mtiffee
Contributor
Did 27 dives From April 1st to April 21st.
Water Temp was 79-81 degrees, sunny skies all day, mostly calm seas, a few days with 3-4ft swell. Vis averaged 60-80 feet, some places were poor by caribbean standards: 30-40 feet. Deepest dive was around 90 feet.
Dove with 4 operators:
Maho Bay Camps, St. John
Small shop, dives on M,W,F... they do a wed night snorkel. Got great personalized service. A few trips it was just me and my buddy on the boat so we got to go to some cool sites. They do 2 one trip tanks a day, kinda odd they come back for lunch instead of just doing 2 AM dives. But when it was just us, we stayed out. See if they'll take you to Carvel rock.. great dive site if the north side is calm.
Blue Island Divers, St. Thomas S. side
Nice people, good dive sites. But they only did 1 2-tank trip a day while I was there so if there were any students, we couldn't go to some of the more advanced sites like wrecks. I planned my 3 week trip with the intention of diving with Blue Island Divers for their wreck diving on the south side of the island but only made it out to 2 wrecks. Would've liked to get out to more wrecks and do some more advanced deeper dives while there. They also do the cruise ship pickup so if you're land based, you have to go along for the ride while they pick those folks up. Adds about 15 minutes to total trip time each way. Would recommend if you arrive by ship since they pick you up right at the cruise ship dock. See if they'll take you to Blackbeards eye.. cool dive. Of course they have all the wreck diving around St. Thomas. Once they got to know us and our skills, they allowed us to venture out on our own if we wanted to get away from the group. They gave us good dive briefings. We also didn't all have to come up as a group if we had computers or more air, as long as we maintained buddy pairs and remained near the boat. By the time we had these freedoms we had done about 4 2 tank trips with them and they knew we were good divers.
Chris Sawyer Diving, St. Thomas NE and SE side of island. Also a bunch of St. John sites and of course the best dive I did while there, the RMS Rhone.
They seem to have the fastest boat and seem to cover largest area and have access to the most dive sites. Nice people, 2 boats.. they can do 4 trips a day. AM 2 tank dives and PM 2 or 1 tank dives. They like to have full boats but the groups were 5 or 6 at most per DM. The DMs and Captains were good about trying to take us to different dive sites each day.. no repeat dives, except the one I requested. The RMS Rhone trip is a must do although I think it should be a 3 tank dive instead of 2.. maybe a 3 tank plus night dive. That would be awesome.
Did a shore dive at Coki Beach, got a tank at Coki beach dive shop. Reef was poor, vis was poor, not much life. Good dive if you just want time underwater.
Good dive sites: Cow Rock, Carvel Rock, Arches and Tunnels, Stragglers Reef, Shark Alley, RMS Rhone.
If I were going again on a week trip I would stay on the east end and dive with Chris Sawyer.
Water Temp was 79-81 degrees, sunny skies all day, mostly calm seas, a few days with 3-4ft swell. Vis averaged 60-80 feet, some places were poor by caribbean standards: 30-40 feet. Deepest dive was around 90 feet.
Dove with 4 operators:
Maho Bay Camps, St. John
Small shop, dives on M,W,F... they do a wed night snorkel. Got great personalized service. A few trips it was just me and my buddy on the boat so we got to go to some cool sites. They do 2 one trip tanks a day, kinda odd they come back for lunch instead of just doing 2 AM dives. But when it was just us, we stayed out. See if they'll take you to Carvel rock.. great dive site if the north side is calm.
Blue Island Divers, St. Thomas S. side
Nice people, good dive sites. But they only did 1 2-tank trip a day while I was there so if there were any students, we couldn't go to some of the more advanced sites like wrecks. I planned my 3 week trip with the intention of diving with Blue Island Divers for their wreck diving on the south side of the island but only made it out to 2 wrecks. Would've liked to get out to more wrecks and do some more advanced deeper dives while there. They also do the cruise ship pickup so if you're land based, you have to go along for the ride while they pick those folks up. Adds about 15 minutes to total trip time each way. Would recommend if you arrive by ship since they pick you up right at the cruise ship dock. See if they'll take you to Blackbeards eye.. cool dive. Of course they have all the wreck diving around St. Thomas. Once they got to know us and our skills, they allowed us to venture out on our own if we wanted to get away from the group. They gave us good dive briefings. We also didn't all have to come up as a group if we had computers or more air, as long as we maintained buddy pairs and remained near the boat. By the time we had these freedoms we had done about 4 2 tank trips with them and they knew we were good divers.
Chris Sawyer Diving, St. Thomas NE and SE side of island. Also a bunch of St. John sites and of course the best dive I did while there, the RMS Rhone.
They seem to have the fastest boat and seem to cover largest area and have access to the most dive sites. Nice people, 2 boats.. they can do 4 trips a day. AM 2 tank dives and PM 2 or 1 tank dives. They like to have full boats but the groups were 5 or 6 at most per DM. The DMs and Captains were good about trying to take us to different dive sites each day.. no repeat dives, except the one I requested. The RMS Rhone trip is a must do although I think it should be a 3 tank dive instead of 2.. maybe a 3 tank plus night dive. That would be awesome.
Did a shore dive at Coki Beach, got a tank at Coki beach dive shop. Reef was poor, vis was poor, not much life. Good dive if you just want time underwater.
Good dive sites: Cow Rock, Carvel Rock, Arches and Tunnels, Stragglers Reef, Shark Alley, RMS Rhone.
If I were going again on a week trip I would stay on the east end and dive with Chris Sawyer.
