St. Croix Assistance Please

[5615mike]

Hey board members need your help on St. Croix. I would not have really thought about this location for diving but a client gave me his Time Share today. Will be staying for 10 days at Hotel on the Cay in Christiansted Harbor. Know nothing about the place so if anyone can shed some light I would appreciate it. Don't find much on the board about St. Croix diving or DO's either. Have found the following:

Dive Experience -
Cane Bay dive shop-
Anchor Dive Center-

Any light shed here would be appreciated as well. My wife and I are decent divers but not experts by anymeans. We both have AOW with about 50 dives. Love the diving in Coz but were ready for something different anyway. Specific dive sites that you remember would be a big help. We love to wall dive and I understand that Cane Bay has great walls.

Restaurants--who has several they like?

What about other activities that we should take in while we are there? As you can tell I am looking for any direction that you fellow dive nuts can provide. Thanks for the help

 

[Scuba_Vixen]

I live in Christiansted (C'sted) and dive once or twice a week, so I can probably give you a good rundown on what's available. You're place on a tiny island in the harbor, about 100' from the shore. There are 2 DO's in town, both about 100 yards from you're Timeshare, the ferry can drop you at their areas on the boardwalk for getting on the boat. Both DO's are excellent, Dive Experience (DE) is the smaller one and is a bit more like a family group. Their boat is smaller and depending on weather, can be a bit rougher. The larger DO, St Croix Ultimate Bluewater Adventures (SCUBA), has a roomier boat and a larger more accomodating staff. We have a lot of great reef dives and also some of the best wall diving anywhere. There are some easily diveable wrecks on the west end as well. If you asked me who I'd go with, I'd say SCUBA, they have the most complete operation on island, and the folks are super. They are at www.stcroixscuba.com ....... DE would be my next choice, they don't run as many trips, and don't do the wrecks. Cane Bay is a great shop, but they are in a niche location , not easily accessable without transportation. Their claim to fame is being right at the place where the wall is closest to shore and you can do it as a beach dive. The C'sted DO's go there in the boat, so you can still can dive the Wall. Anchor dive is on the way to cane bay, they seldom do anything much but the mini wall at Salt River, again, the other DO's do those sites too and more comfortably. I never hear anyone say anything about Anchor in a favorable manner, so take that for what it's worth. When you're done diving and ready to eat, St Croix does have some great restaurants.

Hope this helps out a bit, let me know if you want more info.

Darlene

 

[5615mike]

Scuba_Vixen

Thanks so much for the info. I have sent emails to both DO's and awaiting their responses. Sounds like I will take your advice and go with SCUBA. I found a very good write up about them last night in Rodales but you never know how much you can trust those rankings Rodales does. Our favorite DO in Coz was at the top of the list for a number of years and then they just vanished from the list. The service has always been fantastic.

Hey, what can you tell me about our Hotel, Hotel on the Cay? I know there are several very nice Time Shares on the island but we did not get a red week which means we did not have access to the nicest places.

Really looking forward to diving your island. We have not had the opportunity to dive any wrecks so that will be a first. Any of the dive sites that you can say are a "don't miss dive"?

Thanks again Darlene. We'll be there in Sept.

 

[Tim Ingersoll]

Man this board is great. You ask a question about St. Croix and get a response from someone who lives there. Just a note about Anchor Dive. We stayed on St. Croix for a week and rented a house located on the hill right over Anchor Bay. Very nice digs. I used the dive shop because it was convenient. I liked them very much. The mini-wall outside the bay was a five minute boat ride. They did the intervals back at the shop. Small clean boats. Six-packs. Attentive DMs. All in all a good solid operation. The diving was average at best. I would dive with them again but I would not seek out St. Croix for the diving.

 

[Tim Ingersoll]

Hey Darlene do you know a restaurant on the second floor of a building downtown? Very nice, upscale. Tables with a view of the street. Can't think of the name. Very romantic. Best meal we had on St. Croix.

 

[5615mike]

Hey Tim

Looks like we won't make that trip to GT this year after all. I would not have thought of St. Croix for diving but I have read that it has decent wall diving. 1-10 with 10 being Coz, how do you rate STX? Did you get any wrecks in? What were the best dives if you remember? Did they put a shallow limit on your depth? Anything about the island you can provide would be greatly appreicated. Really wish we were going to GT but hard to turn down a freebie!:cluck:

How do you compare the fish life to Coz? I thought the reef in Coz looked a bit on the brown side. I know all those cruise ships have to be taking their toll on the reef.

Thanks

 

[Tim Ingersoll]

On a scale of one to ten I would rate St. Croix a five. The reef was okay. We saw alot of spotted drums, lobsters, nurse sharks, a couple eels, etc. Lots of fish but nothing like Coz. The walls are not the vertical drops into the abyss that I think of when I think of walls. The are more like the stepped terrace kind of thing. I did not do any wrecks. We dove only right outside of Anchor Bay. The dive sites were not overly memorable. They sort of blended together. Anchor Bay Dive op wanted us above 100 feet if possible and they monitored it pretty carefully when were doing a deeper dive. St. Croix topside is like the rest of the USVI - US infrastructure equals traffic lights, McDonalds and crime. We took a wrong turn and ended up feeling pretty uncomfortable in the "wrong" neighborhood at night. There were several high end restaurants that were worth the tab. I highly recommend asking around. We went to one place described above and would have gone back every night if we could have. You will have fun - and the diving is better than staying dry any day!! Maybe we'll meet another trip. I'll buy the first round!

 

[5615mike]

Tim

Thannks for the thread. We'll make the most of our trip. Probably won't dive as much as if we were in Coz or Cayman's but will be fun. Might take in a day of DS fishing and check out the rain forest. Have a list of Rest and rest assured, we will try as many as we can.

 

[Tim Ingersoll]

Good luck and enjoy the free digs! By the way this is where we stayed: http://www.travel-caribbean.com/villarentals/villas/sugbaym.html Yeeeah baby! (Must be said with Austin Powers emphasis). Here is one restaurant that you must check out: http://www.gotostcroix.com/kendricks/index.htm

 

[5615mike]

Tim

Thanks for the info. Can't wait