The answer to your question for any particular day depends on the conditions affecting visibility and your comfort in the water as to distance and conditions. We consider Green Cay (Isle Verde) pretty easy off beach for us but it is a little over one-third mile each way to get there off Orient Beach (at Club O) and there are currents which vary. Probably the easiest more immediately off beach, that are usually OK as to conditions, are Pinel and Divi Litte Bay. Once on Pinel, there is decent snorkeling off south-east point. I always hesitate to recommend Pinel to cruisers (if you are going on a port of call) because of the time restraints - but it is doable, especially if you know SXM well. At Divi, there is OK snorkeling along left side as you face water - conditions are usually OK there, but can vary as it can everywhere. Long Bay along cliff wall in left front of Samana has good snorkeling in small area. Bay Rouge and Plum Bay (Bay of Prunes) have decent snorkeling to right as you look at water, but both of those very often have bad visibility. We feel that the reef at Dawn has never recovered from the damage done by the construction of the Westin, visibility very often is bad there anyway, and because of our hard to get rid of feelings about the Westin and Busby's attitude about parking (and otherwise sometimes), we rarely check out Dawn any more. Years ago, before the road and long before hte Westin, Dawn used to be one of our very favorite places - but that Dawn no longer exists.
