice.
...
Thought about - still happy! Even 45 days without a day off rules, when you live in the Caribbean, get to go diving everyday, get to meet great people like yourselves, and work with your husband every day. Sure, I sleep well everynight, but it is worth it. Besides, I am taking tomorrow off, so I am breaking the working run. Guess what we are doing on our day off... guess... go on... guess... that is correct, we are going diving! People often think that we would do anything else on our day off, but we love diving! We are going to try and find some dive sites around Anguilla so that we can start to offer diving over there. In the new boat, it only takes about 8 minutes, so it isn't far at all, and there is supposed to be some great diving over there. But don't worry mom and dad, I am going to take a proper day off soon to relax, get some rest, most likely when you are here in December!
I am always impressed at the secret followers of this blog. Talking to customers, they seem to know things about us that aren't common, and then I say "do you read our blog?" And they reply "yup." You see, I only know of 17 people who are actually following the blog on blogger.com, so when I write this blog it gets sent to them in an email, and that is who I feel I am writing to when I blog. I must admit, that out of the 17, about 10 are family (one is actually me...!) so perhaps I am slightly more relaxed when writing the blog than I should be.
Anyhow, that is what blogging is all about, isn't it?
I should talk about something you are interested in, like diving, our boats, our staff, etc. Well, the diving has been really great lately, and there seem to be lot's of octopodes about at the moment. They stay in the same little cave for about 2 weeks, so if I can find one, or two, or three, then I can usually keep finding those same octopodes for awhile. A good thing to look out for are lots of empty shells near a rock, these are the remains of dinner, and also provide cover for the octopus inside the hole. We also had a dolphin encounter the other day, which was awesome. Awesome for Chris, Aure and the divers. I was in the office... ho hum!
We have also been seeing lots of small things lately that we haven't before. Perhaps we are just looking more closely, or perhaps there are just more. We've seen an increase in nudibranchs lately, and also of different types of shrimp. I noticed a Sun Anemone Shrimp the other day, as well as a Golden Coral Shrimp, and I had never seen these before. I can thank Allan for this, as he was a bit nervous we went really really slow, and this allowed me to find all the cool little stuff.
Here are some photos. The first is of the golden coral shrimp, which I got from the internet, it isn't my photo. http://chemistry.csudh.edu/faculty/jim/Cozapr07/golden.jpg
The second is the sun anemone shrimp and I got the photo from this website. http://www.jonathanbird.com/jpegs4/sun_anemone_shrimp.jpg
I have also been noticing a lot of really beautiful anemones lately. Like the elegant anemone and the bearded anemone. (Does anyone actually pronounce that word correctly? In my head I can't stop saying anenome, switching the "n" and the "m".) They are so pretty, like underwater flowers, and if you look well, you can see a whole new ecosystem in one anemone. There are always little Hairy Crabs behind the Giant Anemones.
Alright, I better stop the silence and fill some tanks. I will try and blog on Thanksgiving, like I did last year, listing what we are thankful for, but I will wait until Thursday. It is this Thursday, isn't it? One year I almost celebrated on the wrong week, (I was in England at the time where they don't really care about Thanksgiving), but luckily my mom set me straight before I defrosted the turkey.... thanks mom.
Until then, think of Chris and me tomorrow on our day off! (Sally wrote this blog :) )
Thursday, November 12, 2009
Fantastic Afternoon!
This afternoon I went to Tintamarre with Marisa (my open water student), her husband Louis, and Michael. Michael was diving with us in May, and we are super happy to have him back.
When I was talking to Michael he was telling me that he is always reading the blog, so I thought that it was only fitting that I blog about him. I always get excited when Mike sends us an email because he works for the military, so the words "unclassified" are always contained in the top of the email. I like to imagine all the other "classified" emails that go out... but Mike assures me that he isn't really privy to classified information, but he would say that, wouldn't he?
Anyway... the diving was really great this afternoon, especially diving from Octopussy. We went to Japanese Garden and saw the biggest Green Turtle hiding under a rock. I learned the other day, from Aurelion, (our new instructor), that the turtles go to the surface, take a gulp of air, and then they wedge themselves under a rock. With the huge gulp of air they are buoyant, so if they want a nap, they need the rock to stop them from floating to the surface. This Green Turtle had two huge Remoras on her back, she let us approach slowly, but then when we were too close, she swam gracefully away. We carried on, checking out all the schools of fish and spiny lobsters. It was a really nice dive. Marisa did fantastic, considering it was her third dive ever!
Then we went diving on the tugboat, where we had close encounters with sting rays and also watched Louis do some break dancing on his head (underwater of course). Aurelion had his camera, so I will post some photos when he sends them to me. The Tug was full of fish, like normal, and it was a beautiful dive.
Other news.... we have had some more great reviews on tripadvisor (thanks everyone) so check those out... http://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g147351-d1092282-Reviews-Octopus_Diving-Grand_Case_St_Maarten_St_Martin.html
We are currently the #1 attraction in Saint Martin / Sint Maarten and #5 in the whole of the Caribbean. We want to be #1 in the Caribbean, so if you are so inclined... write good review for us!
I will soon take photos of our new instructors Swen and Aurelion for the blog and the website, so stay tuned for more information about these two characters. They are real characters... Swen speaks 8 languages.... and Aurelion lives on a boat. They both love diving, and they are great guys, so check out the blog soon!
Congratulations to Marisa on her open water certification!
Friday the 13th tomorrow, I wonder if this will affect the marine life...
Good night everyone!
(Sally wrote this blog :) )
When I was talking to Michael he was telling me that he is always reading the blog, so I thought that it was only fitting that I blog about him. I always get excited when Mike sends us an email because he works for the military, so the words "unclassified" are always contained in the top of the email. I like to imagine all the other "classified" emails that go out... but Mike assures me that he isn't really privy to classified information, but he would say that, wouldn't he?
Anyway... the diving was really great this afternoon, especially diving from Octopussy. We went to Japanese Garden and saw the biggest Green Turtle hiding under a rock. I learned the other day, from Aurelion, (our new instructor), that the turtles go to the surface, take a gulp of air, and then they wedge themselves under a rock. With the huge gulp of air they are buoyant, so if they want a nap, they need the rock to stop them from floating to the surface. This Green Turtle had two huge Remoras on her back, she let us approach slowly, but then when we were too close, she swam gracefully away. We carried on, checking out all the schools of fish and spiny lobsters. It was a really nice dive. Marisa did fantastic, considering it was her third dive ever!
Then we went diving on the tugboat, where we had close encounters with sting rays and also watched Louis do some break dancing on his head (underwater of course). Aurelion had his camera, so I will post some photos when he sends them to me. The Tug was full of fish, like normal, and it was a beautiful dive.
Other news.... we have had some more great reviews on tripadvisor (thanks everyone) so check those out... http://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g147351-d1092282-Reviews-Octopus_Diving-Grand_Case_St_Maarten_St_Martin.html
We are currently the #1 attraction in Saint Martin / Sint Maarten and #5 in the whole of the Caribbean. We want to be #1 in the Caribbean, so if you are so inclined... write good review for us!
I will soon take photos of our new instructors Swen and Aurelion for the blog and the website, so stay tuned for more information about these two characters. They are real characters... Swen speaks 8 languages.... and Aurelion lives on a boat. They both love diving, and they are great guys, so check out the blog soon!
Congratulations to Marisa on her open water certification!
Friday the 13th tomorrow, I wonder if this will affect the marine life...
Good night everyone!
(Sally wrote this blog :) )
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Octopussy in the Water
Well, we are all set with Octopussy, and on Suday she had her maiden voyage. It was awsome. We went with a group of the medical students, there were six of them, so it was a great test as the boat was full.
We went diving at Tintmarre, doing a drift dive at Chico, and then another drift dive at the Tugboat. It was just so comfortable, you couldn't even feel the waves on the boat, and Eric (who normally gets seasick) wasn't feeding any fish at all. He felt fine. So that was another test passed. The radio was playing, putting everyone in a fun mood, and it was so easy to get equipped and into the water that we reduced our time getting ready by half.
So we are really excited at how great the new boat is working out.
Also, we had two amazing dives. I had never done a drift at Chico in the direction that I did on Sunday, and it was so beautiful I think I may do this every time. Just really healthy reefs, with beautiful formations, we saw turtles, barracuda and lots of fish.
The second dive was also really great. First of all, the tugboat is always really pretty and with millions of fish around it, but on this particular dive, once we were on the reef, Maggie spotted an Octopus. But this Octopus wasn't just hanging out in it's cave, it was moving all around, stretching his tentacles in all the holes of the reef, then he was free swimming, and changing colors over and over and over. We watched it for about 10 minutes (personally, I could have watched it all day).
So, I think that it was a really great omen. The coolest Octopus I have ever seen on the maiden voyage of Octopussy, with Octopus Diving! It doesn't get much better than that!
(Sally wrote this blog :) )
We went diving at Tintmarre, doing a drift dive at Chico, and then another drift dive at the Tugboat. It was just so comfortable, you couldn't even feel the waves on the boat, and Eric (who normally gets seasick) wasn't feeding any fish at all. He felt fine. So that was another test passed. The radio was playing, putting everyone in a fun mood, and it was so easy to get equipped and into the water that we reduced our time getting ready by half.
So we are really excited at how great the new boat is working out.
Also, we had two amazing dives. I had never done a drift at Chico in the direction that I did on Sunday, and it was so beautiful I think I may do this every time. Just really healthy reefs, with beautiful formations, we saw turtles, barracuda and lots of fish.
The second dive was also really great. First of all, the tugboat is always really pretty and with millions of fish around it, but on this particular dive, once we were on the reef, Maggie spotted an Octopus. But this Octopus wasn't just hanging out in it's cave, it was moving all around, stretching his tentacles in all the holes of the reef, then he was free swimming, and changing colors over and over and over. We watched it for about 10 minutes (personally, I could have watched it all day).
So, I think that it was a really great omen. The coolest Octopus I have ever seen on the maiden voyage of Octopussy, with Octopus Diving! It doesn't get much better than that!
(Sally wrote this blog :) )
Friday, November 6, 2009
Octopussy... Almost there
Hello everyone. I know that I have been terrible about blogging lately, this is simply because so much has been going on.
I just wanted to update everyone on the new boat. She is almost there. What is holding us back at the moment, is that we decided to change the engines. We had bought second hand engines, but Chris decides that he couldn't resist those shiny, new 225 Mercury Optimax, so we folded and bought them. Chris is currently installing them as I am writing this, and the boat should be in the water today! Fingers crossed!
I am attaching some photos, so you can see it. Chris has worked so hard to get the boat ready, and taken so much care to make sure that it is comfortable to dive from, to snorkel from, and that it is safe! This means that there were times where we were all dressed up in our diving gear (on the boat in the dry dock) figuring out exactly where the tank rack should go, how we should set it all up, where people can put there fins on, etc. I should have taken photos of that!
My favorite part is the stereo. With the new stereo, you can just plug in your ipod and listen to whatever you want. So, if you are coming to dive with us, just bring your ipod on the boat and we will hook it up. 
It's funny to think that this time last year we were all excited because we had just renovated the shop, and now we are so excited because of the new boat. She is going to fly!
But don't worry, even though she is larger, and we are certified to take 16 people on board, we are still only going to take 6 divers at one time, so more room for you!
I will take more photos for the website soon.
(sally wrote this blog :) )
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
New season
Hi Blog followers,
We are back from vacation - 2 weeks in New York and Chris had a week in Miami where he is now a Certified Mercury Technician.
Thanks to Wes and Gillian (Sally's parents) for entertaining us for 2 weeks - we had a great time.
We also had four amazing days in Saba - what an amazing Island that is - the diving was awesome. We are now running trips with Scouts Place / Saba Divers so if anyone wants to take a trip let us know, we can arrange it for you.
Now we are back and busier than ever.
Chris and Christian have just finished thier Snuba training, where Christian trained as a Snuba guide and Chris is now a Snuba guide trainer and one of 3 in the Caribbean.
Sally has been extremely busy keeping the dive operation up to its usual high standards - hence our 62 reviews on Tripadvisor:
http://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g147351-d1092282-Reviews-Octopus_Diving-Grand_Case_St_Maarten_St_Martin.html
Go Sally !!
Snuba in Orient Bay is all set to go live - we are just waiting for Octopussy to get registered and we will be up and running.
Octopussy has had some teething problems that Chris has been working on and we are seeing some light at the end of the tunnel now. She looks great and has a custom built tank rack, custom dive ladder, IPOD hook up on the high power Sony stereo system, all the safety features you would expect, two powerful 250HP Mercury Racing engines, and plenty of room. She is so stable that she has been certified for 20 people!! But still we just take 6.
We have our first all day Charter this season on Saturday its a birthday party for a couple so Sally and Chris will be taking them out with French Champagne, cake, lots of diving and an awesome lunch on Pinel Island - should be a great day trip out.
Sally will update soon so goodbye for now
Team Octopus.
We are back from vacation - 2 weeks in New York and Chris had a week in Miami where he is now a Certified Mercury Technician.
Thanks to Wes and Gillian (Sally's parents) for entertaining us for 2 weeks - we had a great time.
We also had four amazing days in Saba - what an amazing Island that is - the diving was awesome. We are now running trips with Scouts Place / Saba Divers so if anyone wants to take a trip let us know, we can arrange it for you.
Now we are back and busier than ever.
Chris and Christian have just finished thier Snuba training, where Christian trained as a Snuba guide and Chris is now a Snuba guide trainer and one of 3 in the Caribbean.
Sally has been extremely busy keeping the dive operation up to its usual high standards - hence our 62 reviews on Tripadvisor:
http://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g147351-d1092282-Reviews-Octopus_Diving-Grand_Case_St_Maarten_St_Martin.html
Go Sally !!
Snuba in Orient Bay is all set to go live - we are just waiting for Octopussy to get registered and we will be up and running.
Octopussy has had some teething problems that Chris has been working on and we are seeing some light at the end of the tunnel now. She looks great and has a custom built tank rack, custom dive ladder, IPOD hook up on the high power Sony stereo system, all the safety features you would expect, two powerful 250HP Mercury Racing engines, and plenty of room. She is so stable that she has been certified for 20 people!! But still we just take 6.
We have our first all day Charter this season on Saturday its a birthday party for a couple so Sally and Chris will be taking them out with French Champagne, cake, lots of diving and an awesome lunch on Pinel Island - should be a great day trip out.
Sally will update soon so goodbye for now
Team Octopus.
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