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Dive Review of Blue Water Divers in
Virgin Islands/Tortola

Blue Water Divers, Apr, 2009,

by Fran Leach, CT, USA (Reviewer Reviewer 6 reports). Report 4849.

No photos available at this time

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

Accommodations 5 stars Food 4 stars
Service and Attitude 5 stars Environmental Sensitivity 4 stars
Dive Operation 4 stars Shore Diving N/A
Snorkeling N/A
Value for $$ 4 stars
Beginners 4 stars
Advanced 3 stars
Comments The last time we dived in Tortola was about 15 years ago, since then whatever you want to blame, climate change, pollution etc has killed off between 90-95% of all hard coral at the major dive sites. There were a few patches here and there but most of the hard coral formations are a graveyard, sadly. On positive note there was plenty of soft coral but probably due to the lack of hard coral not many fish either or many shrimp or lobster macro stuff. We did see turtles on every other dive and the Wreck of the Rhone was great, one of the better Caribbean wreck dives and on this trip the only place we had any current. Also only saw one eel. Other parties saw some nurse sharks but we didn’t come across any. The deepest dives were around 80ft and most of the time we were at between 40-60ft.

Blue Water divers was an efficient friendly operation. Initially our dive leader was a bit of a worry-wort and wanted us to keep up, but after a few dives realized we went slowly and weren’t going to get lost and so he left us alone. Most days we were on their slowest, bigger boat leaving at 9.00pm and virtually every day we picked up divers off sailing boats at Cooper, Norman or Peter Island so the days were lazy and we did not get back to Tortola until 3.30pm to 4.00pm which suited us just fine. You really need to rent a car to get the most out of Tortola where the people are friendly and, despite the economic downturn, the wealth seems to have flowed down to the locals, possibly because there are no big chain resorts or hotels. We stayed on the north side on Cane Garden Bay at a place called Lighthouse Villas, which we can thoroughly recommend. Getting decent quality of the food at a reasonable price is always a bit of a challenge in the Caribbean. The best we had was at the Jolly Roger Inn in the West End, Il Capriccio in Roadtown wasn’t bad and good value, elsewhere the food was average at best. The diving was not the greatest but was relaxing and the island is one of the prettiest in the Caribbean

Reporter and Travel

Dive Experience 251-500 dives
Where else diving All over the Caribbean, Bahamas, Red Sea, Australia
Closest Airport Getting There

Dive Conditions

Weather sunny, dry Seas calm
Water Temp 78-°F / 26-°C Wetsuit Thickness 5
Water Visibility 65-80 Ft/ 20-24 M

Dive Policy

Dive own profile yes
Enforced diving restrictions Initially time was the limitation until the dive crew assessed your ability
Liveaboard? no Nitrox Available? N/A

What I Saw

Sharks None Mantas None
Dolphins None Whale Sharks None
Turtles > 2 Whales None
Corals 2 stars Tropical Fish 3 stars
Small Critters 3 stars Large Fish 1 stars
Large Pelagics N/A

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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