Dive Recommendations or Outifts in St. Thomas / St. John

I'm going on vacation with the family - I'm the only scuba diver so I
wanted to sneak away for a 1/2 or full day dive while in St. Thomas.
We'll be staying at the Marriott Frenchman's Reef there.

I've search the newsgroups on recommendations for St. Thomas and I've
seen some old posts dating back a number of years, but does anyone have
any recent advice on locations and/or outfits to check out? I can
probably only spare 1 outing while on vacation, but I could swing a
whole day.

I'm an experienced diver, but I'm just looking for a nice dive. I'm
easy - it doesn't have to be the dive of my life - but I would be nice
to get a few nice dives in while I'm there.

If you don't have advice on locations, are there any good dive web
sites out there with forums or location info?

Thanks in Advance,

Hutch

Admiralty Dive Center right there at the Marriott is fine. I dove with
them a couple times last year and was quite satisfied.

You might also like Blue Island Divers, but Admiralty is very
convenient for where you're staying. French Harbor is nice, too.

Check the Web sites for both. If you dive with Admiralty, tell Marty hi
for me (as if he'd remember me...:)).

gc

I'm sorry. I was wrong about the location. Admiralty Dive Center is
located in the Holiday Inn near French Harbour. I still recommend them,
as well as Blue Island. And either of them will pick you up at your
hotel, store you gear overnight, etc.

Admiralty has cooler t-shirts.

Have fun.

gc

Hi,

In April I was on a cruise and dove with Underwater Safaris in Havensite
Mall at the cruise ship
terminal. They were a good dive shop and they go out twice a day. You
check in at Havensite (your
family can even do some shopping while you're diving), then walk a short
distant to the end of the
cruise ship dock where they have a permanent mooring for their dive boat.
They do an escorted reef
dive (though I hung back and did some underwater photography followed by one
of their dive masters)
then a dive on a broken up wreck. The life was good and they let us cruise
around the wreck at our
leisure. The island they dove at is only about 15-20 minutes out of the
dock so it minimized the amount
of travel time. I even bought one of their t-shirts which I never do if I
don't like the place :O).
You can get their information at padi's website. BTW, I'm not associated
with them, just liked the
boat and people.

Randy

<hcraig@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1118018625.324134.26830@g49g2000cwa.googlegro ups.com...
> I'm going on vacation with the family - I'm the only scuba diver so I
> wanted to sneak away for a 1/2 or full day dive while in St. Thomas.
> We'll be staying at the Marriott Frenchman's Reef there.
>
> I've search the newsgroups on recommendations for St. Thomas and I've
> seen some old posts dating back a number of years, but does anyone have
> any recent advice on locations and/or outfits to check out? I can
> probably only spare 1 outing while on vacation, but I could swing a
> whole day.
>
> I'm an experienced diver, but I'm just looking for a nice dive. I'm
> easy - it doesn't have to be the dive of my life - but I would be nice
> to get a few nice dives in while I'm there.
>
> If you don't have advice on locations, are there any good dive web
> sites out there with forums or location info?
>
> Thanks in Advance,
>
> Hutch
>

We did 2-tank dives with Blue Island located at French Harbor last February.
We had a very nice experience with them.

Conditions in the USVI and BVI were not great during our visit due to some
untypical weather patterns, so I'm not sure if they'd take you to the same
locations we visited or not.

They took us to Spratt Point, which was a nice novice dive (perfect for my
wife who was recently certified). It was relatively shallow with nice
little canyons between the coral, filled with turtles and lots of
interesting sea life.

They also took us to Navy Barges for some very nice, but easy, wreck diving.

We didn't make to St Johns, but we spent a week diving/sailing the BVIs and
they are spectacular.

George, scubaran & Brien -

Thanks a ton for your collective inputs - I'll definitely check out
Admiralty Dive Center, Underwater Safaris and Blue Island.

I like the idea of a short trip. I live in Florida and for the most
part there is no such thing as a short trip to the dive site!

I'm going to try to just book it now so I don't have to think about it
when I get there.

I guess one more question - I'm not bringing any of my gear. As long as
the hoses aren't streaming out air I'm content, but did anyone have a
bad experience with old gear etc?

Thanks again,

Hutch

The gear at Blue Island was fine as far as I remember.

We did not book in advance but I think it's a good idea. A few times in the
BVI we had a struggle to get a dive charter because the cruise ships booked
them in advance.

<hcraig@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1118194636.130335.309460@z14g2000cwz.googlegr oups.com...
> George, scubaran & Brien -
>
> Thanks a ton for your collective inputs - I'll definitely check out
> Admiralty Dive Center, Underwater Safaris and Blue Island.
>
> I like the idea of a short trip. I live in Florida and for the most
> part there is no such thing as a short trip to the dive site!
>
> I'm going to try to just book it now so I don't have to think about it
> when I get there.
>
> I guess one more question - I'm not bringing any of my gear. As long as
> the hoses aren't streaming out air I'm content, but did anyone have a
> bad experience with old gear etc?
>
> Thanks again,
>
> Hutch
>

Hi,

I had most of my gear, except BC, but from what I saw the rental stuff was
in good condition and no one
had any problems with it.

r
<hcraig@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1118194636.130335.309460@z14g2000cwz.googlegr oups.com...
> George, scubaran & Brien -
>
> Thanks a ton for your collective inputs - I'll definitely check out
> Admiralty Dive Center, Underwater Safaris and Blue Island.
>
> I like the idea of a short trip. I live in Florida and for the most
> part there is no such thing as a short trip to the dive site!
>
> I'm going to try to just book it now so I don't have to think about it
> when I get there.
>
> I guess one more question - I'm not bringing any of my gear. As long as
> the hoses aren't streaming out air I'm content, but did anyone have a
> bad experience with old gear etc?
>
> Thanks again,
>
> Hutch
>

I have recommended Blue Island Divers so many times that people might
think that I work for them. I don't, but I do think they are the best
outfit on the Island. I've been diving STT for nearly 15 years and
have dived with Blue Island from the time that they opened, and will
dive with them again this October when we go back to visit my
step-daughter. I have also dived with AquaAction and Chris Sawyer and
found them to be good operations. I just like the Blue Island people
and the side of the island that they dive on. I have dived with other
shops as well, but haven't dived with either Underwater Safaris or
Admiralty. Blue Island, Chris Sawyer and Aqua Action are my
recommendations with Blue Island at the top.use their rental gear,

On 7 Jun 2005 18:37:16 -0700, hcraig@gmail.com wrote:

>George, scubaran & Brien -
>
>Thanks a ton for your collective inputs - I'll definitely check out
>Admiralty Dive Center, Underwater Safaris and Blue Island.
>
>I like the idea of a short trip. I live in Florida and for the most
>part there is no such thing as a short trip to the dive site!
>
>I'm going to try to just book it now so I don't have to think about it
>when I get there.
>
>I guess one more question - I'm not bringing any of my gear. As long as
>the hoses aren't streaming out air I'm content, but did anyone have a
>bad experience with old gear etc?
>
>Thanks again,
>
>Hutch

scubaran wrote:
> Hi,
>
> In April I was on a cruise and dove with Underwater Safaris in Havensite
> Mall at the cruise ship
> terminal. They were a good dive shop and they go out twice a day. You
> check in at Havensite (your
> family can even do some shopping while you're diving), then walk a short
> distant to the end of the
> cruise ship dock where they have a permanent mooring for their dive boat.
> They do an escorted reef
> dive (though I hung back and did some underwater photography followed by one
> of their dive masters)
> then a dive on a broken up wreck. The life was good and they let us cruise
> around the wreck at our
> leisure. The island they dove at is only about 15-20 minutes out of the
> dock so it minimized the amount
> of travel time. I even bought one of their t-shirts which I never do if I
> don't like the place :O).
> You can get their information at padi's website. BTW, I'm not associated
> with them, just liked the
> boat and people.
>
> Randy
>
> <hcraig@gmail.com> wrote in message
> news:1118018625.324134.26830@g49g2000cwa.googlegro ups.com...
>
>>I'm going on vacation with the family - I'm the only scuba diver so I
>>wanted to sneak away for a 1/2 or full day dive while in St. Thomas.
>>We'll be staying at the Marriott Frenchman's Reef there.
>>
>>I've search the newsgroups on recommendations for St. Thomas and I've
>>seen some old posts dating back a number of years, but does anyone have
>>any recent advice on locations and/or outfits to check out? I can
>>probably only spare 1 outing while on vacation, but I could swing a
>>whole day.
>>
>>I'm an experienced diver, but I'm just looking for a nice dive. I'm
>>easy - it doesn't have to be the dive of my life - but I would be nice
>>to get a few nice dives in while I'm there.
>>
>>If you don't have advice on locations, are there any good dive web
>>sites out there with forums or location info?
>>
>>Thanks in Advance,
>>
>>Hutch
>>
>
>
>
I just dove with Blue Island divers in St Thomas - two divers on boat -
I would definitely dive with them again