Wreck Dive Vacation (Sept-Oct or Late Dec-Jan) Suggestions?

[shocked]

We are planning a dive vacation for late this year and I am hoping someone can help. We are fairly new divers so we want to go somewhere that is not terribly advanced. I have seen tv shows where people dive along through areas where old (spanish gallions, pirates ships, etc) ships are wrecked and sometimes they find a odd trinket here or there. That is what we would like to dive. Somewhere in the caribbean would be great if possible. We usually go on vacation for 10 days or so, if that matters. Not 100% diving, but 6-8 days would be nice.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

Thank you!

 

[smokey braden]

shocked,
welcome to this board.
you might be interested in bermuda.
hundreds of wrecks in shallow waters.
for the most part, good dives for the " not terribly advanced ".
ever seen the movie "the deep"?
it was shot on some of the wrecks in bermuda and the bvi's.
i hear they still find little glass ampulets that were used to transport morphine.

topside there is lots to do.
you will find the permanent residents to be friendly and very hospitable.
there is a very unique culture there that many visitors don't take the time to discover.

by doing a search on this board you will find dive shops that have come recommended.
my wife and i always stay in a bed and breakfast.
this will insure you to taste the flavour of bermuda and her gracious hosts.
regards,

 

[diversteve]

One thing that you may be disappointed in is that most of the dive operators who take you to named wrecks won't let you take anything. For example there's a little silver spoon on the surface of the Rhone - the wreck that Jacqueline Bisset comes out of in The Deep - but no one's taken it since it's look, don't touch - also you'd need a crowbar now...

 

[robint]

yeah, finding "trinkets" on a wreck nowadays isn't possible and if it is you aren't allowed to take it. Any old wooden galleons are long gone now - warm salt water deteriorates them fast.

there are tons of wrecks along the Ft. Lauderdale-Boca Raton coast area and all the dive ops visit them. We really enjoyed them a few years ago, most are in 60-80' deep water and easily accessible for beginners. The deeper wrecks in the area are for more adv divers but after a few days on the easy ones you might want to venture deeper.... no trinkets, but lots of growth and fish on them. Very cool!

robint

 

[shocked]

Hi Again,

Thank you for the suggestions. Turns out, my wife has always wanted to goto Bermuda. I did a search (as suggested) for Bermuda and it returned more than 20 pages of results. Is there a thread or area that you would suggest? I googled and found that it might be pretty expensive to go on wreck dives there. We want to go with a reputable (and fairly small) boat, but the less it costs the more wrecks we can dive .

We are not really into bed and breakfasts, we like to do our own thing at odd hours, so a hotel or condo has worked best for us in the past. (why must every dive boat leave at 6am? we are on vacation )

Any suggestions are appreciated!

Thank you

 

[DeputyDan]

Bermuda is expensive like the Caymans.

They want a certain "type" of visitor not to visit

 

[Ontwreckdiver]

Try looking into Aruba. Lot's of intact wrecks to dive. Lot's of land stuff to do. A 2 tank dive is $55.00. A lot of the wrecks in Bermuda are just a pile of wood on the bottom.

 

[johnny_bravo]

Well the Florida Keys have great wrecks but you do need an AOW cert. If you have 10 days available why not do the AOW course you can finish it in 2/3 days and get supervision when diving the wrecks.

Cheers.

-J.-

 

[johnny_bravo]

Double post edit.

 

[robint]

A friend went there last year and was very disappointed with the dive ops. He and 3 friends kept calling trying to book (he says he only found 2 to choose from there) and couldn't get any replies from either before the trip. After they arrived there (only spending 3 days there) they were told by one dive op that they were completely booked, the other only had openings for one day. So they only got in 2 dives. Both dives were <60' deep and no wrecks. He was very disappointed.
Another acquaintance went there 15+ years ago and said it was nice but it was a long time ago.