St. Lucia or Antigua??

[gzscuba]

Thanks very much for the replies, sactomags and MissAmberDiva.

MissAmberDiva, just out of curiousity, what section of the island did you stay at? From what I can tell, there are cities on the SE and NW corners of the island. I wonder if one side of the island is better than the other.

Sactomags, I was interested in your post as my fiancee and I were looking at one of the Sandals resorts on St Lucia. I'm glad to hear a positive report. I'm happy to hear that night dives are allowed - I'm willing to pay extra for that! Couple of questions for you: how did you find the ride on the boat - specifically, were you breathing boat exhaust? On my 1st ocean dive, part of the reason that I got seasick was (I think) due to the diesel exhaust.
Also, how was the condition of the scuba equipment?

Thanks very much for the advice,

 

[MissAmberDiva]

Hi GZscuba-
I was at the Rendezvous resort. It was next to the Sandals resort. I was there last August. That part of the island has been overfished. Which is why the water looks muddy.
We should've stayed at the Anse Chastanet which is on the other side of the island by the piton volcanoes. However, that is the most expensive resort on the island. I mean--it's expensive:whoa:
Also that particular resort is like a two and half hour drive up in the mountains on a twisty little road and it's not close to town or anything like that.
Rendezvous resort is who I dove with since it was included in my package price. Their boats were small and they didn't have a dock. I remember hopping off the boat and literally rolling back to shore. The waves were hitting me hard and a little british man had to drag me in. The crew were of no help!

AMber

 

[sactomags]

GZ Scuba:

The boats used by the Sandals resort we were at were more open than anything. In fact, if you didn't sit towards the front during the downpours of rain, you were soaked. I don't recall an overwhelming smell of diesel, but I'm sure if you were toward the back of the boat where the engines were you might have gotten a few strong wiffs of fuel. Like I said, the morning dives had a maximum of 8-10 divers, with DMs taking groups of 2-4, depending on how many people, and if anyone was taking a class (one of the gentlemen there was doing his AOW at the time, so he had numerous dive skills to complete).

The equipment was in pretty good shape. They use full foot fins there, so if you do go there, I recommend you try them on and not take the word of the staff in the scuba shack. Although they mark down what you take on Day 1, some times they get a little rushed and on that Day 3 dive -- you don't want to wind up with the wrong fins (which happened to me, but there was another boat there who had an extra pair of fins that luckily fit me).

If you have any other questions, let me know and I can go through my dive log to give you more specifics.

Again, we loved the Sandals resort. (Just a reminder: we went to the smaller Sandals, not the one near where MsAmberDiva was staying). We were by Castries and flew into the small airport, which was about 10 minutes from the resort. Our flight went from Puerto Rico to Castries. Jets can't fly into that airport as the runway is too small -- all that goes in there are prop-style planes. But since it was only about 1 1/2 hours flight, it wasn't bad. And we're not talking the tiny prop-planes ... I think the one we were on held approximately 30 people.

Regards,
Margaret

 

[O-ring]

My girlfriend and I went to Sandals Royal Bahamian (Nassau, Bahamas) in March and dove every day we were there (7 or 8). After a couple days, the DMs and crew at the scuba shop/shack get to know you and they let us put the equipment we were using in the back room and use the same gear every day (instead of checking it back in...saved them time and made us much more comfortable).

My gf had a bad inflator on a BC one day and we had to disconnect the lp hose and inflate orally. Other than that, the equipment was ok...regs seemed to be in better condition than the BCs and wetsuits. We were ok just bringing all our own personal gear and using their BCs, regs, and tanks.

 

[Dectek]

The reefs around Antiqua had so much sand on them that the bottom and the reef had one color....White... We tried spots on 3 sides of the island with the same results. I don't know if this is normal or if we got there after a big storm. Agreed that we would not try to dive this area any more and had better appriciation for the Pacific side of Costa Rico and the Yucaton of Mexico.
Just my $.02
BTW....not much to see on land there either....except the friendly folks there.
Took a 2.00 tour of a pineapple planation there.
The girl pointed to the right and said" we picked those pineapples last week."
She then pointed to the left and said " We will be picking those pineapples next week. Are there any questions? Feel free to walk around and thanks for coming to the Black Pineapple Plantation."

 

[clive francis]

must be the same all over the caibbean!, i went to jamaica and after 3 days i had enough of people offering me every drug and woman under the sun and demanding in a menacing way money or drinks.

apart from trip to the bahamas to dive with sharks, i probably wouldn't go the ahe caribbean again, there are much better places around the world!

trouble is you yanks would have to break with tradition and get passports!