Grand Case Bay St Martin

Grand Case Bay is only 6nm from the anchorage at Marigot Bay and we had been recommended to try the dive site at Creole Rock at the northern entrance to the bay.  So, several days later than we had originally intended, we upped anchor and motored around at lunchtime on Monday 7 January.

Creole Rock

As soon as we were securely anchored over a lovely large patch of sand in about 4m of water, we dug out the new dive kit to give it its first run-out.  There was a lot to check and adjust so we started off with a shallow water run next to BV, checking weights, regulator adjustments, BCD positioning on the tanks etc, before jumping into the dinghy and heading over to Creole Rock to do it all again ‘for real’.

We picked up one of the dive moorings in the bight on the Grand Case Bay side Creole Rock and swam on the surface to the southern tip before diving and handrailing our way along the seaward side of the rocks.

The water was clear and there was plenty to see, albeit I didn’t get too many pictures as I was enjoying myself too much and fiddling with adjustments on the new gear.  However, lionfish don’t move too fast so I managed to juggle my kit and get a photo of one that we saw.  Mind you, perhaps it would be better if I had been able to spear it instead as they are an invasive species which eat the juvenile native reef fish and they have no natural predator in these waters.

Spotted eagle rays off on a mission in formation and not wishing to stop and pose for a photo

I also managed to get my camera out in record fast time when we saw these 2 spotted eagle rays ‘flying’ in formation relatively nearby.  As far as my very wide angle underwater camera is concerned they were a long way off (hence the photo’s rather grainy) but in real life they were surprisingly close. But they were off on a mission and were gone nearly as soon as we had seen them, though not before we had registered their fabulous spotted colouring and enormously long tails.

Just hangin’ around

And after a very successful first dive with our kit, and an hour of washing it and hanging it to dry, we sat on the coachroof with a beer (the cockpit was too wet!) enjoying the new view and the much less crowded anchorage and making plans for the next couple of days.

Anchored in Grand Case Bay

Grand Case Bay, St Martin