Dive Review of Golden Rock Dive Center/Old Gin House and Orange Bay Hotel in
St. Eustatius

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Golden Rock Dive Center/Old Gin House and Orange Bay Hotel: "Incredible Personal Service", Aug, 2019, by Douglas , IL, US ( Sr. Contributor 20 reports with 11 Helpful votes). Report 11057 has 3 Helpful votes.
Photos Submitted with this Report Click on an image to see an enlarged version and captions
Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Accommodations		Food
Service and Attitude		Environmental Sensitivity
Dive Operation		Shore Diving	N/A
Snorkeling	N/A
Overall Rating
Value for $$
Beginners
Advanced
Comments	Sarah's immediate responses to my many pre-trip emails were friendly and helpful, as she set up excellent accomodations for us as part of a dive package. Golden Rock is right at the dive dock, so it's a short hop from their ops (gear rinse, freshwater showers, relaxation patio, etc.) to their boats. They dock after each dive (nice!). (btw, I noticed the other dive shop daily transporting divers to and from the dock in the back of a pickup truck.) My wife (Lori) and I prefer smaller dive shops, because we've found them to be more laid back and accommodating to special requests, and that's exactly how it was with Dave and Sarah. "Is there somewhere special you'd like to dive?" was a common question. "Afternoon dive will be when you've had a nice lunch and are ready," Dave once remarked. One morning, he announced "I'm taking you guys somewhere special," and set off all the way to the north point of the island for the Gibraltar site, with its unique massive underwater volcano boulders. 2x, Lori and I had the boat to ourselves, and Dave still went wherever we wanted. Golden Rock is very safety conscious on all dives, with careful briefings and highly attentive dive guides, something I take seriously after having been lost at sea (temporarily thank goodness) off the coast of Costa Rica. And I especially respect that attitude being available for the less experienced. Both tank straps tore off Lori's veteran BC during a night dive (that added some excitement), and the next morning, Sarah had a virtually brand new Lady Bella ready for Lori's use throughout the rest of the week. Both boats had plenty of shade and were super comfy, and we especially liked being on EZ-Going, which had tons of room to move around, even on the day when we had a full group of dive architecture student interns. I logged 21 dives, and many of my notes contain exclamation points. Chien Tong wreck at night! Massive fields of open orange cup corals with a huge number of bigass sleeping turtles!! Worth the price of admission all by itself!!! We asked to repeat Double Wreck site for its combo of architectural features- a colorful coral plateau, sea grass fields, sculpted sand features, and an ancient anchor; along with garden eels, arrow, anemone and decorator crabs, cleaner shrimp, leopard eels, tiny brown blennies, black and yellow lined angels, juvenile rock beauties, schools of tiny reef fish of all flavors, a creamy pink frog fish and then a lime green one, big lobsters, reef crab, a hovering line of 12 squid, undulating tile fish, a lone remora, big sponges and healthy hard and soft corals, porcupine and puffer fish, damsels, mini creoles, big sand rays, goatfish, trumpetfish, cowfish . . . We had an absolutely wonderful week of relaxation time, with super entertaining diving which I rate 5 Stars on a Caribbean level, hosted by Sarah and Dave, a wonderfully friendly and kind, laid-back but super-professional dive couple. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
Websites	Golden Rock Dive Center
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	501-1000 dives
Where else diving	Solomons, Truk, Yap, Palau, Coral Sea, GBR, PNG, Roatan, Maui, Jamaica, Florida Jupiter and Keys, L'il Cayman and Grand Cayman East, Belize Ambergris and Isla Marisol, Grand Turk, Cabo Pulmo, Cozumel, Dominica, Bonaire, Fiji, Komodo and Lembeh, Bonne Terre mine, Saba and Statia
Closest Airport	Statia	Getting There	St Maarten then WinAir to Statia
Dive Conditions
Weather	sunny, dry	Seas	calm
Water Temp	82-82°F / 28-28°C	Wetsuit Thickness	3
Water Visibility	70-90 Ft/ 21-27 M
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	yes
Enforced diving restrictions	Statia law requires divers to be in site of dive guide at all times.
Liveaboard?	no	Nitrox Available?	yes
What I Saw
Sharks	None	Mantas	None
Dolphins	None	Whale Sharks	None
Turtles	> 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	N/A	Boat Facilities	N/A
Overall rating for UWP's	N/A	Shore Facilities	N/A
UW Photo Comments	Lori and I use a Go Pro but one of the divers during our week humped around a big rig, and he said he loves Golden Rock and has been repeat visiting for years.

Report currently has 3 Helpful votes

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Dive Review of Golden Rock Dive Center/Old Gin House and Orange Bay Hotel in St. Eustatius

Golden Rock Dive Center/Old Gin House and Orange Bay Hotel: "Incredible Personal Service", Aug, 2019,

Photos Submitted with this Report

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):

Dive Review of Golden Rock Dive Center/Old Gin House and Orange Bay Hotel in
St. Eustatius