St. Lucia
Sunset
June 2024
We flew out of Gatwick airport on a TUI package to 'Stolen time by Rendexvous' hotel on St. Lucia for 7 nights. Stolen Time is quite near Castries and the opposite end of the island from the airport, so a 90 minute transfer over the Petons. Stolen Time is an 'all inclusive' hotel serving top brand spirits in the bars. They also have a dive centre offering dives for experienced divers (some of which are 'included' and therefore free) as well as training courses for the less experienced or those who want to give it a try.
Eagle Ray
5th - 11th June 2024
The blog header picture is the st. Lucia sunset happening as viewed from the main bar. As you can see, the sea is flat calm and the reefs you can see do have life that you can snorkel and enjoy. You do have to keep withing the roped off are just at the far side of the reefs because of the occasional boat hazard. The see temperature throughout the holiday, and at all depths, was a constant 29C and I didn't even wear my 3mm shorty wet suit, just trunks and rash vest for snorkelling and diving.
I initially booked, by email before leaving home, three dives with the dive centre at the resort on 5th, 7th and 10th June, which were the three free dives included in the package.The Eagle Ray seen to the left was spotted on the first dive, on which I was the only diver apart from the dive guide, and it was, being honest, the highlight of the holiday dives. Nothing else on any of the dives compared with the excitement of seeing such a beautiful creature, a one off and nothing else came close on any other dive.
5th - 11th June 2024
None of the dives I did were spectacular or particularly noteworthy, with the exception of seeing the Eagle Ray. To be honest, at this time in June things are winding down due to the impending hurricane season - hurricane Beryl just hit St. Lucia as I write this beginning of July. The hotel wasn't particularly busy, and I don't think that we actually visited any of the better dive sites. Many of the divers on the trips were inexperienced and/or training and as a consequence, the deepest dive I did was to 16 mtr which was the first one with the Eagle Ray but most were 12/13 mtrs. There was no Nitrox available and only 12 Ltr cylinders (I like a 15 ltr as I like to breath a lot!) so perhaps for me shallow dives were a good thing, I still managed an average of 40 mins per dive.
We did get down to the Marine Reserve for a two tank day trip, however, my wife wanted me to snorkel with her for one of the dives, so I only got a single dive in, but I don't think, talking to the other divers, that I missed anything. All in all, you had the usual reef fish, lots of what I call 'bell' coral because it resembles an upsidedown bell, often with spider crab or shrimp to be found inside, moray eels, puffer fish, scorpion fish, barracuda and lion fish.
Green Striped Eel
The hotel was lovely and the people were great. There were three restaurants to choose from, although you did have to pre-book for one of them. There was a restaurant on the beach which served nice lunches but unfortunately the sand flies would attack your legs as you sat there. There were three bars, including a swim up bar which closed around 1700, but the other two stayed open. There was a mini-fridge in the room but no alcohol or snacks in it, if you wanted a nightcap on the balcony you had to get a drink from the bar and take it back.