Admiralty Dive in St. Thomas

[DiverDunk]

There is some great diving by boat - tunnels and arches as well as canyons on Thatch Cay and Cow and Calf are a few of my favorites. There is some outstanding diving around St. Thomas but the boat schedules often don't mesh with the cruise ship schedules. As the others, I would recommend Chris Sawyer but unfortunately it sounds like boat diving may be difficult due to your cruise ship schedule. I haven't been Diving with Bolongo but getting there would be pretty easy since from the cruise ship docks at Havensight you're going away from town and all the traffic and congestion which can get pretty bad if there are a lot of ships in that day. Coki's not a bad option since there is snorkeling available for your non diving friend and they hand out food for the fish so there are always plenty of fish around. I haven't been to Coki lately but there used to be gear rental available there. There is a small reef a short distance offshore that's decent. The problem here is that this is one of a couple of beaches that are very popular with the cruise ship crowd so it can be pretty crowded if there are several ships in port the same day you are there.

Steve

 

[diveborg]

We will be there on Saturday.
What is the best dive? What is the shore dive from Coki beach like? Will I be missing out on something GREAT if I don't do the boat diving option? Not sure where Admiralty is going to on its boat trips. I haven't called them yet. I will likely book one or the other. I appreciate your opinion. We are novice divers... Not too many under our belts yet - maybe 16 dives for me, 12 for hubby.... Based on this... what is your recommendation? Might be nice to take our snorkeling friend to Coki beach. Is it a pretty nice beach topside?
Thanks,
Lucky

Here is a link to a Underwater photo of the fish at Coki Beach Coki Beach fish

 

[scubachris]

Not sure if you have already done your St. Thomas diving, if so who did you dive with?

If not here's my recommendation. I'm not sure which cruise ship you are on but usually Chris Sawyer has a 9:30 boat that gives you time to make it over to the east end and back again in plenty of time for your all-aboard. However if can't or don't dive with Chris Sawyer than check out Blue Island Divers www.blueislanddivers.com. They are in Crown Bay marina and will pick you up in Havensight (where you get off the cruise ship). The have a great boat, bigger and faster than Admiralties and you may find the staff a little more fun to dive with. Otherwise you also have Underwater Safari's which caters to the cruise ship passengers, a good dive but can be a bit of a cattle-boat.

enojy,

Chris