We went diving here with a friend, who is connected to Moby Dick Nieuwegein, a relatively new dive shop with well-established partners. Moby Dick is rapidly extpanding its dive school and dive team. Their gear is brand new and most definitely state of the art. They have got very experienced dive instructors, who are well able to teach you all you need to know about the dive sites and the extra precautions you need to take when you dive in The Netherlands.

Starttoren

The dive site we went to was called Starttoren / Wrakje van Scharendijke. To get to this site, you climb over a typical Dutch dyke with all your gear on and walk into the water. If you are not used to this, it can take quite some effort to put your fins on while trying to keep your balance on a very slippery stony bottom.

The waters are murky, so you’ll need to dive with torches. The visibility is only 2-5 metres. Therefore, make sure you have an experienced dive leader and understand each other about how and when to search for lost dive buddies. One or two large fin kicks and you can no longer see each other.

Dive conditions

The depth of the dive site is 15 metres. There is a little wreck on only a few metres deep and you can spot a surprisingly large amount of marine life here: sea stars, North Sea crabs, eels, shrimps, cold water anemones (weduweroosjes), jellyfish, swim-crabs, velvet swim-crabs and an enormous number of lobsters. The water temperature on the day was 18-23 degrees Celsius, depending on the depth. Water temperatures can vary greatly over the seasons though, getting as cold as 2-5 degrees in winter time.