Planning a boat charter...but where to go and other questions...

[Bjazzman]

hey all,

so i have a friend who is a captain and now that i've found out what a bareboat is im totally obsessed with the idea. We'll probably get a nice catamaran so we can have 4-5 couples plus my captain friend and some deck hands.

i want to get a bunch of diving in and hope to get to a good number of islands. not sure if this trip will be one week or two yet.

anyway, where would you recommend starting if we want to dive and see large coral, not too deep of dives(60-80 feet max) and im obsessed with seeing caribbean reef squid. people have told me you need to get to bonaire and curacao to see the squid but they must also be in the virgin islands and eastern islands as well right? My captain friend said the closer you get to south america the more dicey it gets. Plus, the more you move from island to island, the bigger the chance that someone will get seasick.

maybe you guys can suggest just a couple of places to go so we can still have fun sailing around but not too much that we don't slow down and enjoy the area.

 

[Bjazzman]

also, how can i get scuba rental gear that i can rent for the time im on the boat and just keep it on the boat instead of just renting it everyday. i'd be nice to have that gear on board for whenever the mood strikes

 

[Manuel Sam]

Three islands that have plenty of charter outfits are St. Thomas, Tortola and St. Maarten.

Of the three I would go with Tortola with the thought of spending the entire time in the British Virgies.

The USVI are nice too but there are only three of them and it's a fairly long haul between St. Croix and the other two.

St. Maarten is near many other islands (Anguilla, St,. Barts, Saba, St. Kitts, Nevis, etc.) but they are set apart a little further than the islands in the BVIs, you may need to clear Customs and Immigration at each island, and in some islands like Saba, the Saba Marine Park officials will not allow you to just come in and dive - you have to dive with one of the local dive operators. I don't know if that is true of the other islands.

What I like about the BVIs is that they're tailor-made for bareboat chartering: they're beautiful and there are many of them; there are many good/safe anchorages; except for maybe Anegada, they are are all fairly close to each other (relatively short rides), making it very easy to navigate; there are ample docking facilities where you can pull in to buy stuff, get a nice warm shower at full pressure or have a nice dinner on land; and, there are many good dive sites that fit the bill as far as having nice corals and not too deep.

Squid are everywhere and you just have to be lucky.

My thoughts are that you can always rent scuba gear and tanks for the duration of the trip from a dive operation near where you get the boat. I don't know what you mean when you say "a bunch" of diving - to me that means at least 2 dives per person a day or more.

Doing it this way might be the least expensive - however, there are other factors to consider if, as you say, you want to do "a bunch" of diving and a lot of different islands: (1) does the boat come with a compressor, and if so, does someone know how to fill tanks; (2) if no compressor, you'd need more than one tank per person - otherwise, you'd be wasting a lot of time shuttling back and forth from dive sites to a dive shops to get air fills; (3) if so, you need to know if the boat can hold that many tanks and if there is a way to secure them; (4) you need to know where to get air fills; (5) not knowing the dive sites puts you at somewhat of a disadvantage.

So while I don't want to discourage you from doing the diving on your own, it is one thing to coordinate an occasional dive for 8-10 people, but doing even 2 dives a day per person on a boat that is not necessarily set up for diving is not as easy as it sounds. Doing it with local dive operators may be a lot more expensive, but then you won't have to worry about any of the above, and they will know where to take you to show you the stuff that you want to see. Some of them can be contacted by radio to arrange a dive, and they will come and pick you up at your boat to take you diving.

Good luck.