Dive Review of Scuba St. Lucia/Jade Mountain in
St. Lucia

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Scuba St. Lucia/Jade Mountain, Jul, 2010, by Paul Gray, DE, US ( 2 reports). Report 5642.
No photos available at this time
Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Accommodations		Food
Service and Attitude		Environmental Sensitivity	N/A
Dive Operation		Shore Diving
Snorkeling
Overall Rating
Value for $$
Beginners
Advanced
Comments	I dove in St. Lucia following a week of diving in Bonaire. Although I thoroughly missed the diving freedom one experiences in Bonaire, diving in St. lucia was still enjoyable. When you dive with Scuba St. Lucia, your first dive is a shore dive accompanied by a dive master. They will ask you to clear your mask and recover your regulator and once you demonstrate these skills, you finish your dive around the Anse Chastanet Reef, which was an enjoyable dive. I found all of my dive sites to be very similar. Anse Chastanet Reef, Fairy Land, The Pinnacles and Turtle Reef all had many crinoids, arrowhead crabs and basket sponges. A bit less common, but still prevalent were various small shrimp, soldier fish, eels, deep sea gorgonians, large feather dusters, sea fans and various small tropical fish. We did find one seahorse. The visibility was a little disappointing due to mostly overcast skies (it rained a lot) , but the water at St. Lucia does seem to be different than that of other caribbean islands. I think it has to do with the volcanic rock making the water look slightly grey in color. My best dive was on the pinnacles in the afternoon when the sun opened up and the viz was outstanding. We could easily see all three pinnacles from a far and the sea life surrounding them was abundant. This was a dive to remember. The staff at Scuba St. Lucia was very professional. They are service-oriented and have quite a few members on their staff. They operate quickly and try hard to please people like myself who failed to sign-up ahead a time for an 8 am dive. When I arrived at 7:30 am, I was told that the dive was cancelled due to lack of interest. When I showed how disappointed I was that I got out of bed and ran down the mountain for nothing, they decided to take the boat out just for me. That rocked! I made sure I signed up in advance for the rest of my dives instead of just assuming the boat would always be leaving the resort. The next day, my computer battery died just as the boat was getting ready to leave. The captain ran ashore and grabbed me a depth/air gauge and quickly swapped it with my computer without any fuss. These we're nice people. This trip was the second week of our honeymoon (1st week Bonaire) and we we're scheduled to stay 4 nights at Anse Chastanet and 3 nights at Jade Mountain which is a step up the soci-economic ladder. When we arrived, we we're informed that we would be upgraded to Jade Mountain for the entire week. This resort is very expensive but man, it was fantastic. The view of the mountains never got tiring and the room itself was of very high quality. We spent 3 nights in a sky sanctuary (no infinity pool) and 4 nights in a star sanctuary. The service here was so good, it was hard to get used to and the food at the Jade Mountain Club was the best I ever had anywhere. The views from the top of the resort we're the most beautiful ever and as most people say, pictures just cannot do it justice. We did the jungle biking, 3 hour sailboat cruise and volcano trip. The first 2 we're ok but the volcano trip was below average. We saw the bubbling mud, smelled the sulfur and viewed remnants of the crater. As we we're leaving to go to the hot springs visit, we we're approached by local vendors who we're selling very cheap looking jewelry. They we're a little pushy but not too bad. The hot springs we're a waste of time. I thought we would be sitting in a natural spring, maybe with some mud involved. We ended up sitting in a hot tub with ceramic tile all around. I guess it was kind of neat that the hot water was heated naturally underground, but I would have rather been doing something else at the resort. I would not return to St. Lucia just for the diving but the trip was a very special one due to the island's beauty, the resort, service and it being our honeymoon. Was it worth the amount of money we paid? Sometimes I'm still trying to decide, but overall, I have no regrets.
Websites	Scuba St. Lucia Jade Mountain
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	251-500 dives
Where else diving	NJ, DE, Florida Keys, Bahamas, Cozumel, Galapagos, Bonaire, North Carolina
Closest Airport		Getting There
Dive Conditions
Weather	sunny, rainy	Seas	calm
Water Temp	86-86°F / 30-30°C	Wetsuit Thickness
Water Visibility	40-80 Ft/ 12-24 M
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	no
Enforced diving restrictions	45 minutes maximum dive time, ascend when you reach 700 psi.
Liveaboard?	no	Nitrox Available?	N/A
What I Saw
Sharks	None	Mantas	None
Dolphins	None	Whale Sharks	None
Turtles	None	Whales	None
Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):
Corals		Tropical Fish
Small Critters		Large Fish
Large Pelagics
Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Subject Matter		Boat Facilities
Overall rating for UWP's		Shore Facilities
UW Photo Comments	Onshore rinse tank had paints chips in the water the entire week. There was no rinse tank on the boat but the trips we're very short. Crew would hand cameras to divers in the water.

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Dive Review of Scuba St. Lucia/Jade Mountain in St. Lucia

Scuba St. Lucia/Jade Mountain, Jul, 2010,

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 Scuba St. Lucia/Jade Mountain in
St. Lucia