ABC Islands - Diving at the Renaissance Plane Wreck (Aruba)

After the start of our cruise in La Romana (Dominican Republic) and a day at sea was today our first stop on the island of Aruba.

Table of contents

The island of Aruba

Aruba is the westernmost and smallest of the three ABC islands (Aruba, Bonaire, Curacao), which belong geographically to South America and are part of the Lesser Antilles in the southern Caribbean. The island is only about 30 kilometers long, maximum 9 kilometers wide and has about 105,000 inhabitants.

Jads Aruba Diving School

We had already booked a diving trip with two dives from home. Since we really wanted to dive plane wreckage and some off the coast of Aruba, the diving school Jads Aruba was quickly found, which offers the plane wreck diving exactly today. We would have liked to have booked this trip via the AIDA, but here it was not certain whether this dive site will be approached.

At 8.30 a.m. we should be picked up from the diving school in front of the port terminal. Well, in the Caribbean the clocks are ticking a little slower: Around 9 o’clock the shuttle bus was there, in which already 5 other divers were sitting. We went directly to the small port, which is located below the airport “Queen Beatrix International Airport”. On the dive boat the diving equipment was already on it, so that it could start right away. Since there were two instructors, the group could be shared again.

The bus from Jads Aruba

The dive ship of Jads Aruba

Our diving spots on Aruba today

Diving on the plane wreckage “Renaissance Air Planes”

In about 15 minutes along the coast we had already reached our first diving spot, which is about 300 meters off Renaissance Island: the Renaissance Air Planes.

Unfortunately the visibility under water was not so good and the current quite strong, but the sight of the aircraft wrecks Convair 400 and Air Aruba YS-11 was still really great. Convair’s plane is believed to have been seized during a drug raid in the 1980s. Since they did not know what to do with the plane, the authorities quickly sunk it. The cockpit as well as some parts of the fuselage are still well preserved. In the immediate vicinity you will also find other parts, such as the propellers.

A few metres away are the remains of Air Aruba’s former YS-11 passenger plane,which was able to carry up to 64 passengers from 1988. 12 years later, the airline went bankrupt and it decided to sink the plane off the coast of Aruba and use it as an artificial reef. Through the rear entrance you can dive into the machine and dive through the completely empty cabin space to the cockpit. At the left exit we swam out of the machine again. A truly extraordinary, unique diving experience!

Plane wreckdiving in Aruba

Diving on the aircraft Convair 400

The sunken plane wreckage

The passenger plane YS-11

Diving

Plane wreckdiving in Aruba

The diving spot Tire Reef

The second dive site was the Tire Reef, which we dived for about 60 minutes. Here we have seen some black and white moray eels, firefish, trumpet fish, cleaning shrimp and a scorpion fish.

A scorpion fish

The underwater world in Aruba

A Spotted Cleaner Shrimp

A fan coral

A moray eels

Coral reef

Marine life

A suitcase fish

Our dive video of Aruba

Here you can find the video of our two dives in Aruba.

Going 1 p.m. we were back at the small harbour, from where we were then taken straight back to the ship. We spent the rest of the day exploring the city of Oranjestad.

Übersicht unserer AIDA-Reiseberichte in der Karibik

Liest man die Liste der Inseln, die die AIDA auf der Route Karibische Inseln 1 ansteuert, denkt man kurzzeitig, es wäre ein Traum: Dominikanische Republik, Aruba, Curaçao, Bonaire, Grenada, St. Vincent & die Grenadinen, Barbados, St. Lucia, Dominica, Guadeloupe, Antigua. Elf Inseln in 14 Tagen anzusteuern ist schon eine Hausnummer. Aber das war auch der Grund für uns, diese Route zu wählen. Eine Kreuzfahrt ist wie prädestiniert dafür, die Karibik mit ihren mehreren tausenden Trauminseln auf eine entspannte Art und Weise kennenzulernen. Hier findet Ihr alle Reiseberichte unserer 14-tägigen Karibikkreuzfahrt mit AIDAdiva.