Diving St. Kitts

I am probably headed to St. Kitts in the next month or two for medical work. Anyone have any experience or recommendations for diving there?

loftus,

When I was there last I stayed at two places, the Hotel on Cay and Carambola near the salt river. From Hotel on the Cay, which sits on its own little island just of Christensted next to the harbor, we did shore diving right off the hotel and found that each late afternoon a threesome of eagle rays were always in the shallow channel there which made the dives a treat because they were there, every day. The rest of the channel wasn't great but if you are relaxed as a diver you can find small treasures and have all the time in the world to sit with any subject you want. I dove with Dive Experience and they offer freedom and a lot of staff on the boat to help with the divers. They cater to inexperienced divers in my opinion and prefer to fill the boat as much as they can. The boat can really only handle 6-8 divers and is pretty cramped though not uncomfortable. But then you add the staff and you have 12 divers on the boat doing a two-tank dive and its not over-crowded but before leaving the dock, they were still welcoming any passerbys to come along as well? I dove in April and used a 5mm which I would do again. The sites are nice, fun, but nothing spectacular, there are better walls elsewhere and more life in other places of the Caribbean (Belize, Cayman, Cozumel) but worth the trip and I would dive it St. Croiz again.

We only spent one day diving with Dive Experience, I never brought the Subal rig out and glad I did not. They had nothing for support to offer the serious photographer. The "rinse" bucket was about small 9inches deep plastic bin on the back of the boat that if you put 5 point and shoot little cannon/fuji/sealife style housings without strobes attached-it would be crowded. They offer excellent dive briefings, the safety felt top-notch and they genuinely seemed to care that you enjoyed your experience with them, though at the risk of trying to get as much out of any opportunity they can (ie, sell, sell without strong-arming). They board from their own dock in the harbor (as others do) and there's no dedicated rinse tanks, just one tank and a hose for all the diver's to dip their suits if they prefer. Other boats in christiansted cater more to cruisers, and can hold larger groups (and the booze-cruise sunset events). Overall I enjoyed Dive Experience and would dive with them again (for a day or so) but for those who are into photography, you will be limited on what you should expect as catering to the u/w photographer's needs.

The second half of the trip we spent at Carambola Resort. Its very nice and the rooms are glorious (we had sea-side bungaloos). We did shore diving there every day and they have Cane Bay Dive Shop on site. Cane Bay has multiple locations throughout the island. We went for a bite to eat east of Carambola along the seaside road, and shortly east is another Cane Bay shop. The staff at each place was very pleasant but we had our majority of interaction with the staff at the resort location. They were wonderful. Our opinion is they probably see one set of divers each week and you have to request additional tanks if you plan to do more than two dives a day. We had days where we did 4-5 including night dives. They were very relaxed about everything and didn't care when you got the tanks back to them (we even kept some tanks in our room overnight). Since the resort offers no boat diving, all the dives there are from shore. They are located in their own little bay and the diving was quite fun. Its very sandy, shallow shore dives that gradually lead out to coral fingers and channels toward the wall. Youhave to be okay with surf enteries, but they are easy and not pounding like some shorelines in California or so. The further you go out the healthier the reef and the more to see. Though, like anywhere, just lazily exploring what may be boring to some can certainly reap many rewards.

By the way, the main sites of the island include the pier near fredericksted and we drove out to see the area but unfortunately did not dive the pier which I would expect to be a lot like the town pier of Bonaire with a lot of life on it. The wall that runs along the north is where the largest concentration of dive sites are with the wall itself having both shallow and deep spots (ie vertigo). Beach shore diving is accessible from many points along the way and those who do are prepared for longer surface swims but easy, freedom-filled dives. Those who take boats out can cover more area. For all our shore dives at the Cay Hotel and Carambola, we never saw a single other diver on the reefs the whole trip and only one day did we see another couple of divers at Carambola. Divers we saw were out on the boats.

Would we return to St. Croix? Absolutely. If we didn't take up a different type of trip like on the Nekton, we rented a jeep our last trip and would do the same again. There's a nice rainforest and off-road trails that you can spend at least a whole day on. I would also suggest just cruising the island to get a sense of the variety the island brings, it contains some wonderful photo opportunities and all the people we met were very kind and helpful. The restaurants are great, just great! From sushi to burgers, pizza to ribs, to lobster, and beer, St. Croix was very enjoyable to the stomach. If you are into Cruizan Rum, for a deal one word, Kmart. The next time we return, we would do it again, a day or two of boat diving to get to some places we wanted access to and the rest of the time diving from shore exploring on our own. Besides the pier, there's some places to the south and the east we would like to check out. There's plenty of dive shops, and I would try and hook up with Cane Bay as I think you could coordinate with them for their multiple locations for support, though I do not know how their boats are set up. Someone else would have to chime in there.

I'd suggest you bring both wide for the walls, and macro lenses for shallow dives.

Lonely Planet's guide is pretty right on and there's a member on this forum who's based there who can probably provide far more help, but if you need more specifics let me know or feel free to pm me.

Have a good trip.

Wow, thanks for taking the time for such a detailed reply.

The last response was on St. Croix. You are going to St. Kitts, right? If so, I can only give a little bit of information. I went to St. Kitts and thought that the island was beautiful. The snorkeling was good, but not great. I did not do any diving on that trip, though. I have heard reports from people who live on St. Kitts that they enjoy the diving there, but that it is not really spectacular. Okay coral and fish diversity, fair visibility, etc.

Hope that this helps.

Thanks. Yes I missed that, I am going to St. Kitts.

I am really curious as to what you find. I know that it is not a top dive destination, but I would like to go back if the diving is reasonable. Please post a report when you get back.

Here is one (non-diving) tip. My wife and I stayed at Ottley's Plantation, a really nice resort. If you have a chance, it is a great place to have a drink and get some dinner.

My wife and I dove with Pro-Divers several years ago when passing thru St. Kitts and Nevis on a Windjammer. Chap named Austin ran it then, and (from posts on Scubaboard) still does. He'll go out with small groups...even solos from what I read. Most of the diving was about midway between St Kitts and Nevis I think, and I thought it was pretty good at the time, but since then have seen better. Still, if you're there its definitely worth diving!! I remember vis well into the 60s. The sites I remember better were Monkey Shoals and The Turtles or something like that - good spur and groove reefs, lots of channels, some narrow swim-thru type passages (no real overhead I recall though).

Reasonable life several years back, not sure how its done in the more recent coral bleachings this past decade. No real wall dives to speak of.

I remember being told at the time that the Marriott resort and casino on St. Kitts was brand new, and since there wasn't enough flights into the island the casino was paying off big time to try and get a buzz going about it. But like I said, this was 10 years ago....