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It’s fair to not dive with them again, especially after your second bad experience, but to throw out inflammatory words like negligent and stupid is a little over the top, and your report doesn’t (yet) rise to that level IMO.Thanks to @Divin'Papaw for diving with me yesterday honestly that was the best part of the day. I am going to add some of my thoughts to Jim's review below adding my view to his excellent points.
1. Spot on! Talk about a cattle boat, getting from the shaded seats to the swim deck was like going through a cattle chute. Also no storage space at all under most of the seating.
2. What else can I say here except that is just plain negligent\stupid! I did see the DM count people but if your count is short how do you know who is missing.
3. I wonder here if the DM actually had any familiarity with the first site ( Sea Emperor/Aqua Zoo) guessing not. The dockside briefing was as Jim said minimal it was like he was just checking of a box "safety brief" done. Oh they did also say no Deco dives I will give them that but that is the only thing I will give them.
4. Yep what got me on this also was this statement "just swim west you will find it' that is not a briefing. I attribute this to an inexperienced captain who doesn't know the area. That is no excuse though reading the depth finder would show you the bottom contours oh and depth. I also feel it is irresponsible to drop divers in the water on a second dive that is way deeper than the water on the first dive site(70').
5. Again back to the DM's familiarity with the site did he have any? As for the current I believe I heard him say it was "ripping" well if you have ever dove down here you know what a ripping current is and that current was not it! I think it was said as an excuse as to his inability to tie off and maybe for the group we had on the boat from out of the area who had not dove in currents like they can get here.
Ok now a couple of notes of my own.
1. The boat owner: He has a bad rep down here from most things I have heard. Yesterday just affirmed my own experience with him 6 years ago that I alluded to earlier in the thread. I won't go into details of it but let's say I almost gave up diving because of him. I decided to give "him" a second chance like I do with most businesses but he won't get a third!
2. There was no gear rinse station at the dock (unless I missed it).
In closing let's just say I will not be diving with them again especially after Jim told me I was ready to graduate to diving in Jupiter.
I have been a boat DM and an excellent liveaboard captain for 30 years, and I could not tie into whatever wreck you said you were at, and sometimes you just miss the drop.
Did anyone explain the importance of a muster after boarding but before boat movement to the captain and DM? Did anyone explain how Captain Kyaa lost her license? Did anyone tell the DM how to jump a wreck? I don’t necessarily mean you, but if you and PawPaw have experience on this wreck, maybe the DM could have used words of advice and encouragement instead of grumbling and unhappiness (and believe me, you don’t need to be told that a diver is unhappy, you know it by unspoken communications).
Again, I don’t know the boat and I’m not likely to find out, as I dive with JDC when I’m in that part of Florida. I think that negligent and stupid are big words to use here, unless, of course, you did try to explain DM etiquette and were rebuffed.