...so how did everyone rate the itinerary? I think many people have not booked the Nekton St.Croix trips due to mixed reviews of the dives.
This is, of course, very subjective.
It is highly variable due to past experiences, and also in terms of what you are looking for (and seeing) at the time of dive #______.
When I first read a post stating in a positive way- that "the best dive" was the Frederiksted Pier, I thought-
oh boy, that sounds like a nightmare. Wrongo.
Again, our reason for going was that the price of $1100 (total) plus the cheap air to Puerto Rico made this a great test to see if the "No Sea Sick" would be effective on
Herself. She did not get queasy.
Frederiksted Pier- was indeed the highlight. The shallow environment with the vertical concrete columns was not in the least bit claustrophobic. It was like gliding thru a forest. Lots of light, plus what was essentially vertical wall pillars in recognizable rows, separated by 20~60 feet. These pillars were about 10' diameter and covered with Sponges, Corals, and critters. Night diving there was great because of the rubble heaps- critters like structure! At night, try to distance yourself from any crowds as it turned into an occasional
Search for ET... people tend to cluster. It was a super night dive (you couldn't get lost), and a great off-gassing dive for Friday. They docked in 12fsw, and you could swim out and back. Or, they would run you out in a dory. It wasn't worth the bother~ stay on the first 2/3 of the pier if you want them to drop you off, the rest was deep and barren.
Armageddon was a created reef caused by the dumping of the post-hurricane wreckage of the original pier. The pix I have here are from a depth of 50' peering down to 90' bottoms, plus one that I shot at 70' just because I blipped down and shot it. I was on my way back from the shallower portion, which wasn't much but sand patches. Some people liked Armageddon, some of us just blew it off because of it's depth and limited BT.
"The Wrecks" was nice, bottoms at 70', when we were there they experienced a 1/4mph current which was a real hump. I elected to go with the DM as a guide and I believe I might have been the only guest who saw all four "wrecks". They included an overgrown and intact deep vee hull of 80' length, a huge rectangular barge (the sides had growth), a nice tugboat, and a "sea-lab" like contraption. Only two of us ventured out for a night dive here, we saw all of the typical Caribbean night dive denizens plus were rewarded by a 2.5' slumbering Turtle parked in plain sight under the rudder.
"The Trench"- most people dove it deep, we tried that, but had much better results doing it shallow. I say this only because we came back grinning, where others voted to move back to a different, deeper dive site for the night dive... which they then did not go out and dive. I skipped it because it was a 70'+ bottom, not my idea of a night dive. No one night dived that night and it was the only one that I missed
I think it was a great value. You get to try the Nekton, and the airfare to Puerto Rico was a bargain. As far as comparing it to this or that other Caribbean destination, it's hard because most of us have very narrow ideas of what diving on any particular island is like- it varies by zone. On a liveabaoard, the theory is that you will see different, better things. I must believe that I have now seen St Croix (I may be wrong).
We will go on the Nekton again, so votes
Herself, but we have seen St Croix- at a bargain price- and now we'll look at Mona or the Out Islands of the Bahamas.
us.
