Dive Review of Golden Rock Dive Center/The Old Gin House in
St. Eustatius

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Golden Rock Dive Center/The Old Gin House, Mar, 2011, by Sandra Quick, MI, US ( 2 reports). Report 6022.
No photos available at this time
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	Golden Rock is a well run shop. Co owner Michelle was very helpful answering questions via email about dive package options. The shop has an affiliation with The Old Gin house. We dove 9 days and spent 6 nights in a one bedroom ocean front suite and 5 nights in a second floor garden view room. Had to move as the ocean front suite wasn't available for our whole stay. The diving consists of deep patch reefs. No real walls. The average depths were 55-70 feet. We decided to use Nitrox as a result. There is a wreck the "Charles Brown" at about 90 feet. It is a cable layer intentionally sunk in 2003(?). Two morning dives are offered at approximately 0930 and 1130am. An afternoon dive at 1430 and evening dives are available given sufficient interest. We did two afternoon dives to "Blue Bead Hole" - a shallow sandy spot - looking for the elusive blue beads. We didn't score a bead but one diver on the boat did. The dive boat is a large Pontoon boat called the "Easy go In". We entered via a giant stride amidships and re-entered the boat via ladders at the stern. We usually had 6 divers but once had 12. 6 was great. 12 was a bit much. The shop stored our gear (picked it up at the Old Gin House the first day). The Old Gin House is a short pleasant walk from the shop. We got on the boat at a pier adjacent to the shop. We returned to the shop between dives for our surface interval. The diving is good. We saw more flying gurnards in our 20 dives here than our previous 500 dives! The sealife is very approachable especially the pufferfish, southern stingrays, french and gray angelfish,and lobster. Lots of spotted eels. The second morning dive got in too late for lunch a couple of times. The few local restaurants stop serving lunch at 2pm. The dive staff seemed loathe to rush guests but this needs to be done with larger groups! We learned to order lunch from the Blue Bead (across the street from the shop) between the morning dives. An effort to get in before lunch ends or suggesting divers order take out would be nice. We dove mostly with Matt. A very pleasant young man. A well traveled American who studied marine biology in Australia. Also dove with Co- owner Glen. Both shared discoveries with us...they both pointed out pipefish and sailfin blenny we would have never found on our own. No rinse tank at the shop or at the Old Gin House. Two hoses at the shop to rinse gear. Will do a seperate review on the Old Gin House (accommodations and service) on Tripadvisor.com. Our favorite restaurants were Ocean View (in the upper town) and Blue Bead (on the waterfront). Old Gin House offers a nice breakfast but has no restaurant (a definate negative). Michelle told us to bring cash for dining out as many restaurants didn't take cards. US$ accepted everywhere. Nice hiking available for afternoons or dry days. We found the nice walks/hikes a real plus. We would definately recommend spending some time walking in the upper town and exploring the fort. On our inbound flight there were a number of folks coming just for the hiking! Winair was actually quite efficient. We had a third bag. A $40/50(?) charge for it. All three made it coming and going.
Websites	Golden Rock Dive Center
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	501-1000 dives
Where else diving	South Pacific, Hawaii, Central America, all over the Caribbean
Closest Airport		Getting There
Dive Conditions
Weather	sunny, windy	Seas	surge
Water Temp	78-80°F / 26-27°C	Wetsuit Thickness	5
Water Visibility	- Ft/ - M
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	?
Enforced diving restrictions	Guided tours.
Liveaboard?	no	Nitrox Available?	yes
What I Saw
Sharks	1 or 2	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	[None]

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Dive Review of Golden Rock Dive Center/The Old Gin House in St. Eustatius

Golden Rock Dive Center/The Old Gin House, Mar, 2011,

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/The Old Gin House in
St. Eustatius