Help.... Beaches Boscobel

[ahansen]

Alrighty - my wife booked a trip for the Beaches Boscobel at the end of March for the kids spring break and as a graduation gift for me. She picked the Beaches because of the blend of kids activities and because of the unlimited scuba... but after reading the trip reports, I'm kinda worried about the diving. Any advice for the trip to get a few days of good diving in without breaking the bank (got to pay for those grad school loans now ). I'd really like to find a way to do it through Beaches if at all possible (safety and money)...

Thanks,
Adam

 

[oceancat]

Adam,

Hi. I freaked too after learning about the strict rules for the dive ops at Beaches (1/2h bottom times, doing checkout dives, if you aren't advanced OW, you aren't going below 65'), but I must admit, I wound up doing all my diving through the Beaches ops, as well as did several other experienced divers I met on the boat. I was at Beaches Sandy Bay last week. IMO, I don't know if the Jamaican diving is worth paying extra money to do to get that extra 20 min of bottom time. Although it's pretty diving (especially compared to New England in the winter!), there are not tons of fish. It's just nice to get in warm clear water After day 1, I started requesting particular sites I wanted to go to and by the end of my week, we had hit all of the sites I specifically asked to go to. I found there were significantly fewer divers on the first dive (we had usually between 4-6) than the second dive (shallower and a cattle boat). The DMs were fine with me hanging back with my buddy. If I were in Turks and Caicos, not doubt about it, I would dive outside of the resort ops, but not in Jamaica.

 

[ReefHugger]

Hi Adam,

Don't be worried about the diving in Boscobel. Ok, it is not electric, but exceedingly pretty. Also, diving with Beaches makes it so easy.

I was diving the area just sunday last. The vis was about 70ft and the topography was world class, notwithstanding a fair amount of algal growth on the corals. We cruised along the edge (at 60-70ft) and looked down a sharp slope (in some places, walls) which bottomed out at about 100ft. With the good vis we could see large coral heads separated by white sand channels and all this disappearing off into the blue. The kind of terrain where anything could just be cruising through. As long as you are not coming to see large predators, you can have very enjoyable dives. I did, and I've been diving thirty years.

Also, there is a shallow wreck - Beaches will take you there.