2 Responses to “US Virgin Islands”

1. snagel says:

   October 31, 2009 at 9:11 am

   Trip Report and Pics, St. Croix 10/3-10/10/09

   Original Post by ChinaCat46 on ScubaToys

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   Just spent a week on the Nekton Rorqual diving in St. Croix. The boat left from Puerto Rico and we flew from Denver to San Juan thru Atlanta. On arrival in San Juan we were picked up at the airport and 8 of us were transported to the Puerto Del Rey Marina near Fajardo with a stop along the way to pick up some liquid refreshments for the week as the boat does not provide alcohol or carbonated beverages. The boat itself holds 34 divers but this week we only had 22 divers on board and a crew of I think 12. The boat felt quite full with 22 guests and I hate to think what it would be like with 34. There were a few extra crew some from the Pilot including Bryce the Captain. Since the boat wasn’t full I got my own room as did most except the couples. The boat itself is a bit run down and could use a litte TLC especially the Nitrox compressor. Other then looking a little rough though it is quite functional. I’ve been on a lot of live aboards and we had a fairly young but very engergetic crew and they were fun to be with and worked hard. The food was okay but nothing special except maybe the fresh cookies we had between morning dives. I’ve been on some live aboards where the food was gourmet but this wasn’t one of them. The vegtables were served in steam trays and were very mushy and over cooked in my opinion. Meals were buffet style and there was plenty to eat. Deserts after dinner seemed to always be cake with canned iciing except for one meal where it was build your own sundae. You won’t go hungry on this boat but you won’t be wowed by the food either. That being said I don’t go diving for the food I go for the diving.

   The diving in St. Croix was nothing special either. I prefer the Indo-Pacific but I still enjoy diving just about anywhere. Earlier this year I spent a week diving Grenada and SVG off the Wind Dancer. The viz was better in St. Croix but the diving was better in Grenada and SVG. Over the years I’ve seen a decline in the marine life in the caribbean and it was definitely noticable in St. Croix. I remember when I use to see big schools of grunts and tangs and jacks and other fish but these days seem to be gone. Yes we did see those fish but just not the numbers I remember. I was happy though that I didn’t see one lionfish all week. The water temp was pretty much 84 on every dive except one where it dipped to 82. I thought the selection of dive sites could have been better as well. We did a few dives which I thought were just a waste of time like Armageddon where they dumped the scrap from the old Fredriksted pier. We did two dives there and one was more then we needed. I did enjoy Cane Bay and North Star as well as the Fredriksted pier but I think their selection of sites could have been better. I saw the usual caribbean fish, angels, butterfly, grunts, wrasse, jacks, groupers, bass, squirrel, surgeon, snappers, filefish, trigger fish, drums, morays, rays as well as various shrimp, crabs, lobsters, squid, octopus and turtles. I did find a nudibranch, 2 lettuce leaf slugs, frog fish, seahorses, flying gunards and a very tiny juvenile trunk fish to name a few hilites. On one dive after my buddies went up I found a very playful octopus and we spent over 10 mins entertaining each other. It was a real ham and I took 37 pics of it.

   On Wednesday the day we dove the Fredriksted pier I woke with a bit of a scratchy throat and headache. I dove the pier all day as well as the night dive and by the end of the day was feeling quite sick. That night I was up most of the night with the chills and my throat got worst, my head was stuffed up and I ached all over. I had come down with the H1N1 flu as did a few others on the boat including the cook. Thursday I barely left my room but thanks to the generosity of one of the other passengers who gave me some meds I felt a lot better on Friday and did the two morning dives(probably should have skipped). We dove North Star that morning and it was a very nice site with nice reefs and lots of juvenile fish. Friday afternoon I was feeling crappy and passed on the two afternoon dives which was a repeat of Cane Bay. All told I did 20 dives and missed out on 5 on Thursday and 2 on Friday so I would have done 27 if I hadn’t got sick. Today(Wednesday) a week later I’m still sick with congested lungs and a nasty cough. I saw the Doc yesterday and he gave me some meds to hopefully speed my recovery. Once I feel better I will start going thru the pics and post a few for you all. Overall I had a good time but I doubt I will ever return to St. Croix. I’m not a huge caribbean fan but think Little Cayman, Bonaire or even SVG are much better choices. One thing I felt was a real negative was the Nitrox. I paid $200 for unlimited nitrox and they advertise a 29% mix. First off it was overpriced at $200/week as most boats charge $100 or at most $150 for a week. Second off it was never 29% but more like 27% when the compressor was working. A few times I went to dive they said it would be at least 20 minutes as there were compressor problems. I would usually have them just top it off with air. The reason they advertise 29% instead of 32% is because they can’t give you 32% or 29% for that matter. If you go on a Nekton I recommend you pass on the Nitrox. It might make a few of your dives shorter but you won’t feel like you wasted $200. Another negative was at the start of the trip they collected DAN and C cards. At the end of the trip they had lost my DAN card. They said this had never happened before. Am I supposed to feel better it never happened before? As I mentioned earlier I’ll post some pics once I start feeling better and get a chance to go thru them.
2. admin says:

   September 20, 2009 at 7:09 am

   St Croix Experience

   Original Post by RMKrause on ScubaToys (9/19/09)

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   Just got back from St Croix – Here is my experience and recommendations:

   Rental car – Definitely good to have since taxi’s are quite expensive. I was a bit concerned about how it was going to be driving on the left but this turned out to be a non-issue: only time really need to think about it when pulling out of a parking spot. Gas is a little cheaper than back home.

   Where to stay – We stayed at the Carambola – a resort in the Northwest section of the island. It’s relatively remote and don’t expect cell phone reception here. Rooms were big, restaurants may or may not be open based upon season (food was good IMHO). Had screened in patios so could leave doors open at night and hear the waves without worrying about bugs. When we were there Sept 5 – 12 there were very few guests there, we hardly saw anyone else there and usually had the beach entirely to ourselves. Davis Bay is right there but when we were there it was pretty choppy and rather rocky and the wife didn’t have dive booties so we didn’t venture out here.

   Diving – Cane Bay is only a mile or so from the Carambola which features the famous 3200′ wall. I did my OWD cert with Cane Bay Dive Shop (www.canebayscuba.com) which is located at Cane Bay (they also have a small shop on the Carambola premises). They were running Labor Day discounts – I had done my eLearning and they gave me a really good deal on the rest of the OWD requirements and the instruction was private as well, which they said was what they usually do with eLearning students. Relative to what I would have paid in NJ for public instruction in a cold quarry the price was awesome, so we gave my instructor a healthy tip and bought a mask, snorkel and a few other things for the wife through them since I figured they didn’t make much off my cert. Overall, they were a great bunch to get certified through and dive with. Mitsuguy on this board works there – we met him and he’s an awesome guy and so were the rest of the Cane Bay divemasters/instructors that we had. Diving was awesome – water was 84 degrees, surface was as smooth as glass first thing in the morning, tons of sealife, soft and hard corals and of course the huge freaking abyss to look down into at the wall. There’s something like 50-60 dive sites on the island.

   Food – Food is expensive: we usually like to hit the grocery stores and get cereal, milk, fruit and at least eat breakfast this way but this wasn’t the huge cost saving it usually is. One chain on the island is Plaza Export – pretty standard grocery store but 32 oz soy milk is 3-4 bucks, box of Kashi cereal 6-7 bucks. Ouch. Lots of bars on the beach that have light fare. Personally, we usually just ate at the Carambola – about the same price as a lot of the beach bars cost but the food was a lot better.

   Other fun things
   Cruzan rum factory: 5 dollar per person for a tour and afterwards they have an open bar and can taste any of their rums straight up or mixed in a variety of sodas of juices. You can buy their rum from the factory very cheap and it isn’t counted as checked baggage (at least for American Airlines and United) nor is it taxed. For flavored rums, 1-liter bottles were $8 per bottle or $7.50 if bought in a variety 6-pack. Dark and light aged rums were $6 per bottle or $5.50 if bought in a 6-pack. They also sold a 18bottle 50mg variety pack for $14. We don’t drink much, kept some for ourselves and others made great gifts for friends.

   Kayaking – Virgin Kayaks is at the same place as Cane Bay Dive shop and there’s a few other kayak outfitters, most of which run very similar tours. We went on a night tour to see a bioluminescent bay which was pretty awesome.

   Cities – Fredreksted and Christensted – we visited both and didn’t find either one particularly interesting but I hate cities in general, wife wanted to go. Purple Papaya is a good gift shop in Christensted if you want mementos.

   Other notes – the island overall is very laid back, easygoing, few tourists and is drastically different from St Thomas – I’ve never been there but know a few people that have and sounds to be a big tourist trap.