Visibilty in west indies

[Nth Qld Spearo]

hello all Iam from australia and am going on a cruise for my honeymoon to the carribean in the west indies in january 2011. Iam after some advice from people who may have dived in some of the locations Iam going. Firstly let me say my goal is to find somewhere that will have awsome visibility. Here in australia where im from 99% of my diving is in crap visibility, so I would really love to dive somewhere with 30m+vis.

I wont have any spearfishing gear and I wont have any buddies to freedive with so I will most likely just be snorkelling. From what I understand the carribean has excellent visibilty but I just want to narrow down which of the following sites would have the best visiiblity and possible deep water drop offs?

These are the locations that we will be going.

1. Charolette amalie, St thomas
2. Bassetere, St kitts
3. Bridgetown, Barbados
4. Roseau, dominica
5. Philipsburg, St maarten
6. Fort lauderdale, Florida USA

I have done a fair bit of google research but the information that Iam looking for regarding visibility/drop offs etc is very hard to find. From the research i did it seems that Roseau dominica may have deep clear water? Can anyone confirm or deny this.

Of these locations which ones would you focus your diving efforts on? Iam guessing all of these places will be much different to australia

thanks in advance for any help

 

[cdavis]

Ft Lauderdale: 30 m happens, but not super common on the reef and vis can be terrible. If you go well into the Gulf Stream blue water, 30 much more common. Neither is near as good as the East wall of the Gulf Stream, near Bimini, Bahamas or the southern Bahamas, Rum, Cat, Conceptcion, Mayaguana, etc. 40 m + is common on the reef in those areas.

US. Virgin Islands. I've done a little diving there and wasn't super impressed. Nice reef, decent vis, but never saw 30 m.

Never been to Dominica, but it is sure on my list. From what I can find out, the vis is good but not fabulous,, 30 or less. Deep drops around Scots Head are supposed to be world class. That is supposed to be the best diving on the island.

If money and time are not serious considerations, I'd look more at Rum Cay, Cat Cay, Mayaguana. All but maybe Rum have dive operations, much of the diving is from shore(but a boat is nice), vis is incredible, I've seen 200 ft(60 m) several times, great reef and deep drops are common.

If both are considerations, think about Little Cayman. Best deep drops for freedivers in the Caribbean, lots of fish (can't spear), relatively cheap, good air connections through Grand Cayman, vis from 25 m to 50 m, usually slightly less that 30. All shore diving, rent a junker for cheap and have the whole island at you feet. You can boat dive with the tankers, but don't need too. For the lady, there is a world class gourmet restaurant as well. We did a long thread in freediving stories about the island and the diving, check it out.

For a honeymoon, all of these places, except Dominica and Charlotte Amalie, have limited appeal for the lady, unless she is the adventurous type. Little Cayman has enough nice accommodations and non diving things to do that it could work.

Good luck with it

Connor

 

[Nth Qld Spearo]

hi craig

Thanks heaps for the detailed reply much appreciated. Unfortunately the cruise boat only goes to all the places I listed I wont be able to get access to the bahamas and other places you mentioned. I had heard about little and grand cayman island and i really wanted to go there, there was another cruise that went through there to cozumel and belize honduras etc, i cant remember why we didnt get to do that cruise I think the dates were wrong for when we had to go.

I think Iam going to look more into scotts head on domenica as I heard that name somewhere when doing my research sounds like what I might be after.

Nar the missus will be fine she is keen as to do diving, parasailing, 4wd and all the outdoor stuff so should be good. I want to go diving at every location but i may have to compromise a bit with this :t

thanks

 

[sross]

Hey Qld Spearo,

Concerning Barbados it's a great place. Very nice environment, lots of history, and it's the place where rum was invented! One of God's gifts to mankind.

You've gotta go on the tour of Mt. Gay rum distillery, founded at the turn of the century (17th century, as in 1700 )

There are diving centres in Barbados, but the diving unfortunately tends not to be that great, esp. with poor visibility. There are better islands for diving in the Caribbean, so soak up the history and the great food & drink :friday in Barbados and you'll be charged up for the sports in other places.

 

[cdavis]

Ah, cruise ship, had not figured that.

I assume your time is limited in any one port. Scotts head is about 10 miles from Roseau, the roads are slow, but not too bad. Almost all of Dominica drops off fast. There should be something good near Roseau, but I don't know much of that area. That whole coast is sheltered from the trade winds and most, if not all, the good spots are shore accessible. Short of a huge cold front or hurricane, it should be calm.

Google "dominica diving" and poke around. There are several sites that give dive site descriptions from all over the island.

Then again, there is the Mt Gay factory, about the best rum there is, no small draw.

Connor

 

[Nth Qld Spearo]

thanks for the replies fellas, i think i will focus my diving efforts on domenica. Will start doing some more intensive research.

cheers

 

[cdavis]

If you make it to Dominica, I want a DETAILED report

Thanks,

Connor

 

[Nth Qld Spearo]

hi connor

dont worry man i will give a detailed report as it will probably be the only time iam able to ever afford a trip to the carribean.

cheers

 

[ynoga]

thanks for the replies fellas, i think i will focus my diving efforts on domenica. Will start doing some more intensive research.

cheers

NQ -- I live in Dominica (Toucarie) my girl is a professor at Ross School of Medicine, and would be willing to help you out with some information or even meeting you in Roseau when the boat docks for a fast trip down to Scott's Head for some diving. I could even bring along some local guys but they tend to do more snorkeling in the shallows than actual diving to any depth. I have never seen one past 10 meters or more than 30 meters from shore.

Will you be traveling with your suit and fins? Otherwise I have all the accoutrements needed for a great day in the water.

As well, Dominica has a few rum distilleries that have drinkable nectar but I would wait for Barbados to start drinking in earnest.

 

[Nth Qld Spearo]

hi mate

Awsome stuff I will send you a pm with some more info cant wait to hear from you.

cheers

 

[Nth Qld Spearo]

hi connor

I have returned from my trip to florida and the carribean and like I said I would give a brief report of what I saw. I absolutely love fort lauderdale and could easily live there you guys in florida certainly have a beautiful place. Couldnt believe my eyes when we first arrived and got a taxi from airport to hotel got overtaken by a lambroghini, then woke up the next morning and walked around town every fricken second car is a ferrari or porsche or mercedes, and the boats make me drool. The average horsepower on the boats in the us is twice what we have here. I got a pic of a centreconsole around 25ft with 4x300hp outboards!!!!!!! Just too much money in florida lol

I went snorkelling at domenica and scuba diving at st maarten. Domenica was the most amazing underwater landscape I have ever seen, the water is so deep its just ridicoulous. We went snorkelling at a site called the abyss this was literally a stone throw off the beach and the drop off went down over 1000m according to the skipper, I dived down as far as I could and it just kept going truely amazing. Vis was just below 30m which I was amazed by considering we were about 100m from shore that just doesnt happen in australia at least where im from. However the fish life and coral is not even comparable to the great barrier reef where I live and dive, their was very limited fish life but the huge drop offs and awsome vis made up for that.

In st maarten we scuba dived a wreck which was awsome and again had close to 30m vis even in 3m swell in was windy as heck. Didnt do any freediving here.

cheers

 

[cdavis]

Glad you had a good trip.

ON Dominica, where did you stay and in what area of the island did you dive? How was getting around (transportation)? Any problems for others to watch out for?

Thanks,

Connor

 

[Nth Qld Spearo]

Glad you had a good trip.

ON Dominica, where did you stay and in what area of the island did you dive? How was getting around (transportation)? Any problems for others to watch out for?

Thanks,

Connor

Hi connor we were just there for the day on the cruise ship so we didnt actually stay anywhere. We got a caterman which is in the main town of roseau, from here we went south down towards scotts head, we went to the champange reef first, and the our second stop was very close to the fishing village called soufriere this was where the site was called the abyss. It was only about 20mintues in the cateraman to this site. Scott head was very close by so we were right down on the south west corner of the island. The island is very difficult to drive around as the main town is just hectic with no traffic laws it seems and very small congested streets with cars parked everywhere in the way. We went on a tour around the island as well the roads are incredibly steep and very mountainious, the entire island is just huge mountains. There are landslides that are common as well due to heavy rainfall. Apart from that be watchful in the main areas of town as tourists really stick out here but we didnt have any probs when we were there.

 

[cdavis]

Good info, thanks. Eventually, I'll make good use of it.


Connor

 

[AlanMc]

Being from Grenada I can tell you that most of the islands visibility depends on if there were recent heavy rains but usually the visibility is normally +30meters at best.

Shame you not passing through Grenada as I could have shown you a few nice places to dive.

 

[KiwiJules]

Hey AlanMc are you still in Grenada - I have just moved there. I haven't freedived in a few years (I had two kids...) but am keen to get back into it and would need a buddy...