A brief belated update: we had a wonderful trip.
As I suspected, my dad was a disaster (mildly put) the first day. At Doc’s advice, we scheduled a refresher with Patty our first morning, which was enormously helpful, and we also did her buoyancy workshop on land after lunch. After going out on the boat that afternoon and watching him flail around and failing to control his buoyancy, we got him a private DM for the rest of the trip. That was really really helpful, both for his safety and skills development, and also for my own peace of mind and enjoyment of the rest of the dive.
David spent a ton of extra time working on buoyancy skills with him on the drop-off dives, especially after we got into the shallows by the dive platform, and we scheduled an in-water buoyancy workshop with Joe mid-week. He went out with my dad on the boat in the morning and observed, spent the SI on the boat walking him through observations and skill knowledge, then spent a ton of time with him on the drop-off dive on the way back practicing those skills in water. I tagged along and observed; felt a huge “proud daughter” moment seeing him sail through the hoops and hover mid-water; total 180 from the first day we arrived.
I can’t say enough good words about all the dive staff at CCV; they were extraordinarily patient and dedicated to balancing his safety and skills development, and really went the extra mile in figuring out what was wrong and helping him fix it. The change in his skills and his confidence was like night and day. He went from blowing through a tank in less than thirty minutes to making it nearly an hour and surfacing with 700 psi. Uncontrolled buoyancy yo-yo-ing turned into lovely stable buoyancy control; seahorse-ing into nice horizontal trim. Honestly, it felt like a little miracle.
And I had a wonderful time; I can see why other folks might get tired of the drop-off dive….personally I loved it. I loved getting to really know a place, and the confidence in navigation that comes along with it, and knowing where to look for certain creatures - from the little blue translucent Pederson's cleaner shrimp in their anemones to the garden eels near the chain. At one point we ran into a large Goliath grouper in the channel when crossing over from Newman’s Wall back to CCV; we didn’t see it, but we were in the water at the time another guest saw a great hammerhead in the water between the PA and the chain. We did a late afternoon shore dive near the end of the week, on our own, which I would never have had the confidence to do in a place I didn’t know, and saw so many Eagle rays cruising around in the late afternoon sunlight.
Some other highlights: We did a guided night dive with our DM along CCV wall the last night we were there, and I finally saw my first octopus in the wild - so pleased. I loved the crazy Dr. Seussian growth on the bow of the Prince Albert, and our great dive at Mary’s Place, which we had all to ourselves that day, and spent time afterwards exploring some of the nearby cracks in the reef.
And everyone was incredibly friendly and welcoming. We were there the same time as Doc, who gave me a wonderful little magnifying glass, which I put to great use on the drop-out dives on the Prince Albert and the walls. He also repainted the tabletop map’s guide to the front yard while we were there. Another special moment was getting to attend Doc Radawski's talk on Roatan and hear his perspective on how the island has changed over the years; Doc Radawski passed shortly after our visit, and I feel very lucky that we got to meet and hear his memories of the place.
And, finally, thanks to Doc and all of you that weighed in with advice; going in with a plan and the confidence that CCV would help us work out whatever issues that might arise made a huge difference....and I can second and triple confirm all the wonderful things said about Patty and her operation. We couldn't have had a better experience.
