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Dive Review of Bill Tewes' Dive St. Vincent/Mariners Hotel in
St. Vincent and the Grenadines/St. Vincent

Bill Tewes' Dive St. Vincent/Mariners Hotel: "Good Variety & Value Caribbean Diving", Mar, 2018,

by Michael Fritz, NJ, US (Reviewer Reviewer 4 reports with 10 Helpful votes). Report 10245 has 3 Helpful votes.

No photos available at this time

Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Accommodations 4 stars Food 4 stars
Service and Attitude 4 stars Environmental Sensitivity 4 stars
Dive Operation 4 stars Shore Diving N/A
Snorkeling N/A
Value for $$ 4 stars
Beginners 3 stars
Advanced 3 stars
Comments Mariners Hotel was an excellent place to stay and Dive St. Vincent offered a good package deal. There were lots of great local restaurants within walking distance and the dive shop was a short stroll away. Jackie ran the dive shop and was friendly and helpful with advice on the island and arranged our package. We did 12 dives over 6 days at a nice variety of sites. We had only 3-5 divers on the boat each day with 2 divemasters (DJ and Callie), so never felt crowded or rushed. They use steel 72 tanks which make me a bit nervous, but at least you can use a lot less weight. Tank fills were consistently low 2200-2500 but most dives were not deep so dive times were still around an hour. On most dives DJ would lead us as a loose group and Callie would hang behind and often spear any lionfish he spotted (you could take them for dinner if you wished). There was an unusually big swell throughout the islands while we were there and this caused a lot of surge (and even some damage on some other islands). We couldn't dive some of the shallower "critter spots" because of the surge but we spent more time on some of the nicer reef sites which had good topography and lots of corals and sponges. We still saw a lot of unusual critters (which is why we went there!) including many species new to me. Some highlights were Frogfish, Seahorses, Golden Hamlet, Bullseye Lobster, White-snout Pipefish, and 2 baby Long-armed Octopi as well as lots of blennies and gobies I'm still working on IDing. Overall the coral reefs and tropical fish were better than I'd expected and there were enough new critter surprises to keep the diving interesting day after day. There are also plenty of land excursions to keep us busy after our morning dives. We were even lucky enough to see the rare endemic St. Vincent Parrot while hiking the Vermont Nature Trail. Taxis and water taxis are abundant and reasonably priced.
Websites Bill Tewes' Dive St. Vincent   Mariners Hotel

Reporter and Travel

Dive Experience 251-500 dives
Where else diving Hawaii, Most of Caribbean, Mexico, Fiji, Palau, Solomons, Indonesia, GBR, Galapagos, Philippines
Closest Airport Argyle International Airport, St Vincent Getting There USA to Barbados to St Vincent on LIAT or SVG(preferred)

Dive Conditions

Weather sunny, windy Seas choppy, surge
Water Temp 79-80°F / 26-27°C Wetsuit Thickness 3
Water Visibility 40-70 Ft/ 12-21 M

Dive Policy

Dive own profile yes
Enforced diving restrictions Come up with at least 500psi
Liveaboard? no Nitrox Available? no

What I Saw

Sharks None Mantas None
Dolphins None Whale Sharks None
Turtles 1 or 2 Whales None
Corals 3 stars Tropical Fish 4 stars
Small Critters 4 stars Large Fish 1 stars
Large Pelagics 1 stars

Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Subject Matter 4 stars Boat Facilities 2 stars
Overall rating for UWP's 3 stars Shore Facilities N/A
UW Photo Comments Fresh water rinse under one of the benches, no dedicated camera table. Camera rig carefully handed to diver after back roll by dive guide.
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Report currently has 3 Helpful votes

Subscriber's Comments

By Daniel Zielinski in NY, US at Jan 07, 2019 15:27 EST  
Any opportunity for another dive in the afternoon?
By Daniel Zielinski in NY, US at Jan 07, 2019 15:27 EST  
Any opportunity for another dive in the afternoon?
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Note: The information here was reported by the author above, but has NOT been reviewed nor edited by Undercurrent prior to posting on our website. Please report any major problems by writing to us and referencing the report number above.

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