Dive Review of Low Key Watersports in
Virgin Islands/St. John

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Low Key Watersports: "St John USVI", Apr, 2023, by Henry O Ziller, CO, US ( Top Contributor 40 reports with 21 Helpful votes). Report 12415 has 1 Helpful vote.
Photos Submitted with this Report Click on an image to see an enlarged version and captions
Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Accommodations		Food	N/A
Service and Attitude		Environmental Sensitivity
Dive Operation		Shore Diving	N/A
Snorkeling	N/A
Overall Rating
Value for $$
Beginners
Advanced
Comments	We stayed at Cruz Bay Boutique Hotel in the heart of Cruz Bay. It is listed as a 3-star hotel. The rooms provide bathroom w/shower, area for hanging clothes with one shelf. There is no dresser however the two-drawer nightstands on each side of the queen bed held a week's worth of folded clothes. There is no patio or balcony with the room. There is a nice covered deck on the second level with a sofa, tables and chairs. There was always plenty of hot water for the shower. Solar units provide 80% of the power used in the hotel. A continental breakfast is served from 7 AM to 9 AM daily. It consists of fruits, pastries, yogurt and oatmeal as well as orange juice, coffee, and tea. We enjoyed our stay. The staff and owners are very friendly and are always ready to help with any questions you may have or suggestions for hikiing etc. There are many restaurants within walking distance although only a few are considered inexpensive. Baby’s convenient store is just a few steps away from the hotel and has just about anything you may need. The Dolphin Market is a short walk from town. We found a nice deli near the National Parks Office where we picked up supplies for picnics while watching the sunset. Starting at the National Park Office, Solomon Beach (30 minutes) and Honeymoon Beach (10 minutes farther) are a relatively short hike through the National Park. If you prefer to take a taxi to one of the many distant beaches, they are readily available and located next to the pier. Taxi's here look more like trolley cars than taxi's and have set prices for destinations. It is best to plan to go early to the beaches since they tend to get crowded, and shade is somewhat limited at the beaches we were at. Low Key Watersports is a 5-minute walk at most from the hotel as is Cruz Bay beach. You can rent boats of all sizes at Low Key Watersports at Cruz Bay. Low Key does pick up divers at the Westin Resort. Low Key has a shop filled with lots of diving and snorkeling equipment to buy. Their rental equipment looked to be in good shape although I brought my own. They will store your equipment overnight and have it on the boat the next morning. There were two rinse buckets at the end of the dock for rinsing your equipment after a dive, but there are two freshwater showers on the dive boat that work even better for rinsing gear and yourself. The boat is quite large and holds twenty divers plus crew. It is powered by two inboards and has a fire extinguishing system in the engine compartment. There are three fire extinguishers available on the deck. Life preservers, oxygen, first aid kit, radio, and other safety equipment were pointed out before getting underway. There is a marine head below the deck. Iced water is available and paper cups provided. They encourage you to buy one of their plastic cups from the store. Snacks are not provided at the minimized surface interval. The routine is, take a short boat ride to the first site where they give you a 5-minute heads up to gear up. A briefing is given for the dive. All dives were within 55 feet depth. Entrance is by giant stride, then hold on to the tag line until all divers are ready then go down following the divemaster. When the dive is over come up to the tag line remove fins and climb the very nice ladder with wide steps. When everyone is back on board the captain will go to the next dive site and after a dive briefing, commence the second dive. There is no one hour surface interval. I watched my computer closely and it did not indicate any issues with this arrangement. But if dives were deeper and longer there could be issues. There was only a slight current on most dives and the divemaster indicated if the current did kick up, we would reverse direction and go with the flow. Easy diving. The coral was not in very good shape, but that would be expected due to the recent hurricanes. Fish were mostly small and few in number just like most of the Caribbean. We did see a fair-sized puffer, a school of grunts, a few trumpet fish, a juvenile spotted drum, a couple lobsters, some arrow crabs and red banded shrimp. Some said they saw an octopus.
Websites	Low Key Watersports [Cruz Bay Boutique Hotel
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	501-1000 dives
Where else diving	Throughout the Caribbean and Central America, Hawaii, Micronesia, Indonesia, Philippines, Maldives, Tanzania/Zanzibar, Australia, and Fiji.
Closest Airport	St. Thomas Charlotte Amalie (STT)	Getting There	Denver to Washington Dulles to St. Thomas. Then Red Hook ferry. There is a charge per bag for all ferry rides. Return using St. John to St. Thomas ferry arrive in Charlotte Amalie downtown save 40 minutes in van transfer and about $14.00 for two. Flights in reverse.
Dive Conditions
Weather	sunny, dry	Seas	calm
Water Temp	79-80°F / 26-27°C	Wetsuit Thickness	0
Water Visibility	40-50 Ft/ 12-15 M
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	no
Enforced diving restrictions	Time and depth everyone comes up with divemaster.
Liveaboard?	no	Nitrox Available?	N/A
What I Saw
Sharks	None	Mantas	None
Dolphins	None	Whale Sharks	None
Turtles	None	Whales	None
Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):
Corals		Tropical Fish
Small Critters		Large Fish
Large Pelagics
Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Subject Matter		Boat Facilities	N/A
Overall rating for UWP's	N/A	Shore Facilities	N/A
UW Photo Comments	No camera bucket on boat. No large cameras either, only point and shoot except the dive instructor who went off by himself to do his shooting.

Report currently has 1 Helpful vote

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Dive Review of Low Key Watersports in Virgin Islands/St. John

Low Key Watersports: "St John USVI", Apr, 2023,

Photos Submitted with this Report

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

Overall Rating

Reporter and Travel

Dive Conditions

Dive Policy

What I Saw

Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):

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

Dive Review of Low Key Watersports in
Virgin Islands/St. John