Tortola good for diving?

[bmsmith521]

I have heard that Tortola has some of the best diving in the world, but I can't seem to find ANY information on diving there. My DH and I are getting certified in July and have a cruise in Jan 09; we want to plan some dives. Our itinerary is Puerto Rico (night docking), St Thomas, Antigua, Tortola and Nassau. Anyone out there have any dives in Tortola? Is it worth it or should we dive at our other ports instead? I know that Carnival has a dive excursion, so surely some of you out there can help me out :) . Keep in mind...we are going to be new at diving.

[BuzzF117]

Tortola diving? Yes Yes Yes and Yes I really enjoyed diving the RMS Rhone I used Sail Caribbean Divers and thought they did a great job. FYI the RHONE is not a dive for true beginners there is the possibility of strong current but its a GREAT dive.

[scubadiver888]

I have heard that Tortola has some of the best diving in the world, but I can't seem to find ANY information on diving there. My DH and I are getting certified in July and have a cruise in Jan 09; we want to plan some dives. Our itinerary is Puerto Rico (night docking), St Thomas, Antigua, Tortola and Nassau. Anyone out there have any dives in Tortola? Is it worth it or should we dive at our other ports instead? I know that Carnival has a dive excursion, so surely some of you out there can help me out :) . Keep in mind...we are going to be new at diving.

Tortola is definitely a beautiful place to dive. I was just there in April. It rained the day before I got there and they indicated that the viz was poor. I thought the viz was great. Must have been 30 feet but there was a lot of 'bits' in the water.

 

We dove the RMS Rhone. This seems to be THE dive for people arriving by cruise ship. There were other people who had been to Tortola before. They dove the Rhone each time they were there. The cruise lines don't give you any other option.

 

I'd recommend diving the Rhone at least once. If I went back, I'd probably try to charter a dive boat to Virgin Gorda. All the islands are fairly close so you could get to Virgin Gorda, two dives and back to Tortola before the ship sails.

 

Since you haven't been to Tortola, I'd definitely recommend diving the Rhone. If they offer a morning and afternoon dive, do the morning dive. By the afternoon there are dozens of dive boats at the Rhone. It actually gets quite crowded. Sail boats show up as well and you get 2 to 4 people per sail boat diving as well.

 

One warning, watch for sail boats. You cannot hear them because they have no motor running and they pay absolutely no attention to dive down flags. Our dive master had to yell at a few sail boats that slipped by as close as 10 feet from our stern.

[scubaran]

I have heard that Tortola has some of the best diving in the world, but I can't seem to find ANY information on diving there. My DH and I are getting certified in July and have a cruise in Jan 09; we want to plan some dives. Our itinerary is Puerto Rico (night docking), St Thomas, Antigua, Tortola and Nassau. Anyone out there have any dives in Tortola? Is it worth it or should we dive at our other ports instead? I know that Carnival has a dive excursion, so surely some of you out there can help me out :) . Keep in mind...we are going to be new at diving.

 

If you don't get it, pick up a copy of the July 2008 Sport Diver Magazine (should be available at most book/magazine stores). There's an entire multi-page article on diving the BVI's.

 

Randall

[bruce-r]

I have heard that Tortola has some of the best diving in the world, but I can't seem to find ANY information on diving there.

 

Then you probably didn't look HERE

[3boyzmom]

We just got back from our cruise- same itinerary as yours!! We just finished our certification in March, so our dives on this trip were our first dives since our certification, and our first warm water dives ever.

 

We booked a dive on the RMS Rhone with Sail Caribbean divers in Tortola. I HIGHLY recommend the Rhone!! It was a great dive. As newly certified divers, we were a little concerned about current, surge, etc that we had heard about on this dive. It was fine- the water was rough up top, but the current wasn't bad.

 

We did something you might want to consider. Since we're going to work towards our advanced certification, we contacted sail caribbean ahead of time and asked if we could get signed-off on the wreck diver adventure dive towards our advanced. We had to bring a student folder with a photo with us and the completed knowledge review for wreck dives from the advanced book. They charged us an extra $25, but then they made sure the person was a dive instructor, not just a dive master, and he was a little more attentive to us than he would've been, because he needed to show us a couple things on the dive. I felt a little better being right there next to the instructor, as our experience on another dive was that the dive master didn't really notice whether or not we were still around.

 

We booked St. Thomas diving as a boat dive through Carnival. It was fun too, but nothing compared to the Rhone.

[BuzzF117]

We just got back from our cruise- same itinerary as yours!! We just finished our certification in March, so our dives on this trip were our first dives since our certification, and our first warm water dives ever.

 

We booked a dive on the RMS Rhone with Sail Caribbean divers in Tortola. I HIGHLY recommend the Rhone!! It was a great dive. As newly certified divers, we were a little concerned about current, surge, etc that we had heard about on this dive. It was fine- the water was rough up top, but the current wasn't bad.

 

We did something you might want to consider. Since we're going to work towards our advanced certification, we contacted sail caribbean ahead of time and asked if we could get signed-off on the wreck diver adventure dive towards our advanced. We had to bring a student folder with a photo with us and the completed knowledge review for wreck dives from the advanced book. They charged us an extra $25, but then they made sure the person was a dive instructor, not just a dive master, and he was a little more attentive to us than he would've been, because he needed to show us a couple things on the dive. I felt a little better being right there next to the instructor, as our experience on another dive was that the dive master didn't really notice whether or not we were still around.

 

We booked St. Thomas diving as a boat dive through Carnival. It was fun too, but nothing compared to the Rhone.

 

Thats a good way to get your wreck dive out of the way and one of the two dives should have counted for your deep also since the first dive I did on the Rhone was over 80ft

[3boyzmom]

Thats a good way to get your wreck dive out of the way and one of the two dives should have counted for your deep also since the first dive I did on the Rhone was over 80ft

 

Actually, you can't count it towards your deep dive if you penetrate the wreck. PADI rules say you can't penetrate a wreck on an instructional dive. We chose to penetrate the Rhone and do our deep dive another time.

[NYHartChapp]

We just got back from our cruise- same itinerary as yours!! We just finished our certification in March, so our dives on this trip were our first dives since our certification, and our first warm water dives ever.

 

We booked a dive on the RMS Rhone with Sail Caribbean divers in Tortola. I HIGHLY recommend the Rhone!! It was a great dive. As newly certified divers, we were a little concerned about current, surge, etc that we had heard about on this dive. It was fine- the water was rough up top, but the current wasn't bad.

 

We did something you might want to consider. Since we're going to work towards our advanced certification, we contacted sail caribbean ahead of time and asked if we could get signed-off on the wreck diver adventure dive towards our advanced. We had to bring a student folder with a photo with us and the completed knowledge review for wreck dives from the advanced book. They charged us an extra $25, but then they made sure the person was a dive instructor, not just a dive master, and he was a little more attentive to us than he would've been, because he needed to show us a couple things on the dive. I felt a little better being right there next to the instructor, as our experience on another dive was that the dive master didn't really notice whether or not we were still around.

 

We booked St. Thomas diving as a boat dive through Carnival. It was fun too, but nothing compared to the Rhone.

 

Thanks. Good tip re: wreck specialty certification.

[NYHartChapp]

Another quick question: According to the website the Rhone is at about 30 meters, which is approaching the non-decompression limit for open water diver certs. As a self-confessed newbie, was that depth okay with you, or would you recommend some more experience before going that deep?

[scubadiver888]

Another quick question: According to the website the Rhone is at about 30 meters, which is approaching the non-decompression limit for open water diver certs. As a self-confessed newbie, was that depth okay with you, or would you recommend some more experience before going that deep?

Not sure what website you are looking at but the RMS Rhone is 35' (11m) deep at the stern and 80' (24m) at the bow. This is if you are sitting on the bottom.

 

Typically, the shore excursions like to go to a dive which is good for open water (60'). They dive it twice; it is 100m long so you dive the bow (deepest dive first) and don't go all the way to the mud (60' to 70'). The second dive is to the stern.

 

Last time I dove the Rhone there were two girls who were just certified. They had never been diving without their instructor (back in the US). They were SERIOUSLY nervous about the whole thing. The dive master took them on a swim through the wreck. When they came up they were totally pumped and loved it.

 

It really is an easy dive. If you are worried about penetrating the wreck, tell the DM on the boat and they'll take you around it but it really is quite open and not at all silty.

[NYHartChapp]

Thanks, much. I guess I must have read 30 metres instead of 35 feet.