Scared Silly
Contributor
A short report. This trip was our second to St. Croix so we knew what to expect. Previously we dove and stayed with Cane Bay Dive Shop. They have a couple of cabanas that they rent out. The previous trip we stayed at the cabanas but on this trip we found a slightly better deal staying at Northside Valley. However, staying at North Side meant we had to commute 30 minutes each morning from North Side to Cane Bay. That was not any big deal except on the morning we were running behind and rushed over only to realize they were diving from west side and Frederstad Pier was only 7 minutes from our cabana. (Note to self check the board for the following days dive locations).
When they dive out of west side they bring the boat around to the Frederstad Pier and shuttle divers over in a van. They are more than happy to meet you at the Pier so the following morning we had checked and had a leisurely drive over.
For larger groups they are now using a 36ft boat which will hold up to 22 divers. Not sure how that would work but 16 would be plenty. The boat allows back entries from both sides and giant strides from the dive platform. So four divers could be splashing at once. The boat has a nice deck table for cameras though it is shared with dry bags. I had my camera in an AO Cooler so it was always protected.
Cane Bay does not have a dock so boat stays out at a mooring about 1000 off shore. When loading they would shuttle the gear and people from the beach using their little Inflatable Sea Wasp. So getting started in mornings always took a bit of time as did off loading. But it was never that much time as there is adequate staff to make sure you are not waiting around.
We did a mix of reef diving. Salt River is always good, as is Cane Bay (shore dive) and North Star. On the west side Alien Nation had some nice critters. We dove the Frederstad Pier one night and that was great especially the Golly Green Giant. Never seen such a beautiful green color on a six foot Moray Eel.
A few of the dives were not so good. Vertigo had the potential but we spent 8 minutes just getting to wall which started at about 90' so to bring the group back at half a tank we had 8 minutes on the wall. We needed to be dropped at the wall but because they had a couple of divers who were not comfortable at those depths they dropped anchor back a ways so they could dive shallower. A longer surface swim would have been better but part of the group descended early and the DM wanted to keep the group together.
Armageddon on the west side was interesting because this location is where the old pier was dumped after Hurricane Hugo. We may not have seen the best parts but we did not really see much that I would make it a request dive as others did. Some of this might have been because we had a new DM and the other three in the group needed to descend slowly cause of ear equalization so we did not go far into the debris field.
For some odd reason one group requested Cane Bay as their second dive of the day. This was the first time I have seen anyone do it as a boat dive as everyone I have seen just do it from shore. Rather odd. Because we had dove it the day before and we could dive from shore we tried to get the DM to drop us at the next mooring to the east which during our surface interval they were at to replace the mooring ball but they did want to "split" the group. However, once at the mooring they said we could dive away from the group if we wanted. In the end we dove with group which worked out cause we saw the resident sea horse which we missed the day before.
We did few hikes like out to the tide pools at Analy Bay and went out to Sand Point which is a Turtle Nesting area that is open only on the weekends. And of course we visited the beer drinking pigs.
When they dive out of west side they bring the boat around to the Frederstad Pier and shuttle divers over in a van. They are more than happy to meet you at the Pier so the following morning we had checked and had a leisurely drive over.
For larger groups they are now using a 36ft boat which will hold up to 22 divers. Not sure how that would work but 16 would be plenty. The boat allows back entries from both sides and giant strides from the dive platform. So four divers could be splashing at once. The boat has a nice deck table for cameras though it is shared with dry bags. I had my camera in an AO Cooler so it was always protected.
Cane Bay does not have a dock so boat stays out at a mooring about 1000 off shore. When loading they would shuttle the gear and people from the beach using their little Inflatable Sea Wasp. So getting started in mornings always took a bit of time as did off loading. But it was never that much time as there is adequate staff to make sure you are not waiting around.
We did a mix of reef diving. Salt River is always good, as is Cane Bay (shore dive) and North Star. On the west side Alien Nation had some nice critters. We dove the Frederstad Pier one night and that was great especially the Golly Green Giant. Never seen such a beautiful green color on a six foot Moray Eel.
A few of the dives were not so good. Vertigo had the potential but we spent 8 minutes just getting to wall which started at about 90' so to bring the group back at half a tank we had 8 minutes on the wall. We needed to be dropped at the wall but because they had a couple of divers who were not comfortable at those depths they dropped anchor back a ways so they could dive shallower. A longer surface swim would have been better but part of the group descended early and the DM wanted to keep the group together.
Armageddon on the west side was interesting because this location is where the old pier was dumped after Hurricane Hugo. We may not have seen the best parts but we did not really see much that I would make it a request dive as others did. Some of this might have been because we had a new DM and the other three in the group needed to descend slowly cause of ear equalization so we did not go far into the debris field.
For some odd reason one group requested Cane Bay as their second dive of the day. This was the first time I have seen anyone do it as a boat dive as everyone I have seen just do it from shore. Rather odd. Because we had dove it the day before and we could dive from shore we tried to get the DM to drop us at the next mooring to the east which during our surface interval they were at to replace the mooring ball but they did want to "split" the group. However, once at the mooring they said we could dive away from the group if we wanted. In the end we dove with group which worked out cause we saw the resident sea horse which we missed the day before.
We did few hikes like out to the tide pools at Analy Bay and went out to Sand Point which is a Turtle Nesting area that is open only on the weekends. And of course we visited the beer drinking pigs.
