Cruise to St. Thomas and Grand Turk - Dive Op recommendations

[bobfmdc]

We have been diving Grand Turk for 13 years--maybe 9 trips, and will be back in July. We have always used Grand Turk Diving. Their owner, Smitty (Algrove Smith), is well know throughout the area and a great guy. Although we always stay on Grand Turk, we have often dived with people from the cruise ships who make their own reservations directly with the dive shops.

Although Oasis has the contract with the ships, you can make your own reservations with Grand Turk Divers or Blue Water Diving (there are only 3 ops on the island). I don't think you can cut the cruise ship out of the picture with Oasis. Currently, Grand Turk Diving charges $105 +12% tax for a two tank dive. My impression is that when you book through the cruise ship it costs much more than this.

A final note is that the vis and the sites Oasis dives on the cruise ship trips are among the worst on the islands. The best by far are the ones north of Coburn Town. It is a long haul to get from the cruise ship to these sites and my impression is that the cruise ship excursions don't go up there. We don't normally dive the southern sites unless the wind is so strong that we can't hit the northern sites. They are only a 20 minute ride from GT Diving and Blue Water, which are almost in town.

 

[diversteve]

Depending on the cruise line/traffic, there's a slight chance you'll dock at Crown Point Marina - esp. on a smaller ship. Blue Island has their boat/shop there. Otherwise it's who you like since both will be doing mostly the same dives and pick you up - Admiralty by van, Blue Island off the WICO dock on the north end.

 

[EL Pistoffo]

I would prefer diving with an op that would hit the better spots. If Oasis doesn't hit those then I'll choose an op that will.

So the dive ops on Grand Turk are Admiralty, Oasis, Grand Turk Divers and Blue Water Diving?

I'll need to check my port times and the time required to travel to and dive with the various ops.

 

[CptTightPants21]

I would prefer diving with an op that would hit the better spots. If Oasis doesn't hit those then I'll choose an op that will.

So the dive ops on Grand Turk are Admiralty, Oasis, Grand Turk Divers and Blue Water Diving?

I'll need to check my port times and the time required to travel to and dive with the various ops.

Admiralty is on St. Thomas. The other 3 are on Grand Turk.

 

[EL Pistoffo]

Admiralty is on St. Thomas. The other 3 are on Grand Turk.

Oops, your right. Just got back from vacation, brain not so much.

 

[EL Pistoffo]

Made reservations with Admiralty Dive Center in St.Thomas and Gran Turk Diving in Grand Turk.

Thx to everyone for the help.

 

[bobfmdc]

Made reservations with Admiralty Dive Center in St.Thomas and Gran Turk Diving in Grand Turk.

Thx to everyone for the help.

Good choice. We just came back last night from two weeks on Salt Cay (4 days) and Grand Turk (10 days). Chris at Grand Turk Diving said she had gotten your reservation.

GT is pretty gentle diving. No Seal Team 6 stuff here. If you want to go deep, let them know ahead of time. Less than 100 feet off the edge of the wall, it is about 3000' deep, so you have plenty of room. Very little current, move slow and look at the underwater life.

Depending on how many divers are along, you might have a choice of where to go. Based on what we saw, I would recommend "The Tunnels" for a first dive, going through the tunnel from 45 to 75 feet, exit on the wall and go north. Healthy soft and hard corals on the wall. You should see several small turtles, some 25lb groupers, and lots of little stuff. Juvenile spotted drum on the coral head in the middle of the sand chute going to the tunnel.

The perfect second dive is "English Point," a site that is about 1/4 mile south of Tunnels. Dive starts at 35 feet in the sand where you can see very small pipe fish in the low grass, peacock founder, garden eels, and lots of what I think are 1/2" Leach Headshield slugs (Humann's Reef Creatures book, p. 289--bring a magnifying glass); one of our group found in the grass a 1/2" sea horse also. After 10 minutes of puttering around at 30', you go down the slope to 30' high coral mounds at the edge of the wall. Depth there is about 40-45' at the top of the mounds where, currently, there are two frog fish and two large sea horses. The male sea horse is pregnant. At least two very tame 15-25 lb Nassau groupers will escort you around, hoping to get a lion fish treat.

Both of these dives are on the wall within a 10 minute run from the dive shop, so if you get there early enough, you can make both of them. If you do only one, I would recommend English Point. We were making 70+ minute dives on 2900 psi, but with enough time shallow so that we could return to the boat for the second dive in about 75 minutes total surface time. None of us ever got close to deco. If you follow the guide you won't have any problem with that.

GT Diving uses 80 cu ft aluminum tanks that are neutral buoyancy, so your weights will probably be 4 lbs less than you normally use.

Finally, if you have any detailed questions, there is a way to send me a direct email through the Scuba Board site, but I have forgotten how.

 

[EL Pistoffo]

Good choice. We just came back last night from two weeks on Salt Cay (4 days) and Grand Turk (10 days). Chris at Grand Turk Diving said she had gotten your reservation.GT is pretty gentle diving. No Seal Team 6 stuff here. If you want to go deep, let them know ahead of time. Less than 100 feet off the edge of the wall, it is about 3000' deep, so you have plenty of room. Very little current, move slow and look at the underwater life.Depending on how many divers are along, you might have a choice of where to go. Based on what we saw, I would recommend "The Tunnels" for a first dive, going through the tunnel from 45 to 75 feet, exit on the wall and go north. Healthy soft and hard corals on the wall. You should see several small turtles, some 25lb groupers, and lots of little stuff. Juvenile spotted drum on the coral head in the middle of the sand chute going to the tunnel.The perfect second dive is "English Point," a site that is about 1/4 mile south of Tunnels. Dive starts at 35 feet in the sand where you can see very small pipe fish in the low grass, peacock founder, garden eels, and lots of what I think are 1/2" Leach Headshield slugs (Humann's Reef Creatures book, p. 289--bring a magnifying glass); one of our group found in the grass a 1/2" sea horse also. After 10 minutes of puttering around at 30', you go down the slope to 30' high coral mounds at the edge of the wall. Depth there is about 40-45' at the top of the mounds where, currently, there are two frog fish and two large sea horses. The male sea horse is pregnant. At least two very tame 15-25 lb Nassau groupers will escort you around, hoping to get a lion fish treat.Both of these dives are on the wall within a 10 minute run from the dive shop, so if you get there early enough, you can make both of them. If you do only one, I would recommend English Point. We were making 70+ minute dives on 2900 psi, but with enough time shallow so that we could return to the boat for the second dive in about 75 minutes total surface time. None of us ever got close to deco. If you follow the guide you won't have any problem with that.GT Diving uses 80 cu ft aluminum tanks that are neutral buoyancy, so your weights will probably be 4 lbs less than you normally use.Finally, if you have any detailed questions, there is a way to send me a direct email through the Scuba Board site, but I have forgotten how.

Thanks for the info bob. We are looking forward to our dive and I'll be sure to ask if I have questions.

 

[stevegd]

How was your dive trip?

 

[BFRedrocks]

I just booked directly with Blue Island Divers for an upcoming cruise trip to St. Thomas. I've been getting a bunch of varied responses regarding water temps in the May/June time period. Any one have an idea of water temps in St. Thomas around that time?