lauratm:
Hi,
I'm heading down to Key Largo in October and would like some dive operator input. I am looking for a smaller boat capacity (6-10 people). For those of you who have used Divers City , Blue Water Divers, or Quiescence- which do you recommend?
Thanks!
I went several days with Quiessence last year. While I didn't find anything major wrong with them overall, the owner was a serious jerk the last day we were there. Therefore I wouldn't use them again most likely (if he was on our boat). Maybe I would, but only if he wasn't our captain. The rest of the captains our group had were great though.
It's kinda hit and miss depending on who you get as Captain. But most of the time the 'jerk' in question stays on shore micro-managing the office, so you'll prob be ok.
I thought they were a little more expensive also than the other operators. A two tank dive on the Duane and Molasses or French reef with 1 tank air and 1 tank 32% was $96 (total).
Here's some info on their boats that might be helpful to you.
They operate 3 different 28 or something similar single screw inboard boats. There are are no tank ranks, but they secure the tanks to ths inside of the gunnels of the boats with bungy's. It works ok, but makes it real easy for other divers to step on your second stage as all the gear is kept on the floor and the walkway is narrow. The engine is mid boat and is covered with a large nice padded top. You can sit on that but it mostly became the 'dump space' for dive bags. (there are no seats to shove these under on the boat). The gunnels are nice and wide and we usually sat on those.
They have real nice dive ladders on these boats and they are easy to re board. ALso the front half of the boat is covered so you can get out of the sun.
The nice thing is that there are only 6 divers per boat, so you can easily pick your dive sites, especially if you have the entire boat, which we did. This isn't true if the owner is the captain. Any site that was not the "nearest stie" to shore he "whinned" that it was too far out or that we didn't have time. This was even true with the Spiegel Grove and Duane. The other captains other days let us dive any wreck we wanted and were great. They really knew the sites also and gave great breifings about the sites.
The only negatives (besides worrying about people stepping on your gear)n was the fact the boat had no head and the long ride out. They arre located on the north or bay side of Key Largo on Blackwater Sound next to the Marriott. This means a long boat ride to get out to the dive sites compared to the boats located in Marina del Mar.
One other thing that irked me about them was that even though their price included tanks and air fills, if you wanted to upgrade to nitrox, you had to pay for nitrox tank rentals on top of that. Just seemed like we were paying for tanks twice.
Would I use them again? only if I could be guarentee'd I wouldn't have to dive with the owner as the captain.
Also, there are other places that have better deals with less hassle and that you can depart from the other side of the island for a shorter boat ride.
This past year a lot of the same group went (but we didn't go) and used them again. I was told that they called and raised the price after it was booked. That would have really ticked me off so I'm glad I didn't go....
maybe others have had better luck, but their owners "whinning" and not wanting to take us to the sites we wanted just really left a bad taste in my mouth about them. But like I said, I don't think he typically captains the boat. So others might be ok.
