St Lucia

[David Billinge]

We are going to Rodney bay, NE St Lucia. has anyone any information on dive operations in this area?
Many thanks
David Billinge

[Jeanne]

Hi Dave

We were in Rodney Bay in May 2002 and the best diving is around the southern tip of the island in the vicinity of Souffriere where diving is located around the fantastic piton mountains. The main beach near Rodney Bay is Reduit beach, which I am sure you can reach within a short walk of your hotel or digs, or you may actually be located on the beach. The diving outfit we used was Anse Chastanet's hotel dive operation, which has a booth on the beach at one of the Reduit beach hotels, either the Papillon or the Rex, I can't quite remember, but you can book there or direct with ringing Anse Chastanet, here is the web link: <a href="http://www.ansechastanet.com/new/scuba/scuba.html" >http://www.ansechastanet.com/new/scuba/scuba.html</a>

Anse Chastanet will pick you up from your hotel, take you to a short drive away at a slip where you board a fast boat to take you down to the centre several miles down the coast. There, you will be taken on a very short check out dive of the usual variety (mask clearing, alternative air source breathing, bouyancy check), then you have a two-tank dive, one in the morning, and one after lunch, which is included in the deal. You are then taken back home via the same means after the dive. The deal was approx $75 including a great buffet lunch, which was excellent value.

I was surprisingly impressed with the diving around Souffriere, good viz, vertiginous walls and healthy corals and fauna. The diving outfit was professional and the service and deal well presented/pitched.

Have fun in Rodney Bay, don't forget to patronise Spinnackers on the beach, and the Lime bar and restaurant just off the beach. The Great House restaurant further up at Pigeon point is first class, if you fancy a bit of 'posh nosh'.

I am sure I don't need to warn you about the 'Aloe Vera' brigade, which you will find hanging around the shopping mall, trying to sooth your sunburn or mosquito bites... for the obligatory fistfull of dollars. Also, car hire is 'cr.p'. We turned down 3 cars which were lethal death traps from a very reputable company. Public transport is cheap and the share ride minibus stops just outside the mini-mart on the main road. Use that instead!! I also wholly recommend a day sail to Martinique! Whooa, dolphins, manta rays, we saw the lot, and had a nice French lunch at Josephine's in Marin harbour. Take some Euro's with you!

All the best, we loved it and hope you will!

Jeanne

[centurysup]

Make sure you go to the Friday night "jump up" at Gros Islet if you like a street party.

[nb]

We dived in St Lucia in Feb this year.

Having researched it in the UK we were going to dive at Scuba St Lucia (the most well known bunch) but having talked to the small dive centre where we staying we changed our minds and dived with them. They were more personal and far less corporate than the others we had spoken to.

It's a very small dive centre called Action Adventure Divers based at the Plantation Beach Resort in Souffriere bay which is located within the Marine Park. The centre is owned and run by 3 brothers but mainly you'll dive with 2 of them, Chester and Vincent. Their prices are much more palatable than the bigger operations charge and the groups are small. They have a new Bauer compressor, equipment seemed in good order (we took our own though) and the divers were looked after both from a safety and enjoyment point of view.

If you're a well qualified diver and can prove you have been diving recently they may well not ask you to do a specific check out dive (but don't worry they'll be watching you!)

Anse Chastenet is a marine park and you have to have a registered dive guide with you. Chester at AAD used to be head Marine Park Ranger so is very knowledgeable about the area.

The diving is easy reef diving although you may come up against some currents in some particular sites.The scenery above the surface is breathtaking, it's lovely heading back towards the pitons.

(By the way, after one of our dives we were very keen to see a seahorse. Chester said that they had seen one 6 weeks before but the one before had been 2 years before that. We hopped in to 3 metres of water in front of the dive centre with the remants of our air. It took us half an hour but as you can guess, we found one!

In all we did around 14 dives each there in the 10 days we stayed. If diving in St Lucia again I would definitely go with AAD again and would recommend them to others.

It takes about 25mins? from Rodney bay to Souffriere but of you contact either the Plantation Beach resort or Action Adventure Divers I'm sure they could help you out with transport. Although we were staying at Souffriere, Vincent took us up to Rodney Bay in his boat. It's lovely up there.

Hope this helps.

NB

[nb]

Apparently Vincent took us to Marigot Bay in his boat, my mistake. Looking on a map it seems that Rodney Bay is further north so it will take a bit longer to get down to Souffriere from there.

[alison boler]

Chaps,

We would love to have some trip reports about your diving in St Lucia. It doesn't hae to be anything elaborate - a couple of sides of paper concentrating on the details of your trip and the dives. The sort of stuff that's useful to other members thinking of visiting the island, or planning a visit here. Think how useful it would have been to have had this info here attached to the St Lucia pages rather than buried in the forum. Please send your reports - plus a couple of pictures if possible but don't worry if not - to
<a href="mailto:webmaster@bsac.com">webmaster@bsac.com</a>

Each entry gives you a chance to win a free holiday in our prize draw.

Thanks

Alison