When driving to this site, make sure to take a few minutes to enjoy the scenic overlook just before the Sunset Waters Resort, providing a fantastic view of Santa Martha Bay and the distant undeveloped hills of Christoffel Park. Non-guests must pay a small fee for using the beach. Divers are allowed to take their cars to the lower parking lot, cutting your walk to the water down to an easy hundred feet. There is a full service dive shop, bathrooms, showers, and restaurant available.
This site is easily accessible from shore. To reach the airplane, head out between the two rock piers flanking the main beach, then follow the submerged pipe from the end of the left pier along the sandy bottom until reaching the drop off, approximately 100 feet away. The airplane wreck is situated 50 feet to the right of this pipe. Lying on the sand at the lip of the drop off in 20 feet of water, it can be enjoyed by snorkelers and divers alike. The wreck of this small plane was placed here many years ago (purportedly by a former dive shop owner) and not much remains aside from the chassis. (The wings can be found slightly further down the reef wall.) Brain and star corals encrust much of the remains, and peacock flounders and scorpion fish can usually be spotted hiding around the wreckage.
The reef beneath the wreck is in good shape, starting at 20 feet and dropping down to over 150 feet. Currents are usually (but not always!) light. Current permitting, the best diving is towards the left. (The right is also decent, but you have to contend with a stretch of murkiness and silting from the channel to Santa Martha Bay.) Stony corals and gorgonians are abundant, and golden tail and spotted moray eels can be found lurking in many crevices. Finding your way back is easy; the pipe you followed to the drop off pokes back out of the reef between 40 and 60 feet. Just keep an eye out for it on your way back and follow it in to the beach. |
Airplane Wreck/Mike's Reef
