divesergeant
Contributor
Aquanauts- This is what happens when an already good dive op ups its game.
Aquanauts / True Blue Bay Resort- April 2018
It had been nine years since we were last here. We loved it back then and had brought back lots of spices for mom, who is quite into cooking. For years we would gather for a meal and she had prepared it with her Grenada spices. Grenada always has been on our ‘must-return-to’ list but there are so many other islands we’ve never been to. But now we had to return. Mom was out of spices. We booked flights and a room and made our plans. Brought mom along this time, too!
Our memory was of a beautiful, friendly island, beautiful, friendly people and a dive shop that was well run and very pleasant to dive with. All true still. Just more so.
The island itself seems cleaner than we remember, with old hurricane damage having been carted away. There are still not that many stray-looking dogs or cats running around, although it is inevitable that it happens. Dollar cabs are still all over so transport is easy. Vincent’s Taxi service handled any transport outside of dollar cab hours or routes and, as before, Mandoo provided the island tours.
For historical reference, here is out 2009 trip report… DiveSergeant's Grenada Trip Report- Part 1
But this is ScubaBoard, after all, so let’s get straight on to the important stuff, diving.
As I type, we are a week and a half into our two week trip. Aquanauts has excelled is all areas. Our dive groups have never been more than six divers. On boats with more than that, they send out extra dive masters and split the groups so you never have to deal with a herd of divers.
I’ll pause here for a special shout out to fellow divers Teresa and Bill from Atlanta, Mary from the UK (who is one hell of a lionfish spotter!) and ‘Tennessee’ from Idaho.
Most dives to date have been around to the west side toward and in the marine park. We’ve only dived the Atlantic side one morning and holy crap the current was screaming and the vis short. But we saw tons of porcupine fish, lobsters, file fish, etc. Couldn’t hardly get any pictures due to the current, though.
The west side is still beautiful diving. Lots of spotted moray, juvie jackknife fish, several frogfish (woo-hooo!) and some fascinating sand critters. We spotted a ‘herd’ of articulated brittle stars on a sand patch just after the dive master, Paul, spotted a quite unusual to see sea robin. You could hear him whooping in his regulator when he spotted it like a kid on Christmas morning.
Lionfish Hunting
I love to dive and see the pretty reef scenes. And the lionfish are hell on the reef. And lionfish taste great. And lionfish breed like mice. And I love to hunt. See where this is going?
Yup. I took the PADI course here at Aquanauts, bought a spear and went to it. The first two days were bountiful. The last two days not so much. Still, we’ve been dining on lionfish several times now as have others with whom I’ve shared the bounty. UK Mary took some to the Dodgy Dock restaurant and they prepared her some proper beer battered lionfish. She said they were delightful. I’ve been rolling them through melted butter, coating them in seasoned breadcrumbs and then sautéing them just until done in a pan of butter and olive oil. Let me pause whilst I dab the drool off my chin….. OK. I’m back…. Tomorrow will hopefully yield more lionfish as I have another recipe to try. Dive Master Isaac said the best way is to gently dry season them with salt and pepper and then cook them in a pan with just enough coconut milk to cover the filets.
As a note about hunting of paramount importance, it is imperative to maintain good buoyancy and good awareness to avoid damaging the reef while attempting to maneuver for a shot. It is very much like photography in this regard and all shooters, whether digital of spear have a responsibility to take great care.
On one dive, we found a 4-5 foot diameter spot of sponge alone in a sand patch with a huge lobster and over a dozen lionfish around it. Dive Master Paul and I went to work. Three lionfish hid under the lobster. The others ended up in our container and fed some grateful folks from around the dive shop. There never seems to be a shortage of people happy to be given some filets.
Notes about Aquanauts…
Three boats, all well maintained. Good briefings including separation procedures and marine conservation issues. Lots of staff on board; captain, several dive masters and often a non-diving assistant. Boats are never crowded and divers are typically split into groups. We saw divisions by skill level for students when they had classes going and at times they divided us up by nitrox vs. air due to bottom times and such. Boarding after dives went smoothly with float lines typically being deployed to grasp onto. We went out today with a boat captain, dive master and three divers. A dive shop from Toronto Canada is here and they had a boat to themselves. Aquanauts could have taken their largest boat and added the three of us to them and still not had a crowded boat, but they decided to make the groups smaller and we liked it very much.
Notes about True Blue Bay and the onsite restaurant, Dodgy Dock
TBB is as we remember. Friendly, polite, professional staff, beautiful grounds and nice rooms.
We were worried about Dodgy Dock as Trip Advisor ratings were spotty with many complaints about poor service. We have not experienced this. Yes, it is the Caribbean and things happen on island time. Sometimes service is casual. Typically, they are fairly prompt about orders and dinner but then they relax about bringing the bill. Feel free to ask fort it if you need, or just kick Back and enjoy the ambience until they bring it.
Pictures
Right. Photos. Ummmmm, photobucket screwed me with no longer allowing third party display so I need to sort out another picture host. Any suggestions?
Coming up after the break…..
Tomorrow, or later perhaps, I’ll add comments on our tours and on land activities, but it is now bedtime.
Cheers!
Aquanauts / True Blue Bay Resort- April 2018
It had been nine years since we were last here. We loved it back then and had brought back lots of spices for mom, who is quite into cooking. For years we would gather for a meal and she had prepared it with her Grenada spices. Grenada always has been on our ‘must-return-to’ list but there are so many other islands we’ve never been to. But now we had to return. Mom was out of spices. We booked flights and a room and made our plans. Brought mom along this time, too!
Our memory was of a beautiful, friendly island, beautiful, friendly people and a dive shop that was well run and very pleasant to dive with. All true still. Just more so.
The island itself seems cleaner than we remember, with old hurricane damage having been carted away. There are still not that many stray-looking dogs or cats running around, although it is inevitable that it happens. Dollar cabs are still all over so transport is easy. Vincent’s Taxi service handled any transport outside of dollar cab hours or routes and, as before, Mandoo provided the island tours.
For historical reference, here is out 2009 trip report… DiveSergeant's Grenada Trip Report- Part 1
But this is ScubaBoard, after all, so let’s get straight on to the important stuff, diving.
As I type, we are a week and a half into our two week trip. Aquanauts has excelled is all areas. Our dive groups have never been more than six divers. On boats with more than that, they send out extra dive masters and split the groups so you never have to deal with a herd of divers.
I’ll pause here for a special shout out to fellow divers Teresa and Bill from Atlanta, Mary from the UK (who is one hell of a lionfish spotter!) and ‘Tennessee’ from Idaho.
Most dives to date have been around to the west side toward and in the marine park. We’ve only dived the Atlantic side one morning and holy crap the current was screaming and the vis short. But we saw tons of porcupine fish, lobsters, file fish, etc. Couldn’t hardly get any pictures due to the current, though.
The west side is still beautiful diving. Lots of spotted moray, juvie jackknife fish, several frogfish (woo-hooo!) and some fascinating sand critters. We spotted a ‘herd’ of articulated brittle stars on a sand patch just after the dive master, Paul, spotted a quite unusual to see sea robin. You could hear him whooping in his regulator when he spotted it like a kid on Christmas morning.
Lionfish Hunting
I love to dive and see the pretty reef scenes. And the lionfish are hell on the reef. And lionfish taste great. And lionfish breed like mice. And I love to hunt. See where this is going?
Yup. I took the PADI course here at Aquanauts, bought a spear and went to it. The first two days were bountiful. The last two days not so much. Still, we’ve been dining on lionfish several times now as have others with whom I’ve shared the bounty. UK Mary took some to the Dodgy Dock restaurant and they prepared her some proper beer battered lionfish. She said they were delightful. I’ve been rolling them through melted butter, coating them in seasoned breadcrumbs and then sautéing them just until done in a pan of butter and olive oil. Let me pause whilst I dab the drool off my chin….. OK. I’m back…. Tomorrow will hopefully yield more lionfish as I have another recipe to try. Dive Master Isaac said the best way is to gently dry season them with salt and pepper and then cook them in a pan with just enough coconut milk to cover the filets.
As a note about hunting of paramount importance, it is imperative to maintain good buoyancy and good awareness to avoid damaging the reef while attempting to maneuver for a shot. It is very much like photography in this regard and all shooters, whether digital of spear have a responsibility to take great care.
On one dive, we found a 4-5 foot diameter spot of sponge alone in a sand patch with a huge lobster and over a dozen lionfish around it. Dive Master Paul and I went to work. Three lionfish hid under the lobster. The others ended up in our container and fed some grateful folks from around the dive shop. There never seems to be a shortage of people happy to be given some filets.
Notes about Aquanauts…
Three boats, all well maintained. Good briefings including separation procedures and marine conservation issues. Lots of staff on board; captain, several dive masters and often a non-diving assistant. Boats are never crowded and divers are typically split into groups. We saw divisions by skill level for students when they had classes going and at times they divided us up by nitrox vs. air due to bottom times and such. Boarding after dives went smoothly with float lines typically being deployed to grasp onto. We went out today with a boat captain, dive master and three divers. A dive shop from Toronto Canada is here and they had a boat to themselves. Aquanauts could have taken their largest boat and added the three of us to them and still not had a crowded boat, but they decided to make the groups smaller and we liked it very much.
Notes about True Blue Bay and the onsite restaurant, Dodgy Dock
TBB is as we remember. Friendly, polite, professional staff, beautiful grounds and nice rooms.
We were worried about Dodgy Dock as Trip Advisor ratings were spotty with many complaints about poor service. We have not experienced this. Yes, it is the Caribbean and things happen on island time. Sometimes service is casual. Typically, they are fairly prompt about orders and dinner but then they relax about bringing the bill. Feel free to ask fort it if you need, or just kick Back and enjoy the ambience until they bring it.
Pictures
Right. Photos. Ummmmm, photobucket screwed me with no longer allowing third party display so I need to sort out another picture host. Any suggestions?
Coming up after the break…..
Tomorrow, or later perhaps, I’ll add comments on our tours and on land activities, but it is now bedtime.
Cheers!
