And The Award Goes To...

It’s no secret that Bermuda has some of the best SCUBA diving anywhere in the world. Thanks to healthy coral reefs that encircle the island, Bermuda boasts a thriving marine ecosystem in addition to some serious relics of the past—shipwrecks and lots of them. Fortunately us islanders aren’t the only one’s who’ve noticed. In SCUBA DIVING magazine’s 2010 Reader’s Choice Survey, Bermuda was selected as the number one destination for wreck diving in the Atlantic and Caribbean (along with placing third for best snorkeling and beginner diving in the region). The magazine notes that Bermuda has “more than five centuries’ worth of fascinating wrecks” and that you can dive “everything from a French three-masted wooden warship that hit the reef in 1838 (L’Herminie) to a Civil War-era paddle-wheel blockader (Montana) to a nearly 500-foot-long luxury liner that rests in only about 50 feet of water (Cristobal Colon).” Best of all, “these wrecks are part of the Bermuda Shipwreck Certificate program, which provides divers with free certificates highlighting the history of 21 of the estimated 300 ships that ring the island, just for diving it.” I don’t know about you but that sure sounds like a good time. Now what about that third place award—you know, the best beginner dive spot in the region? Even non-certified divers can take the plunge by booking an introductory dive on the Constellation, a four-masted schooner that sunk in 1943 and now sits in a mere 30 feet of water (the same ship in fact, that author Peter Benchley found inspiration from when researching his novel, The Deep). For more information contact Bluewater Divers & Watersports. In the meantime, three cheers to you Bermuda! More than 5,000 readers can’t be wrong, right?