Scuba Diving in the Virgin Islands
Apr 24 '02
The Bottom Line Don't believe everything you hear about the diving in the Virgin Islands being ONLY for beginners. There are a number of great dive site worth checking out.
My first word of advice to those of you considering diving in the Virgin Islands is don't believe everything you hear about it being only for beginners. It's true, both the British and U. S. Virgin Islands have a lot to offer novice divers. With the exception of St. Croix's wall dives, most of the dive sites are on a shallow ocean shelf, with average depths around 50 feet. But that means more bottom time and no rigid schedules. I've always been allowed to dive a computer profile and the dive ops I've had experience with have always allowed us to stay down as long as we had the air, even if most in the group had to surface after 25 minutes. Dive operators generally run a light schedule of two tanks in the morning, followed by one tank in the afternoon. Virgin Gorda is our home base when we vacation here, but I have been to both St. Croix and St. Thomas as well as Tortola. On a more recent trip, we sailed aboard a Windjammer Barefoot cruise hitting the islands surrounding Tortola and Virgin Gorda.
You will find the customary collection of Caribbean sea creatures here along with Hawksbill and green turtles. Giant moray eels, spotted drums (the biggest I've seen anywhere) and spotted eagle rays. The visibility isn't nearly as good as what you will find in Cozumel (lots of plankton occasionally) but it's not bad; usually between 50-80 feet. I've been diving when it's been over 100 feet, but not often do you find it so good. The Virgin Islands are also known for their abundance of soft corals. If you get an opportunity to go out at night, don't forget your camera. Some of our best photos were taken during night dives. My husband says I'm anal the way I keep track of our dives, but it certainly has come in handy for this review. I maintain a dive journal/scrap book/photo album where I document our dive vacations. I've also started one for my 8 year old. Unfortunately, it's not the kind of dive log I can carry with me. Hopefully some of this information will come in handy in your research.
U.S. Virgin Islands
St. Thomas & St. John
St. Thomas, St. John and St. Croix are US territories about 1700 miles from the US, and easily accessible with flights from major US cities. It's also a very popular cruise destination. With the exception of St. Croix's wall diving, the majority of the dive sites in and around St. Thomas and St. John are located on a shallow ocean shelf, and looking back at my dive logs, none of my dives there exceeded 70 feet. Although perfect for the novice diver, more experienced scuba divers may find many of the dives around St. Thomas and St. John boring. I personally enjoyed the diving I did here. But I'm not sure I'd plan to make a trip to St. Thomas or St. John just for the diving. Unlike the Cayman Islands, the diving here is somewhat limited.
The deepest dive here is "Sail Rock", but due to rough seas, we were unable to dive here. "Cow and Calf Rocks" are twin rocks that come to the surface and are connected by a reef of tunnels, swim-throughs, caves and archways. This very cool dive site (the best I have seen here) will take you through a tunnel where a surge sends you shooting out like human cannonball. We were told to look for scorpionfish, but no one in our group found one! We really didn't see many fish, but the corals and sponges were awesome. Another "must see" dive site is called the "Tunnels of Thatch" where we saw schools of tarpon, with more tunnels and swim-throughs. Both sites recorded depths of 40-45 feet. "French Cap Cay" pinnacle rises to within 45 feet of the surface, going down to a depth of around 80 feet. We saw bar jacks and lots of barracuda here. We experienced a strong current here the day we dove, which concerned most of the novice divers on the boat. With just the two of us and the DM, we had a great time exploring the pinnacle. The current really wasn't all that bad, but we were told it can get scary. I maxed out at 70 feet here.
I wasn't too impressed with two other dives we did to "Congo Cay" and "Grass Cay." The fact we had rough seas and poor visibility probably had a lot to do with it, so it's best to not rely soley on what I write here. Your experience could be the polar opposite of mine. Remember, the weather and the visibility will have a lot to do with your experience.
St. Croix
St. Croix, on the other hand, is probably the best dive destination in the USVI. You'll find many excellent dives easily accessible by shore; the most famous the "Cane Bay" drop-off. Starting at around 40 feet, this wall slopes down to around 140 feet. You'll see huge brain corals, lots of angel fish and bright green moray eels. The old Frederiksted Pier is one of the best sites for an easy night dive. The west wall of the "Salt River Canyon" is also an excellent dive site which is a submerged canyon covered in purple tube sponges and gorgonians.
St. Croix also has several excellent shore dives. It's inexpensive and easy to do. The dive shop at Cane Bay (with a wall just off shore) can give you directions to all the sites. Some of my favorites include the Cane Bay Drop Off (a wall to 130ft), and the Frederiksted Pier. See my reviews on St. Croix for more detailed site information.
In St. Thomas, we utilized Dive-In, an unremarkable dive operation at Saphire Beach (800-524-2090). They ran a safe operation, but I didn't feel they went out of their way to do anything special. I feel okay about recommending them, but they didn't do anything to impress me.
In St. John, check out Low Key Watersports (800-835-7718). We were very impressed with their knowledge and service. We arranged for boat trips and obtained tank rentals and information from the dive shop at Cane Bay (800-338-3843) in St. Croix.
British Virgin Islands
There are lots of sites easily accessible from Tortola or Virgin Gorda. If you're sailing through, you can pick up a dive site map. Most dive ops will recommend it's most famous dive site, the Wreck of the Rhone, made famous in the movie "The Deep." At 80ft it's definitely worth going, but be prepared for crowds. My favorite sites here include the Indians (very shallow, around 40 ft), Blonde Rock (60 ft), The Invisibles (about 40 ft swim-throughs), Angelfish Reef (very nice, but I didn't see one angel fish here 50 ft), Bronco Billy (at 50 ft with lots of surge). There are two other wrecks, which didn't impress me all that much, but everyone else thought they were too cool to pass up: The Rocus and the Chikuzen (a very long boat ride).
During our cruise aboard Windjammer's Flying Cloud, we had an opportunity to spend four days diving the above sites. Visibility was so-so most days, but the day we dove the Wreck of the Rhone (you should rent "The Deep"), we had close to 100 feet visibility. Generally speaking, the dives were very conservative and although our group from the ship was small, there were lots of divers in the water ALL the time. We were never alone at either dive site.
Conclusion
As we are regular visitors to the Caribbean, we frequently find ourselves diving in the Virgin Islands. Over the years, this has become a very pricey proposition. I recommend you bring your own gear and prepare to shell out about $100 for a two tank dive; a little more in the BVI.
Dive Operators
St. Thomas: Dive In 1-800-524-2090
St. Croix: Cane Bay Dive Shop 1-800-338-3843
Tortola/Windjammer: Baskin in the Sun Divers 1-800-650-2084
Virgin Gorda: Made arrangements at Rosewood's Little Dix Resort
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Suzi
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Suzi is an aspiring travel writer who enjoys scuba diving and volleyball.
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