Tugboat Beach

Curacao, ABC Islands
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Viz (last reported 22745h ago)
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Snorkeling and Scuba Diving at Tugboat Beach

After my husband dived from a boat at this site and really liked it, we rented a car and drove out there so I could snorkel. It was the best snorkeling we did on the island. There are huge columns used for tying off ships that have lots of corals growing on them. The coral was pristine and the fish abundant. Coronets, spotted drums, parrotfish, several kinds of butterfly fish, eels, Spanish hogfish, and a very attractive tugboat below.<br><br>From Anonymous: Get there early and beat the snorkel boats to this picturesque site! Tugboat is everything you see in the dive Curacao ads. Shallow site, great for photographing the little things! Finish your dive by checking out under the pier. There is a small dive shop there, but the day we went they were out of tanks and have no compressor. The attendant promised to have tanks there in a hour, we waited two hours and still no tanks. Bring your own tanks! From downtown Willemstad go east to Salina and take Nieuwe Caracasbaaiweg all the way out to its end, which is a roundabout, where you take the left turn (east). continue along the road, passing the ruins of Fort Beekenburg and alongside Baya Beach. Follow the unpaved road up the hill and back down to a parking lot below the Quarantaine Building (old, large, yellow building on hill). At the end of the parking lot is a small beach facility. It has a small dive shop, picnic tables, a small cobbled beach, and snack shop, changing rooms, and showers. The shop's name is Tugboat. On the big 'SmartDriving' road map we got from out hotel this divesite is marked as #63, 'Tugboat'.
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Paul Beckett
Paul Beckett
May 21, 2015, 12:00 AM
scuba
Well for this site I choose to do it because it was another wreck to tick off the list. The tugboat is a load of battered old plates and did behind pier 5. What is amazing here is the muck life. I.e cleaning stations. I did choose to interact with one but did not realize that it also besides the lovely cleaner shrimp also had a resident mantis shrimp which bit me on the finger. Needless to say I nearly spat my regulator in pain but look back with a bruised finger and laugh. Another black cat tale for the bar room! There is currently an old catamaran ferry and an old oil rig in the facility here. It's also frequented by Dutch special forces for training after dark. I don't know if the two are connected but they were busy cleaning their weapons and dive gear (pure oxy rebreathers) when I arrived.
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