New Liveaboard

[_Bella_]

I'm another vote for St. Vincent. St. Vincent and Cuba are the only places in the caribbean that I have an interest in going. Of course, I like diving where very few if any divers can get to. If Deb Fugitt could get her St. vincent tours going again, I'd be the first to sign up. I'm a little picky, I like to dive as much as possible during the day within safe recreation limits, I like to set my limits, I like unique creatures, I like fairly untouched reefs, I like to spend money on a boat that will let me go about my business with a smile and some tasty meals. I also like to support liveaboard companies that employ local crews instead of a constantly rotating crew that is brought in from wherever. In my experience and in talking with divers on liveaboards I've been on, local crews generally tend to put more pride into their environment and work than a crew member that's in for a few cruises and then is back home.
I've found all of this in the Pacific on the Bilikiki. I'd love to find it in the Caribbean!

 

[Dion]

Add my vote for the St. Lucia boat. My very first snorkeling and diving experience (resort course) was on a sailing trip from St. Lucia down to Grenada. It was wonderful. There is a beautiful little island called Bequia and a few smaller islands just south of there that had wonderful diving and the visibility was awesome. I don't think I've even been in clearer water.

I am dying to go back there, but unless I took the sailing trip again, which is unlikely, I wouldn't be able to get to some of the spots, so I haven't felt that it was worth going. But if I could do a liveaboard there.... where do I sign up???

Dion

 

[DrSteve]

Hmmmm after diving in Bimini on Blackbeards that is a place I'd love to go back to again (but avoid Grand Bahama area - it's crap). Also I've heard interesting things about Saba. Cuba would be awesome just do something different, what about Puerto Rico?

 

[rje634]

I second (or third) the choices some other who have already posted,
The ABC islands would be a appealling, as well as St. Lucia and St. Vincent & the Grenadines...

 

[JenM]

Hi folks...
I was wondering if I could use you guys as a sort of free test audience for a minute?

If you could pick one destination in the Caribbean that is not currently serviced, or underserviced, by a liveaboard where would it be and why?

I'm late to this thread, but I just have to add my $.02. I just started researching St. Vincent and the Grenadines because I heard there was great muck-diving there. If there was a liveaboard option, we'd probably book it right now. Although there are dive ops on St. Vincent and Becquia, it sounds like no one offers more than 2 tanks a day. That's just not enough! Also, supposedly there is good diving in the southern Grenadines, but only one dive op on Union Island and they sound like they mainly cater to resort divers. I've been looking into the chartered sailboat option, but since there are just two of us (and we don't know how to sail), unless we can find another couple or two to go with, the cost is rather prohibitive.

We will probably go anyway - my current thought is to do a week on St. Vincent and a week on either St. Lucia or Dominica if I can find connecting flights, but a liveaboard sure would be nice.

 

[peterjmaerz]

We will probably go anyway - my current thought is to do a week on St. Vincent and a week on either St. Lucia or Dominica if I can find connecting flights, but a liveaboard sure would be nice.

Hi JenM

IMHO, you couldn't do better that to choose St. Vincent and *either* St. Lucia or Dominica, though I'd choose the latter since that island is the most spectacular I've seen in the Caribbean in terms of wonderous natural beauty. The diving there is very good as well. St. Vincent is the best kept secret in the Caribbean, in my opinion. Unbelievable critter diving (see my froggy below) and very, very healthy reefs with great (albeit not large) fish life. Quilled blennies, Gurnards, etc. aplenty.

As for liveaboards, it looks like Peter Hughes will be doing a Grenada/Grenadines itinerary starting next year (see below). I don't know if they'll make it up as far as St. Vincent, but it may be worth looking into.

http://www.peterhughes.com/windg/windg_dancerindex.shtml



If you do go to St.V, you MUST dive with Bill Tewes and Dive St. Vincent. He's quite the character and absolutely obsessed with critters. He knows and finds them all, pointing them out with his patented, retractable Radio Shack antenna! He'll also take you to some dandy reefs if you twist his arm


PM me if you'd like more info on any of the three islands.

Best Regards,

Peter

 

[Damselfish]

I'm late to this thread, but I just have to add my $.02. I just started researching St. Vincent and the Grenadines because I heard there was great muck-diving there. If there was a liveaboard option, we'd probably book it right now. Although there are dive ops on St. Vincent and Becquia, it sounds like no one offers more than 2 tanks a day.

You can get in somewhat more than 2 a day on St. Vincent, we did a few afternoons and nights last time we were there. Only am boats are regularly scheduled, but they run in the afternoon too if there's people that want to go. I don't know how many people they need but not too many. They will also run night boat dives when people want them, one night we had just 3 people though we didn't go too far. They pretty much make it up as they go along. So if you want to dive more just tell Bill that you want to go out every afternoon that you can (or whatever) and it will probably happen at least sometimes. Good chance he knows of other people that want to go out too and he can put it together, or he may mention it to others. If everyone assumes it's not an option and no one asks, then it definitely won't happen.

If you are staying on Young Island, you can rent tanks (the routine is to just keep them in the guard shack by the dock) and shore dive from YI. I probably wouldn't bother during the day but lots of stuff to find on a night dive. DSV will also do a trip to the Falls of Baliene with 2 dives along the way and they stop at lunch for a restaurant. It's fun and I think the diving is even better further north. I'd love if they'd do a 3 tank up there and skip the falls (maybe I'll ask next time. )

I've done Bequia too, but I don't recall if they ran more boats or not.

 

[peterjmaerz]

I've done Bequia too, but I don't recall if they ran more boats or not.

Hi Damselfish...

Just curious as to your impressions of the diving there. How did it compare to St.Vincent and other locations you've dived in the Caribbean?


Thanks,

 

[Damselfish]

Just curious as to your impressions of the diving there. How did it compare to St.Vincent and other locations you've dived in the Caribbean?

For some reason I don't remember the dive sites in Bequia very well, although I certainly remember lots of interesting scenery above water. This was 1999. The only dive I distinctly remember was one we did at the south tip of Bequia starting near the channel between Bequia and a little island with a ripping current and pulling ourselves up along boulders through the shallow channel against the current for a short distance before getting swept down the other side and heading around the little island. I think this was Western Cay Wall. Sounds a little odd but it was planned that way (probably the only way to do the site without smashing the boat against the rocks or something? I do remember the phrase "washing machine" or something to that effect) and it was exciting. That dive max was 102'. Looking back at my log it looks like some number of the dives were drift dives and I have a few notes about rays, huge lobsters, huge seahorse. We did 13 dives there, (6 2-tanks and 1 night dive.) One wreck 93' where we saw rays and lobster. One day we went to Pigeon Island south of Bequia. I have an exclamation mark next to it in my log and I have no idea exactly what it means but I assume that was a good thing. I think the diving scored many points for uniqueness and was generally nice enough, but I think we still preferred St. Vincent diving for all the little critters. (Possibly they were there on Bequia too but we were often moving too fast to spot them?) Basically Bequia is a bit more trouble to get to and our feeling at the time was the diving wasn't great enough by itself to merit the trouble of getting there instead just staying on St. Vincent. But Bequia itself was very cool and I'd like to go there again.

 

[Amy WJ]

We did a sailing trip from Granada to the Grenadines and loved it. We dove in Bequia at the Moon Rock and it was great. Tobago Cays is a little island area between Bequia and Granada that was awesome. We snorkeled there but I'll bet it would make a great dive site as well. The problem currently is that there is little (nothing actually) in the way of infrastructure to support a dive operation. A liveaboard would be perfect around the Tabago Cays area.