Caribbean Dreaming

My Facebook page recently featured a feed to a last-day-of-2017 Sport Diver article, Top Ten Caribbean Islands for Scuba Diving.   I am not much one for building lists.  That reluctance may explain multiple trips to the grocery store every week to get things that I forgot on the initial trip.  The list intrigued me for several reasons, but two stand out.  The first is my love of scuba diving coral reefs and my recently arrived interest in coral reef preservation.  The second is the approaching Alaska winter.  All the other reasons pale by comparison to the first two.

 

The ten islands on the Sport Diver list are highlighted on the map

Note: Statia is a small island in the highlighted smudge adjacent to St. Kitts and Nevis

1. Roatan
2. St. Croix (U.S, Virgin Islands)
3. Cozumel
4. Saba (St. Martin)
5. Grenada
6. Bonaire
7. Tobago
8. Statia
9. St. Lucia
10. Cayman Islands

I have dived three of the islands on the list:  Bonaire, Cozumel, and the Cayman Islands.  The itinerary of each of the three islands was organized by Brandon Cole who does this so friends may join his in the field or orchestrated by a local dive shop.  In my dive travels, I don't normally revisit someplace I have been but I would consider an exception for Bonaire and the Caymans.  If the other islands are anything like those two, I wonder why I waited so long to consider going to the remaining seven.  I tried to get to St. Croix last year, but a couple of hurricanes kind of killed the tourist serving amenities on the island. I wanted to get to Roatan the last week of this coming March, but every place I checked into staying was waitlisted.  I need to get an earlier start.  Instead, I planned trips to Kona and Maui, respectively.  I now understand why people arrange group trips a year or two in advance.


Some people would say "be spontaneous; just go."  The folks admire Columbus' voyage of discovery:  he didn't know where he was going, did not know how to get there, and did using someone else's money.  That strategy works sometimes, but the older I get the more I like to have predictability in the itinerary.  I did the "sleep on the beach in Baja" dive trip 30 years ago.  It turned out swell, but required a detour when high winds forced us to switch locations from Mulege to Loretto. Both had camping spots, so accommodations were not an issue.  I am not sure my sense of adventure is now to be left to happenstance.  Still, with all the tools of the world wide web, I can plan this expedition myself.  Watch this spot for details.