Bolongo Bay - St. Thomas

[cduffey]

Does anyone have recent experience staying at Bolongo Bay on St. Thomas and diving with their operation, St. Thomas Diving Club. I read a post from a couple of years ago that said the dive operation was terrible. My husband(200+ dives) and I(100+ dives) have an aversion to cattle boats and are very safety conscious. Can anyone give a recent review of the resort and diver operation?

 

[scorpionfish]

Hi, CDuffey!

I would stay clear of Belongo Bay! It caters to "resorty" types and not divers! I am also not real fond of the location!

If you are coming to St. Thomas, I suggest diving with the Blue Island Divers

http://www.blueislanddivers.com/

Jim is a recent "expat" from Pennsylvania and just a darn pleasant person. If you are an experieced diver with good bottom times, they will generally let you stay down until you are "ready" to reboard. They do this by leading the dive and them giving you free rein when you have sighted the boat again. You should discuss this prior to the dive, but I would let them "experience" your skills on the first dive--then make your request.

They are on the west side of the islands where I think the diving is better. Ask to go to Flattop: it is a wonderful dive!

If you insist on going to the east side of the island, my choice of dive shops is Chris Sawyer's

http://www.sawyerdive.vi/

Chris is a transplanted Southern Californian who has been running an operation on St. Thomas for ca. 20 years. He is a delightful person! However, they run their dives by the tables--even if you have a computer--and tend to make the dives shorter than I would like.

St. Thomas does not feature spectacular diving: it is nice diving and easy diving, but do not expect to see many large fish or pelagics. However, the coral is great and some of the dive sites (on the western side) are wonderful. Chris Sawyer also does a great night dive; even if you do not dive with him, consider doing one of his night dives. The east side is better at night!

One more item: many folks want to see the wreck of the Rhone nearer the BVI. Chris does that a couple of times a week and it is a very popular dive. My opinion: save your bottom time for other activities. It is pretty beaten up and very murky. If you are not the first dive boat there, you will likely see mostly muck. Because it is so popular lots of inexperienced divers go there and kick up a storm of silt!

Hope this helps.

Scorpionfish

 

[cduffey]

Scopionfish,
Thanks for the information. It sounds like you are well acquainted with St. Thomas. We have dived in the BVI -- including the Rhone, we've done 2 separate trips on the Cuan Law. Can we expect the same sort of visibility, reefs, and life. Do you have a recommendation for a place to stay on St. Thomas?

 

[scorpionfish]

Diving the Virgins???

Hi, again!

Off St. Thomas you can expect, for the most part, 80-100 ft vis. in
Winter, Spring and Fall. So, I think the diving is comparable to the BVI in regard to vis, sea life etc. My general appraisal of diving in the VI, B and US: 5-6 on a scale of 10. Coz and Saba are 10's. Grand Cayman is a 3. Cayman Brac a 6. Little Cayman, a 9-10. Most of the Bahamas, 5-6. Bonaire, a 9-10. Nevis/St. Kitts/St. Eustacia, a 5-6(but I really like St. Kitts!). Jamaica and Haiti--very scary these days.

Where to stay depends, as usual, on the state of the Exchequer (Treasury) and on ST, the Exchequer needs to be in decent shape! To me the best bets in or near Charlotte Amalie are the Marriott at Frenchman's Reef/Morning Star and Bluebeard Castle on the "hill". But they are fairly high priced, as are most hotel-type accommodations on ST.

There are no condos or villas that are inexpensive that I would even start to recommend on the west side! However, there is one place that folks I know stayed at a few years ago and they liked it: Island View Guest House. This is a bed-and-breakfast place that is also on the "hill" overlooking Charlotte Amalie and the harbor. It is reasonable, clean and nice, to my knowledge.

All the above are convenient to Blue Island Divers if you go that route, which, again, I recommend. However, you will need a car, which I also recommend (STRONGLY)!

If you choose to stay on the east side of the island, then there is a condo that is darned good: Point Pleasant Resort. The parking is an adventure and the kitchens are quite rudimentary, but the condos are fairly spacious, clean and very nice. Even if you stay there, the drive to the west side is only about 1/2 hour. However, going through Charlotte Amalie at "rush hour" can be a little taxing since the road is mostly one lane each direction! If you choose to dive with Chris, he usually can arrange for a hotel package--and I think he may still have an arrangement with the Point Pleasant Resort.

Hope this helps!

Scorpionfish

 

[Ivan]

I just returned from 2 weeks trip to St. Croix. There were no "cattle" boats at all.

Ivan

 

[cduffey]

How difficult is it to get to St. Croix? Can you get a direct flight from Atlanta, or are puddle jumpers required? We're looking for somewhere that you don't have to spend an entire day traveling back and forth.

 

[Ivan]

Hi,

I traveled from Europe (Prague) and needed to change planes 4 times. It was quite an exercise. There is a direct flight from and to Miami once a day. It leaves Miami in the morning, from St. Croix to Miami it leaves at 16.15. The flight was OK.

We stayed in the western part of the island and did 10 shore dives (Butler Bay wrecks, northern wall out of Cane Bay) and 8 boat dives (two reefs from Frederckstedt, 4 from Cane Bay and two from Christianstedt). Corals were nice and healthy on most dives, we met one large goliash grouper (1.7 meters, 120 kg), many turtles, large green and brown muray, many large stingrays, one eagle ray, great baracudas, few tiger groupers and a lot of smaller stuff).

In Christianstedt we dove with Dive Experience, at Cane Bay with Dive Cane Bay and I do not recall the Frederckstedt guis.

Around Frederickstedt there were no turist, beaches were empty, everything was green.

We stayed at Spratt Hall Plantation in a cottage 40 years old and spacious, forniture was old as well but in a reasonable shape. Shore diving was easy, we just got tanks for the day and rode to a selected site for diving.

Our opinion was that diving was comparable, may be better than, in Egypt and time on the surface was much greater.

Regards and have fun wherever you decide to go.

 

[zboss]

scorpionfish once bubbled...


Off St. Thomas you can expect, for the most part, 80-100 ft vis. in
Winter, Spring and Fall. So, I think the diving is comparable to the BVI in regard to vis, sea life etc. My general appraisal of diving in the VI, B and US: 5-6 on a scale of 10. Coz and Saba are 10's. Grand Cayman is a 3. Cayman Brac a 6. Little Cayman, a 9-10. Most of the Bahamas, 5-6. Bonaire, a 9-10. Nevis/St. Kitts/St. Eustacia, a 5-6(but I really like St. Kitts!). Jamaica and Haiti--very scary these days.

I just got back from the BVI and we found vis to be only in the range of 50 feet or so... also no palegics or large animals this time of year, but the reefs are in good shape. I found some elkhorn coral this year which is generally hard to find around the BVI's anymore.

 

[Kaffphine]

First, I'd like to second the earlier recommendation of getting a car. Not only will you be able to avoid the taxies, but driving in STT is an experiece all it's own!!

Chris Sawyer is a good shop. If you're looking for just an easy beach dive Coki Beach (north side). When I was living down there there were only two dives I never got tired of ... the Witchell Shoal (90ft wreck, absolutely amazing, I'm some what obsessed with it) and the Kennedy. The Kennedy as a day dive is ok, but at night it's a surreal world all it's own. After dark a ton of rays come to feed, and it's like diving in fling grey shadows... the water it sooo thick with rays. Both of those sites are off the south side.

 

[loridmc.com]

Kaffphine once bubbled...
but driving in STT is an experiece all it's own!!

THAT is quite an understatement. I don't know that I would recommend getting a car. First, they drive on the left lane instead of the right, so that's an adjustment, and then there's no road signs and most of the roads don't have official names so you're going by landmarks.

Also, St Thomas allows you to drink and drive so long as your not over the legal limit. So if you say "one for the road" they'll serve it in a plastic cup so you can take it with you

Given how much you'd have going on as is, hop a taxi and leave the hassles to someone else. And be sure to look left when you're crossing the street. VI police like to fine pedestrians that get hit.