This is my first trip report so I may not cover everything you're looking for but will give you a short overview of my week in St. Maarten. I was with mostly non-diving family members and felt lucky to get away for 6 dives. We stayed on the Dutch side with easy access to shopping, entertainment, private beaches and wonderful Guavaberry smoothies. Our resort had it's own dive shop complete with NITROX. Simply wake up and walk downstairs. How great is that! The morning dive boats leave the dock at 9:00 for two 60' dives. I found the reef system extremely healthy compared to the Florida Keys however the fish life was not nearly as plentiful as I had expected. We saw the usual tropical plus Flounders on every dive. Several of the spots had a turtle or two hanging around like lost puppies. Vis was usually in the 70' range and water temps in the low 80's. The best spot was Explore Reef off of Philipsburg. Schools of Durgen's, a few squid, awesome swim throughs with the sun beaming in, rocky finger channels with huge-huge boulders in the middle of sand valleys. The afternoon trips are typically 30' reef dives for the Discover Scuba types. Not bad. Took my sister and nephew on one. Saw an octopus, angels, queen spotted filefish, played with an arrow crab. One of the sites "Creole Rock" had a rocky formation where they anchor the boat in about 8' of water and it slopes down to about 35'. If you really tried you could probably swim around the whole rock island and make your way back to the boat. We went half way turned around and came back. Cool how you get the feeling your swimming along a cliff wall.
The last day we took a ferry over to Saba. The island is 5 square miles of breath-taking beauty. (inactive volcano, sheer sides with NO beaches) If you're not diving or into the outdoors, you'd go stir crazy. There's NOTHING to do on land except hike around the trails or the Rainforest. Some of the resorts have pools. It's a good way to off gas on a pre-flying day but torture knowing you are at a diving capital of the world and not getting wet. The profiles here are all DEEP, DEEP and DEEPER but from the reports I got they are spectacular. I would go back to Saba but only with diving diehards or on a live-aboard. St. Marrten is diverse enough there's something for everyone.
