About Palm Beach Divers
Located between Holiday Inn and Marriot Resorts
Operated by Robin who knew who we were the day we arrived at the shop to droop off our gear the day we landed on the island.
We had bought a five day, 10 dive package and although they do have a handful of dive sites, we did repeat a couple of them as the week went on and one thing to keep in mind, they do not dive on Sundays, which was fine for us because we also got in a round of golf (2 actually, more on that later).
This shop operates as a “valet dive service” which we love. All we had to do was set up our BCD’s and Reg’s and we were able to keep our weights in our own weight pouches through the whole visit with them, which made it so much easier to set up. But they will set your stuff up for you if you want, no worries on that.
We didn’t dive with Robin, he mainly was the captain of the boat when he went out with us but the res of his staff were really great and knowledgeable about the sites.
I want to thank them all;
Flow, was a captain and a great guide.
Adolfo, mostly captained the boat but did go out with us a couple times and knows what to look for.
Ernie, a big teddy of a guy who absolutely hates Moray Eels, lol. Let him tell you why.
Stan, was only with us on one dive but very helpful on the boat.
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Playing golf at The Links At Divi Aruba
As it turns out, not much goes on around the island on Sundays, so John and I got in a round of golf.
This image is of the 1st and 10th hole on the right coming toward us and there 9th and 18th on the left going away from this view with an island green. See below fore more details on the course.
SS Antilla was a Hamburg America Line cargo ship that was launched in 1939 and scuttled in 1940.
The Antilla is the largest shipwreck dive in the Caribbean, covered by tube sponges, coral formations, tropical fish, shrimp, lobsters, and orange anemones. The pelicans know this area very well and love to rest on the Antilla and enjoy a meal of the silversides which jump from the water below.
https://www.visitaruba.com/experience-aruba/attractions-and-activities/antilla-wreck/
Just getting in the water for our first dive here at the SS Antilla shipwreck in Aruba, I was descending a little faster and sooner than John, I looked up and took one of my favorite shots of people and saw him descending. If you have seen all of my images from previous dives, you’ll see why this is my favorite angle.
A nice little cluster of tube coral out in the middle of nowhere.
Now if you haven’t figured it out, don’t worry, but if you have trouble seeing what I’m seeing, unless it’s obvious, I always try to make sure that what I want you to see is pretty much in the middle of the image as much as possible whether horizontally or vertically.
Here the image is horizontal. You may need to zoom in on the image but you’ll see a handful of small eels popping up our of this fie
Unfortunately, the Lionfish we found here at this wreck were quite small, but that didn’t stop of from killing them and just letting other fish eat what was left after cutting off the spines, head and tail.
Our first approach to this vessel and it was beautiful in it’s death.
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Pedernales Wreckage
The Pedernales ship was shot at with a torpedo by a German U-boat in 1942. Though heavily damaged, it did not sink down! The front and back section of the ship were separated from the mid-section and repaired. The mid-section remained in the shallow waters of Aruba. The main reason that it does not look like a ship anymore is because it was used for target practice until it finally sank down. Now,
If we were not told that this was a ship, let alone from WWII, it could have been anything. Nothing about this wreckages says “ship” but I do love the artificial reef for these amazing and beautiful creatures we came across.,
Right in the middle of this image is a large pufferfish staring right back at me.
Looking at these schools of fish, swimming together as if there were all one entity.
Impossible to tell which direction they wanted to go, lol.
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Arashi Reef, located just a short distance from the shore of Arashi Beach, at the northern part of the island.
Here’s an image of google maps showing the site location with the red pin, and the two other gold stars are the Holiday Inn we stayed at and then too Palm Beach Divers shop location.
Arashi Reef is just that, a reef. But it is also pretty much a debris field of a lot of airplane parts, mostly propellers and an engine or two. Was fun exploring these pieces of objects that one would typically find…..
Now we’ve all seen propEllet’s ON airplanes but how many do you see in the sand with life on them. This gives you an idea of the mere size of this one propeller with John right next to it.
I just find these beautiful under the surface of the ocean.
Here is one of those engines still attached to the propeller.
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Star Gerren, the Cinderella of the Aruban shipwrecks
The Star Gerren, originally launched in 1965 as the Santa Maria our of Germany, had changed owners fours times, changing her name to Anna Maria in 1985 and back to Santa Maria in 1991. In 1994 she was sold again and then named the Star Gerren. (Information was found on wordpress.com, by willemsubmerged, June 29, 2008)
The reason she considered the Cinderella of the Aruban shipwrecks is because, fro
As you can see from this angle, there isn’t much to swim through but within and around the deck, there are some small areas where you’ll find some beautiful sea life.
In sand near the ship I captured a video and took a still from it to share a field of small garden eels doing what they do, but as you’ll see in the video drop back into their hole as possible predators get near.
No matter how intact a ship may be upon it’s being sunk intentionally, the tide and current can rip these ships apart.
This Lizardfish was chilling out minding it’s own business, and glanced up at me as I swam by.
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Air Aruba YS-11 Airplane Wreckage
The nose of this plane is nowhere in sight, but I have to say that this is my first airplane wreckage that I’ve been on a dive to see and I found it a little eerie. Almost like something out of a movie as we approached and did our swim through.
Entering this airplane was thrilling because of the size of the openings, plus the bodies were still inside….. I’M KIDDING, there were no bodies, lol
This is a view from the cockpit towards the rear of the plane, as you can see the seats were all removed for a safer fuselage to dive through, and yes, I did look for drink cart…. That saltwater makes one rather thirsty, lol.
Here you have the cockpit and the sun was so bright coming into it, I had to defuse it some in post just to get what we have here.
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Harbor Reef Drift Dive
As I’m approaching this Moray Eel, it was getting more and more curious about me as well.
The Links at Divi Aruba
Keeping Your Ducks In A Row
During our first round of this 9/18 hole course, as I was approaching the 8th green I saw these ducks sitting on this log… I couldn’t just let them go without getting a picture.
A 9 Hole Course that Plays as 18
This is the first 9 hole course that I personally have ever played that only had the 9, but at each Tee box, there were two sets of Tee’s for each rating, women’s, men’s and the “tips”. they had them designated as “Front Nine” and then “Back Nine” and the tee’s for each were varied, some by as much as maybe 10 to 20 yards and some were even a little bit side by side, but far enough to the side to give you a completely different angle on the that hole or fairway.
Was actually quite a fun course and extremely challenging when it came to playing the wind. So we ended up playing this course twice.
A Clean Scorecard
As some of you know, we play golf around our home town at different courses and around the country, but we also play in the local towns/cities that we scuba dive in throughout the Caribbean. In doing so, we do not use the scorecards offered by the course to keep track of our score but we use an app called SwingU, this way the cards satay clean to go on our wall in our spare room.
I do have to say that this course has got, for only an actual 9 hole course, the longest piece of paper for their scorecard for anywhere I have ever played.