St. Vincent Information?

[bayard]

I am taking a trip to St. Vincent and the Grenadines at the end of November. Does anyone have any informtion on the dive spots there? I am staying on Young Island and have reserved two days with Dive st. Vincent. I will be there for a week and was thinking of diving some of the other islands. Does anyone have an opinion on which islands are the best? Thanks for any and all information!

 

[Damselfish]

There's plenty of great diving on Saint Vincent, I dive there for a week or more and am happy. (I've stayed on Young Island 3 times so far.) Which "other islands" did you have in mind? The Grenadines are not that close or easy to get to, you would not typically make day trips from St. Vincent to go diving. Even the closest island, Bequia, is an hour ferry ride. (To get to the next island south with a dive op, it's at least that far again.) I've dove Bequia, but I went and stayed there to do it. It can be nice too but I don't think it's better diving than St. Vincent. (IMO the neatest thing about Bequia is the island itself.) I'd recommend going to Bequia if you wanted to add a stay on another island of at least a few days to your trip, but I wouldn't try to dive even Bequia from St. Vincent!

Maybe you could get up early, haul your gear to the Young Island ferry, catch a cab from the other side to the ferry dock. Or find a boat locally to take you straight from Young Island to the dock. Take the hour long ferry ride to Bequia, get to a dive op. I'm not sure how getting there would sync up with their boat schedules. Reverse and get home late. Or find someone with a fast boat you can charter to zip you over and back faster on your schedule - not worth it, and the seas between the islands can actually get pretty big. Fly? It's all just not very practical.

I'd say dive every day on St Vincent, you can also get in some afternoon and night dives with DSV, and even do a couple shore dives from Young Island if you want to muck about looking for critters, there's alot to be found. Do the all day trip where they do 2 dives on sites further north and stop at the Falls of Baliene. (There's some very nice sites further north which aren't dove much.) Spend the rest of your the time enjoying Young Island, you already paid for it. It is a lovely place to chill.

 

[bayard]

Thank you so much! You answered my questions with out me asking them! Ha Ha! I guess I thought the other islands where a little closer! I've heard a lot of good things about the critters around St. Vincent. I'm really excited about going!

 

[DontLieToMe]

Dive St. Vincent. Not that great. I think the diving is OK but nothing special. The claim of Critter Capital is fine if you have not been anywhere else in the world. On the other hand - if you ever get to the Indo-Pacific that claim will make you laugh.

 

[Damselfish]

well they only claim critter capital of the Carribean, not the world...

 

[Tom Winters]

You're going to like Young Island. You can go from St. Vincent to Bequia, dive, and catch a late ferry back home, or just stay the night. Bill Tewes is legendary there, but there is a new dive op there just down the street from the Young Island landing called Indigo Dive. Send her an email and she can help set you up and give you more info thatn I can from here in Florida.
On St. Vincent, Petit Byehaut resort has some diving - that's also a megabucks natural resort and probably worth a dive and dinner there.
http://indigodive.com/index.html
For some reason, the beer there in SVG is pretty good - Hairoun. You ought to get a case of it at the supermarket right near the airport and salt that away in your room.
You won't really have time to get to the other islands unless you fly, but an air tour might be kinda cool. There is also a huge fast catamaran that runs from Bequia to the Tobago Keys for the day that would be cool too.

 

[Damselfish]

You're going to like Young Island. You can go from St. Vincent to Bequia, dive, and catch a late ferry back home, or just stay the night.

Don't understand why anyone would pay the $$$ to stay at Young Island then spend the night someplace else?

 

[Tom Winters]

Well, the last ferrys leave Bequia at either 4:30 or 5:00pm. A day trip to Bequia, then a dive, then maybe a trip to the Moonhole if it's the weekend and a leisurely dinner - why rush back to Young Island? Plus they could shoot down to the Tobago Keys the next day and still catch the late boat to Kingstown.

 

[Damselfish]

exactly - why rush back to Young Island? When you're done on YI and St Vincent stuff, then go to Bequia and stay there for a few days and do the Bequia stuff. Why ever pay hundreds for a room on YI while you pack up half your stuff and stay on a different island? And I thought I was spendthrift on vacations!

 

[Tom Winters]

We had a bareboat sloop charter that we used to move between the islands and then stay in hotels on shore. Except for Mustique - no way we were gonna shell out $2,500 a night in the off season, although the Firefly was only! $640 a night, but the owner sure had something shoved up somewhere with his English snobby attitude.
Then when we took the sailboat back, I espied a gorgeous 47' cat WITH a/c that's available for charter. This truly might be the way to do it, especially since I never ever want to hear my wife make the noises she made when I heeled the monohull over on a strong beam reach.
Damselfish, you get people going to Young Island for a week, saving a few hundred doesn't enter into the equation.
Now that said, there is some unreal diving available in the SVG's, but I sure don't know how to access it. It's deep, offshore, and almost none of the great stuff has ever been dived by anyone. I'll bet there are some unreal, uncharted wrecks there from the buccaneer and spotty navigation days of yore.