British

Baskin-in-the-Sun/Long Bay Beach Resort, February 1995, Victor Bary, Cranford, NJ. "Baskin-In-The-Sun staff pleasant and accommodating. Disappointed in diving: difficult winter with choppy seas and less than perfect water clarity (50-60 feet). No big critters but many delightful small ones (garden eels). . . . Good restaurants on island. Drive through the rain forest and botanical gardens in Road Town was lovely."

Baskin-in-the-Sun/Prospect Reef Resort, March 1995, Barbara & Bob Bohan, Annapolis, MD. "Dived everywhere in the Caribbean and these operators offer the most varied diving and are the best operation! I've heard whales singing in the Sir Francis Drake Channel, been diving around Grand Rock to get into a cave and see the glassy sweepers, had a great night dive on the Wreck of the Rhone and have seen my one cubera snapper (4'-5' long). Lisa Mitchell taught me the Naturalist and Fish ID course and I've become a member of REEF. She wrote the PADI course for a coral reef course. Better than Bonaire. Knowledge is vast, their experience beyond belief and they love what they do and it shows! Boat goes with one diver or 15 divers - no cancellations due to lack of a minimum."

Baskin-in-the-Sun/Prospect Reef Resort, August 1995, Jacob Rosenstein, San Francisco, CA. "Well run operation. Staff helpful. Divers go in buddy teams or follow the divemaster. Rhone: lots of schooling fish. Other sites had lots to offer. Smaller 31' boat had no head; sometimes nobody onboard while we were underwater. Prospect Reef has no courtesy shuttle to Road Town on weekends. Kiddie pool is not well maintained. Regular pool is good. Dive shop, photo shop, rinse station, close to rooms."

Baskin-in-the-Sun/Long Bay Beach Resort, November 1995, Lydia H. Klein, New York City. "Deluxe rooms spacious; balcony overlooks islands. Driving is exciting; dodge goats, chickens and donkeys; vertical roads keep you on your toes. Bombas on Full moon night is a blast. . . . Great dive shop; set up your gear, rinse and store it. Rhone is one of the prettiest wrecks I've done."

Baskin-in-the-Sun/Prospect Reef Resort, April 1996, Lynn Gordon, Joe Brown, Florence, AL. "Water: 78-80° Vis: 75-100 feet. Beautiful place. Diving beautiful - for people who are into small fish and macro. Good place for beginners; most dives at 50 ft. Dive shop the best; organized and divemasters excellent. Your gear was set up and rinsed on every dive."

Baskin-in-the-Sun/Long Bay Resort, June 1996, Doug Dent, Modesto, CA. "New owners have carried on in Alan & Eva's tradition. BVI underrated; for easy, fun, relaxed diving it is quite good, but not Little Cayman. Fry were out and tarpon and pelicans put on a show topside and underwater. Flamingo tongues were on every dive in various stages of dress/undress! vis: 40-80 ft. water: 78°."

Blue Water Divers, 1995, Sarah Shoaf, DDS. "Nanny Cay on Tortola. Rhone is great dive, especially at night. Angelfish, lobsters, crabs, grunts, big eyes, and sergeant majors are abundant. Some cave dwellers in the small cave at the Indians. Rhone reef for octopus, morays, and schools of fish. Santa Monica Rock is excellent for pelagics. Blue Water Divers is a safety conscious, top notch operation. Divemasters have a knack for helping novices. For experienced divers will dive more challenging sites. Great group, excited about showing others great things"

Blue Water Divers, January 1996, Denege & Peter Blood, Greene, NY. "A rendezvous dive with our chartered sailboat, fun, friendly, professional. Dives are guided, especially the wreck of the Rhone. Rainbow Visions Underwater Dive Videos videotaped our dive $40; excellent: After the dives, they offers beers. Dive orientation was excellent."

Cooper Island Beach Club/Underwater Safaris, March 1996, Kimberly Chung and John Kerr, Providence, RI. "Good diving, but we have been spoiled by some of the Sinai and Maldives. Ideal sail and dive in one vacation. 12 units and about 5 houses on the island, no roads, lots of goats; accommodations and 5 2-dive excursions; $990 high season, $750 low season; Kitchenettes stocked with utensils; restaurant on site; simple dinners $25/person, food good, not terribly special; great staff; restaurant and bar have beautiful views of the sunset over Tortola. Management efficient, accommodating. . . . Underwater Safaris: Divemaster Tina is great; been in the BVI several years and knows every site. Went to Rhone Reef with another guide who got lost; missed the best part of the reef and used our air fighting the current to get back to the boat. We went back with Tina and discovered that it was a beautiful site. Management communicated clearly by fax and by telephone, making clear the cost, what was included and what wasn t. . . . Rhone: dived it thrice (the bow and stern during the day and the bow at night). A good guide points out all the artifacts that are now encrusted with coral. Alice's Wonderland great, huge mushroom-like coral formations (15ft. or so). Fish: lots of variety. . . . Everyday there are about 20-30 boats in the cove, relatively close to the beach. garbage washes up on the shore (e.g. tomatoes, grapefruit rinds. The beach is small and not much fun swimming with boats all over the place. Sea kayaks and a small sunfish for free if you buy a dive package. Visibility 40-60 ft. water: 73°-76°. . . . Flew to St. Thomas and took the ferry to Tortola (roundtrip $34) instead of flying from San Juan."

Dive BVI, May 1996, Bill Jones, NC. "Couldn't dive off Anegada, they told us no scuba, only snorkeling. Weather not right for Chinuzen. Dive BVI is a nice outfit with a relaxed attitude. Diving not good for experienced divers. Typical Caribbean except coral was a little dowdy (3 recent hurricanes). water: 78°."

Dive BVI/Little Dix Bay, August, 1996, Burton E. Fineberg. "Took a catamaran; seas very rough and the catamaran was pounding. Went to a calmer spot; both crew went into the water leaving the boat unattended; the second dive only the divemaster went in. . . . Next time the boat was a 31 foot Bertram Sport Fisherman; seven divers, captain and divemaster. Took ten minutes for divers to get into the water and drift line was only long enough for 3 people; the rest bobbed in the water. Everyone went down, leaving the boat unattended. Twenty-five minutes into the dive, I saw what looked like our boat sitting on the bottom of the ocean. I thought I was imagining the whole thing but then I saw something float out of the boat. The divemaster tried to gather the divers and then she took off for the top. I proceeded with 3 other divers. When they reached the top they decided to go back down to retrieve their belongings. I inflated my BC and was bobbing in very rough seas. After 10 minutes, I was picked up by a boat that had been tied up at a close site. The Captain of the Underwater Safari (George Sawyer) said he saw a boat at the site and when he looked again, the boat was gone and he never heard the engines start. After picking up the divers and the crew, Captain Sawyer took us to Cooper Island, then another boat took us to Little Dix Bay. We were told that the bilge pumps were left on when we all entered the water and no one remained on the boat to watch what was happening. I have dove in Cozmuel, Caymans, Bonaire, Curaçao, Hawaii, Ft. Lauderdale, and Aruba and I they all left someone on their boats."

Peter Island Resort, June 1995, Jan & Garth Rhodes, Calgary, Alberta, Canada "Dive operation, facilities, dive sites and dive staff exceptional. Guided tours informative and educational. Personnel use a dive slate. Cater to all levels. Staff rinses gear and attaches tanks; wall dives, wreck dives or night dives. Hotel spectacular: first-class accommodations, food, services and personnel."

Peter Island, December 1995, Norman Jensen, Boise, ID. "Dive BVI staff. headed by divemaster, Randy Keil, informative and enthusiastic, competent and helpful. Vis: 80-120 ft. water: 80°. Resort disappointing. Stratospheric prices to match other grande resorts, but service and facilities not close to those of Little Dix or Nevis. Breakfasts interminably slow in coming; quality of food barely average. Lunches better, dinners superior. Units private and quiet, nicely appointed, minimal water pressure, and hot water for showers not always available. Incessant and common. Christmas winds 30-40 mph bring swells and choppy seas, often limiting dive sites."

Peter Island Resort, January 1996, Craig and Nancy Burton, Ellicott City, MD. "Sunny days, light breezes. Dive BVI people open, friendly, helpful, did all the work. Divers simply enjoy the dives. Periodic currents, nothing too bad. Beautiful corals (some visible damage by recent hurricane). Tropicals, golden tail moray, shrimp, lobster, turtle. Peter Island . . . one of world's best resorts. vis: 75-100 ft. water: 79°-80°."

U.S. Virgins

St. John

Coral Bay Water Sports/Gallows Point Condos, June 1995, Steve Nieters, Alton, IL. "Dive trips leave on island time! Experienced divers given a loose rein, close watch to less experienced. When the divemaster took 'out of airs' to boat, we continued. Don't expect a pre-dive briefing on what to see."

Low Key Divers, March 1995, Jim Bowling, St. Louis, MO. "No pressure, no rush, attentive. Guides pointed out attractions. Cautious but not overprotective. Responsive to photographers, new divers. Good equipment and boats. When whales came through and stayed, took us to them."

St. Croix

Anchor Dive Center, December 1995, Randy and Jackie Roberts, Plano, TX. "Dove off Caram Bold at Davis Bay - shore dive too rough! Torn up reef! Small boat, lots of individual attention. Our son took a resort course and they were especially helpful. Salt Cay is the best dive. Cane Bay shore dive - Don't waste your time. Hurricane has torn up the reefs and pounding surf and currents. We also dove with V.I. Divers off of Christianstad; nice dive boat and nice people. Vis: 100 ft.water: 75°­79°."

Cane Bay Divers, February 1996, Susanna M. Batson, Irving, TX. "Rented tank and weights for $10 with free refills. Snorkeled out 150 ft. and dropped to 50 ft. on some great coral heads, one housing a 5 ft. green moray. Swam through Three Anchors Cut which slides out to Cane Bay Wall. The anchors, dropped during colonization, were completely intact. The coral was in good shape and saw plenty of reef fish, Christmas tree worms; a bearded red fireworm. Night dive at Frederiksted Pier: sea horses, 20­30 trumpet fish, vis: 50­80 ft. water: 80°­81°."

VI Divers, 1995, Raul & Carol Jimenez, El Paso, TX. "Professional. Did wreck dives - no penetration. Turtles, rays, all kinds of coral. Dive staff hovered above the group so we felt safe, yet were free to do your thing. Computers encouraged. Liked the small group, slow-paced atmosphere."

VI Divers/Chenay Bay, May 1996, Daniel C. Hartman, New York, NY. "Divemaster /instructor Liza and boat captain Richard: fun, professional , courteous crew. Liza loves to dive and to help people. Richard, a self-proclaimed pirate flew the skull and crossbones, and has the humor of a stand up comic. New fast boat and new rental equipment (computers $5/day). Owners lived in condos where we stayed and gave us a ride to the dive shop so we didn t need a taxi. 80+ degree water, 50­100 ft vis and wall dives with a shelf that starts at 25 feet (great light and colors). . . . Chenay Bay condo/bungalow complex on a horseshoe shaped beach; they ask $150 for an efficiency, but we paid $90/night; not exactly 1st Class, but comfortable. The beach and pool are nice, the food is good (don't miss the special party nights)."

VI Divers/Hotel Caravelle, June 1996, Dennis Munden, Del Mar, CA. "Hotel very nice. Rooms clean, staff attentive. Seven days long enough. VI Divers well organized. Called hotel to check in with us when we arrive. New boat, an aluminum cat with a head . Not big enough; very crowded. . . . Crew did a good job. Could dive with or with out them. Much broken coral, silt on reefs, fish life disappointing (three angelfish all week). Visited supermarket and understood why. Saw French angels as well as trumpet fish. If they don t do something about controlling the fishing, they will be in even more trouble. Water visibility was not too good."

V. I. Divers, June 1995, Leonard Shaffer, Merritt Island, Florida. "Can dive own profiles. Outstanding operation took us to different sites each day at a casual pace. Recommend shore diving along Cane Bay. Cane Bay Dive shop will provide info. Did 4 shore dives in one day for $15 for tank and air. vis: 50-100 ft. water: 78°-80°. . . . Need to rent car to get around. Do not leave anything of value in car and use 'street smarts' at night."

Waves /Cove Bay, February 1995 Fred Cook, Seaford, DE. "Shore diving only. Beachside location a chip shot from your screened in porch. All rooms have ocean views with kitchens; island has well stocked supermarkets. Shore entry can be difficult if waves are over three feet; past the breakers its a 200 yard swim to the drop off. 'Wall' is a slope in most locations from 50-120 feet where there is a true wall. Guided dives can be scheduled. Combine diving with golf, shopping."

St. Thomas

Dive Inn/Sapphire Beach Resort, August 1995, Nancy Teff, Glendale, AZ. "Crew took an interest in seeing that you enjoyed your diving, done off St. John. Not 'World-Class' diving; plenty of coral and sea life, but nothing about the sites really unique."

Underwater Safaris/Dive Inn, December 1995, Jim Reynolds, Commerce, TX. "Lucked onto big ray in sand, could approach, study, touch. Dive guide Jay was exceptionally good. Did 2 tank at Sapphire Beach - nice boat. vis: 80-120 ft. water: 80°."

Copyright 1997 by DSDL, Inc.Publishers of Undercurrent. All rights reserved. No portions of this report may be reproduced in any way, including photocopying and electronic data storage, without prior written permission from the publisher. For more information, contact DSDL, Inc., P.O. Box 1658, Sausalito, CA 94966.