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Dive Review of Bill Tewes' Dive St. Vincent/Mariners Hotel in
St. Vincent and the Grenadines

Bill Tewes' Dive St. Vincent/Mariners Hotel, Aug, 2009,

by Don Acheson, MD, USA (Reviewer Reviewer 4 reports). Report 5298.

No photos available at this time

Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Accommodations 3 stars Food 4 stars
Service and Attitude 4 stars Environmental Sensitivity 5 stars
Dive Operation 4 stars Shore Diving N/A
Snorkeling N/A
Value for $$ 4 stars
Beginners 4 stars
Advanced 4 stars
Comments Diving Daughter (DD) and I took a week to seek critters on the reefs and sands of St. Vincent with Bill Tewes. Most of our time - and at about 90 minutes per dive we had lots - was spent on the sand looking for whatever we could find, big or small. Well, not-so-big since the largest thing spotted during the week was a two to two and a half foot spotted moray. But find things we did!

On one dive we noted three species of pipefish - white nose, short fin, and one unknown to the expert Bill. While it’s usually a rare treat to see an octopus, I spotted three on one dive, only to be trumped by DD who saw my three and two more. A very large French angelfish, 14 to16 inches long, flirted with us; also a mite of one, at one quarter to 3/8 of an inch, flitted around sheltered in coral on another dive; and a pair, one half-way through the transition from juvenile to adult markings and the other just beginning the transition. Shrimp: banded coral, golden coral, squat anemone, Pederson, spotted cleaner, pistol or red snapping, and a couple of others whose names Bill provided but have slipped my mind. The magnificent urchin: rare, but we saw several. Lots of flamingo tongues to be found and a rare fingerprint cyphoma made an appearance. Spotted moray, goldentail moray with normal and one with inverted coloring, chain moray, garden, sharptail, goldspotted, and spotted snake eels. Several species of blennies and jawfish. Flying gunards. Squid. It’s difficult to remember everything we saw.

The reefs around St. Vincent appear to have been overfished. In four trips there over the years, I’ve never seen large fish such as groupers and snappers and sharks. That may account for the abundance of smaller creatures.

We stayed at the Mariners Hotel, a short walk along the shore from Dive St. Vincent. The room was clean and air-conditioned with a balcony, but not spacious. The hotel restaurant, The French Verandah, offered good food and excellent service at reasonable prices. We averaged about US $40 each per day for lunch and dinner with a couple of beers or glasses of wine with each meal. Breakfast was included with the room; I was satisfied with juice, toast, a couple of eggs and bacon and coffee while DD preferred a local specialty of fried fish and biscuits with juice and tea.

The cost was very reasonable; about $1000 per person for seven nights in the hotel with breakfast and five days of two dives per day. Air fare ran about $650 round trip for each of us. Incidentally, LIAT was on time or early and delivered our baggage with our flights between Puerto Rico and St. Vincent. American between Baltimore and San Juan was late in both directions, but by an hour or less.
Websites Bill Tewes' Dive St. Vincent   

Reporter and Travel

Dive Experience Over 1000 dives
Where else diving Caribbean, western and south Pacific, Red Sea, Indian Ocean, ...
Closest Airport Getting There

Dive Conditions

Weather sunny, dry Seas calm, no currents
Water Temp 80-82°F / 27-28°C Wetsuit Thickness
Water Visibility 30-80 Ft/ 9-24 M

Dive Policy

Dive own profile yes
Enforced diving restrictions None, but we're old customers
Liveaboard? no Nitrox Available? no

What I Saw

Sharks None Mantas None
Dolphins None Whale Sharks None
Turtles None Whales None
Corals 3 stars Tropical Fish 3 stars
Small Critters 5 stars Large Fish 1 stars
Large Pelagics 1 stars

Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Subject Matter N/A Boat Facilities N/A
Overall rating for UWP's N/A Shore Facilities N/A
UW Photo Comments [None]
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Note: The information here was reported by the author above, but has NOT been reviewed nor edited by Undercurrent prior to posting on our website. Please report any major problems by writing to us and referencing the report number above.

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