Somewhere other than Key Largo

[drrich2]

I don't know the current situation with restrictions and the U.S. Virgin Islands that you asked about, but the largest of them, St. Croix, is a viable dive destination and has some interesting topside things, too. My report -
St. Croix Research Report Aug. 2017 - Trip Report - St. Croix Research Report Aug. 2017

@KathyV recently had a trip there and posted about it; her info.'s more current than mine. N2TheBlue changed ownership since I was there, and Cane Bay Dive Shop has seen some changes, from what I recall reading over time.

I liked the diving at Key Largo better, truth be told, but had closer encounters with more reef sharks in St. Croix, and I really enjoyed the waterfront in Christiansted. Also, St. Croix has some shore diving, which I don't know of significant offerings in the Florida Keys.

 

[Grateful head]

We are in St. Croix now. You need a negative test 72 hours before arrival no retest to return to the US. Weather 72 low 84 high for the last month. Water Temps 78 on the North and 80 on the west.Pleasanty surprised how good the diving is here. We have been mixing boat dives and shore dives.The fredericksted pier is absolutely a must dive especially at night. Most of the shore dives are in the north in the Cane Bay area.Only drawbacks are that swim outs are much longer than say Bonaire and waves can be an issue.Overall glad we came here.

The pier sounds awesome. What kind of flight was it fro Ohio? I’m seeing 10 hours as shortest from Wisconsin to St Croix.

 

[Grateful head]

I don't know the current situation with restrictions and the U.S. Virgin Islands that you asked about, but the largest of them, St. Croix, is a viable dive destination and has some interesting topside things, too. My report -
St. Croix Research Report Aug. 2017 - Trip Report - St. Croix Research Report Aug. 2017

@KathyV recently had a trip there and posted about it; her info.'s more current than mine. N2TheBlue changed ownership since I was there, and Cane Bay Dive Shop has seen some changes, from what I recall reading over time.

I liked the diving at Key Largo better, truth be told, but had closer encounters with more reef sharks in St. Croix, and I really enjoyed the waterfront in Christiansted. Also, St. Croix has some shore diving, which I don't know of significant offerings in the Florida Keys.

I did read your report drrich,a couple of times. I’ll look for Kathy report if that is more current, perhaps I read that too.

 

[mwall04]

The US Virgin Islands (St. Croix) has setup an official site with the latest COVID restrictions (https://usviupdate.com) as well as a portal to upload COVID test results to facilitate air travel (USVI | COVID-19 Traveler Screening Tool).

Currently a COVID test is required to enter the US Virgin Islands, but no test is required to return to the US mainland. These restrictions, as well as a mask policy that is rigidly adhered to, are showing positive results, as our COVID #'s here on St. Croix have recently dropped considerably. Our latest Health Department update last night reported 0 new cases out of 155 tests for February 8 and only 14 active cases currently on the island (active cases as I understand it on the reporting, is a positive test within the past 14 days).

 

[Grateful head]

Very encouraging, thanks.

 

[Ironjock]

The pier sounds awesome. What kind of flight was it fro Ohio? I’m seeing 10 hours as shortest from Wisconsin to St Croix.

Columbus to Charlotte to St Croix. American.Left at 6:30am touchdown 1:20 out time.You loose an hour.

 

[Ironjock]

Columbus to Charlotte to St Croix. American.Left at 6:30am touchdown 1:20 out time.You loose an hour.

The pier sounds awesome. What kind of flight was it fro Ohio? I’m seeing 10 hours as shortest from Wisconsin to St Croix.

 

[Ironjock]

Follow up on St Croix diving.There are several dive shops that we walked into and all of them were very responsive to our questions. We stayed in the Salt River area and we used Sweet Bottom Dive Shop at Cane Bay for all of our shore diving needs. They have a good deal on tanks and weights. The staff there are fantastic about telling you were to diving and all the ins and outs.Shout outs to Laura,Russ,and Jeff D great help. We used Cane Bay dive shop when boat diving.The water was quite sporty on several of our dives and 1 day was moved to the west side because of that but, normally they are based at the Salt River Marina. Wife and I were very happy with them also. Jeff. Anna Amy and Captain Demerit did a great job for us.

 

[living4experiences]

These are all great ideas, I will research them more. Any thoughts to my second post regarding not needing to be retested upon re-entry to the us from somewhere like St Croix and possibly land borders like Canada and Mexico? Went back to CDC website and couldn’t confirm or deny.

I can't comment on land border crossings, but since St. Croix is part of the U.S., you will not need a negative antigen test for reentry to the mainland U.S. If you don't want to deal with any testing whatsoever, for now, the only place to dive is in Florida. Not my favorite...it's green water diving. I prefer the blue water diving of the Caribbean.

 

[mwall04]

These are all great ideas, I will research them more. Any thoughts to my second post regarding not needing to be retested upon re-entry to the us from somewhere like St Croix and possibly land borders like Canada and Mexico? Went back to CDC website and couldn’t confirm or deny.

As mentioned by Ironjock, no test is currently required for when returning to the US mainland directly from St. Croix. A couple official sites where you can confirm that info and the latest travel restrictions: USVI Update | Your Source of news from the U.S. Virgin Islands and USVI | COVID-19 Traveler Screening Tool.