When I went onto shore two days ago to clear in and to buy some Internet Vouchers I also talked with the folks that run the local dive shop. They have been here for 22 years. I asked how good the diving was here and they swore it was one of the top places in the world. I asked if it was better than Bonaire, which is the best diving we have seen so far in the Caribbean. They response was “Bon-where”? They bragged about how great this island was for diving and that it even had one of the top 5 ship dives. I have heard all of this before from just about every little island we have visited here in the West Indies. We have been so disappointed in all of our dives here as compared to the South Pacific, Indonesia, the Indian Ocean and yes, even the South China Sea.

Well, today we thought we would go check out the great reefs that St. Eustatius is so proud of. The Marina Park lady had told me where to go to dive on the best spots here in the marine park so Mary Margaret and I launched the dinghy and off we went.

We only stayed in the water about 30 minutes because the reefs were in poor shape and there really was not much to see. We tried three different spots and each was equally disappointing. Damn!

We returned to Leu Cat realizing that we would not be seeing many more decent reefs during the remainder of our cruising lives. It was a depressing thought. We will be spending next spring here in the West Indies and then in late spring start our passage over to the Med. While the Azores may have some good diving, we have read that the Med really does not. Since we hope to spend a few years there and then return to the Caribbean to sell our boat when the time comes, this means no better diving. What a depressing realization. We will just have to make our wonderful memories of all of the remarkable diving we have done around the world carry us forward. We have been so blessed and do really appreciate it.