Dive Review of Patagon Dive Center/Private villa rental through VRBO in
Virgin Islands/St. John

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Patagon Dive Center/Private villa rental through VRBO: "Good Operator for decent diving in St. John", Feb, 2015, by Tari Hanneman, MD, US ( 1 report). Report 8279.
No photos available at this time
Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Accommodations	N/A	Food	N/A
Service and Attitude	N/A	Environmental Sensitivity
Dive Operation		Shore Diving	N/A
Snorkeling	N/A
Overall Rating
Value for $$
Beginners
Advanced
Comments	We were looking for a place where we could go for a quick, relatively inexpensive winter vacation with some diving attached and we needed to use a USAIR certificate so we had somewhat limited options. We decided to check out St. John despite it not really being known as a dive destination. We had a very hard time finding reviews for the dive operators that we felt we could trust (lots of folks from cruise ships and/or newbies) - which is why I feel compelled to write this report. The reviews we did find were all pretty uniform in indicating that the dives tended to be limited to 45 min. We started out by booking with Low Key Water Sports but ended up diving with Patagon and are glad we did. First a bit about why we switched. About a week before our trip I got an email from Low Key that they needed to cancel our 3 dive trip on Friday because we were the only 2 people booked and one of their boats was out of commission. So we re-booked on their two dive trip that day. Then a few days later they emailed that they needed to cancel our Sunday dives because the National Park Service wanted to use their boat for an educational tour (really, like these things aren't planned more than a week in advance?). Clearly their priority was not on diving, so we looked around a bit more and found Paragon and were able to book at the last minute. Patagon runs 6-pack boats while all of the others run much larger (aka cattle) boats. We did 7 dives with them (only had 3 days available for diving) and on 5 of the 7 dives we were the only 2 divers (1 dive we had two snorkelers on board). They were very willing to take us to places we were interested in and on one dive they were even going to take to a site that rarely gets dived, but the conditions weren't good once we got there. The crew is friendly and laid back and very helpful. Entry is a back roll off of the boat. Hand up fins (and gear if desired) and climb back up ladder. They do also have a shop on St. Thomas so sometimes the boat from St. John runs over there to pick up divers, but it is a pretty painless process (and the one day we did it we got to watch a shirtless Mark Sanchez practicing his footwork and throwing on the beach at the Ritz Carlton where the St. Thomas Patagon shop is - which made the wait more interesting). The diving was plagued by bad visibility due to recent storms. However, they did indicate that it is typically much better. Reefs and fish were pretty standard Caribbean fare. My spouse put together a short GoPro video which will give you a sense of the best of the diving. [vimeo.com link] We rented a place through VRBO which is a great option if you want to get out of town and enjoy the quiet of the island and are looking for an affordable option where you can prepare some of your own meals. The Caneel Bay Resort where Patagon is located is quite lovely ($$$$) and we had a nice lunch at one of the restaurants there.
Websites	Patagon Dive Center Private villa rental through VRBO
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	501-1000 dives
Where else diving	Palau, Chuuck, Indonesia, Turks & Caicos, Curacao, Bonaire, Roatan, Belize, Hawaii, North Carolina, California, Florida
Closest Airport	St. Thomas (STT)	Getting There	DC to Philly to St. Thomas, then ferry to St. John.
Dive Conditions
Weather	sunny, rainy, cloudy	Seas	calm, choppy, surge
Water Temp	78-80°F / 26-27°C	Wetsuit Thickness	5
Water Visibility	10-40 Ft/ 3-12 M
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	no
Enforced diving restrictions	Had to dive with divemaster. Dives in 40-60 ft. range. 45-50 minutes.
Liveaboard?	no	Nitrox Available?	yes
What I Saw
Sharks	None	Mantas	None
Dolphins	None	Whale Sharks	None
Turtles	1 or 2	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
Overall rating for UWP's		Shore Facilities
UW Photo Comments	Small boat so no rinse tank or table on board. They wrapped up our GoPro and tucked it away under the flybridge and were helpful with it.

Subscriber's Comments

By JoLee Ford in WA, US at Nov 02, 2015 14:20 EST

Thanks for sharing the video: I really enjoyed your report and pic!

By Michael J Kalpiers in MN, US at Nov 25, 2015 10:49 EST

This is helpful for us as we will be visiting St. John Feb 2016.

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Dive Review of Patagon Dive Center/Private villa rental through VRBO in Virgin Islands/St. John

Patagon Dive Center/Private villa rental through VRBO: "Good Operator for decent diving in St. John", Feb, 2015,

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):

Subscriber's Comments

Dive Review of Patagon Dive Center/Private villa rental through VRBO in
Virgin Islands/St. John