Curaçao Diving Paradise

Curaçao has many dive sites that are easily accessible from shore. The dive site Watamula is not very well known as a shore dive site; this dive site is located at the most Northern tip of the island. Trunkdivers is one of the few if not the only dive operator that dives at this location from shore. This dive is definitely a unique experience for the divers.
The dive starts with jumping off the cliff into the water. Then a trip into the "Hole of Watamula" where you can surface for a moment. Next is a dive through a tunnel if the waves permit this. If there is not sufficient clearance at the bottom this is just a trip into the tunnel and back. The dive continues along the coast either shallow where you swim in an underwater garden of waving Sea Fans and Gorgonians or at a depth of about 30 meters where you sometimes encounter a ray of turtle.  The dive ends with an adventurous exit at Playa Gepi, a small sandy beach where it is not always easy to get out of the water. And last but not least the afterdive with coffee and cake. All in all an unforgetable expierience.

On September 10, 2009 my buddy Rob and I went for a night dive to watch the coral spawning. The coral spawning takes place twice a year a certain number of days after the first full moon in September and a second time the same number of days after the full moon in October. Depending on the species the number of days after full moon varies. It was expected that the peek of the coral spawning would be this night.

After a morning dive at Watamula I went diving in the afternoon with Rob, Jaap and Natasha at Fisherman's Wharf. That is a nice dive site opposite the water desalination plant. There is a small harbor and a tiny sandy beach where you can easily enter and exit the water. The dive site is not known to most local and tourist divers but the site is definitely worth a visit. You can dive here to the left and to the right depending on the direction of the current. This time we went to the left. The last few dives we experienced strong currents at several locations; also here, looking at how strongly bent the soft coral was, there was obviously a strong current beneath 10 meters so we decided to stay shallower.

Today Rob and I went diving at Baya. Mainly to check out if the algae were gone. That appeared not to be the case although most of them look as if they are dying or dead. They are mostly black and cover the reef till a bit more than 20 meters deep. Not a pretty sight.