Barracuda/San Juan in late July?

[cvchief]

I need to try to get to these sites on my upcoming trip. Northernmost site I've dived is Villablanca Wall. My usual op doesn't go further up than that. Maybe I need to book a couple days with Aldora so I can do some check dives with them and then hit these.

I always dive with mirror, whistle, dsmb, and a 24h strobe light, but don't have a PLB. After reading about how they didn't even get planes in the air for over a day after the Scubaboard member went missing on a solo dive, I wonder if it's even worth it. Would a PLB signal make them move any faster? Or is your battery gonna die before they get around to looking for you?

Went the Mau boat sank mid channel, they got one call made on a cell and everyone and their brother was on it toot sweet. Including the Russian yacht "Ice", I think. They had their own helo and SAR training. 'We find people, then drink vodka, no?" If I remember, they scooped some and the navy got the rest.

 

[k4kafka]

I need to try to get to these sites on my upcoming trip. Northernmost site I've dived is Villablanca Wall. My usual op doesn't go further up than that. Maybe I need to book a couple days with Aldora so I can do some check dives with them and then hit these.

I always dive with mirror, whistle, dsmb, and a 24h strobe light, but don't have a PLB. After reading about how they didn't even get planes in the air for over a day after the Scubaboard member went missing on a solo dive, I wonder if it's even worth it. Would a PLB signal make them move any faster? Or is your battery gonna die before they get around to looking for you?

Aldora will certainly accommodate you if they have enough divers. In fact, there’s a boat going to Barracuda tomorrow morning.They also gladly supply the PLB.

 

[cvchief]

Aldora will certainly accommodate you if they have enough divers. In fact, there’s a boat going to Barracuda tomorrow morning.They also gladly supply the PLB.

Well technically a VHF emergency button....

 

[GameChanger]

I know Blue Angel will dive Barracuda if there are enough experienced divers on board.

 

[jdevic]

Just to report back:
I ended up diving with Pepe's for the week and they took 6 of us to Barracuda and San Juan on the 4th day. Our group included a father and his teenage son and daughter (who were both fairly experienced divers despite their age), and an expat from NC living in Coz who joined us for the day. The water was very calm at the Coral Princess pier but we were having 3 ft waves at Barracuda, and we were the only boat there. We went down anyway and stayed on top of the wall mostly. Luckily, even though the current was strong, it was very manageable (even with my Go fins) and we did not encounter any sudden down currents. The young girl did get a bit uncomfortable and the DM held her hand the whole way. Other than that, it went fairly smoothly. The 2nd dive at San Juan also went fairly smoothly with moderate current.
Overall, I enjoyed the dives and I am glad that I checked them off my list. That said, I wasn't blown away by the sites and we did not see anything particularly interesting. I will probably stick to the more convenient southern sites, instead of going out of the way to the north. Palancar Cave/Bricks are still my fav sites in Coz I think.

 

[Rob9876]

Just to report back:
I ended up diving with Pepe's for the week

Would you mind discussing the other dives you did and how you like Pepe's? We've been thinking of trying them since we often stay north of town. Not much recent info on them on Scubaboard. I was not sure how far south they usually go -- we especially like the swim-throughs at Columbia Deep. Also curious if you were able to get a night dive in, and where?

 

[jdevic]

Would you mind discussing the other dives you did and how you like Pepe's? We've been thinking of trying them since we often stay north of town. Not much recent info on them on Scubaboard. I was not sure how far south they usually go -- we especially like the swim-throughs at Columbia Deep. Also curious if you were able to get a night dive in, and where?

It was my first time diving with them and they were very good. They had a busy week at the time with a big group coming from Chicago, so I was on one of their contract boat the first 2 days (the shop next to Scuba Club) and then the rest of the time with Pepe's own boats and DMs (they got 3 boats I think). The boats were roomy with max 8 divers. They all have big engines and are some of the fastest on the island. It took about 40-45 minutes to Palancar Bricks and they do dive all southern sites. We left the hotel pier at 8:30am each day and back by 1pm. Because of the fast boat, we were usually one of the first at the southern sites.

I didn't bother with night dives this time but the group did go to Chankanaab I recall.