July 2012    Download the Entire Issue (PDF)

Vol. 27, No. 7   What's this?

Jost Van Dyke, British Virgin Islands

I sense there’s good Caribbean diving here, but…

from the July, 2012 issue of Undercurrent  

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Dear Fellow Diver:

"You're in for a real treat tomorrow," Martin, my divemaster, told me. Colin (that's Captain Colin Aldridge, the owner of Jost Van Dyke Scuba would be taking us to one of his secret spots on the Atlantic side, "a sea mount with tons of fish and lots of jacks and sharks." These pinnacle dives normally cost $200, but Colin tossed it in to make up for a week of poor visibility. I set off with five other divers and Colin, who briefed us while we geared up at Cathedral, before cruising around the island tip to the site. We were to enter as a group, head down the anchor line to the top of the mount at 70 feet, and make two or three passes around. Colin would carry a reel with its line tied to the boat in case we lost site of the anchor line. The water was a milky aqua color as I went hand-over-hand down the line in 10-foot visibility. At 96 feet, I put my computer in front of my partner's mask to show her the depth and her eyes popped. At 110 feet, all I could see were my feet standing on the bottom. Colin aborted the dive. Seventeen minutes after starting, we were back on the surface.

My partner and I have been diving in the Caribbean for more than 20 years, seeking out the less-traveled spots and hoping to find a place we would want to return, from St. Eustatius (very good) to Vieques (don't go). When we were in St. Eustatius, our divemaster said when he went on vacation, he went to Jost Van Dyke. So we gave it a shot.

Jost Van Dyke (JVD) is three square miles, with 200 residents, no doctor and no airport, but it's overwhelmed at night when hundreds of people from the endless parade of BVI sailboats fill its bars and restaurants. It lies five miles from Tortola and seven miles from the Red Hook ferry terminal in St. Thomas, one of the U.S. Virgin Islands. At the ferry office, there were no signs for Jost, so I bought tickets and luggage vouchers for the M.V. Native Son, only to learn it doesn't travel there. I got a refund. Two guys wearing no uniforms or ID badges but saying they were from Inter Island Boat Services took my $140 for two round-trip tickets, and watched our luggage while my dive buddy and I went across the street to the Marine Market to pick up supplies I had ordered online....