Chris Sawyer Dive

[illuminator]

Will be in St. Thomas and Tortola on a cruise in December and have not dived there. I was checking out some operators on the web and came across Chris Sawyer Dive Operation that seemed to be pretty good. Does anyone have any experience with them? Also, is there any difference diving Tortola vs St. Thomas? I have enough experience for most dives. Thanks.

 

[ppo2_diver]

I have heard the Sawyer's runs cattle boats mostly. I dove with Blue Island Divers when I was there. They were a good bunch and took me to wrecks, which I'm mostly interested in. Have fun.

 

[diversteve]

A couple of things to consider.

The cruise boats dock at one of two locations in the harbor in Charlotte Amalie - south and slightly east. Sawyers is in Red Hook on the East End so unless they're going to pick you up with their boat in C.A., it's going to be 20 mins. or more each way by cab. Cabs only have two main roads to get to Red Hook and one can be crowded with beach/resort traffic in the afternoon - when do you sail?

Two diveops that will pick you up at the Havensight cruise pier (where you'll likely dock) are Admiralty Dive or Blue Island Divers. No experience with either as we used other diveops while there. I think the cruise ship dive excursion goes to Coki Beach which is a really marginal divesite. Good for snorkelers and to get a taste of the local beach scene though.

My personal opinion is that the dives in the BVI's (Tortola) would be better depending on where you're taken. The Rhone is the signature wreck in that area and anything off Norman, Cooper or the Dog Islands was better than the dives we did off St. Thomas. You can't realistically get to the Rhone and back from Red Hook without possibly missing your departure time - Sawyers does it as an all day trip on Friday, but a dive boat should get you there from Roadtown (Tortola port) in under an hour.

 

[illuminator]

Thanks for the input. I would rather have a quality dive than a so-so cattle boat trip, so it sounds like Tortola would be best.

 

[RICHinNC]

Dove CS several times. Never saw the cattle.

 

[Tim Ingersoll]

Dove CS a couple times. No six pack but not a herd either.

 

[Guy Carrier]

We (wife and I) have done over 50 dives with Chris Sawyer's diveop over the past five years and, in our experience, if they have 12 divers they will have 2-3 DMs/Instructors and they will break the dive into 2-3 groups of 4-6 divers. They also space the groups out so not everyone is trying to suit up and get back into the boat simultaneously. Its far from the 12 divers in a group we did in Coz with Dive House. I would say that their main positive attributes are safety and fun (a great group of DMs and Boat Captains) and their major negative attribute is their distance from the cruise ship piers (if you are a cruiser) and that's another one of their major positive attributes if you're not a cruiser.

They are an extremely conservative diveop. They adhere strictly to the dive tables (e.g. Dive 1 is 50 ft for 50 min, 1 hour surface interval, dive 2 is 45 ft for 50 min). They don't care if you have a computer or are on NITROX or both, those are the dive profiles. This is probably great for vacation divers who are doing their 2-4 annual dives but many more experienced divers find this to be very restrictive. Also the relatively shallow diving in most of USVI highlights the short bottom times.

Having said all that, if we go back to the USVI, they are the diveop we will likely use because we like them and their people. We'll also continue to whine about the short bottom times while waving our redundant computers and strapping on their tanks of NITROX (because it makes us old folks feel better).

Guy

 

[cal776]

A buddy and I dove with Chris Sawyer on their regular Friday trip to the RMS Rhone over Memorial Day weekend. The Rhone itself was an interesting dive, especially the fairly intact bow section of the ship, which was our first dive. It's not often that you get to dive a shipwreck from the 1860s, so I am glad that we made the trip. The ride to and from the dive site did take what seemed like an eternity, however, especially with the pit stops for passport checks in both directions.

As for Chris Sawyer's operation, my feelings are mixed. The staff was pleasant enough and the boat was nice, albeit a little cramped with 11 divers and three staff members on board. No complaints about the quality of the rental gear or the lunch which was provided during our surface interval. Unfortunately, the dive master we had (who shall remain nameless) earned two black marks in my book. First, the allowed dive time for each dive of approximately 30-35 minutes was laughably short. In both instances, the dive master was busy making his way to the surface while I had plenty of gas and bottom time remaining, which is a huge disappointment given the time spent getting to and from the dive site. Second, the dive master did a very poor job of navigating the wreck. Instead of taking our time moving meticulously and methodically through and over the wreck, we were led back and forth in what seemed a scatter-shot manner. In fact, on the stern portion of the dive, the boat captain indicated that we would make it to the props, but our dive master never took us all the way to the back of the stern, not for want of gas or time, but seemingly for lack of a plan.

Those complaints aside, I would recommend the Rhone to any diver visiting the Virgin Islands. And for those who opt for Chris Sawyer, be sure to print out and take the 10% off coupon available on the website with you as it will save you $17.50.

 

[Scubadancer]

Just returned from St. John, and I would never recommend 6 PAQ SCUBA. They promote small groups and personal attention, but this girl was so unprofessional. She sent me back to the boat, which was not in view, by myself. The conditions were too rough for the size of the boat, but we went anyway. We were hoping to do the Rhone, but instead we did a little known site in the BVI, close to Soggy Dollar so she could go there for lunch. We did two dives at the same site, Tobago, which was not great. We later used LowKey Divers, which she had said was a cattle boat. However, I got much more attention with them, better diving, didn't feel like I was going to die, and it was half the price.