Dive op review--Nassau, St. Thomas, Tortola

[DiveMaven]

We just got back from our 11 night cruise aboard Celebrity's Horizon and I wanted to write a short review of our dives and operators that we booked with.

In Nassau we booked with Nassau Scuba Centre and were not disappointed. They picked us up on schedule in front of the cruise dock and transported us all the way to the other side of the island. Must have been a 30 minute drive since we picked up one extra person at a hotel on the way. When we arrived at their shop, we did paperwork while they finished getting the boat ready, and we were onboard and on our way in about 30 minutes. Unfortunately for us, we were there when there was quite a bit of tidal current, so our first dive on a wall was cut short since we had to fin back to the boat against the tide and sucked our air down pretty quickly. Water was 71 degrees and viz was about 40-50'. Since the current was stronger than they had thought, they moved the boat and told us that we wouldn't be doing the dive previously planned and instead we were going to all do the shark dive! Holy smokes it was amazing!!! We were in the water with no less than 30 6-8 foot Caribbean Reef sharks who were in our faces, bumping us, and generally treating us like rock formations. I shot an entire roll of film and got some amazing shots.

A few days later we arrived in St. Thomas for our dives with Blue Island Divers. While waiting for Blue Island's boat to pick us up at the cruise dock, we watched no less than 50 people board a boat for the ship's dive excursion! There were 3 ships in port and all apparently contracted with the same operator and were combined on 2 cattle boats. I admit until that moment in time I didn't understand what a true cattle boat was, but now I certainly do!! Blue Island picked us up a few minutes later and 10 of us boarded the boat. It was a little crowded at first on the boat, but once we all settled into our spots, it was fine. Our first dive was one I had requested, the Navy Barges. We dropped down on the first wreck and had a great time exploring it for awhile, swimming around and through it. Then we swam over to another one and did a bunch of great swim throughs, looked at all the growth, etc. and generally just enjoyed the dive. The boat then moved to another location where we did a protected reef dive for nearly an hour. The reef looked like it was in great shape with lots of life and coral. Temperatures were 78 degrees and visibility was between 60-70 feet. No current or surge in St. Thomas at either location.

Two days later we arrived in Tortola to dive the RMS Rhone. We walked over to the marina from our ship and met our dive boat from UBS Scuba. A representative from UBS (Scott) met us and stayed with us until James arrived with the boat. This was a private charter than I scheduled, so there were only 4 of us on the boat with the DM. After doing some paperwork, we were on our way to the Rhone, about 20 minutes away. We dove the bow first and WOW! what a great wreck! There was some current, but nothing that made any difference in our air consumption. The bow is at 80' and we spent over 30 minutes exploring her. After an SI of almost an hour where we ate ginger snaps and rehydrated, we went to the stern to explore. The temperature was 79 degrees and viz was about 60-70' for both dives. On the way back to the shop, we had beers, more cookies, and great conversation with our DM, who had only been on Tortola for 3 weeks! I can't recommend UBS and diving the Rhone highly enough. We're already talking about heading back to Tortola for a full week so we can dive the Rhone again as well as the other really great dive sites they have in the area. AND when we do, we'll for sure be booking our dives with UBS.

Next trip is back to Maui in July where we'll do our Nitrox and AOW certifications! Then it'll be off to Belize for a week on the Nekton Pilot in December, 2005!!

[ABQdiver]

A few days later we arrived in St. Thomas for our dives with Blue Island Divers. While waiting for Blue Island's boat to pick us up at the cruise dock, we watched no less than 50 people board a boat for the ship's dive excursion! There were 3 ships in port and all apparently contracted with the same operator and were combined on 2 cattle boats. I admit until that moment in time I didn't understand what a true cattle boat was, but now I certainly do!! Blue Island picked us up a few minutes later and 10 of us boarded the boat. It was a little crowded at first on the boat, but once we all settled into our spots, it was fine. Our first dive was one I had requested, the Navy Barges. We dropped down on the first wreck and had a great time exploring it for awhile, swimming around and through it. Then we swam over to another one and did a bunch of great swim throughs, looked at all the growth, etc. and generally just enjoyed the dive. The boat then moved to another location where we did a protected reef dive for nearly an hour. The reef looked like it was in great shape with lots of life and coral. Temperatures were 78 degrees and visibility was between 60-70 feet. No current or surge in St. Thomas at either location.

Great report! I think we were on the same Blue Island boat as you were. In fact we talked about that very thing. We had about 6 divers with us from the Disney Magic. Great dives! Did you see that large grouper on the barges? I was right next you guys, diving the nitrox.

I like the way Blue Island let you dive your own profile. I got 64 minutes out of the last dive on the Spratts reef.

Glad you had fun!