Top Snorkeling and Scuba Diving in Normand

The top part of the reef is heavily covered in purple sea fans. It drops down via a wall with interesting sponges and soft corals covering it. One can find lots of arrow crabs, feathery tube worms and brightly colored corals on this reef. This site requires hiring a boat from Balan or Piatre ports in Baie de l'Acul (40min boat ride) or a taxi boat from Labadie village Taxi port (40 min boat ride). The fringing reef is very shallow and may not allow access to the beach at low tide. Dive access can be done from the beach at higher tides and requires a bit of a swim to get to the edge of the reef.

The reef at this site has more stag horn coral that seem to be home to more fish. The Western side of the site is more abundant in reef life. The site is an old cruise ship resort destination but has been abandoned for 20 years. There are walls still standing where buildings used to be but everything else has been removed. The beach is beautiful with white sand and lots of shade trees. A great place for a picnic surface interval. This site can only be reached by boat. A taxi boat from Labadie taxi port can get you there in about 25 minutes. The cost is around 1000 Gourdes or 25 USD (Aug. 09). There is an old pier structure where the boat can accost and let passengers off. The beach is sandy and has a gradual slope, there are coral reefs to both sides of the beach. The slopes are gradual as well.

The site has coral and sandy bottom interspersed. Interesting fish life with stingray and eel spotting. Some reef fish but not overly abundant. There are many sponges and sea fans with staghorn coral in between. It is best to have a hire boat taxi on the surface as the current can pick up especially in the afternoons. This will allow you to do a leisurely drift dive without having to surface swim back against the current. Like with Cachal Beach, you will need to hire a taxi boat. See Cachal for details.

The depth increases gradually from the entry north of the wreck towards the North. A compass is good to have so as not to lose your bearings as the bottom can get close to flat. Some hard corals growing on the rock substrate but it looks as if a storm may have passed over, destroying some in the past few years. You must hire a Labadie taxi boat to take you to this site. It takes about 20-25 minutes to get there. It is hard to miss with the grounded tanker as a clear visible marker above the water.