Leeward_Islands travel tips and stories. Vacations ideas, cruises spa and resorts

Sint Eustatius is one of the islands making up the Netherlands Antilles. It is in the northern, Leeward Islands portion of this territory, to the east of the Virgin Islands. The regional capital is Oranjestad. It is named after the legendary Catholic Saint Eustace. Statia has diving life like no other destination in the Caribbean. The warm water and the underwater volcanic fissures and canyons have given this area a diversified diving selection.
One can dive coral and sponge covered walls and pinnacles with dramatic backdrops of visual delights. These walls a frequented by black rip sharks, eagle rays and larger fish varieties.
The shallower reefs 40 feet to 75 feet have been carved from volcanic fingers that are covered with a variety of soft and hard corals. Barrel sponges and pillar coral seem to be the norm for the visual backdrops.
The fish life is abundant with a few rarer species like the flying gurnards, high hats and jack-knife fish making daily showings. Hundreds of critters make their home in numerous cracks and ledges. This is truly a photographers delight.
One of the many dive sites in Statia consists of tangled shipwrecks located in 60 to 70 feet of water. Many of these wrecks are surrounded by hundreds of schooling snappers, goat fish and other curious fishes. Large barracudas guard the upper waters while spotted morays and southern stingrays patrol below.
For those interested in archeological dives, Statia has plenty. One can find glass shards from old plates, wine bottles or an old Dutch clay pipe.

Whether you are just beginning to dive or whether you are an old salt and want to dive walls, pinnacles, reefs or an old archeological shipwreck site, Statia has them all. The abundance of fish, coral and color makes this truly a divers dreams come true.