Captain Nautica mini boat

[sparelink]

We are looking to go to St. Thomas on the Oasis June 14 and looking for a mini boat tour in either St. Thomas or St. Maarten.

 

The one in St Thomas is Captain Nautica mini boat tour. The one in St Maarten is the Rhino Rider tour.

 

Has anyone experienced either of these? Is the snorkling better at one island over the other?

 

Looks like Captain Nautica provided snacks and drink but no mention of that with Rhino Rider.

 

Any info provided would be great

[cbell21219]

We are looking to go to St. Thomas on the Oasis June 14 and looking for a mini boat tour in either St. Thomas or St. Maarten.

 

The one in St Thomas is Captain Nautica mini boat tour. The one in St Maarten is the Rhino Rider tour.

 

Has anyone experienced either of these? Is the snorkling better at one island over the other?

 

Looks like Captain Nautica provided snacks and drink but no mention of that with Rhino Rider.

 

Any info provided would be great

 

I am not going on the tour with Capt. Nautica but I am renting one of his 50HP boats for the day we are in port on our cruise coming up in early Feb. I will let you know the quality of the equipment. I have heard several bad things about Rhino in St. Maarten, mind you all of that information is second hand and I have zero personal experience with them.

 

We plan on renting a boat and seeing the West side of St. Thomas beaches and the Trunk Bay side of St. John. We are also going to boat up to Jost Van Dyke to have lunch at Foxys.

 

I a not big on guided tours. I would much rather do the research and see things on my own in my own time. But I will; def. respond to you again and let you know about my experience with the company as a whole.

Edited January 19, 2014 by cbell21219

[tripgrl]

I am not going on the tour with Capt. Nautica but I am renting one of his 50HP boats for the day we are in port on our cruise coming up in early Feb. I will let you know the quality of the equipment. I have heard several bad things about Rhino in St. Maarten, mind you all of that information is second hand and I have zero personal experience with them.

 

We plan on renting a boat and seeing the West side of St. Thomas beaches and the Trunk Bay side of St. John. We are also going to boat up to Jost Van Dyke to have lunch at Foxys.

 

I a not big on guided tours. I would much rather do the research and see things on my own in my own time. But I will; def. respond to you again and let you know about my experience with the company as a whole.

 

I was wondering if you did this excursion and how it worked out?

[cbell21219]

I was wondering if you did this excursion and how it worked out?

 

We had a blast, but I would not recommend this to anyone who has no experience boating on the ocean. These are very small boats as far as ocean going boats are concerned and not knowing how to operate them safely is very dangerous. Also unless you have a good grasp of marine navigation I wouldn't recommend this either simply because you need to be able to read a nautical map to see where all the reefs are that could damage your boat.

 

Although if you have this knowledge this type of excursion can be as much fun as anything you have done before. You can just putt along the coast lines of St. John and St. Thomas and admire the view or you can boat out to a abandoned beach and spend the day. Please just make sure to understand boating on the ocean is dangerous and if you do not have the experience I would suggest the normal guided tour.

[tripgrl]

Thanks for your reply. I think our group would benefit from a captain!

[yorkshireterrierist]

I did St Thomas one in Jan of 2013 and it was awesome!!! The boats are a blast to drive and the guides let you go full throttle if that is your thing but they also have a guy at the back to help the slower people.

The water at the snorkel site was very warm, not the most fascinating snorkelling ever but not bad either.

One thing was that a couple of the boats did have problems and could not go very fast, I'm not sure if they offered to compensate those people or not.