Shore diving and BioBay options near Fajardo, PR?

[MakingBubbles]

I am taking a group of 7 people (close friends and family) to PR the week of Feb. 14-21, 2009. We are sharing a condo in Fajardo and we have minivans for transportation. We are traveling on a budget this time and we are looking for inexpensive opportunities to do diving and other adventures (i.e. I have to pay for 5 of the travelers and I can't afford to pay $100+ per person for a single excursion)... 5 of of the travelers are certified divers and the other two want to try snorkeling. We have our own dive and snorkel gear, so we would just need to rent weights and tanks. Here are my questions:

1. Are there any decent shore dives near Fajardo within a reasonable driving distance (an hour or so)? I assume that we can rent tanks and weights at Sea Ventures.

2. Are there any decent shore dives on Culebra or Vieques? (If so, where can we rent tanks and weights? Also, any ideas on transportation of the dive equipment?)

3. We would like to snorkel in a Bioluminescent Bay. I understand that there is one near Fajardo on the main island, but the one in Vieques (Mosquito Bay) is much brighter. The only options that I am aware of for getting to Mosquito Bay from Fajardo is the ferry (cheap, but doesn't run late enough in evening) or the East Wind power catameran ($109pp = too expensive) Are there any options for taking 7 people to the Mosquito Bay from Fajardo for about $300 roundtrip or less?

4. Are there any other options for inexpensive adventures? I got a couple ideas from Jediho's thread. We are looking into exploring the El Yunque rainforest. It is interesting that whales move near Puerto Rico in Feb, but apparently this is primarily on the west side. (I am not sure how long the drive is to the west side from Fajardo.)

We've been to other places in the caribbean, but this is our first time in Puerto Rico, so any advise is welcome. Thanks in advance!

 

[Culebra Online]

There are many shore dive opportunities in Culebra.
With 20+ Cayitos (keys) surrounding Culebra the
diving is really good for boat dives.
Call Culebra divers for their recommendations,
Their # is 787-742-0803

 

[Torontonian]

You can swim and snorkel at the bio bay in Vieques, but not Farjado. We took the East Wind fast cat excursion ourselves. Yes it was expensive, but it included dinner and can get us back the same night.

Sounds like you already found the ferry can be cheap to get to Vieques, but not frequent and doesn't come back at night. You'll have to stay on Vieques island one night. Also you need transportation to get from the ferry port (north) to the Mosquito bay in the south. There'll still be costs and arrangements to be made with this option, where the costs will add up. So unless you also want to go diving at Vieques.

It's about 1 hr drive Farjado to San Juan, then 2.5 hr to Rincon. From Rincon you can get to Desecheo island for good diving. But it's not cheap. There's also some decent shore diving.

Can also drive to southwest, to La Parquera. It has good wall diving. No beach though.

Yes, East Wind is expensive for the roundtrip to Vieques. But it really saves time. Maybe you can try negotiate for a discount for the 7 of you.