Heading to BVI in two weeks! Suggestions??!

[Scubadonna]

We are going to Virgin Gorda in May. We are staying at Bitters End Yacht club and diving with their dive operation.
Last visit we did the Rhone and the dog islands - both were GReAT. Looking forward to even more sites this time!

 

[eagleray2003]

Underwater Safaris haven't been in business for several years, the Dogs are great diving as is Grand Central, however if the north swell is up forget it.
GC is a dive we do more in the summer months when the seas are calmer.

 

[Chris Park]

haha.. guess the book i have is a little old! Sounds like DiveBVI might be the outfit for us. We are chartering out 3 cats through BVI yacht charters in road town at Joma Marina. I plan to do a lot of rendezvous diving but would like to have 2 tanks on board so my brother and i can hop off for a dive while the rest of the platoon is snorkeling. Anybody have a suggestion where i can rent a couple of tanks and easily get them refilled throughout the trip. Thanks again for all the help. So glad i found this board!

 

[diversteve]

Chris,

DiveBVI is only based on both ends of Virgin Gorda and Marina Cay. I'm not sure they do rendezvous diving out of Marina Cay either but if they did, that would be where they'd likely meet you to dive the East End of Tortola/Beef Island area. Confirm with them though as we never did any rendezvous dives so this is speculation on my part.

Also, it may not be obvious, but Tortola is a really long island. So if you're around Soper's Hole or Jost Van Dyke, call Blue Water as they're much closer.

I thought from your questions that you're looking at old info. Here's a much more up-to-date diveshop list. http://www.bareboatsbvi.com/scuba_diving_bvi.html. I'm sure you've seen www.bvitourism.com but here's a couple others I found useful:
http://www.b-v-i.com/
http://bvivacations.com/

Must do surface intervals: Foxy's on Jost Van Dyke and the Pusser's resort on Marina Cay. Also the Pusser's store and Sopers Hole Marina bar. And don't forget the Willy T..

 

[hlcdlc]

We go every summer. Last summer we dove with Dive Tortola out of Road Town, they were excellent, Marti in the office can hook you up with whatever you need. We will be diving with them again for a couple of days this summer before we go on the Cuan Law.

www.divetortola.com

 

[VGdiver]

Chris

You can check with Last Stop Sports in Tortola for tanks/weights. They'll deliver to and pickup from your boat at the end of your charter. Air fills are available at Soper's Hole, Cooper Island, Marina Cay and Virgin Gorda. We offer rendezvous dives at Salt (RMS Rhone), Cooper, the Dog Islands, Marina Cay, Trellis Bay, Virgin Gorda, and the North Sound.

The RMS Rhone is a great dive and we do it every Tues and Wed from our VG locations. It is also done from our Marina Cay location on request. The Chikuzen is a fantastic dive as well but may not be possible due to swells and wind/water conditions. Go to our site and check out some dive site descriptions - http://www.divebvi.com/dive_sites.htm - this should help you with your planning.

Let us know what we can do for you.

Jeff

 

[Chris Park]

Jeff im so glad you saw this post. I will definitely be getting in touch with you. I will be arriving in Tortola on the 4th and i believe departing on the 16th. As of now the tentative schedule has us hopping along the southern islands to start the trip off and then bouncing off virgin gorda and into the north before coming back to tortola. I'll send an email and maybe you could help me figure out a good dive plan. I would love to hook up for a number of rendezvous dives throughout the week. My goal is to get in 20+ dives while on the trip. Thanks, Chris

 

[alashas]

HI Chris,

Just getting caught up on ScubaBoard Posts, so you may have left by now. I did 20 dives in the BVI this past year and enjoyed just about everyone one of them. Some of my favorites are Painted Walls, just off Peter Island, Vanishing Rock, Great Tobago, the Playground off JVD, The Indians, Pelican Island, and the Rhone, which I did 3 times in one day, including a great night dive.

UW and above gorund photo albums are here: http://honeymoon2.smugmug.com/

Cheers, alashas

 

[Chris Park]

Hi all, Im actually sitting on the balcony of the Hummingbird House B&B in Road Town above the Moorings. Just finished my 10 days aboard a cat. Actually ended up never having the chance to work much with a dive op because our boats were constantly on the go and it would have been real tough to schedule a rendezvous dive. I dove a lot of small reefs while the rest were snorkeling. My highlights were definitely the rhone day and night, and the indians. Saw some monster lobsters at the rhone. As everyone else has said the rhone is definitely a do not skip dive. I rented tanks through blue water divers and they were great. i planned on using Dive BVI for dives but simply did not have the chance. From what ive heard while ive been here is that Dive BVI and Blue Water Divers are the way to go. Thanks everyone for input. I would recommend the book Diving BVI by the couple who owns Rainbow Visions in Tortola. Although some of the info is very dated, the dive spot descriptions are great. If anybody is planning a trip feel free to send me a message. I am now planning on continuing my sailing ed to get my captains license and heading to the BVI to captain so i would be happy to talk about the islands!

 

[capt.bill]

Hello,
We are chartering a bareboat cat from Footloose to sail around the Islands. The plan is to shoot underwater video and dive my self silly. I would appreciate an info or suggestions. I wondering about the vis that time of year. Oh, carrying dive gear and photo equipment wondering how secure is the baggage.

regards,