SCUBA Grenada St Lucia Antigua Tortola

[bgburges]

Cruising these ports in Nov 2004. Any suggestions for dive operators? or which ports would be the best?

Thanks for any comments you can provide.

Bruce

[stingraynz]

Hi Bruce

 

The two best dives I have done in the Carib so far have been in Grenada and St. Lucia.

 

StLucia - I used the ships excursion and it was very expensive and it was the best day I have ever had in the Caribbean! Worth every penny. We had a boat ride down to Grand Anse Resort down by the Pitons. This ships excursion also went to the same resort as the snorkelers so if you are a scuba/snorkeler couple or group you all go together which is always nice (I did this excursion on RCI Radiance of the Seas). The dive Op was Scuba St. Lucia and it is located at the resort. The resort is absolutely beautiful. We did the first dive as a shore dive and saw the most incredible corals and volcanic formations. Even huge (I mean huge) trees of black coral. This entire area is a protected marine park so it is very well preserved. We had lunch at the resort (included) and then the second dive was a boat dive right at the base of the pitons (volcanos). Even though they were ship's dives there wasn't many people (I think because of the price - $126 pp). We did a drift/wall dive with the wall sloping down past 400ft they said, we couldn't see the bottom. Absolutely magical topography. Only the divers went out on the boat the snorkelers and others stayed at the beach and snorkeled from shore.

 

Grenada - This was a really pleasant surprise. It didn't have the drama of StLucia but Grenada is the most prettiest Island from the water and under the water. Here we did a couple of wrecks and most depths to about 50ft max so the dives were long and relaxing. They even had seen some whale sharks in the weeks prior - so that is always cool (we didn't have such luck). They were drift dives - pretty strong current, you didn't notice how strong until we were trying to grab onto the boat to wait our turn to get on. We did the ship tour on this as well and there was about nine divers plus a few DMs. The dive Op was eco-dive or something like that. They are located on Grand Anse beach and the crew was fabulous and the equipment was new. I think doing a dive here is good because the Island has minimal offerings but it is very picturesque and unfortunately those who only walk around the port and don't get out and do something active don't see the true Grenada. But after the dive you do have to get into port and get your spices. I think you should dive here, but if you don't get make sure you go hiking or do some type of water sport don't just stick to the port (I think it is St.George) I have been twice and really like it there.

 

I have not dived (sp?) Tortola altough I hear the Rhone is not to be missed and I also haven't done Antigua so you might have be diving every day.

 

The only other Caribbean diving I have done is Barbados, St Maarten, Cayman & St Kitts. Until December when I will add Belize,Roatan and Cozumel to my list. But I may not consider diving Barbados, St Maarten & St Kitts again if I went back, I would dive StLucia and Grenada in a second.

 

Hope this helps.

[Woodsmaster]

We just came back from a cruise and dove on Greneda.

 

We used Dive Greneda. They are a small local shop that ran out of a small resort about a 10 minute drive from the port. Make sure you have small bills for cab fare. The cabbies seem to not carry any change...... If I recall correctly there were four of us and it was a $12.00 ride.

 

We had a good time. The water is not as clear as GC or Cozumel, but the vis on the "deep dive", 75 foot dive was 50-60 feet. The shallow dive was a little less due to some sand. Interesting critters and coral formations. We saw some black corals, wire corals, spotted snake eels, morays, amberjack, wahoo, myriads of small tropicals, lobster, etc.

 

It was a good dive and we would dive with them again. Crew took care of the gear. 11 divers, two divemasters and a boat captain.

[bgburges]

Woodmaster & stingraynz...Thanks for the dive info. It's exactly what I needed to hear. My wife and I are looking forward to diving again

[Tracy1]

I agree about diving in St. Lucia,

 

We pre-booked scuba diving excursion with the ship. (RCI Adventure of the Seas) This was a 6 hour lunch included trip for $120 per person. (http://www.scubastlucia.com) Because it’s at Anse Chastnet, it’s about a 45 min. boat ride from the pier. It’s beautiful scenery on the boat ride and the dive shop location and dive sites are absolutely gorgeous, right next to the Pitons! I was kicking myself for not bringing my good camera. Next time I will and I will definitely do this excursion again if I get a chance. When we arrived at the dive shop, they had our tanks/regulators/bcs all ready to go set out on the sidewalk with our name written in chalk in front of them (very organized). We were divided up into 2 groups; 8 people with one dive master and 7 with the other dive master. They checked us on two skills (buoyancy check and mask clearing) before they would take us on the first dive which was a beach dive. This dive was great as was the 2nd boat dive. After the dives they took us to the beach where they had dropped off the snorkelers earlier. There we walked a little ways through the jungle to a pavilion for the buffet lunch. The food was ok (grilled chicken and fish, pasta, salad, bland rice, bland canned beans) except for the awesome carrot cake but the setting made up for it. We then had about 45 min. to lounge around on the beach or go snorkeling before heading back