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Dive Review of Cane Bay Dive Shop/2Dive4 Villa in
Virgin Islands/St. Croix

Cane Bay Dive Shop/2Dive4 Villa, Jun, 2010,

by Brent Barnes, OK, US (Sr. Reviewer Sr. Reviewer 10 reports with 8 Helpful votes). Report 5650.

No photos available at this time

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

Accommodations 5 stars Food N/A
Service and Attitude N/A Environmental Sensitivity 5 stars
Dive Operation 5 stars Shore Diving 5 stars
Snorkeling 4 stars
Value for $$ 5 stars
Beginners 5 stars
Advanced 4 stars
Comments [None]I spent a week on the north shore of St. Croix with my family and the divers of our group did 15 dives over the week including a combination of shore and boat dives. We stayed at the 2Dive4 villa which is a 3 bedroom vills that can accomodate 8 and is specifically designed and built for divers, but this villa was just sold and I believe it is no longer available for rental. There are several small places to stay on the north shore and there is the very nice and large Carambola resort. If you are going with a group of divers, it is worth checking out the multiple private villas for rent on the north shore as they may be cheaper than renting multiple rooms. The villas range from small to extravagant. We rented a car and found the driving on the island very easy and took one day free from diving and explored the beatiful island including a visit to Point Udall, which is the most eastern point of the United States. The north shore is famous for its wall which comes within 75 - 100 yards of the shore. We did a combination of shore and boat dives, but I would recommend going with mostly shore dives if you are comfortable diving on your own without a guide as it is cheaper and you can dive on your own time. And, many of the best sites are easily accesible by shore. The Cane Bay wall, which is right off the Cane Bay dive shop, is spectacular. Simply gear up and walk across the road and enter the water. I was concerned going in about long swims to the wall from the shore, but the swim is not long at all and there is plenty of reef and life in the shallow area on the way out to the wall. The wall is spectacular with extremely healthy corals and many small fish. There is not a huge number of large fish and pelagics are not common. We saw a couple of nurse sharks, a reef shark and several turtles but no other pelagics. Northstar is also a spectacular site and can be dove from shore. Gear up at the abandoned building and swim out to the buoy and drop down to the wall. In short, there are about 8 seperate dive sites on the wall that are all accessible from shore and are all within a mile of each other so you can truly get in a full week of specatular diving just along this stretch on the north shore. There are several other excellent sites that will require a boat to reach and are worth doing including the Butler Bay wrecks and the Salt River Canyon. However, if you have limited time and only a couple of days to dive, I would bypass the wrecks and Salt River Canyon and dive the north shore wall. However, St. Croix does advertise itself as the only place you can dive a wall, wreck and famous pier in one day and it can easily be done. Do not leave St. Croix without diving the Fredricksted Pier. We dove it three times over the week - twice in the day and once at night. It is a spectacular dive with tons of unusual critters. Seahorses, frogfish, gurnards and octopus are seen commonly. We saw four octopi on one dive and several sea horses. The maximum depth will generally be less than 25 feet unless you go out to the end of the pier so we actually got in a full two hour dive. This is an incredible dive for macro photographers. There are not a huge number of restaurants on the north shore, but there are several outstanding ones. I would recommend Off the Wall, the Cane Bay restaurant and a restaurant I cannot remember the name of just east of Cane Bay that has outstanding food and specialty home-made ice cream each night. Just ask any of the divemasters and they will direct you to it. The north shore is very quiet, we did spend an evening in Fredricksted when we did our night dive and a day in Christanstead. However, we were seeking quiet and solitude with excellent diving and the north shore did not disappoint. I am shocked that a large dive resort has not set up in this area with such spectacular wall diving so easily accessible, but for now it is wonderful having the quiet north shore and an excellent dive shop to support it. The divemasters were excellent and worked hard.
Websites Cane Bay Dive Shop   

Reporter and Travel

Dive Experience 251-500 dives
Where else diving Saba, Cozumel, Grand Cayman, Belize, Cocos Island, Florida Keys, Jupiter, West Palm Beach, Flower Gardens and Stetson Bank, Bahamas, St. Eustatius, Dominica
Closest Airport Getting There

Dive Conditions

Weather sunny Seas choppy
Water Temp 82-86°F / 28-30°C Wetsuit Thickness 1
Water Visibility 40-60 Ft/ 12-18 M

Dive Policy

Dive own profile yes
Enforced diving restrictions [Unspecified]
Liveaboard? no Nitrox Available? no

What I Saw

Sharks 1 or 2 Mantas None
Dolphins None Whale Sharks None
Turtles > 2 Whales None
Corals 5 stars Tropical Fish 4 stars
Small Critters 4 stars Large Fish 3 stars
Large Pelagics 2 stars

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

Subject Matter 2 stars Boat Facilities 4 stars
Overall rating for UWP's 3 stars Shore Facilities 4 stars
UW Photo Comments [None]The smaller zodiac-type boats do not have rinse buckets for cameras, the larger ones do.
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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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