Cruise Trip Report - January 2010

[parzdiver]

We started with an early morning flight out of Philly to San Juan, Puerto Rico. Then on the bus to the ship – Royal Caribbean's Serenade of the Seas. Gorgeous ship, awesome service, great food. This is our 14th cruise and I have to say this is the nicest class of ship in Royal Caribbean's fleet. The Voyager (and bigger) ships are too big for my taste, but this is an updated ship with a great layout. The seven night itinerary took us from Puerto Rico to St. Thomas, St. Croix, St. Kitts, Dominica, and Barbados. I dove at all locations other than Barbados. In Barbados we went to The Boatyard – a great beach/bar close to the ship. But enough about the surface intervals, and on to the dives!

One side note – my scuba tool and wrenches were seized prior to boarding the ship. I did get them back after the cruise and could have gotten them back at each port if I had wanted. Funny thing is, my shears made it through that screening and I decided to leave them on the ship when diving. Now I know to leave behind the tools in addition to my dive knife.

 

[parzdiver]

I booked the St. Thomas dives through the ship. The dive operator was Underwater Safari. There were seven of us from the ship along with two “local” divers. This on a boat designed to hold up to forty. We had plenty of space and could stretch out. The boat was a large flat platform, perfect for diving. One strange thing, the dive op had AL-72's instead of 80's.

The two local divers did their dives on their own and the seven of us were split between the two dive masters. I was with two other divers and dive master Russ. As is typical with these Caribbean operations, there were no real buddies, just a group dive.

The first dive was at Sprat Reef. Great healthy coral, lots of fish. As soon as we hit the bottom, the DM spotted a nice size Sting Ray in the sand, it took off as soon as we got close and I got some decent pictures. Overall good visibility and a fun dive.

The second dive was at the Navy Barges. I had a flashback, since way back in 2000, the second of my OW certification dives was on the Navy Barges. So long ago.... Anyway, the dive was a lot of fun, the open structure of the barges makes for great swim-throughs with tons of life clinging to the old structures.

 

[parzdiver]

This was my favorite day of diving. Booked two tanks through Cane Bay Dive Shop. Their shop was at the end of the pier and easy to find (big dive flag). The ship offered no excursion here so this was booked independently. I met with Tom (Scubaboarder Tool Belt) and his wife Rhonda (craftydiver). We'd discussed the trip prior to getting there, so it was nice having someone even a little “known” before the dives. I have to say they were excellent people to dive and just hang with on the SI. I'd dive with them again in a heartbeat. A 30 minute drive from the shop to the other side of the island we arrived at Cane Bay. It was just the three of us from the ship and two other divers staying locally. For once, it seemed everyone knew what they were doing, the DM, Demerit even commented, “Wow, I get to dive with real divers today!”

So five divers, one DM, and the captain set out in one of Cane Bay's small boats. It was essentially a zodiac with a small cover. We and our gear was all strapped in tight for a quick ride to North Star, our first dive site. After tying up to the mooring, the front part of the boat floor was unzipped, giving us a unique entry into the water (sit on the edge and forward roll). Apparently this type of boat is used by Navy Seals to minimize splash on entry. The site was a wall, starting at about 25 feet, dropping to 3200 feet. We stayed in the 80 foot range. Visibility was awesome and the wall was alive with coral and fish. One of the highlights was a small stingray shooting down the wall as soon as we passed over the edge. Rays are so incredibly graceful

After a nice long surface interval on shore, it was back to the boat and out to the “Training Ball.” Another great wall dive, and then up to an area known and the Nursery. This was a great place for me to practice my macro camera skills (they still need work). I encountered my first seahorse, clinging to the reef. The reef also had many cleaner shrimp hiding in the coral. These were very friendly and a few of us had our cuticles cleaned as the shrimp would swim onto your finger and clean off your dead skin.

 

[parzdiver]

Dove with Pro Divers St. Kitts. Captain and Dive Master Austin is the owner, driver and lead the dives. The boat was a large flat platform, which is the style of boat I love to dive from, but the group was larger than the previous two days. They did string a bottle with three regs at about 20 feet in case divers came up low. There were a good number of “silt kickers” on the dive. One group of four was all over the place, kicking sand and picking things up. I was assigned an Insta-Buddy, but she had issues and never even got underwater the first dive, so I spent my dives with Austin.

I didn't get the name of the reef or the wreck we dove. The first dive was on a sloping reef and I hit 87 feet. The profile was down to depth and then a nice slow assent up the reef with most of it spent around 50 feet. During the SI, I am told two of the silt kickers chased a nurse shark to 120 feet. Overall, the reefs were extremely healthy and the fish abundant.

After a short surface interval due to confusion about when the Carnival Ship (carney folk) was leaving, we hit a nice wreck. Broken in two, the stern section featured a nice swim-through. The bow was also intact and there was a giant (7foot?) barracuda hanging out on the side. Also near the site were a bulldozer and an old bus. I'm still not sure if they were intentionally put there or if they had been cargo that went down with the ship. The fish life around the wreck was abundant and healthy. The profile on the second dive was a max depth of 43 feet and I took a couple extra minutes on the safety stop at the end.

 

[parzdiver]

Dive Dominica was the operator for our dives this day. This was the most crowded group on the trip. From a dive perspective, the visibility and sites were second only to St. Croix, but we dove as one large group and there was again a large number of silt-kickers. My insta-buddy immediately swam off with a couple divers and left me back with the dive master bringing up the rear. Yay insta-no-buddy!

The first site was L'Abym, which translates to The Abyss or The Deep. It was an awesome mini-wall with TONS of life on it. This was my first encounter with a frog fish and there were so many spotted eels, I almost began to get bored with them. There were also crabs, fireworms, shrimp, and plenty of other critters.

The second site was Champagne. The first half of the dive was a gorgeous reef with more of the same marine life we saw on the first dive. The second half was in the shallows at around 10-15 feet. This area had many vents with bubbles rising out of the sea bed. There were also thermal vents, with hot water coming out of the floor. Everything near the vents was a bit discolored, probably from the sulfur content. Visibility was again awesome and the marine life abundant, except around the vents, life was a little sparse there.

 

[parzdiver]

I was diving a few new pieces of equipment which I'll give a brief overview here. The first change was in my BC. Diving regularly in Pennsylvania, my typical BC is a Halcyon stainless steel back-plate with a hog harness and 40 lb wing. For travel purposes, this is bulky and heavy. I invested in a Zeagle Express Tech. This is essentially a flexible plastic plate, 24 lb wing and plain harness with two cam-straps. After changing the buckle from plastic to stainless and adding four d-rings and two trim pockets on the cam-bands, the rigs weighs about 4.5 lbs. It is also very compact, so great for travel. I had half of my weight in the trim pockets and used a belt for the other half. I believe I'll add the zip weight pockets prior to my next trip. A weight belt was a bit of a hassle. The inflator hose was a bit long. It comes with a 19” hose, but there is a 16” hose available for a small price. Overall the Express Tech is a stable, inexpensive and flexible BC platform. For travel purposes, it is great, but I feel my BP/W is a more stable and more comfortable platform. For any dive specific trips, I think I'm going to stick with the BP/W, using the Express Tech with weight is a premium.

I also changed my hose configuration, going to a long primary hose (7'), with a bungied backup regulator (both Miflex hoses). The long hose tucked easily into the waist strap of the BC without a problem. I made sure the DM's and buddies were aware of the configuration. Many were a little perplexed, except the DM in St. Croix who had a similar rig for his “commercial diving” activities. The configuration was easy to work with and I practiced s-drills on the surface and changing regulators on my safety stops. I also added the Miflex HP hose. I love the Miflex hoses, they make it so easy to pack the regulator, even with the long hose. The only change I'm looking to make is going from the OMS surgical tubing necklace to a smaller shock-cord type necklace; the backup regulator was a bit lose on my neck.

While not new, I will mention my ScubaPro Seawing Nova fins. The more I use them, the more I like them. I'm getting very good at the frog kick with the fins and believe the combination of the fins and the kick and saving my gas. I still haven't been able to do a back kick (with any fin).

Well, that is it for now. Time to work on getting the pictures edited and posted. Thanks for reading my ramble.

 

[dsmclaughlin]

Thanks for the report. Can't wait to see the pics too!

 

[ScubaSteve]

Thanks for the report. Can't wait to see the pics too!

+1 here

 

[Jax]

Yikes! Is this the standard for trip reports?

:worship:

 

[Tool Belt]

Thanks Mike, great report. Hopefully I'll get my act together in a bit and add a little here and there.

Great diving and cruising with you.