St. Thomas/ St. Martin

[mockturtle80]

Anyone ever dive St Thomas or St. Martin?  I’m doing a cruise (Next Feb) and looking to do some diving.

[mjgriffing]

We dove both locations from a cruise ship about 3 years ago.  I probably wouldn't dive in St. Maarten again -- should have known it wasn't gong to be pleasant when the waiver noted that the seas would be rough, they don't come back to shore between dives and there was no refund for being seasick.  The dives themselves were OK -- saw an old anchor and a variety of fish.  This was early in our diving careers and I could breathe a tank down faster than anyone would believe.  My tank was short -- maybe 2700 PSI and I had to come up early on the first dive which was to 70 feet.  The DM gave me grief about my air consumption after the dive. 

St. Thomas dives were slightly better.  The dive shop the cruise line used seemed to be more safety conscious than most.  A family from Australia with two JR OW divers signed up for the dive.  The dive shop was adament that their certification only allowed 40 foot dives and the children couldn't go any deeper.  They were prepared to have a separate DM stay with them.  The father insisted the depth was irrelevent and that the kids' computers would show they had been deeper than 40 feet before.  The dive shop stuck to its guns.  The kids then started to whine that, at 40 ft, they might as well snorkel.  The shop did not give in.

The viz was about 50 feet.  Diving went back and forth through some old barges.  I don't recall there being a significant amount of fish.

Diving with the cruise ship generally means lowest common denominator diving -- the closest sites, usually well visited and damaged.  The prices are generally pretty steep although they do include all the gear.  There is usually no discount for bringing your own gear.  We brought ours and were in a very crowded cabin smelling of wet neoprene after the dives.