HOME > TRAVEL > 2008 > CRUISE > DIVING TORTOLA

Norwegian Dawn Cruise : Trip Report

Diving Tortola, British Virgin Islands

Lily and I reviewed the lists of excursions and nothing seemed especially appealing so we checked with the Excursion Desk and signed up for diving. After our experience in Samana with the kids we stop trying to arrange excursions including them knowing full well they would rather stay in Kids Club anyway. We had not planned to dive on this trip at all but we brought our C-Cards just in case. We didn't bring any other gear but full gear rental was included in the price so all we needed to do was show up with our bathing suits. I of course had my U/W camera because I planned to take pictures of the kids at the pool and beach.

Getting off the boat was a painful experience because the ship had to moor in the bay. For some reason there was another ship at the dock so our ship wasn't going to be able to dock until the afternoon That left us with the fun experience of lining up in the lower level of the ship as hundreds of passengers tried to board tenders at once. It took almost an hour from the meeting time until we actually got to shore and met with the dive boat staff.

We walked to the boat and checked out the rental dive gear. Once everyone was satisfied we took the boat with about 12 divers out to the first site less than 30 minutes ride from the dock. It was a wreck advertised as "advanced" so all divers had to be somewhat experienced. I had heard they turned away novice divers. That still didn't stop the problem of three divers having issues at the beginning of the dive and having to scrap the dives. It wasn't that advanced of a dive but I guess they were just out of practice.

The dives themselves at the RMS Rhone weren't that interesting. See my dive log for full details: Dive 231 and Dive 232.

Click on thumbnail for a full-size picture

Next Section: Please continue with a description of our next stop in St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands.