Blackbeard Long Weekend

[kjunheart]

Brian and I just got back from our first Blackbeard’s cruise and absolutely loved it! If you can deal with camping at sea, then it is the cruise for you.

The accommodations are tight so don’t kid yourself into thinking they aren’t. But for what you pay, they are good enough. Even the salt-water shower wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. Of course it did help that the salt water was hot & then being able to rinse with fresh water. I still wonder how a woman can shave in a saltwater shower without getting razor burn? Ouch!!! If anyone can answer that I’d love to hear it.

I don’t know what the other boats and crews are like, but I think we lucked out with the crew we had…mainly the cook, Colby. I can honestly say that there wasn’t one meal that was mediocre. Everything was delicious! We wish him well at Culinary School. Captain Pete was an intriguing guy. He was really laid back and someone that was very easy to be around. The Dive Mistress, Karen gave excellent dive briefings and made them very interesting. They along with the rest of the crew really busted their butts while we were aboard.

What can I say about the diving? I was surprised with the visibility. While it wasn’t the best, I had expected it to be a lot worse given the fact that Hurricane Jeanne had passed through there less than a week before. It was a nice bonus.

The dives sites the first day weren’t all that great. The first two were shallow, vis wasn't great and they were just so-so. But the last dive I did on Saturday was beautiful. I am sure Blackbeard's does easier dives the first day to help people who haven’t been diving in a while get comfortable with the water again. But Saturday and Sunday, the diving was wonderful and everything I had hoped for. We saw all kinds of things like eels, huge grouper, nurse and caribbean reef sharks and an octopus chowing on a conch among other things. I even got to see a goldentail eel and a spotted eel fighting. That was absolutely amazing!

We did a bit of everything in the three days we dove. Wrecks, reefs, deep dives, twilight/night dives and last but not least the shark dive. The deep dive was a wall dive and it was pretty cool. It was the first time I had been that deep...118 ft. so it was pretty exciting for me. Unfortunately we overshot the boat and had to swim quite a way against the current. It reminded me that I really need to work on my nav skills! :sigh_2:

My favorite dive was the shark dive. It was my favorite for two reasons. First, the dive site itself was beautiful. Once the feeding was done, we were able to explore the area. There were beautiful coral heads, huge lobster, tons of fish and incredible swim thrus. And second, of course, was watching the sharks. It was really something to watch them go from swimming at a calm, relaxed pace, to excited then back down to calm. They are so graceful. I could watch them for hours. I will say that the shark dive wasn’t exactly what I expected which was good and bad. Good because most shark dives that I have heard of are filled with frenzied sharks and these sharks just got very excited …probably not a bad thing for my first shark dive. It was also bad for the same reason…I wanted to see them frenzied. :crossbone: But then you can’t have it both ways. If anyone is vaguely interested in seeing a shark feeding, I think this one is “tame” enough for beginners.

The last thing that really made the trip were the other passengers. I don’t know if we were just lucky to have such a great group or if all of the cruises were like this one. I do know that even the Dive Mistress commented that we were an easy bunch. What I do know is that no one is a stranger after a few days on a boat like this…especially after the rum punch at night!!!

If you get the chance and you can do without all the five star accommodations, then go on this cruise! We are already planning our next trip but it will be a 7-day instead of 5-day trip.

Sandy

 

[cindy0519]

Sandy,

Thanks for posting this informative review. We head to Miami Friday morning for our 5 day trip with Blackbeard's. We were originally scheduled to depart on Sept 17 but were cancelled due to hurricane Jeanne, so were rescheduled for Oct. 8. Must give many "thumbs up" to the BB's staff on how they handled the cancelling and rescheduling of our trip - it was VERY smooth! Even no fee to reschedule with the airline. If this and your report are any indication of the way the trip will go for us - it should indeed be awesome and well worth the wait!

Glad to hear the visability was better than you expected. We have been slightly concerned about it since Jeanne just went through that very area. Though I guess it can't be any worse than the vis here in Ohio's cold quarries even at its worst.

If you don't mind maybe you could answer a couple of questions for me... 1) which boat were you on -just curious 2) which dive (#) was the shark dive - hoping is it on Sunday so DH can get comfortable with the crew and how things are done- he is really nervous about the shark dive 3) when was your last dive? I'd assume from the schedule that it is either Sunday or at the latest Monday morning. 4) Any sites you'd recommend we ask about possibly going to? 5) how cold was the cabin at night? I always freeze and was thinking about bringing along a lite blanket just in case

Would love to see pic's if you have any. Thanks again for the report... makes me even more excited for Friday to get here!

 

[kjunheart]

If you don't mind maybe you could answer a couple of questions for me... 1) which boat were you on -just curious 2) which dive (#) was the shark dive - hoping is it on Sunday so DH can get comfortable with the crew and how things are done- he is really nervous about the shark dive 3) when was your last dive? I'd assume from the schedule that it is either Sunday or at the latest Monday morning. 4) Any sites you'd recommend we ask about possibly going to? 5) how cold was the cabin at night? I always freeze and was thinking about bringing along a lite blanket just in case

Would love to see pic's if you have any. Thanks again for the report... makes me even more excited for Friday to get here!

1) which boat were you on -just curious We were on the Sea Explorer. From what Bruce said (one of the owners who was the first mate during this trip), it is the boat most of the captains prefer because of the crew quarters. But the boats are pretty much the same.
2) which dive (#) was the shark dive The shark dive was the 1st dive on Monday. I think it was originally planned for Saturday but we ended up doing two deep dives instead. Tell him not to be nervous about this shark dive. It went like this …we all get suited up and go in all in a row (other dives you enter at your leisure). When you get to the bottom, you are directed to sit in front of a sacrificial coral head so that you will not be in the way of any shark that is eager to get to the food. Once everyone is settled they start up the dingy and bring the food above the arena and then it is lowered down to the center where the sharks feed. The kabob is lowered by a rope and not fed by a person. After they feed, they become docile again and pretty much leave the area. What is wild is that the sharks know the drill. A couple of them did come near the boat when we first got there, but none were around when we entered the water. The crew explained their behavior. The sharks show up in the general area when the boat arrives. If they hear a pair of divers enter here and there, then they know it isn’t a feeding. But if they hear divers enter one after another, then they know it is a feeding and go to the arena. While everyone is getting situated, the sharks are just hanging out. But the moment they hear the dingy start up, they start swimming faster and get a little more excited. And it wasn’t longer than a minute after the food was gone that the sharks calmed down and split. So tell him it really isn’t bad for his first shark feeding.
3) when was your last dive? It was late morning/early afternoon on Monday. I believe the times and type of dives are up in the air until that day. The captain and dive master decide where to dive based on weather, current, vis, etc. They want you to have the best dives possible. But the last dive was maybe 20 feet and was early enough for most people to fly the next day. But it was also shallow enough for people to enjoy snorkeling if they had earlier flights
4) It is funny you mention cabin temperature. There were only two things that were not so good on the trip and both were during the crossing. One was the 6-8 foot seas (I say it was 8-10) and the other was the cabin temp. I had gone to bed about 11pm and woke up about 12:30 or 1:00 because both Brian and I hit the ceiling a couple of times from being bounced by waves and we were burning up! After sweating & being tossed around for an hour, both Brian and I decided to brave the seas and go topside where we were immediately drenched. Brian said it was over 90 in the cabin! Come to find out the a/c in our cabin had completely frozen over and they had to take a heat gun to defrost it. We were finally able to go back to bed around 3ish and slept like babies in the a/c. After that I was perfectly happy but then I like it when it feels like a meatlocker! Another cabin said they froze the last night. They do provide blankets on each bunk. A couple of words of advice…even if you don’t get seasick, take something just as a preventative because there were some really miserable people hanging off the side of the boat that night. And if there is something wrong with your cabin, bathroom, etc. let someone in the crew know. As soon as the crew found out, the started working on it immediately. We had just assumed they knew or that it was normal. They can’t fix it if they don’t know about it. But on the bright side of it, if I hadn’t gone topside, I wouldn’t have been able to enjoy how beautiful the night was despite the pounding seas.
5) Other things that were recommended to me I found useful: bring clothespins. They do provide some, but if you can find the heavy duty clamp kind, they work the best. If you can’t the regular kind are good and you can never have enough; Bring heavy base insulated mugs. They were great because they didn’t spill and kept my drink colder than in a regular cup; Hats and sunscreen. Even the people who said they “never burn” and who put on sunscreen burned. Keep applying the sunscreen every 2 hours…trust me!

And the best advice is to be ready to dive and relax! I hope you enjoy it as much as we did. As soon as I can download the pics, I’ll post a couple.

Sandy

 

[cindy0519]

Sandy:


The shark dive sounds much better (read ...safer) the way that you describe it. And I think for us.. not so frenzied and more docile is a good thing ! I think I have DH talked into it but that is not to say he will do it for sure. It will just have to be a wait and see type thing for us I think.

Makes a lot of sense that the last few dives are shallow and done on Monday. We booked Wed. afternoon flights just in case and are staying the night Tuesday in a South Beach hotel. So we will have plenty of time between the last dive and our flights home.

Glad to hear they have blankets. I like the room chilly and then bury under blankets. Thanks for the pointers on reminding the crew if something is wrong... I too would have likely thought they already knew.

We have spring clips all packed to hold items on the deck -thanks to someones earlier suggestion. We also have 4 packages of Bonine between the 3 of us so I think we are all set on the sick sea meds. We went deep sea fishing in Gulf Stream and quickly began singing the praises of Bonine when we hit the 8-10ft waves! We had neglected to take anything on the dive boat an few days earlier and ended up feeding the fishes.

I look forward to seeing your pictures and hopefully having of few of our own to share when we return next week.

Thanks for all your input!!!