diver 85
Contributor
Haven't ever looked it up----but---I would guess averages around 80(?+)...When we were there last Oct, was running about 83 that week, wore skins only then.......
EDIT.:........& Vincent, I AGREE 100%.......
Where do I go to vanish from the earth?
- Thread starter CAPTAIN SINBAD
- Start date
Please register or login
Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.
Benefits of registering include
- Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
- A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
- You can make this box go away
Haven't ever looked it up----but---I would guess averages around 80(?+)...When we were there last Oct, was running about 83 that week, wore skins only then.......
EDIT.:........& Vincent, I AGREE 100%.......
I was also thinking of Cayman Brac, it is a small place and not much to do but dive and relax which is why we love it; and yet is part of the Cayman Islands so it is clean and safe and you can eat/drink the food and water without worry, the people are friendly and speak English and the ocean is warm and beautiful. More reasons to love it.
If you stay at the Brac Reef Beach Resort you won't have to devote time into going out to eat (there are not many places to go anyway) and the food is really very good (You may gain a little weight over 3 weeks - be conservative with the dessert bar!) The package below includes everything but lunch and tips for the dive staff. You can buy lunch at the bar or you can add lunch onto the plan below for an extra charge. If you are traveling solo then you will need to ask about single occupancy rates.
They do offer resort activities but you can probably resist the Bingo and Trivia (personally, I love the Bingo!) You only get a few TV stations so there is not much to watch. I think the internet service is good, I remember using my ipad while I was there last November but you should check on that. It is a hotel so there is daily maid service - unless you hang out the Do Not Disturb sign. But the maids usually make up the room while the guests are out on morning dives.
The resort provides free bicycles so that you can take a ride up to the liquor store if that is of interest as the bill at the beach bar could get a little high in 3 weeks - at least it would for us! You won't need to rent a car but we usually rent a car for one day to tour the island. They also have a coin-op guest laundry at the resort so you won't have to pack many clothes - or you may be able to arrange to get your laundry done for you.
They do offer a 3 dive package with a one tank afternoon dive, but you will have to be strong and only sign up for the 2 tanks in the morning and resist the temptation of night dives. The dive op is excellent and the diving is great. Beautiful healthy reefs with abundant sea life. Valet diving is part of the normal operation so you won't have to spend a lot of time taking care of your equipment. The reefs are close so you won't have long boat rides. The water was in the mid 80s when we were diving there last November. It's a perfect place IMO!
Will you traveling soon? BRBR is supposed to close from August through mid-November to build a new beach bar and pool (although I thought that the beach bar and pool were fine where we were there.)
THE ANCHOR WALL PACKAGE
Brac Reef Beach Resort | Cayman Brac
Brac Reef Beach Resort
Valid for travel January 3 – December 16 2015
7 Nights Accommodations
Breakfast and Dinner
12 Boat Dives
Airport Ground Transfers
Free Welcome Rum Punch
Hotel Taxes & Service Fees
$1350 US per person double occupancy
If you stay at the Brac Reef Beach Resort you won't have to devote time into going out to eat (there are not many places to go anyway) and the food is really very good (You may gain a little weight over 3 weeks - be conservative with the dessert bar!) The package below includes everything but lunch and tips for the dive staff. You can buy lunch at the bar or you can add lunch onto the plan below for an extra charge. If you are traveling solo then you will need to ask about single occupancy rates.
They do offer resort activities but you can probably resist the Bingo and Trivia (personally, I love the Bingo!) You only get a few TV stations so there is not much to watch. I think the internet service is good, I remember using my ipad while I was there last November but you should check on that. It is a hotel so there is daily maid service - unless you hang out the Do Not Disturb sign. But the maids usually make up the room while the guests are out on morning dives.
The resort provides free bicycles so that you can take a ride up to the liquor store if that is of interest as the bill at the beach bar could get a little high in 3 weeks - at least it would for us! You won't need to rent a car but we usually rent a car for one day to tour the island. They also have a coin-op guest laundry at the resort so you won't have to pack many clothes - or you may be able to arrange to get your laundry done for you.
They do offer a 3 dive package with a one tank afternoon dive, but you will have to be strong and only sign up for the 2 tanks in the morning and resist the temptation of night dives. The dive op is excellent and the diving is great. Beautiful healthy reefs with abundant sea life. Valet diving is part of the normal operation so you won't have to spend a lot of time taking care of your equipment. The reefs are close so you won't have long boat rides. The water was in the mid 80s when we were diving there last November. It's a perfect place IMO!
Will you traveling soon? BRBR is supposed to close from August through mid-November to build a new beach bar and pool (although I thought that the beach bar and pool were fine where we were there.)
THE ANCHOR WALL PACKAGE
Brac Reef Beach Resort | Cayman Brac
Brac Reef Beach Resort
Valid for travel January 3 – December 16 2015
7 Nights Accommodations
Breakfast and Dinner
12 Boat Dives
Airport Ground Transfers
Free Welcome Rum Punch
Hotel Taxes & Service Fees
$1350 US per person double occupancy
Last edited:
The Brac or Little Cayman
I agree but I didn't mention LC because I thought it would probably be booked up already; but ScoobyDrew is right, the diving is even better off LC, and the Little Cayman Beach Resort is a sister operation of the BRBR and they use the same dive op. There are other fine places to stay and other good dive ops on both islands, but I suggested BRBR or LCBR because they are small, diver-dedicated (easy) all-inclusive resorts and should allow plenty of free time to write!
Last edited:
drrich2
Contributor
What kind of surroundings would help you focus? If it's lushly rain forested mountains, then seems like Saba would be a good choice. It's a lot smaller than Dominica (judging from Google Maps), so I'd think there'd be less temptation to go exploring & eat into your time.
Have you thought about St. Croix? It's got boat diving and some shore diving. From what I read not as hustle & bustle as St. Thomas. I did a couple of dives there on a cruise ship stop & liked that 'sampler.' Researching it, it doesn't sound like it's jam packed with riveting topside activities, but it's pretty, and should have what you need. I assume they drive on the wrong side of the road, if that's an issue. Cane Bay Dive Shop has cottages to rent, if memory serves. I don't know about internet service in the region. Note that N2theBlueStCroix contributes useful posts about St. Croix on this forum, and I tend to be favorably inclined toward people who do well enough to show their face in public where customers could challenge them, so you might see what his operation offers.
DenbyS posted February Dives in St. Croix.
My Quick St. Croix Trip Report includes input by others that may help.
I think of it this way. Figure you want 2 dives in the morning to clear your head & get in a good mood, but otherwise to work. So you don't need a lot of topside attractions, or a once-in-a-life-time place where you're driven to dive every time you can. Why not go somewhere to enjoy the diving, but be content with that? If I were in your shoes, I be thinking if I went to:
1.) Dominica - I'd want to explore the rainforest.
2.) Little Cayman or Cayman Brac - I'd want to do all the dives I could. Bloody Bay Wall as much as possible. 3 dives/day, oh, yes!
I'd be weighing St. Croix against Saba. Hope you'll let us know which one you did & how it went.
Richard.
Have you thought about St. Croix? It's got boat diving and some shore diving. From what I read not as hustle & bustle as St. Thomas. I did a couple of dives there on a cruise ship stop & liked that 'sampler.' Researching it, it doesn't sound like it's jam packed with riveting topside activities, but it's pretty, and should have what you need. I assume they drive on the wrong side of the road, if that's an issue. Cane Bay Dive Shop has cottages to rent, if memory serves. I don't know about internet service in the region. Note that N2theBlueStCroix contributes useful posts about St. Croix on this forum, and I tend to be favorably inclined toward people who do well enough to show their face in public where customers could challenge them, so you might see what his operation offers.
DenbyS posted February Dives in St. Croix.
My Quick St. Croix Trip Report includes input by others that may help.
I think of it this way. Figure you want 2 dives in the morning to clear your head & get in a good mood, but otherwise to work. So you don't need a lot of topside attractions, or a once-in-a-life-time place where you're driven to dive every time you can. Why not go somewhere to enjoy the diving, but be content with that? If I were in your shoes, I be thinking if I went to:
1.) Dominica - I'd want to explore the rainforest.
2.) Little Cayman or Cayman Brac - I'd want to do all the dives I could. Bloody Bay Wall as much as possible. 3 dives/day, oh, yes!
I'd be weighing St. Croix against Saba. Hope you'll let us know which one you did & how it went.
Richard.
Ulfhedinn
-Skill Collector-
My problem would be keeping it at 3 dives a day...
I don't know, there are cool things to do in all of the places we've been talking about. St. Croix has Fredricksted and Christiansted and good straight, roads through a beautiful forest, and historical places to visit. And the tour of the Cruzon Rum Factory is a blast! And it would be hard to stay away from diving the Fredricksted pier!
Saba has a rain forest high up the mountain, and the island is such an interesting place; it's just about vertical and you spend a lot of time trudging up and down just to go anywhere. It is a law that all of the houses have flowers in the garden and the houses are white, red, and green - very picturesque!
And because the island is so rocky they don't have land for cemeteries, so deceased Grandma and Grandpa are entombed in the backyard. They have colorful tree frogs and loads of "crickets" that are much bigger than the frogs. They also have the scariest road we have ever driven; people actually give you directions like "when you smell your brakes you're almost there!" And they're not kidding!
Yes, these are both very interesting places. I think the OP has to go to someplace he hates with no diving if he really wants to do some writing.
Last edited:
OP
CAPTAIN SINBAD
Contributor
Surroundings that would be isolated to the point if being boring with nothing to do except write and do two dives in the morning. I like to think of the Jack Nicholson movie "Shining." He is a screenwriter and chooses to spend winter in an isolated hotel building so that he can concentrate on his script. In the end he goes insane!
So when I write my script, I do not want people to knock on my door. I get extremely agitated if someone calls in the middle of my writing. If I am writing and it coming, I will keep going until it is morning. I tell my family not to call me for lunch or dinner. I will eat when I feel like. I officially do not exist. If I am experiencing a writers block, then I would go for a short break in which I will go for a stroll.
Shining!
If you don't mind getting murdered, it is (The 10 world cities with the highest murder rates)!
Joking aside, I have spent a bit of my life contemplating places of splendid isolation to reach for. I think if you are looking for serious isolation, you probably need to aim for the Pacific. The place that I would guess fits the bill best from your list of requirements would probably be either Vanuatu or New Caledonia. Excellent diving in both. Can't speak for Internet connectivity though.
Separately, I have always thought after I retired I might do a doctorate, and in the UK it is traditional to take your final year and go somewhere isolated and quiet to write your thesis in peace and contemplation. Best option I have come up with so far is Luang Prabang in the highlands of Laos. Fantastically peaceful and beautiful place (and pretty decent WiFi). But no diving there unless you want to immerse yourself in the muddy waters of the Mekong.
- Messages
- 26,272
- Reaction score
- 5,881
- # of dives
- I'm a Fish!
This may sound stupid but I think you need to find a place near a place. By that I mean somewhere isolated (not a dive resort with the bar/diving/people laughing/pool and all those distractions but rather some sort of isolated small house/villa near good diving/scenery/dinner options. Saba seems to fit that nicely although if you pick too remote an island - the infrastructure doesn't yet support high-speed internet access so IDK how much of a factor that is for you. I suspect from the post above that might be the case there.
Kind of rules out places like Roatan/Utila and some of the other lesser Antilles. Unless there's money there - I assume St. Barts probably has pretty good connectivity for how small it is due to the monied elite who vacation there regularly. I'd wonder about places like Nevis though. Maybe even St. Kitts.
Additionally make it harder to go diving except on a schedule so you're not tempted. For that reason I'd rule out dive resorts on Bonaire/Curacao/Grand Cayman etc. since it's too easy to walk 20' and drop into the water. Plus they might be louder after the boats return.
Places I might consider.
Grand Cayman's East End or NE side. There's no shore diving there, lots of rental properties and diving is only with 3 operators in the area. It's too quiet for us out there. There's a few restaurants and one market, everything else is a 45min. drive to Georgetown. It's also very pricey.
Curacao's West End could be a consideration. Most Curacao dive sites are 10-15mins. drive off the main road. Some have dive boats, others are shore dives. A place like Coral Estates is pretty isolated yet only about 20mins. from Willemstad, the major city/container port for the region so everything is available. Very far SE is also a lot quieter - around Caracasbaai. Yet there's some nicer rentals in that area.
Besides St. Croix, I'd look at St. Thomas's East End or even St. John (pricier) There's an hourly car ferry over to St. John and it's mostly a few larger resorts with a lot of pristine land - some of it is a park. The boat dive operators also go to the BVI's on occasion but that's more of an all day trip.
St. Thomas's east end is the only place you'll find a shore dive (at Coki Beach) on the whole island. So even if you get a waterfront property, you'll know it's for the view/inspiration. Yet there's 4-5 boat dive operators within a 10min. drive at the resorts or in Red Hook, the small town there. There's also a large market nearby and at least a dozen restaurants - either in Red Hook or at the resorts. It's really damn quiet out there also - no noise at night. Yet you're 20mins from Charlotte Amalie, the airport etc.
You could also realistically get to Tortola in the BVI's the same morning/early afternoon. There's fast ferries that run hourly between St. Thomas and the BVI's. Tortola is pretty quiet once you leave Roadtown yet some of the smaller waterfront resorts also have on-site or nearby dive operations. No shore diving is possible there so no temptation.
How about Kauai? It's pretty small still and there's only a handful of shore dives - only two worth doing. 3 boat dive operators in the Poipu area and 2 dives are back before noon. For a special trip go out to Ni'ihau for the day, Vertical Awareness (google it) is pretty inspiring. Plus it's lush everywhere and once you get out away from civilization, you may not see another person for a while. I don't think the Internet is an issue there also since the Maui Supercomputing Center nearby is on one of the main Internet interconnects in the world.
One thing all the places I mentioned have in common is convenient flight access. (well maybe not Kauai for you) Given your deadline, it may not make sense to travel to some of the smaller islands - I've always wanted to see Dominica but it takes two days for us to get there from the west coast so we never have. St. Lucia is similar.
hth, except for Cayman's East End I've been to all the places I mentioned if you have any specific questions.
Kind of rules out places like Roatan/Utila and some of the other lesser Antilles. Unless there's money there - I assume St. Barts probably has pretty good connectivity for how small it is due to the monied elite who vacation there regularly. I'd wonder about places like Nevis though. Maybe even St. Kitts.
Additionally make it harder to go diving except on a schedule so you're not tempted. For that reason I'd rule out dive resorts on Bonaire/Curacao/Grand Cayman etc. since it's too easy to walk 20' and drop into the water. Plus they might be louder after the boats return.
Places I might consider.
Grand Cayman's East End or NE side. There's no shore diving there, lots of rental properties and diving is only with 3 operators in the area. It's too quiet for us out there. There's a few restaurants and one market, everything else is a 45min. drive to Georgetown. It's also very pricey.
Curacao's West End could be a consideration. Most Curacao dive sites are 10-15mins. drive off the main road. Some have dive boats, others are shore dives. A place like Coral Estates is pretty isolated yet only about 20mins. from Willemstad, the major city/container port for the region so everything is available. Very far SE is also a lot quieter - around Caracasbaai. Yet there's some nicer rentals in that area.
Besides St. Croix, I'd look at St. Thomas's East End or even St. John (pricier) There's an hourly car ferry over to St. John and it's mostly a few larger resorts with a lot of pristine land - some of it is a park. The boat dive operators also go to the BVI's on occasion but that's more of an all day trip.
St. Thomas's east end is the only place you'll find a shore dive (at Coki Beach) on the whole island. So even if you get a waterfront property, you'll know it's for the view/inspiration. Yet there's 4-5 boat dive operators within a 10min. drive at the resorts or in Red Hook, the small town there. There's also a large market nearby and at least a dozen restaurants - either in Red Hook or at the resorts. It's really damn quiet out there also - no noise at night. Yet you're 20mins from Charlotte Amalie, the airport etc.
You could also realistically get to Tortola in the BVI's the same morning/early afternoon. There's fast ferries that run hourly between St. Thomas and the BVI's. Tortola is pretty quiet once you leave Roadtown yet some of the smaller waterfront resorts also have on-site or nearby dive operations. No shore diving is possible there so no temptation.
How about Kauai? It's pretty small still and there's only a handful of shore dives - only two worth doing. 3 boat dive operators in the Poipu area and 2 dives are back before noon. For a special trip go out to Ni'ihau for the day, Vertical Awareness (google it) is pretty inspiring. Plus it's lush everywhere and once you get out away from civilization, you may not see another person for a while. I don't think the Internet is an issue there also since the Maui Supercomputing Center nearby is on one of the main Internet interconnects in the world.
One thing all the places I mentioned have in common is convenient flight access. (well maybe not Kauai for you) Given your deadline, it may not make sense to travel to some of the smaller islands - I've always wanted to see Dominica but it takes two days for us to get there from the west coast so we never have. St. Lucia is similar.
hth, except for Cayman's East End I've been to all the places I mentioned if you have any specific questions.
Similar threads
