st croix or cayman brac

[justadyver]

please compare the diving of st croix and Cayman brac. I am looking at both,
i have been to brac but not st croix. from what i see the wall is close to shore on both islands.
how is the fish life , coral , vis?
thanks for any feed back.

 

[living4experiences]

please compare the diving of st croix and Cayman brac. I am looking at both,
i have been to brac but not st croix. from what i see the wall is close to shore on both islands.
how is the fish life , coral , vis?
thanks for any feed back.

I have not been to Brac yet. I spent a couple of weeks in St. Croix in 2021. The reef is in poor condition. Lots of dead coral and no fish. I cancelled all my boat dives to dive the pier exclusively day and night for 12 dives. It was fantastic!
I would only return to dive the pier.

 

[Rob9876]

I have not been to Brac yet. I spent a couple of weeks in St. Croix in 2021. The reef is in poor condition. Lots of dead coral and no fish. I cancelled all my boat dives to dive the pier exclusively day and night for 12 dives. It was fantastic!
I would only return to dive the pier.

Similar experience here -- haven't been to the Caymans, but I was in St. Croix in March 2021 and agree about the reef condition. Diving the pier was great -- not tide dependent, so sleep late and dive it if you want, and nice night dives also. Probably a better overall variety of critters diving the pier than on the boat dives we did. Tip: diving the pier is not allowed when Cruise ships are docked, so check the cruise schedules online to set your schedule.

We did have some good shore dives lead by Jeff of the Triton's Realm YouTube channel (he used to be with Sweet Bottom Dive Center, I heard he's now with Adventures in Diving STX). Jeff was great, and the shore dives from Cane Bay and Northstar were much better than our boat dives. Cane Bay was an easy entry, Northstar was the best reef dive we did but a bit difficult for me -- I'm not great at rocky entries, so if I go back I would get thicker boots to dive Northstar again.

 

[drrich2]

I only had 2 dives off Cayman Brac (18 off Little Cayman) aboard the Cayman Aggressor IV in 2016; it was back in 2017 I visited St. Croix.

St. Croix Research Report Aug. 2017 - Trip Report - St. Croix Research Report Aug. 2017 Note: a lot changed since my report. N2TheBlue got changed around (including the name), I think Cane Bay Dive Shop went through changes, someone told me a zip line operation opened, so if you take an interest in St. Croix, you'll need more up to date info. You may still get a feel for what a week on the island might be like.

If you're just going for diving, I think the Caymans are going to win. I liked St. Croix, and you can look at the photos in my old thread, but if it's just about diving, I'd head to the Caymans.

St. Croix is a really neat destination, if you factor in topside enjoyments but are a taste for the quaint and charming as opposed to a lot've whiz bang cruise ship excursion-style offerings.

You mention the wall being close to shore. I'm guessing that might be important to you for one of a couple of reasons; either you get sea sick easily and like short boat rides, or you're interested in shore diving.

To me, St. Croix is a boat diving destination with supplemental shore diving; it's not in the same niche with Bonaire or Curacao. The swim out from Davis Bay was long; the swim out from Cane Bay was way long. The Frederiksted Pier was really neat, but I wouldn't base a trip on just diving it exclusively.

 

[Rob9876]

To me, St. Croix is a boat diving destination with supplemental shore diving; it's not in the same niche with Bonaire or Curacao. The swim out from Davis Bay was long; the swim out from Cane Bay was way long. The Frederiksted Pier was really neat, but I wouldn't base a trip on just diving it exclusively.

That's interesting, because if I went back to St. Croix I would probably skip boat dives altogether. We stayed near C'sted last time with the family, but if I went back just to dive I'd probably prefer the sleepy little town of F'sted where I could have lazy days of diving the pier (and night dives there) and probably add in 2-3 shore dives on the north side (Northstar, Cane Bay, maybe Davis Bay). Cane Bay is a distance out to the wall, but we had a laid back time just leaning back and finning until we got to the buoy -- coming back was not an issue, as it gave us a swimming safety stop.

 

[justadyver]

thanks for the feedback. I would be doing a private catamaran charter at st croix. last time i was on Brac was in the late 70's

 

[AdivingBel]

Cayman Brac is better than decent Caribbean diving and CBBR is a nice resort.

For something different I had a really nice time on the Juliet in St. Croix. They moor at/near the Frederiksted Pier and dive Butler Bay. It’s basically eclectic, on the water accommodations with the ease of liveaboard diving. You can get all the pier dives you want and if the wind lays down (doesn’t happen often in the winter), they will sail around the point to Cane Bay. Throw in a day trip to Christiansted for a couple of “sharky” day-boat dives and it makes for a fun trip. Hard to say enough good things about the Juliet. Fun boat, nice people (lots of return customers), great crew, and Hillary can really cook. Just a thought…these days I kind of look for “experiences” in the Caribbean as opposed to just about the diving. All IMHO, YMMV.

 

[kensuf]

I was in the Brac in June, the reefs looked to be in good condition.

 

[Snoweman]

I haven't been to Cayman Brac, but St. Croix was wonderful. Just don't do the night dive at the pier. Do a twilight dive instead.

 

[Joneill]

I haven't been to Cayman Brac, but St. Croix was wonderful. Just don't do the night dive at the pier. Do a twilight dive instead.

Why twilight vs night?