St. Croix 2018 - Trip Report and Video

[MargaritaMike]

Great video! Back in the late 90's while Hess Oil was still there, my wife's (initially my girlfriend) company sent her down to work with Hess for a year. My job let me go down to visit her about 10-12 days a month. I would dive in the morning and work in the afternoon. It was great. I had about 250 dives there. I think I hit every possible site more than once. We liked it so much that we got married down there overlooking Christiansted harbor. It was nice. We LOVED the island and the people. We didn't want to leave. I'm sure things are a lot different with the politics, weather, and time having their effects on the island, but I would go back in a heartbeat.

I've had some great "head on a swivel" dives with Michelle Pugh & Dive Experience

DE was the first Dive Op that we dived with in 1997. Sam Halvorson was my best man when my wife and I got married down there. We had some great dives there. STX is a fantastic dive destination.

Thanks for the review.

Cheers -

 

[BoltSnap]

Is St. Croix all shore diving or mostly boat diving with some shore diving or something else?

 

[islanddream]

Is St. Croix all shore diving or mostly boat diving with some shore diving or something else?

We did all boat diving. There is shore diving at Cane Bay. I'm not sure where else there's shore diving but contacting a dive shop on St. Croix would be advisable. We really loved the diving in St. Croix!

 

[drrich2]

Mostly boat. Cane Bay had nice reef when I visited, but that is one LONG swim out. It's not that far to Davis Bay, Renaissance Carambola Beach Resort, where the swim-out's not as long, and over on the west end, a Frederiksted, you've got the big pier. There are some more sites. Got the info mixed in somewhere in St. Croix Research Report Aug. 2017 - St. Croix Research Report Aug. 2017

Richard.

 

[Brodydog]

If you go you have to dive the pier. Well you don’t have to but it’s an excellent shore dive. Lots of critters, including some unusual suspects, hanging out there. We’ve even done the pier as a drop off boat dive at the very end of the pier and slowly made our way back in.

I’d say St Croix is mostly boat dives with some shore diving available.

 

[islanddream]

The Frederiksted Pier is an awesome shore dive! We could've spent many hours diving there, however, we only were able to dive it one time before we left St. Croix. It's definitely on our bucket list to dive several times when we return to St. Croix.

 

[BoltSnap]

How is the marine life there? Most of the photos I saw didn't show great marine life. Coral seemed to be good but no fish. I am a "serious" u/w photographer (that's what I do when diving and not with students) and want decent/plentiful marine life.

 

[Brodydog]

How is the marine life there? Most of the photos I saw didn't show great marine life. Coral seemed to be good but no fish. I am a "serious" u/w photographer (that's what I do when diving and not with students) and want decent/plentiful marine life.

The pier is an u/w photographer’s dream, abundant with life and a lot of color. We’ve seen eels, including a giant green moray, seahorses, frog fish, a batfish, flying gunards, turtles, octopus, lots of angels, schools of grunts, a huge baitball once, squid, and all the usual Caribbean suspects. There are also boat dives on the west side of the island (the pier is on the west side) that make for good macro photography.

On the north shore you’ll see bigger ticket things like reef sharks and turtles. The north shore isn’t as pretty in my opinion but you get bigger and different things to observe than the west side diving. I like a mix of both parts of the island.

The fish life around most of the island (with the exception of the pier) is going to be average Caribbean diving. But I still enjoy going there.

Edited to add: My avatar is from the pier.

 

[TN Traveler]

My avatar is also from the far end of the Pier.

St Croix diving is nicely varied. From shore dives at the Pier (generally smaller stuff but lots of it - and always turtles) to boat dives at Salt River (more opportunity for larger stuff). There are numerous sites along the North Shore that are also reached by boat out of Christiansted and more and more boats now in Fredriksted diving the West End. Except for the Bat Fish at the end of the Pier, most of the sea life is typical Caribbean - with the exception of the occasional Manta.

Since Carambola is still closed - diving Davis Bay is difficult. But once it reopens and the dive shop is back in operation - it is a very good dive. Spur and Groove easily accessible and closer to the Wall than Cane Bay (there are always some smaller reef sharks patrolling the edge of the drop-off). Mantas are spotted in both Davis Bay and Cane Bay on a fairly regular basis - along with a pod of Dolphins that inhabit the area.

And with all that said - the best part of St Croix is the FOOD!!

But be careful - driving on the left, takes some getting used to.

 

[morecowbells]

How is the marine life there? Most of the photos I saw didn't show great marine life. Coral seemed to be good but no fish. I am a "serious" u/w photographer (that's what I do when diving and not with students) and want decent/plentiful marine life.

It depends on what you are interested in photographing. For macro, the pier is nothing short of amazing. I thought the variety macro marine life was better than the Salt pier in Bonaire. We saw a couple of frogfish, seahorses, pipefish, octopus and my first batfish. While I enjoyed the diving in Cane Bay and the north shore, I felt the marine life was depleted compared to Bonaire, Curacao or Cozumel; although, it was cool to always see a reef shark patrolling the wall. I would definitely go back to St. Croix and dive the pier multiple times.