Dinghy rental questions

amurphy08 · Post by **amurphy08** » Sat Mar 29, 2008 9:32 am

Hello,
We (3) are off to St. John next week and I have a couple questions about dinghy rentals.Really interested in doing it one day.

1. Approximate cost.. deposit amount? Need to budget.
2. Dinghy vs. jeep for the day (we will do Jeep for sure one day)We are only there 4 days.
3. references of where and who to rent one from. We are staying at a villa in walkable distance to CB.

Thanks!!

p.s. I have been to STJ before but not done the dinghy rental for a day!

lark22 · Post by **lark22** » Sat Mar 29, 2008 10:21 am

Is CB Coral Bay or Cruz Bay? I don't think there are dinghy rentals in Coral Bay anymore, sadly.

We rented from Noah's Little Arks right on Cruz Bay, and it was great – we went all the way over to Waterlemon, with a stop at Whistling Cay. I can't really remember the cost, but we just did a half day.

latuller · Post by **latuller** » Sat Mar 29, 2008 11:29 am

We rented a couple of weeks ago from Calypso. Their office is located above Margarita Phil's and you pick up the dinghy at the National Park dock. Their rentals have a center console which I read that some people like better. The full day rental (9-4) was $195 + 25 gas. They put a $500 deposit on your credit card. We went out to Waterlemon and then worked our way back. The only problem we had was that was the day the big weather system began that produced the 14 ft swells and it wasn't so easy to drop off a person with stuff on the beaches and then swim from the mooring. I would definitely recommend renting one. We had fun despite the weather.

lovethebeach · Post by **lovethebeach** » Sun Mar 30, 2008 3:32 pm

Do any of the dinghies hold three or four adults? There is a group of nine adults coming down and we are trying to figure out how many dinghies we need to reserve. Thanks, Carla

shoemak38 · Post by **shoemak38** » Mon Mar 31, 2008 12:23 pm

max is four per dinghy from Calypso

Connie · Post by **Connie** » Mon Mar 31, 2008 4:48 pm

Noah's little arks will hold 6, but that's pushing it with the weight and it slows down the dinghy. I couldn't see 6 in the dinghys anyway with all your snorkeling gear.

lovethebeach · Post by **lovethebeach** » Mon Mar 31, 2008 8:26 pm

Our ninth person isn't coming down until a couple days into our trip. Maybe we will do the dinghy rental at the beginning. That way we could rent just two dinghies from Calypso.

Barry · Post by **Barry** » Tue Apr 01, 2008 8:14 am

Do you need any experience in order to rent a dingy or can you be an amateur?

Connie · Post by **Connie** » Tue Apr 01, 2008 8:22 am

HI Barry.

First I'd like to say that I'm Miss Safety when it comes to boats. We own one out of NJ and I would never take any chances because things can go wrong fast with any watercraft.

The dinghys are alot of fun. When you get there, if you go through Noahs, they make you watch a video about picking up the engine, putting it down, mooring and using the anchor It takes maybe 10 minutes at the most. Everyone has to watch it.

You don't need previous experience and I found it really easy to navigate. Stay near the shore line and you'll be fine. When trying to beach the dinghy be EXTREMELY careful of any coral or reefs you may see. Just take it slow and you'll be fine.

I found the hardest thing with the dinghys is getting back into them. They say you can step on a fin type thing on the engine, but i didn't like that idea. They also told us to use your flippers and just hop on in...that didn't work for me either.

The only thing that worked, because I am a woman with limited arm strength is my husband pulling me in with both of his hands. One on my vest and one on my bathing suit. Laughing my a** off didn't help, but we made it. You also have the option of swimming to shore and getting in the dinghy that way.

Good luck...lots of fun!

Barry · Post by **Barry** » Fri Apr 04, 2008 9:46 am

Connie:

Thanks for the info. My wife and I will be first timers in July and we're going to give the dinghy a shot.

VayCay · Post by **VayCay** » Fri Apr 04, 2008 1:36 pm

thanks for the posts on this...you have answered a lot of questions about dinghy's that i have yet to ask. I do have one question though...Is it worth making a reservation at noah's in June, or should I just wait until we get there to make sure that sea/weather conditons are appropriate??? If reservations ARE reccomended, should we choose to move our day due to inclement weather, is noah's flexible about this? I imagine they don't want people going out on bad weather/stormy seas to protect their safety reputation and would be flexible, but just wanna ask people what there experience has been.

usvi-on-line

Login or Register with your Facebook account

Dinghy rental questions

Dinghy rental questions