well i'm back...
while not the best of diving it wasn't the worst either.
St. Thomas I dove at Coki Beach. I wanted to check out my aeris 2 computer and just get my feet wet again since i haven't gone diving since Sept. It was ok. Great guys at Coki Beach Dive shop. Had a good leisurely dive along the reef saw some Spotted Moreys and a crab in a conch like shell. Nothing too exciting. The visibility was about 30-40 ft due to some storm from the atlantic earlier in the week.
In St. Lucia I was forced to go with the ship excursion. I couldn't get ahold of Frog's to save my life. ALL the phone numbers on their website, either didnt work, or just rang when I called them. I bought a calling card for the trip, and the only island I was able to use it on was St. Thomas. The ship excursion was through Scuba St Lucia. Good dive crew. The first dive was off the beach and around the Anse Chastanet reef. Second dive was at Grand Caille just around the corner from the cove and it was a drift dive, with currents moving the group at a easily a meter/second. It was fun to experience a drift at this speed. Not a whole lot to see other than some nice coral formations.
In terms of the group though it was bad. There were a lot of "all show no go" divers in the group. One guy who talked a non-stop good story and was wearing a PADI shirt, and scuba diving swim trunks, couldn't for the life of him get himself under control in terms of bouancy. Also the group dynamic had a lot of people continually on top of and bumping into each other.
Barbados I dove with the Dive Shop and had a GREAT set of dives. I went out of the terminal to the location I was told to wait for a ride. A man from a taxi company came up and said he was sent from The Dive Shop. My gf and I went with him, and he ended up throwing us in a cab with a family of 3 from Italy. The family from italy got out at their stop and then the cab driver took us to the dive shop. I could tell from the packing and the way things went down that we were being man handled. I told the cabie I wasnt paying him, because the dive shop was picking me up. He had wanted $12 for the 2 of us to get there. We told him he would have to get his money from the shop. We went in and the shop owner (great guy) talked to the driver. He came back in and told me it was a good thing I had sent him in because he would have charged us $12. When the fare should have been $6.
Anyway something to keep in mind! Every island you go to ask the cruise ship what the fares should be to get to a place, so you know that you are not been taken for "a ride"
Anyway diving... There were 2 couples on the dive boat with me, and one girl from England. The cricket match of England vs the Indies was happening in Barbados this past weekend. We did a nice reef dive off the boat, nice visibility 50 ft or so. and came across 3 turtles. One was HUGE at over 4ft nose to tail. 2nd Dive was a wreck and then reef dive. Very nice time, and again came across more turtles (2). The people on this dive were all great, easy to buddy up to, and anticipate their movements and behavior compared to the group from the day before. I will definitely ALWAYS plan to do dive away from the ship excursions in the future.
All in all not a bad set of diving, and it at least ended well.
The cruise ship itself was fantastic, with great service, people, and things to do. The weather was as close to ideal as one could ask for.
Feel free to email me at
sirwills@yahoo.com if you have any questions or would like to talk about the cruise more offline. I can give you the full run down on what I found at each island.
