Help Needed - St Thomas, St John Dive Site Recommendations

[NYSP230]

Hello dive colleagues,

Because of the implications and testing-related risks of travelling to BVI during COVID, our annual trip (November) has been moved to the USVI. A half-dozen of us charter a power cat from the Moorings, and typically bounce around BVI doing two dives a day at various locations. This is an unsupported trip, and we make our own itinerary - being sure to hit Soggy Dollar, Foxys, and Anegada for lobster.

My dive mates and I are soliciting your assistance with dive site recommendations, bays to moor in, favorite apres-dive locations and the like. We like wrecks (I think there is only one in St. Thomas / St. John), but would take any suggestions. We are totally unfamiliar with USVI - save for a bootleg trip to Skinny Legs on St. John, and would appreciate any and all guidance you might be able to lend.

Peace, and safe diving,
George

 

[Symbiosis Diving Travel]

Greetings from St. Croix George,

I don't have info for St. Thomas but we have a lot of folks sail over from St. Thomas to St. Croix for diving. We are only 44 miles from St. Thomas. We have two deep wrecks 50'-110' and three shallower 30'-60' wrecks on the west end. We also have one of THE best pier dives in the Caribbean and since we sit on the Puerto Rican Trench (the deepest in the Atlantic) we have some good Caribbean wall dives and reef dives on the Northshore. St. Croix has one of the longest continuous fringing reefs in the Caribbean with over 50 dive sites. We also have two historic downtown areas and forts, good mooring in Christiansted harbor and calm moorings off the West end white sand beaches. We also have some excellent fine dining options, local cuisine, beach bars and restaurants along the boardwalk

Have a fantastic cruise! Let me know if I can be of any assistance.

Cheers!

 

[Damselfish]

AFAIK St Croix is the best diving of the USVI (only one I've dove.) So if diving is a priority you'd want to be considering that if you're up for the crossing.

 

[Jersey]

Hi George -
Worked on St T for a year and tried to dive as much as possible. Almost all boat, save a couple shore from Coki > can't really recomend that. Best diving near St T is out at French Cap, weather often not cooperative, it's a bit of a haul and as it's deeper (90+ foot) shop would not go with first time guests on board. Only got out there a couple times. And because my dives were boat with guests just walking in off street, I'm guessing most of the time limited to tested, tried, true, easy dives (see Cow and Calf) Around St T > Carval Rock, Mingo and Congo Cays were ones we'd hit if people had been diving with the op a couple days. Cow and Calf are the most popular dive spots - close to Red Hook and shallow. Dog and Little St James somewhat better. Aside - Little St James island was Jeffrey Epsteins hidey-hole. Locally referred to as 'Pedophile Point'. Again, nothing deep, not really reef walls like GC or Bonaire, more shoals.

Diving was OK, not spectacular, but beat sitting on a beach drinking from sun up (as some colleagues did). Did see a lot of sharks. Nurse, reef, blacktip. Friends saw hammerheads and there were talks of a GW. Found my first pipefish. That was cool. Lots of turtles. Saw my first water spout too, that was not cool, that was kind of scary sitting on a dive boat, watching it come at us.

Apre dive I do know . On St John, Joes Rum Hut was a frequent Happy Hour haunt. Right on the water in Cruz Bay. After hours we would walk or taxi over to The Tap Room, Mongoose Junction (kind of an outside mall) for beers and hot bavarian pretzels. Zozo's at the Sugar Mill was wiped out during the '17 hurricanes, was my fav high end restaurant. On St Thomas, lots of fun in Red Hook - XO, Pesce, Tap & Still, Duffy's Love Shack (the most fun you can have in a parking lot). In and around Charlotte Amalie my go to fav restaurants were Oceana housed in a former Russian Consulate bldg, right on the water and Virgilios on a shady little backstreet. Don't say I didn't warn you, swear they used to run a house of ill repute across the street. Mafolie up the hill is good. Enkai used to be in Frenchtown, really delish sushi, think they relocated to Yacht Haven complex where the cruise ships come in. Buddha Sushi is other side of the island, near Red Hook. Shame my fav happy hour haunt - Room with a View - up at Bluebeards Castle is closed. Amazing views and had a selection of $5 apps and cheap drinks. Iggies at Bolongo Bay was on the way home - another after work spot.

Hope that helps.

 

[Jaan]

We were at the Secret Harbor resort for a dive vacation back in June, others have gone more recently (see Steves write up here too
Hi everyone.

We dove some of the more famous sites such as Cow Rock (which ends with a champagne corks pop up through swim-throughs) and the Cartanza Wreck which was cool
Some more info available on our stay here: Scuba Diving Vacation at Secret Harbour Beach Resort in St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands

There were a number of boats moored in the bay at the hotel (Nazareth Bay), the local crew picked up folks for diving from the boats. Some nice sites in that area which we enjoyed. May be worth a day on your itinerary

Happy to answer questions but we basically stayed at the resort and did boat dives with the local shop (aqua action) as well as shore dives off the beach of the resort (also nice).
At the time, we needed specific tests to arrive but nothing to get back to the US.
Cheers and enjoy!!

 

[NYSP230]

Greetings from St. Croix George,

I don't have info for St. Thomas but we have a lot of folks sail over from St. Thomas to St. Croix for diving. We are only 44 miles from St. Thomas. We have two deep wrecks 50'-110' and three shallower 30'-60' wrecks on the west end. We also have one of THE best pier dives in the Caribbean and since we sit on the Puerto Rican Trench (the deepest in the Atlantic) we have some good Caribbean wall dives and reef dives on the Northshore. St. Croix has one of the longest continuous fringing reefs in the Caribbean with over 50 dive sites. We also have two historic downtown areas and forts, good mooring in Christiansted harbor and calm moorings off the West end white sand beaches. We also have some excellent fine dining options, local cuisine, beach bars and restaurants along the boardwalk

Have a fantastic cruise! Let me know if I can be of any assistance.

Cheers!

Thanks so much for the detail. We were contemplating a trip to St. Croix - but a couple of things concerned us...limited bays/mooring locations, and the open water we have to cross. Can you comment on either of these concerns?

Thanks again,
George

 

[NYSP230]

AFAIK St Croix is the best diving of the USVI (only one I've dove.) So if diving is a priority you'd want to be considering that if you're up for the crossing.

Thanks for the response Damselfish. The crossing and lack of protected bays/mooring locations had us concerned. Any thoughts about either of these factors?

George

 

[NYSP230]

Hi George -
Worked on St T for a year and tried to dive as much as possible. Almost all boat, save a couple shore from Coki > can't really recomend that. Best diving near St T is out at French Cap, weather often not cooperative, it's a bit of a haul and as it's deeper (90+ foot) shop would not go with first time guests on board. Only got out there a couple times. And because my dives were boat with guests just walking in off street, I'm guessing most of the time limited to tested, tried, true, easy dives (see Cow and Calf) Around St T > Carval Rock, Mingo and Congo Cays were ones we'd hit if people had been diving with the op a couple days. Cow and Calf are the most popular dive spots - close to Red Hook and shallow. Dog and Little St James somewhat better. Aside - Little St James island was Jeffrey Epsteins hidey-hole. Locally referred to as 'Pedophile Point'. Again, nothing deep, not really reef walls like GC or Bonaire, more shoals.

Diving was OK, not spectacular, but beat sitting on a beach drinking from sun up (as some colleagues did). Did see a lot of sharks. Nurse, reef, blacktip. Friends saw hammerheads and there were talks of a GW. Found my first pipefish. That was cool. Lots of turtles. Saw my first water spout too, that was not cool, that was kind of scary sitting on a dive boat, watching it come at us.

Apre dive I do know . On St John, Joes Rum Hut was a frequent Happy Hour haunt. Right on the water in Cruz Bay. After hours we would walk or taxi over to The Tap Room, Mongoose Junction (kind of an outside mall) for beers and hot bavarian pretzels. Zozo's at the Sugar Mill was wiped out during the '17 hurricanes, was my fav high end restaurant. On St Thomas, lots of fun in Red Hook - XO, Pesce, Tap & Still, Duffy's Love Shack (the most fun you can have in a parking lot). In and around Charlotte Amalie my go to fav restaurants were Oceana housed in a former Russian Consulate bldg, right on the water and Virgilios on a shady little backstreet. Don't say I didn't warn you, swear they used to run a house of ill repute across the street. Mafolie up the hill is good. Enkai used to be in Frenchtown, really delish sushi, think they relocated to Yacht Haven complex where the cruise ships come in. Buddha Sushi is other side of the island, near Red Hook. Shame my fav happy hour haunt - Room with a View - up at Bluebeards Castle is closed. Amazing views and had a selection of $5 apps and cheap drinks. Iggies at Bolongo Bay was on the way home - another after work spot.

Hope that helps.

Jersey,
this is really helpful. Thanks for taking the time to provide such detail. Stay well,
George.

 

[NYSP230]

We were at the Secret Harbor resort for a dive vacation back in June, others have gone more recently (see Steves write up here too
Hi everyone.

We dove some of the more famous sites such as Cow Rock (which ends with a champagne corks pop up through swim-throughs) and the Cartanza Wreck which was cool
Some more info available on our stay here: Scuba Diving Vacation at Secret Harbour Beach Resort in St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands

There were a number of boats moored in the bay at the hotel (Nazareth Bay), the local crew picked up folks for diving from the boats. Some nice sites in that area which we enjoyed. May be worth a day on your itinerary

Happy to answer questions but we basically stayed at the resort and did boat dives with the local shop (aqua action) as well as shore dives off the beach of the resort (also nice).
At the time, we needed specific tests to arrive but nothing to get back to the US.
Cheers and enjoy!!

Jaan,

thanks for the detailed response. This is very helpful.

Stay well,
George

 

[johnnyscience]

So St. Croix seems to be the place for shallow reef diving.

How deep are the reefs in St. Croix?

How is the diving in the winter time? I know the summer months are better for diving in areas like the Keys, and wondering if St. Croix would be nice enough to dive in the winter months since it's further southeast?

How does St. John compare when it comes to reef diving, are there any reefs there?