Diving For Sunken Rum Off The Coast Of St. Thomas

Rum and the Caribbean are inescapably connected, a match made in paradise. Sunken treasure, booty, gold and silver are also tied to the Caribbean thanks to the pirates and colonial history of the islands. Now what if I were to tell you that some of the sunken treasure comes in the form of bottles of rum, and that these bottles are easily reachable from the southern shore of St. Thomas, would you be interested?

I thought you might.

During the Castaway Winter Beach Bash at Bolongo Bay Resort on St. Thomas, a bunch of us were lucky enough to find some of this rum. We snorkeled out into the shallow blue water bay and there it was, just sitting there on the sea floor.

Okay, so these bottles of rum weren’t a couple hundred years old. In fact they are made just 40 miles south on St. Croix and the label on them reads Cruzan. That didn’t make the experience of scavenging for rum on the ocean bottle any less thrilling. It would of helped if I would have returned to the beach with a bottle, but that’s the way treasure hunts go, you win some and lose some.

Bolongo Bay Resort has been doing the snorkel rum hunt for quite some time and is a highlight with the guests. I haven’t heard of another resort in the entire Caribbean doing anything like it. It’s a genius idea. Strap on some fins, paste a mask to your face and go in search of rum. Pure heaven!

It’s not all fun and games though. As you can imagine everyone wants to find a bottle, competition can be intense. You first have to get into the water with your fins on without falling. Then you have to dodge the sea turtles that are constantly heading to the surface for air. Finally you have more people in the water than rum on the bottom, so you better have a sharp eye. I did spot a bottle in about 13 feet of water. I notice a girl saw it as well. I could have let my pirate instincts take over and beat her to the treasure, but I swam off to explore deeper waters. Like I said, in the end I returned to the beach without any treasure, but the gracious staff at Bolongo Bay had a smile and a bottle waiting for me. Thanks guys!

When we started to plan the Castaway Winter Beach Bash and I learned about the rum hunt I knew something like that would be perfect for our rowdy group. Bolongo Bay Resort puts on this popular activity once a week. So if your heading to St. Thomas and looking for a great place to stay with lots of activities, give them a try. It’s a little slice of Caribbean magic.

Cheers,

RumShopRyan

Please Subscribe If You Love The Caribbean!
Subscribe to Daily Updates
Facebook.com/RumShopRyan
Twitter.com/RumShopRyan
Google+
Pinterest