Itote
Contributor
Well, I'm back. No worse for ware considering that I tried to drink all of the Meyers Rum that was available on the cruise ship(note to self: Self, it is not possible to drink all of the rum available on a cruise ship so dont try it anymore)That being said, I had a wonderful time. I made two unscheduled dives in Jamaica(by unscheduled I mean I hadn't planned to dive there but my friend Kevin talked me into it) Let me go back and say that Me and my family, my best friend of 25 years and his family and another very good friend of ours and his family all booked the same cruise so we could go together. Very good time had by all! Back to the dive stuff.... Anywho, Kevin and Bo(our other buddy) hadn't planned on diving but took there gear along just in case. I had my stuff cause I had already booked a dive for the Caymans. ..... So Bo and Kevin decided they wanted to dive while we were at Port in Jamaica and asked me to go along. After much argument(yeah right) I reluctantly agreed to go. Not having previously made arangements to dive we hussled off the ship and ventured forth to find a dive op. Turns out there was one right where you get off the ship.After a couple of minutes of discussion I had got us three spots on the boat(turned out to be the same op that was waiting for people off the cruise ship. We paid our $70 smackers and boarded. After loading everyones gear, we went out to our first dive site which was the Jamaica Grande. It was a wall dive. The DM said we were going to 70 feet and look around for a while then make our way back to the line and resurface as a group. Anyway, we descended and start to prowl around. I was shocked at the lack of life on the reef. We saw a school of blue Wrasses of some sort and a couple of Jumbo Caribbean crabs of some kind. If it wasnt for catching a glimpse of a big Eagle Ray the dive would have been like going diving in a pool. I mean there wasn't squat to be seen. The reef was white and covered in slime and the usual fishes wasn't no where to be seen. I forgot to mention that we wern't tied to a permanent bouy of anykind, the captain dropped anchor on the reef and when we got back to the line I noticed that the anchor had drug acroos the coral and broke a bunch of it off before finally getting hung up. Not that it much mattered because it was all dead anyway.Needless to say I was not impressed with the dive or the crew. We all ascended ok and got back on the boat after 28 mins. By the way, my max depth was 99 feet, the rest of the groups depth was 94 feet. Very irresponsible of the crew no? Second dive was to a wreck. It was the Kathryn. She sits in 50ft of water and is very intact. The DM said he wanted me, bo, and Kevin to be a team, so we all dropped together. Actually, me and kevin dropped and waited for Bo to group up with us. He was having a hard time with his mask I was about 2 or 3 feet off the sand just hanging out and he came down past me in a flat spin and made kind of a poof in the sand when he hit bottom. After fighting his mask for a minute or two, he signaled ok and we begin to look around. We swam around the wreck then we went up to the wheel house and penetrated it. It has an open top so it not really what youd call a penetration but why split hairs. There was more life on the Kathryn than on the reef so it was more interesting. After 10 minutes or so the DM motioned for the group to follow him. We swam 20 or 30 yards from the wreck and went through a maze of swim thrus in the reef. It was interesting, but I honestly dont remember seeing the first fish. After a few minutes of this we reboarded the boat and headed back to the dock. As far as the diving went , it stunk. No fish, and what was worse was the crew. That was absolutely the worst dive op I've ever been with. Me and a Gentleman by the name of Harry were the only two with an AOW. Everyone else was just OW. I'm not saying I'm better, but the depths we went to on the first dive was definitely what I'd call a deep dive.As for the dive op, if thats all I had to choose from, I'd quit diving and take up knitting or someting. They were hurry, rush, pay me!!!! Our SI was only like 32 mins or so and if it wasn't for my computer, I know I would have blew out a chart. Yet there reply was "It's OK Mon".
I dont recall the name of the Op but I will post it when I check my log book.
I dont recall the name of the Op but I will post it when I check my log book.