Aruba - beware of Pelican/Unique Sports of Aruba

[quimbers]

Sorry scubasteve and robint (i'm not getting all of my email notifications yet so i only responded to the one I did get) i'm a newbie be patient haha!

The dive company never did answer our questions as to what happened. When my husband asked if they learned what went wrong, they said nothing did and they had never seen us before and knew of nothing that went wrong (obviously didnt read the paper then haha!) So another older diver on the boat tried to explain/guess, so this is me repeating what he said...since they didnt drop a current line the captain went a 1/2 hour in the direction of the surface current and we went 1 hour in the opposite direction on the bottom (like I said we were really motoring under the water, like a bullet out of a gun, we really overshot and went way to far due to the speed). So I have no doubt the boat wanted to return for us, in fact i'm sure he was looking, but in the wrong "area code" so to speak.

Our group stayed together well, both below and above water.

Not sure how long we were on the surface waiting but I know we arrived over 1-2 hours late back to the dock in our fishing boat.

Yes, totally agree about the air horn, the older diver had one and it wasnt heard by the fishing boat at all. It was as useless in our situation as my whistle. I'm getting the SS. Best value for the buck!!

Sure hope i've answered everyones questions, please dont take offense if i've forgotten anyone!

 

[mike_s]

The dive company never did answer our questions as to what happened.

I will add this... when I did my reservations with Pelican a couple years ago, I found them extremely slow to respond to any communication. And that was just reservations and requesting any information.

So I definately understand your issues with getting them to talk to you.

 

[tridacna]

I dived with them earlier this year. They are so totally focused on getting maximum $ per boat that they have forgotten all else. I had one lousy experience after another with them. I will NEVER dive with them again or recommend them to anyone else. They suck big time. They dumped divers onto any boat no matter what their level of experience was or where the boat was going. They only want to hear one sound: Kaching. I totally understand how this could have happened to you.

 

[ScubaSteve]

Sorry scubasteve.............

Apology not required. I just wanted to know because it really is important in trying to define what happened.

........since they didnt drop a current line the captain went a 1/2 hour in the direction of the surface current and we went 1 hour in the opposite direction on the bottom (like I said we were really motoring under the water, like a bullet out of a gun, we really overshot and went way to far due to the speed). So I have no doubt the boat wanted to return for us, in fact i'm sure he was looking, but in the wrong "area code" so to speak.........

Based on this assessment, I think that it is safe to say that this may boil down to "Smelly Stuff" happens. Unfortunately, there is no guarantee that a captain is going to know exactly what direction the current is on the bottom because it could switch at 10 feet, 50 feet or 80 feet. It is also easily possible for the current to change part way through the dive. So, the fact that the captain stayed on the surface expecting you guys to surface but not realizing you were "in another are code" , is not shocking. It is very unfortunate but not entirely shocking. It can happen and the next day the currents may have changed at the same location so they were running in the same direction again. And if there was ANY small or big wave action on the surface, it would be impossible to see and follow bubbles. So, again it is unfortunate but not that uncommon for certain areas of the world (I believe).

 

[quimbers]

Very true, Scubasteve, especially when you add in an offshore type of current.

Thank you El Orans for sending a notification along to Pelican. We also sent an email or two or three in total I think to Padi just so they were aware but never heard if the email was received or not.

Overall, we're very pleased we did not float over to Panama or whatever direction we were going in. We're also happy to have the newspaper article proving what happened and stating the Police warning the pelican captain, it just proves that we did exist, we did pay, we were there and it all happened as we said. So this is our way of letting the "tourists" know (unless they read the locals paper haha).

Happy diving to you all!

 

[Colorado Fred]

We have a time share on Aruba and I am familiar with Pelican/Unique and Malmok/Arashi. The site is well off shore with a strong current to the west, away from the island. If not for the fishing boat finding them the dive group would have been lost. There is no excuse for the dive boat leaving the divers. Their action should have been reported immediatly to PADI.
I, too, had a bad experience with Pelican/Unique. The boat driver was stoned out of his mind and should not have been allowed on the boat. They also cancelled a trip without notifing us booked divers, making it too late to join a group with another shop. I have dived my last with them. I will try to copy this report to the Aruba BB.

 

[Missdirected]

As soon as I saw this name - I knew I didn't need to read any further - though I did go ahead and glance at some of the posts. Same ol' story with this company. I was in Aruba a couple of years ago and some divers joined us that had been left by Pelican. Funny thing is this had also happened to them the year before and they were given free tickets to try the company again and well... as I said they ended up on our boat/Native Divers. The company had left them at the dock again.

As for your husband not wanting to divulge the name of this company on his thread.... I wouldn't worry too much. These people have a long bad history and I couldn't fathom them taking someone to court and having to divulge what a dangerous op they are. Not going to happen. A judge would laugh them onto the street, if he didn't string them up first.

I'd search for you but it is late and I am whipped, however, do a search here on SB about this company. I remember two threads, though a bit dated, on this company, and you will find a slew of stories on them.

 

[Missdirected]

Found one thread on it: http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-138511.html

 

[mike_s]

As soon as I saw this name - I knew I didn't need to read any further - though I did go ahead and glance at some of the posts. Same ol' story with this company. I was in Aruba a couple of years ago and some divers joined us that had been left by Pelican. Funny thing is this had also happened to them the year before and they were given free tickets to try the company again and well... as I said they ended up on our boat/Native Divers. The company had left them at the dock again.

Found one thread on it: http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-138511.html

Perhaps you posted the wrong thread link above by accident? Because it doesn't support anything that you said in the above post about Pelican "leaving people". About the only thing controversial in the thread is a few people saying to not use RedSail because they are known as a cattle boat operation.

Did you initially confuse RedSail with Pelican or something?

Also. can you define what you mean by "left by Pelican".
Did they leave them on the dock because they didn't get to the docky early enough to check in? or were they left in the water?

Reason I ask this is that "I got Left by Pelican once"! Can you believe it. They Left Me! No I'm not kidding! (they left me on the dock because I didn't get there in time... I arrived at the dock to see the dive boat pulling away... luckily they had another boat leaving to a different site in about 30 minutes. so I "survived" the ordeal. )

 

[Missdirected]

M- last night when I did they search - I did get sidetracked by RedSail. My bad. I lump both of them, and one other, in the same category; cattle, shorthanded, disorganized, bad to unsafe attention to customers/customer service.

Further, if they left you, that says it all