Good to hear from you, Ray. Many congrats - I had my own 20th anniversary back in October - amazing how time flies.
I wish I was back in BVI and I could happily take you out for a couple of quick excursions, but sadly I am in the middle of a two year stint in Hong Kong. Although I will be back in BVI for a week at the start of February - I am sure I could sneak out for a quick two tank morning dive if we were overlapping and your schedule permitted?
When I said there is
no shore diving in Tortola, that is basically true although a bit of an exaggeration, but it is slim pickings and quite hard to do - especially if you are not local. There are a couple of reasonable shore dives off the North shore (in particular Brewer's Bay pinnacle), but they are quite hard to find and involve fairly lengthy surface swims (most people who do it use a surfboard to paddle out). By the time you factor in the effort of renting the tanks, driving out, etc. I am not sure you are really saving that much. I'd probably just try and negotiate or beg for a morning's leave of absence or two from Mrs RJP. Or bring her along (see further below). Sadly none of them really do the "before breakfast, back by lunch" type itinerary, although Sail Caribbean are the closest. However, there is a bespoke dive op called
UBS run by a couple called Tony and Kate (my brother used to be a part owner), and they will do custom 1 on 1 schedules, so if your budget stretches they could accommodate.
The
Rhone is quite a famous dive, and it is decent, but it is getting quite old now. 150 years takes a toll on a wreck. You can only do it by boat, and it is almost always done as a two tank dive because the explosion spread the wreck over a fairly wide area. Pretty much all the dive ops have at least one of their boats hitting it at least once a day. It is absolutely fine to turn up at the shop and head out on the boat rather than meeting up on a rendez-vous basis. However, for what it is worth, my opinion is that the best wreck in the BVI is the
Chikuzen, but the dive ops on Tortola only hit it occasionally and it is quite weather dependent.
In terms of dive ops: although I normally recommend
Sail Caribbean, if you are staying at West End they are slightly on the wrong side of the island (not that it is a big island, but still - you are on holiday). The plus side to them is that they usually leave for the morning dives at or shortly after 8, and are back around 12.30. Plus they usually visit one of the outer islands first (either Cooper or Norman) to drop off tanks and staff to their smaller shops there, and so you might be able to persuade your wife to go along and just lounge on a different beach for the morning whilst you dive - plus you can see her in the surface interval. Other alternatives closer to home would be
Blue Water Divers (nice op, but a bit lax and "full day" for two dives. But if you ask for Abi she is an extremely nice and highly knowledgeable instructor - complete diving geek who takes diving holidays despite being a diving instructor). The other option might be
Jost Van Dyke Scuba who I seem to recall would do pick ups from West End. I don't know much about them because that is quite a long way from my home turf, but there is certainly nice diving up in that area (although no wrecks).
Happy to send any more general advice if you know what you and Mrs RJP might like to do. I am still eternally grateful for all the valuable guidance that you gave me prior to travelling to Truk Lagoon, and delighted to help with stuff if I can. General rule of thumb - almost all food in BVI is of indifferent quality, so bear that in mind if anyone recommend "good" restaurants. The best food is Caribbean style barbecue of lobster and ribs. Best sort of excursions in BVI tend to be either daysails on yachts (which are a lovely way to head out to an outer island, spend a day lounging, have lunch prepared for you and then head back), or finding some of the deserted beaches (for reasons I have never understood, all the tourists - and most other people - congregate on the same beaches).
Best
Colin
Will be on Tortola in January for a week - 20th anniversary trip with my non-diving wife. Wondering if there's any decent shore diving, especially at nice beaches. Won't be doing much diving, especially "be gone from before breakfast until after lunch" boat diving, but Mrs RJP doesn't mind if I throw some tanks in the car and jump in the water for 45min while we're spending a half-day on a lovely beach somewhere.
She has also told me emphatically "you HAVE to dive the Rhone while we're there" based on her reading up on things to do in BVI.
RhoneMan, you've recommended Sail Caribbean in other posts. I'm assuming they hit the Rhone on a regular basis. How does diving with them work for non-rendezvous situations? Assuming I just meet them at the marina before they head out?
Will be staying in villa in the west end for a week, so any other things do, people to meet, places to go advice appreciated.
---------- Post added December 6th, 2013 at 09:00 AM ----------
Ah, a SB search reveals this post from a few years back...
Based on that, let me rephrase my shore diving question...
Are there any shore diving sites in Tortola assuming the choice is either
shore diving... or
no diving?
