St. Croix USVI Real Estate & Other Good Things

Day: April 25, 2008

Diving St. Croix – North Shore & The “Wall”

Having not been diving in over a year, I was going through a bit of ocean withdrawal. The only cure of course was to get back in the water – ASAP! So, that’s exactly what we did. I’ve just returned from St. Croix where my son and I spent the better part of a week diving our brains out.

This was not one of those “planned far in advance” deals. It was more like, I want to go now! So that’s basically what happened. There were only a couple parameters which included “doing it on the cheap” and maximum diving. I also wanted to check out the island, and enjoy some good food – shrimp in particular.

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With the top dive sites located along the islands north side between Ham’s Bluff and Salt River, I found a small, older hotel (just 9 rooms), right on the shore in Cane Bay. Every room had a balcony that provided a 180 degree view of the ocean. You could see St. Thomas and St. John on the horizon, and the continual sound of the surf was totally relaxing.

This hotel also just happened to have one of the best restaurants (extremely popular with the locals), right on site. The owner is a great guy, and offers super deals several nights a week, like a lobster dinner on Wednesdays for just 17 bucks!

Some of the best diving on St. Croix is along the “Wall” that runs parallel to the north side. It’s only a couple hundred yards offshore, and can easily be reached with a short swim out from Cane Bay Beach. Our first 2 dives were shore dives there, one off to the east and the other to the west.

The “Wall” is awesome. The reefs are just offshore at around 30 to 50 feet down. You then swim out over a wall that drops down to 3200 feet. Swimming along the face between 60′ to 110′ we saw an incredible diversity of marine life, from dense corals and sponges to turtles, lobsters, crabs, and a wide assortment of colorful reef fish.

I saw the largest spotted drum yet – over a foot long, which was unusual for me, as most I’d encountered elsewhere were juveniles of an inch or two. There were also more of this one type of tube sponge than I’d seen before. These were a sort of translucent lavender or purple, and seemed to be on every reef we visited.

Over near Salt River, there are huge coral heads with some small caves and giant swim-throughs. These are just plain fun, and the dive was always over way before we could tire of this part of the wall. It was there we found one of the largest hawksbill turtles I’ve ever seen, and some equally large lobster.

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One other dive that’s a must do, is the Frederiksted Pier. Very “fishy”, with lots of critters. Spider crabs and red & blue banded coral shrimp were everywhere, and several octopus sightings – even during the day. Although time constrained us from doing the pier at night, it’s touted as one of the best possible night dives. Judging by what we saw during the day, that’s easy to believe.

I haven’t even touched yet on the great wreck dives, and there’s tons more of good stuff on St. Croix, from our rent car guy waiting for us at the airport with sign in hand so we couldn’t miss him, to great places to eat, and lots of history – especially seeing all the old windmills around the island from centuries past when “sugar was king”.

For more about the trip along with details and pictures of where we stayed, places visited, where we ate, and everything else from dive shops to car rentals, check out diving St. Croix You can also review our island by island travel guides for planning an awesome Caribbean vacation, and read the latest destination reviews at http://www.j2venture.com

Story By J Allen
All Underwater photos including Leopard Manta Ray, Hawksbill Turtle, Sting Ray, Pipe Fish and Reef Fish taken at The Wall at Cane Bay by TR Vreeland

For more about diving Cane Bay and The Wall click here… 

St. Croix Island Rentals

Here’s a pretty neat idea for a rental website, you find a rental and instead of paying the advertised rate you simply “bid” on it, similar to Ebay. Unfortunately all their property photos are low-res. Oh well, it’s still a good idea and may be a good website for getting a deal on a great rental. Nice Google maps integration.

Click on United States then Virgin Islands to find your St. Croix island rental at bidavilla.com!

St. Croix Traveler Website

Here’s a website I haven’t seen before. Looks like the folks who run the website are from New Hampshire and they’re writing about St. Croix. They’ve got a newsletter I just signed up for. I’ll let you know how it is later. Click here to visit St. Croix Traveler…

St. Croix Map

Looks like a lot of work went into these maps. They’re kind of an all purpose map with some added fun items like fish, scuba dive spots, surf spots, bike trails and more. Maybe Franko will send us one to review, and we’ll let you know. Printed on waterproof, rip-proof plastic. Available folded or flat laminated (like a placemat). The map size is 26.75″ x 18.5″.  Folded $8.00, Laminated $16.00

Click for Franko’s Maps…

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USVI Newsletter

Several months ago we subscribed to the Island News newsletter. It’s very informative and well-written. It’s 8.5″ x 11″ in size and is usually about 20 pages in length. The information is written from a helpful perspective with an eye toward the realities of the islands from a property owners perspective. They are not afraid to discuss both negative and positive points of view, with everything from crime to government officials.

Here is the link… Island News

Virgin Islands Car Sticker

I bought one of these stickers for my wifes car. It looks great and is fairly high quality. Available for under $5. Adds a nice touch to the car. A great reminder of where you want to be. Click here to order at neatsigns.com (and free shipping too).

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