Newbie diving in the Lesser Antilles

[gryffin]

Hello:

In March, my husband and I will be visiting St. Thomas, St. Kitts, Barbados and St. Martin (in that order). We are trying to do our certification beforehand, but we might end up doing our Open Water dives while on the cruise. Either way we will be very new divers. Which ports/dive show would you recommend?

I was thinking Coki Beach in St. Thomas and then somewhere in St. Kitts, but was wondering if we should consider Barbados or St. Martin instead. We would snorkel in the ports that we don't scuba.

Thanks!

 

[diversteve]

Certainly check with the shops you're considering and/or your current instructor but you may want to try to get it all done first as some instructors might be reluctant to sign off your o/w dives unless you've done all 4 with them. Which is obviously not possible on your schedule. Depending on your course agency - that may also be a violation of standards - I believe some require an instructor to personally witness what they attest to. But I'm not certain on that point.

Nothing around St. Thomas is very deep. And operators who work with cruise ship traffic are expecting divers of all levels. Personally I'd save the 45min. drive across St. Thomas to Coki and go with one of the better operators near the port - Admiralty Dive or Blue Island Divers - either picks up at the cruise port. Don't use the cruise excursion operator - there's been some negative feedback on them posted here in the past.

Coki Beach as a shore dive was disappointing. It's pretty barren except in an area where there can be a lot of current. You could do so much better for your first dives off St. Thomas. Find someone who can take you to Cow/Calf Rocks within your schedule - either the two I mentioned or one of the East End based ops like St. Thomas Diving Club or Red Hook Dive <- everyone who works there is an instructor also. STDC has a rep. as a beginners dive op. There's about 3-4 more in that area also working out of the resorts. It's a little more difficult to coordinate the scheduling within your ships arrival/departure time for any of the East End ops/sites.

Cow/Calf Rocks is one of the "signature" St. Thomas dives. It's also 40' deep.

 

[Jersey]

Skip Coki. Disappointing was an understatement. They feed the fish dog biscuits making them swarm, I got nipped and bled, nothing but sand bottom, can be some wicked current. I worked on St. T for 10 months and did Cow/Calf numerous times and you know, it never got boring. (That said there is much better diving, was sorry I only got out to French Cap once) Every DM does Cow/Calf different, there is normally a sleeping nurse shark or 2 along the way and for newbs, 40 foot bottom will probably improve their dive time. Ledges of Little St. James and Stragglers are also close by. I heard only good about Admiralty and Blue Island. I stayed in the Red Hook area and went out with Red Hood Dive, great group, very safety conscious, often had new divers or people who hadn't been in the water in years. The good thing about St. T is there are lots of sites around little outcrop islands/rockpiles making is possible to find a decent dive site regardless of the wind direction.

SXM diving isn't bad either. Unless it's changed, you will be moored in Phillipsburg on the Dutch side. Not too far is the Proselyte, old 1801 wreck that hit the reef, the anchors remain, shallow nice dive. Bunch of other patch coral, hard bottom sites in the area as well as some small wrecks - cargo carriers and sailing vessels. I've been out with Ocean Explorers on Kimsha Beach and Aquamania at Simpson Bay Resort.

Can't speak to St. Kitts or Barbados.

 

[RJP]

Depending on your course agency - that may also be a violation of standards - I believe some require an instructor to personally witness what they attest to. But I'm not certain on that point.

What you say is technically true, but since each OW dive is signed off on individually it actually IS possible - but not ideal - to have a different instructor for OW dives 1&2 and then 3&4. Hell, you could have four different instructors.

Instructor 1 signs off on Academics and confined water... and issues a referral.
Instructor 2 signs of on OW dives 1 & 2... and issues a referral.
Instructor 3 signs of on OW dives 3 & 4... and issues your certification.

From a practical standpoint, however, it's not ideal and probably very costly.

 

[Jeeptrick]

This what you can expect in Barbados,
https://www.flickr.com/photos/jeeptr...55095333/page1
If you do consider diving in Barbados give Home - Dive Barbados Blue a call for diving.

 

[Damselfish]

There are some potential issues with trying to get certified while on a cruise. I would try very hard to try and get it done before. Where does your cruise leave from - any chance on getting there a few days early and doing it that way if you can't finish it at home?

 

[gryffin]

Where does your cruise leave from - any chance on getting there a few days early and doing it that way if you can't finish it at home?

We actually are coming in a few days early, but here is where I made a stupid mistake. My in-laws are spending the winter in Cape Coral, Florida, our cruise leaves from Fort Lauderdale. So I thought, great, we can visit them for a few days before our cruise and do our open water dives while we stay with them. So I set up the flights and told them we were coming for 4 days.

However, when I started researching dive shops, I found out that none of the PADI shops near Cape Coral actually do the OW dives locally- at least not in March. They all seem to do an overnight trip to the East Coast or the Keys, and aren't willing to schedule it for the two days before our cruise (they don't want to risk us not being able to finish the dives by waiting until the last minute, but we don't want to insult our in-laws by spending too little time with them).

I'm looking into the possibility of working with a private dive instructor in Fort Lauderdale on the two days before our cruise- doing dives 1 & 2 at Tigertail Lake and dives 3 & 4 via a boat off of Fort Lauderdale. There is some risk though that we can't equalize or that the weather is problematic, so finishing in the Caribbean would be a back-up plan. I figure that if I could book with a shop that would be willing to do either certification dives with us or regular open water dives with a private dive master that I would be giving myself a back-up plan.

As I understand it, the Tigertail dives are as close to a sure thing as we can get since weather is rarely a problem in the Lake. It's the boat diving that has more risk of falling through. In theory, we also have the morning of the cruise open as a back-up option since the ship doesn't leave until 4:30PM.