St. Lucia, Grenada, St. Vincent, Martiniques and St. Thomas - sites???

[Howling Moose]

Cruisin' to the southern islands in mid-November...St. Vincent, Grenada, Martinique, St. Lucia and St. Thomas...

If we only dive two islands, whcih might you recommend (?)

and

any sites/dive operators you recommend.??? We have better luck booking separately from the cruise ship...

Unfortunately, the St. Vincent stop is for a grand total of 5 hours (12 noon - 5 pm) or we'd try and sneak off to one of the Grenadines....

THANKS much!

 

[Tim Ingersoll]

In St. Lucia I would highly recommend the dive op out of Anse Chastanet. In St. Thomas I can highly recommend Chris Sawyer. Unfortunately neither one of them may be accessible to the cruise ship ports on the respective islands.

 

[peterjmaerz]

Hi Howling Moose,

I agree with Tim: the Anse Chastanet Op is very good and they're right in the heart of the best diving in St. Lucia (some sites directly off shore).

I can't recommend too strongly Bill Tewes' Dive ST. Vincent Op: http://www.divestvincent.com/
The diving in St. Vincent is the best I've done in the Caribbean, in terms of fish life (though there's no "big stuff") and health of reefs (though no spectacular walls like Little Cayman) and Bill's funky, no-frills op is a pleasure due to the divemasters and Mr. Tewes himself who's a character worth experiencing (He's on a St. Vincent postage stamp). You'll come away with frog fish, sea horse, gurnard, box crab, decorator crab and file clam sightings almost guaranteed.

Have no dive experience on the other islands you mention.

Regards,

 

[rescuediver036]

Grenada has healthy reefs, though fish life is a bit sparse. Their biggest claim to fame is the "Bianca C" - a cruise liner which is nicknamed the Titanic of the Caribbean. Haven't gotten to dive it yet, but hopefully soon.

The dive operator with the best boats/op is Aquanauts -- www.aquanautsgrenada.com

You can view my pics of the diving at: http://albums.stracke.us/thumbnails.php?album=4

 

[ScottNY]

It's been years since I've been there, but there's a beach shore dive on St. Thomas at a place called Coki Beach. They have a web site... http://www.cokidive.com/ with pick up service from the cruise boats. I didn't use this as I was just staying on the island. Anyway... you just walk off the beach and it's a short swim to a nice reef. I don't remember all the details.

We also did a boat dive to a place called "The Dogs" which was pretty cool as well, (tropical fish-wise.). But this was just with a friends' boat. You'd have to check with the local shops to see if anyone goes there.

Have fun!
Scott

 

[ubascuba]

Grenada is best for me if only to dive the Bianca C. When we were there, a solitary seahorse lived there

Mustique is less exciting. Sea grass and turtles but didn't see much else.

Ubascuba

 

[scuba stan]

How is the diving in St. Lucia?. Are there any walls and how is the coral?

 

[33merlin]

I thought I was sacrificing a dive trip to include family and allow for top side activities and went to st. Lucia. I was surprised and really enjoyed the diving near Soufriere. It was the eels, for me, every where, in every rock, sometimes two in a hole, free swimming everywhere, day and night. I loved them! I have photos of at least nine different eel species from this trip, including a banded eel and a many tooth conger eel.

Although I visited Anse Chastanet, I chose to dive with Chester at Action Adventure divers in Soufriere. Small six packer, and the air in your tank is the only limit to bottom time. I'm anti-resort everything when it comes to diving and Chester was exactly what I look for in a dive operation. I told Chester I would like to see a many tooth conger eel and he said meet me here at 9 tonight. Twenty minutes in to the dive we were following the promised eel and photed him eating a brown chromis.

There were some gentle walls to 60-80 ft or so - not walls like Little Cayman. I did not dive in the North where your ship will come in. You can travel from the North to Soufriere by water taxi easily.