Recent Dive

[mac66]

Was on a Celebrity cruise a couple weeks ago with stops in St. Maarten and St. Thomas.   Been in St. Maarten numerous times and dived there the last time I was there (Dec 2019).   Haven't been to St. Thomas in quite a while and never dived there.   I was surprised that no ship excursions were offered for diving in St. Maarten but they had one for St. Thomas so I booked the one for St. Thomas.  I should have written down who they used but now I can't remember.

 

My last dive was in Roatan last Dec. It was my first dive since Dec 19.

 

We met on the pier by an X representative who accompanied us on the dive boat though she didn't dive with us. We filled out the paperwork on the pier and then It was a short walk from the pier to where the dive boat was docked. The dive boat was large pontoon type boat. There were 7 of us on the boat including a couple who were doing a discovery dive as a refresher since they hadn't dived in about 10 years. They dived separate from us. I rented all equipment but brought my own full wet suit (even in warm water I get cold).

 

Dive site was a cove off of Buck Island called ship wreck cove. It's where a old freighter called the Cartanzar is sunk.  The cove is popular for snorkelers as about 5 different catamarans full of snorkelers came in and out of the cove while we were there. There were also quite a few private boats snorkeling and diving there.

 

The first dive was along the point/reef.  It had been torn up in the last hurricane is just now starting to return. Frankly, we didn't see much life there.  The second dive is on the wreck. The wreck is pretty beaten up and lies in three piece in 60 feet of water.  It was interesting but not spectacular.

 

The good....

-the X excursion was priced within $5 of private dives

-The boat was roomy and not crowded

-The dive site is only about a 15 minute boat ride from the dock

-The seas were fairly calm which made the ride comfortable

-The cove is well protected making getting on and off the boat (no swells) easy

-The dive boat was about a 5 minute walk from the ship pier.

-The guides were friendly and competent.

 

The not so good...

-They had one pitcher of water on board to drink

-The cove was crowded, you had to dodge boats coming and going and snorkelers

 

My next cruise leaves next Sunday. It is a 12 night cruise to the southern Carib with stops on 7 islands, none of which I've been before. I'm diving on 3 of them. St. Croix, St. Kitts and Granada. The St. Croix dive was the one originally through the ship but was canceled. No other ship dives were offered.

[omeinv]

13 hours ago, mac66 said:

 

My next cruise leaves next Sunday. It is a 12 night cruise to the southern Carib with stops on 7 islands, none of which I've been before. I'm diving on 3 of them. St. Croix, St. Kitts and Granada. The St. Croix dive was the one originally through the ship but was canceled. No other ship dives were offered.

Mac,

 

I've got people on all these islands.  If you want, please email me, or perhaps start a new thread so others can find it more easily when they search. 

 

Harris

Denver, CO

[mac66]

8 hours ago, omeinv said:

Mac,

 

I've got people on all these islands.  If you want, please email me, or perhaps start a new thread so others can find it more easily when they search. 

 

Harris

Denver, CO

 

I'm covered/booked where we are going but it took awhile to find as the private diving charters were on again, off again over the last couple weeks, months.  Perhaps you would have recommendations for those three islands. 

 

I'd like to dive the rest of them as well but I need to spend some time with the wife on excursions since she doesn't dive and these are all new islands to us.  Although she is going along as a bubble watcher/snorkeler on 2 of them.

[Bobroo]

Mac66 lemme guess, the tanks they gave you in St Thomas were AL 72's?

[mac66]

1 hour ago, Bobroo said:

Mac66 lemme guess, the tanks they gave you in St Thomas were AL 72's?

 Yup

[omeinv]

6 hours ago, Bobroo said:

Mac66 lemme guess, the tanks they gave you in St Thomas were AL 72's?

Isn't that the weirdest thing?  I've never seen or even heard of those anyplace else.  I assume you guys were also at AquaMarine St. Thomas.

 

Harris

Denver, CO

[mac66]

Just got back from my 12 night cruise to the southern Caribbean.

Dived on just two islands, St. Croix with St Croix Ultimate Bluewater Adv.(SCUBA) and on St. Kitts with Pro Divers. 

 

Our first stop was St. Croix. We were scheduled for a 2 tank 9 am dive but due to mechanical issues the ship left late and didn't get to St. Croix until 2 pm. SCUBA accommodated us on their afternoon dive and squeezed in two dives before the sun went down.  There were 3 divers from the ship and 8 other divers on the dive boat.

 

We dived. "Tide Bottle" first which was pretty typical reef dive. The second dive was the "Swirling Reef of Death". Saw rays, turtles, eels.   The nice thing was the dive sites were just a short boat ride from the pier. Not much travel time to get there and back. The shop is just across the street from the pier and their dive boat leaves from the pier. easy, peasy.

 

Morning dive on St. Kitts the next day.  Pro Divers' boat was a short walk from the St. Kitts ship port/pier. There were 5 divers from the ship and 8 other divers. First dive site was " River Taw" which is a wreck dive.  Lots of fish, eels etc. There is also a sunken bulldozer and a man made reef nearby so we did the circle tour. Pretty good dive all in all.

 

The second dive was on a reef on the edge of  a wall. The site was called "Brimstone Shallows".  As soon as we were in the water we were surrounded by reef sharks, turtles, rays etc.  The guide even speared a Lionfish and fed it to a shark.  Really good dive.  Again, both dive sites were just a short boat ride from the cruise ship port.

 

Lots of youtube videos of these dive sites.

Edited March 26, 2022 by mac66