Jan 2014 - Galapagos Liveaboard (Buddy & Deep Blue) ... who is in business today?

[Doc]

This just came to me from very connected dive buddies in the Galloping Pogos...

Sad state of affairs in Galapagos liveaboards right now between Buddy and Deep Blue. Buddy was suspended indefinitely for not having their environmental impact study in order, for not paying taxes and permit fees they owe, etc. A few months back, a serious scientist deposed Edwin Naula as head of PNG…Galapagos National Park. Also put enforcement issues under the newly formed Provincial Government rather than the National Park.

Anyway, here it is published in Guayaquil newspaper…I'm sure you can use Google to Translate:

http://www.telegrafo.com.ec/sociedad...rcaciones.html


SUSPENDEN 2 BARCOS EN GALAPAGOS ( tomados del diario HOY ) http://www.diariopinion.com/nacional....php?id=874322


And Parque Nacional's Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/notes/parqu...76844485759938


And on the National Park's twitter: https://twitter.com/parquegalapagos


The Park is now opening adminstrative procedures to cancel their permit altogether.

And Deep Blue is not diving at the moment. They have been operating for months without much needed operations repairs and have switched to being chartered by Voyager after their ship sunk and are operating Naturalist Cruises.

 

[neve]

My group of seven divers is unfortunately booked on the 18-25 Jan 2014 trip with Buddy. Waiting for them to put us on other liveaboards, splitting the group if necessary. No word yet as they only told us about the suspension on Dec 31, when everything shuts down for the holidays. Including the LOB offices. They could have told us on Dec 23 and made alternative arrangements earlier! We're flying in from Southeast Asia so canceling the flights will cost us close to $4000 each. Plus three divers have already left for South America. We can only cross our fingers now. :-(

 

[Doc]

As of today...

Buddy announced the "cessation of diving trips to the Galapagos Islands". They have cancelled all future trips.


That leaves only 3 liveaboards - 48 people per week - operational: the Aggressor, the Galapagos Sky and the Humboldt Explorer. After all scrambled to replace their Buddy departure, to say space, especially in high season, is limited for the next 2 years is an understatement.


Worldwide Dive Siren Fleet announced at Boot they plan to take over Deep Blue at the end of 2014. Let's hope they invest in new motors, new generator and a new Nitrox membrane so it is fully operational before they start selling space.

Yet another reason to reconsider land based Galapagos. Much less expensive, you see the same kinds of critters, maybe not as many. Do some research on SB.

 

[Worldwide Dive and Sail]

Worldwide Dive Siren Fleet announced at Boot they plan to take over Deep Blue at the end of 2014. Let's hope they invest in new motors, new generator and a new Nitrox membrane so it is fully operational before they start selling space.

We love how dive shows can generate rumours! However some of the points made above are in essence true.

With the Buddy Fleet’s license suspension we fully appreciate that there are now fewer spaces for divers to what is one of the world’s top dive spots and we think we can help.

The owners of Worldwide Dive and Sail, who operate the Siren Fleet liveaboards, are currently in discussions with the owners of Deep Blue in regards to working together to bring their yacht up to standard to provide dive trips in the Galapagos. The intention is not to “take over” Deep Blue but rather to provide expert consultation by our master boat builders Frank and Jan Van der Linde, during the refit. As suggested above there is a great deal required to bring the yacht up to operational standard and here the wealth of experience from the Worldwide Dive and Sail team will be provided through a clear diving liveaboard operation model and rigorous training.

The idea is Worldwide Dive and Sail team will also become the sole marketing agent for Deep Blue bringing the yacht into their new brand “Master Liveaboards” to operate as the “Galapagos Master”. This new brand will offer a range of liveaboard trips in top-rated destinations, differing from those currently serviced by the Siren Fleet.

Much still needs to be done before any confirmation and scheduling will be released – but watch this space!

 

[Dom@DiveAdvice]

Hi all - I commend the team at WWDAS and am quite sure they will do an outstanding job in marketing the Deep Blue and in taking care of an extensive refit on her in early 2015, bringing her back to her former glory as one of the top boats in Galapagos. However just to clarify the current picture, I have just been in touch with the Deep Blue and as mentioned above, at the moment she is running naturalist trips in the central islands, which gives her the opportunity to bring in valuable income while at the same time they have professional engineers re-building one of the main engine that was a problem over the last six months. She is re-building/refitting generators and compressors. They informed me that she will have a refit in May before embarking on a solid six month of dive charters until December. Every week is now fully booked so that is why she is not appearing available for charter.

Currently the Galapagos Sky, Humboldt Explorer and Aggressor are operating as normal and the new 8 pax liveaboard Nortada, is scheduled to arrive in the islands in March and will start operation in early May. I was on her many years ago but she has now been totally refitted and is akin to a new boat - 85ft overall, with a 4 twin ensuite cabins - and permits fro Darwin + Wolf. You can see some artists renditions on our website and we hope to soon be able to show some images taken at the boat yard last week showing her well on the way to completion and being a very top competitor in the Galapagos Dive market.

So although we are extremely sad to see the departure of the two Buddy boats, there are still multiple first class dive live-aboard options in Galapagos and although spaces maybe limited, there are still openings on top yachts for most of the remaining months of this year. If any readers have been caught up in the sad situation of the Buddy boats, and are looking for options, they are welcome to contact us for advice.

 

[kmurray719]

This just came to me from very connected dive buddies in the Galloping Pogos...

Sad state of affairs in Galapagos liveaboards right now between Buddy and Deep Blue. Buddy was suspended indefinitely for not having their environmental impact study in order, for not paying taxes and permit fees they owe, etc. A few months back, a serious scientist deposed Edwin Naula as head of PNG…Galapagos National Park. Also put enforcement issues under the newly formed Provincial Government rather than the National Park.

Anyway, here it is published in Guayaquil newspaper…I'm sure you can use Google to Translate:

http://www.telegrafo.com.ec/sociedad...rcaciones.html


SUSPENDEN 2 BARCOS EN GALAPAGOS ( tomados del diario HOY ) http://www.diariopinion.com/nacional....php?id=874322


And Parque Nacional's Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/notes/parqu...76844485759938


And on the National Park's twitter: https://twitter.com/parquegalapagos


The Park is now opening adminstrative procedures to cancel their permit altogether.

And Deep Blue is not diving at the moment. They have been operating for months without much needed operations repairs and have switched to being chartered by Voyager after their ship sunk and are operating Naturalist Cruises.

I meant to thank you for posting this last month. I was booked on a group trip for April on the Buddy boats and passed the info along to the organizers when I saw it. From what I hear Buddy was pretty evasive initially when asked about losing the permits then tried to claim that we never had a reservation, the boat was scheduled to be in dry dock that week and they had no explanation for why there was a contract or why they took a deposit. The good news is there was enough space on the Sky the same week for us to still do the trip. I hope other people are as lucky in rescheduling!