recommendation for dive shop St. Thomas

[ladaniel]

Leaving for St. Thomas 12/31 for a week of diving. My husband, 14 year old son, and myself will be staying at Frenchman;s Reef(award points only place we could go on short notice). We are divng with Admiralty Dive Center on Monday. They are not near hotel and charge $5 a head to p/u. Can someone recommend another shop that is closer? Prefer not to use a cattle boat operation. Any recommendation for reasonable resturants. We usually only eat one nice meal a day when diving. Not interested in night life with 14 year old along. He will be turning 15 on the 3rd would like to take him out for nice meal for birthday. We have to watch his depth so we usually try to stay at 60ft. Husband will go deeper and I stay with son. Thanks for any information.

[RICHinNC]

One of the penalties of getting old is the memory goes. I cant remember where the place you are staying is located. I stayed at the Renaisance.

I used Chris Sawyer ops. Try a search if you havent yet and you may come up with more options. There is also a shore dive there called Koki beach.

[dl348]

I've heard good things about Underwater Safaris, never used them personally though.

[diversteve]

Are you staying at the Marriott? If so the closest Diveop is probably the St. Thomas Diving Club at Bolongo Bay Resort, it's about a mile south/east from Frenchmans Reef.

The next closest would be back to town to the WICO(cruiseship) dock and Underwater Safaris. They're located in the Havensight Mall. I have no personal experience with them, but they are highly rated. Must get a lot of cruise traffic though.

Another option is Dive In at the Sapphire Beach Resort. It's probably 15mins. east to Sapphire Beach from the Marriott. We dove Grass Cay with them last April. It's an easy dive, probably didn't break 50'. Lots of stuff to see, Stingrays, the bottom is covered in coral and lots of fish. They're not a cattleboat, we went out with 4 that morning. And very safety conscious, we did a drift and were asked to hang on/near a reel line. fwiw, last April there were Tiger sharks in that area.

Five minutes farther east is Chris Sawyer's in Red Hook. Their boats leave from American Harbor there.

10 minutes past that is Coki Beach, a shallow shore site with an easy entry. Not a great dive though, it's pretty sparce. And it's a cruise ship dive site. If you do go there with your son, swim towards the Coral World dome, but stay inshore of it. Out past there in the channel it's mostly sand. Be careful once past the inlet pipes, the current picks up wicked fast there sometimes - something the Coki Beach diveop forgot to mention. Although if there's no current, the coral seems to be a lot better in that area. If there is current, you risk being blown around the point.

Coki Beach is also where the locals hang out so there's a different vibe there than Charlotte Amalie - much more relaxed and friendly. And they rent JetSkis and Kayaks there also. And there's "Coral World" sort of a 60's aquarium venue.