St. Croix

[Mary Fitz]

I was in St. Croix earlier this year and I thought the Frederiksted Pier was sensational. Southern rays, eagle rays, turtles, and great macro stuff on just about every dive. Best of all, you can dive the pier on your own schedule (provided there is no cruise ship at the pier, which you can check online since the cruise ships have a fixed schedule). So if you wanted to dive early in the morning, you could get easily two dives in at the pier and be back by noon, before your wife knew you were gone. I stayed at an Airbnb in Frederiksted within sight of the pier, and dove the pier at night and at sunrise a bunch of times. I did a shore dive at Cane Bay which was good for variety's sake, and spotted a reef shark in the distance, but Cane Bay didn't hold a candle to the pier, IMHO. Having said all that, Frederiksted is not really upscale. So you might want to drive to the pier from wherever you're staying.

Hi! We are staying on the north shore next week and planning to dive the pier one night. We’re considering taking a sunset cruise which returns to the pier 8:30ish - did you happen to notice how late folks were diving the pier? We’re thinking we’d dive right after our sunset cruise if possible, thanks!!

 

[Ironjock]

Hi! We are staying on the north shore next week and planning to dive the pier one night. We’re considering taking a sunset cruise which returns to the pier 8:30ish - did you happen to notice how late folks were diving the pier? We’re thinking we’d dive right after our sunset cruise if possible, thanks!!

great time to dive the Pier. You should be able to park on Strand St. along the Pier.

 

[Khoujo1]

Hi! We are staying on the north shore next week and planning to dive the pier one night. We’re considering taking a sunset cruise which returns to the pier 8:30ish - did you happen to notice how late folks were diving the pier? We’re thinking we’d dive right after our sunset cruise if possible, thanks!!

We stayed in Fredericksted for 5 days recently. The Sunset cruise you're referring to is likely the catamaran sail excursion. This does not prevent night dives from the pier. The pier dives begin on the north side of the pier, which is where the catamaran ties up. Typically the dive ops will drop in near the catamaran and then you kick out past it. Once at depth you are mostly under the pier. The exit is a shore exit on the other side of the pier (south side). So you should be all good. It's one of our favorite dives anywhere.

 

[nippurmagnum]

Hi! We are staying on the north shore next week and planning to dive the pier one night. We’re considering taking a sunset cruise which returns to the pier 8:30ish - did you happen to notice how late folks were diving the pier? We’re thinking we’d dive right after our sunset cruise if possible, thanks!!

I pretty much always had the pier to myself at night, and didn’t see another dive. There was no “closing time” — other than when a cruise ship was docked, and that was a once-a-week event that was on a fixed schedule that you could look up online.

The area around the pier is fairly well lit and there is enough casual pedestrian traffic and nearby bars that it felt reasonably safe at night. And you can park right there. Other parts of Fredericksburg were not well illuminated at night and felt generally sketchy in terms of safety, and local radio had lots of public service announcements of island women pleading with young men not to kill each other over trivial disputes. But the area right around the pier had a well lit boardwalk and I felt safe enough.

I do remember that I came out of the water after one night dive and was disassembling my gear when a local man stopped his car close to where I was parked, crushed a beer can that he had just finished and placed it in a recycle bin, popped the trunk and pulled another can of beer, opened it, wished me a good evening, and drove off. My favorite part of that was that he recycled.

 

[tridacna]

SCUBA had a the best system for exiting the water that I ever experienced in 25+ years of diving. It was easy and safe.

What was the system? Why so good?

 

[mcohen1021]

Following... STX is on my list.

Anyone have any feedback on the Juliette?