Because of a tropical storm (Rafael) in the Northern part of the Caribbean Sea there was almost no wind and as there were also almost no big waves along the Nothern shore of Curaçao. A good opportunity to go diving at that side of the island. My buddy Rob and I went to Playa Canoa. The road to that dive site is much improved because the new wind mills needed to be transported over that road.
Shore diving is reasonably easy at this site. There are two options to enter the water; either you jump from the cliff to the East of the bay or you enter the water in the bay. The latter is what we did because it is easier and because I wanted to go to the left.
Just outside the bay we checked our compass to get a correct heading back to the bay; Rob decided to go under water while I swam out on the surface. Close to the drop-off I also descended. We noticed a Giant Barrel Sponge at about 15 meters depth and decided that this would be our mark for the return to the bay.
We went to the left even though there was a slight current in that direction. I had my photo camera with me and went a little deeper than my buddy. As always the coral formations on this side of the island are more impressive than along the Southern shore. Especially the large plates of star coral are very nice.
We saw a large Barracuda hunting (or playing) and I saw some Tiger Groupers. When I was taking pictures of these groupers Rob notified me of a shark. Immediately I went towards him and followed his directions to find the shark laying under a star coral. It was a Nurse Shark, about 2 meters long. I could get reasonably close to the shark without disturbing him and was able to get some good pictures.
We continued our dive till we both reached half tank and then returned at a depth of about 14 meters till we saw the same Giant Barrel Sponge. The long swim under water in the direction of the bay is not very attractive because it is almost only moving seaweed that you see. Some people get sea sick by looking at the moving underground.
A nice dive. Certainly worthwhile to do if the circumstances permit it.
