Malpelo - Ferox new Colombian liveaboard

[Dan]

Thanks!

Now I know what Ferox is.

 

[Colombia Dive Adventures]

what's his name ?

Hi Sunn,

The dive masters name is Jaime Lopez. He has been a dive guide at Malpelo for 21 years. He has also worked as a guide in Cocos and Coiba.

 

[Colombia Dive Adventures]

MV FEROX MALPELO - May 16-25, 2018

I've had some time to think over our experience in Malpelo aboard the MV Ferox. To give you some background I have been diving in the Galapagos 3 times, Socorro Islands 2 times, and many other places in the world. I mention the Galapagos because it is probably the closest conditions to Malpelo, at least as far as the current goes and the sea life goes.

The Ferox is not built for luxury but I have no complaints about the rooms. We had a master stateroom which was nice. The masters have a nice TV and they even supplied an HDMI cable for us. All the rooms that I toured looked pretty good. The stairs to the lower level however, are very steep but if used properly they are safe.

Speaking of safety, I don't think you will find a much safer liveaboard around. The ship is well built and has every safety measure in place and every piece of equipment used for safety available. The Captain is extremely experienced as he served in the Merchant Marines and has been all over the world. The crew appears to be very experienced as well so I had no concerns whatsoever about our safety while on board.

The service while on board was excellent. The entire crew were friendly and did everything they could to make sure we had a great time and had everything we needed. I do not prefer Columbian food but I have to say that most of the time it was very tasty and there was plenty of it. The kitchen staff goes above and beyond trying to please everyone as far as food is concerned. On our trip beer and wine was included as a special incentive. Both beer and wine were plentiful with the crew (including the captain) serving us anytime and anywhere we wanted, unless we were diving, of course.

I was aware that there were no indoor areas to hang out in but except for the first night in a storm the tables are under cover and the bar upstairs is a nice place to hang out. There is also a nice sundeck on top with lounge chairs. I wouldn't let the fact that the dining tables or bar are outside bother you at all. Even during rain it is fine.

Now to the diving. I have heard that different times of year yield different conditions so May should have been pretty good conditions and because hammer heads were not our only priority I think it was a good time to go. Unfortunately the weather did not cooperate and visibility was not as good as expected. I believe we averaged about 30 feet of visibility. The current is very strong. I am not that bothered by current as long as I am not expected to swim into it. Unfortunately we were either forced to cling to a rock or swim against the current because of our divemaster.

The divemaster on this trip was familiar with Malpelo as he had worked there several years in the past but his methods of conducting the dives were questionable. Although the minimum number of dives is 50, I think it should be 100. The ranger (a very nice guy) from the park was on all of our dives. He said the park minimum is 35 but also agreed it should be higher. We had a few divers with 50 dives and a few with 500+. The divemaster had expectations that he and all 6 divers on the boat should descend on the dive, be together the entire dive, and surface as a group. This is not possible in these conditions. The reality was that we went down as a group, found a rock to cling to (often in quite deep water) and when the two divers with low experience ran low on air then we all had to surface. On one dive I tried to take photos of several silky sharks so close to me I needed a wide angle lens but was being beckoned back to the rock by the dive master the entire time. On another dive myself and the other experienced diver saw a whale shark that we went out in the current to see. That did not go over well with the divemaster either. The dive after that was ended shortly after descent for the other 4 divers when the divemaster saw myself and my buddy were ahead of the group of divers wedged in the rock. Unfortunately it was my husband's 100th dive that ended after 21 minutes. In the Galapagos there are strong currents. You go down with the divemaster, follow his guidance but when you start to go with your buddy to photograph the whale shark, hammerhead, etc. you then are on the buddy system. Somehow this divemaster thinks you should all hold hands the entire dive and surface holding hands. I know for experienced divers they will not like this. Inexperienced divers should reconsider this destination. Keep in mind that they give you an electronic tracking device that can see you up to 6 miles. Although there is a valid consideration for safety something would have to be drastically wrong to get that far away from the boat to get lost.

This review would not be fair without saying that Captain Tony was amazing. He did his very best to make our trip the best it could be. He listened to the divers and our concerns. He has a wonderful crew and a nice boat. Hopefully between the conditions and the divemaster this place can be a great place to dive. It has potential.

 

[Colombia Dive Adventures]

Hi divergirlLinda,

Thank you for posting your trip report. I appreciate your feedback. Our goal is to improve with every trip. I completely agree with you regarding minimum number of dives and I have made that recommendation to the Colombian National Parks.

 

[mehmet2010]

I have recently been on a trip to Malpelo on Ferox in May-June. As a side note, I also have been diving in various locations including Galapagos, Socorro, Cocos, and Malpelo (twice before this trip) on various liveaboards. In my experience, Jaime is a very good dive guide and balances safety with the maximum possible freedom for the divers very well. I dove with him previously on another Malpelo trip on Yemaya. He is also a very nice and polite guy.

I would like to add that all of the crew of Ferox have been great. Tony has definitely put together a top team on Ferox.

I also agree with the previous comments that the safety is of critical importance on Ferox. Considering some previous events at Malpelo (not on Ferox or Yemaya), this is a very good thing and necessary. Whether the diving rules can be relaxed or should be even stricter could be a matter of personal opinion. In my view, they were about right.

I understand that if you pay a lot of money, ideally you want to be able to do the things in your way. I have seen many divers with this view in my travels. Personally I prefer to be humble and leave the dive planning to the dive guides, after all that is what we pay them for. Of course I can discuss my personal view about the dives with the dive guides, but mostly go with their judgement in the end. After 3 trips, I probably have about 60 dives in Malpelo - compared to I don't know how many for Jaime. Who would I trust for planning the dive if I were another diver: a guy with 60 dives or many many more dives at that location?

Regarding the mixed ability of divers, I don't think that this is an issue specific to Malpelo or Ferox. I have seen it on many other trips on different locations and boats. I don't want to sound like complaining because when I first started diving, I used to be the diver who finished his air early. Also everything is relative, I could be diving tomorrow with divers who have much better air consumption than myself. This is not to say that I don't acknowledge the problem, however I don't know what the best solution is. Ideally you want to be diving with divers who have similar capabilities as you do, but this may not always be possible. IMO this is an interesting topic that could be worthy of discussion in a general forum, rather than on a post for a particular boat or location.

 

[Sunn]

Hi Sunn,

The dive masters name is Jaime Lopez.

I know J-Lo.... if he did what people complain about, it's because he had to.

 

[drrich2]

We were all treated like total dweebs. The dive master basically took us down and wanted us to plant ourselves for the entire dive.

Unfortunately the weather did not cooperate and visibility was not as good as expected. I believe we averaged about 30 feet of visibility. The current is very strong. I am not that bothered by current as long as I am not expected to swim into it. Unfortunately we were either forced to cling to a rock or swim against the current because of our divemaster.

The divemaster had expectations that he and all 6 divers on the boat should descend on the dive, be together the entire dive, and surface as a group. This is not possible in these conditions. The reality was that we went down as a group, found a rock to cling to (often in quite deep water) and when the two divers with low experience ran low on air then we all had to surface.

Somehow this divemaster thinks you should all hold hands the entire dive and surface holding hands.

Having not dove the area I can't judge whether the guide should 'loosen up' or he's doing the right thing and should stick to his guns. Which raises some questions:

1.) Does this 'stay as a tight group, often holding onto something stationary (?)' sound needful and appropriate for the conditions? Are conditions usually much different from what DiveGirlLinda experienced, and if so, would the dives have been conducted differently?

2.) If the guide's style is appropriate for the setting, and if that is how it'll be much of the time, how does that impact the destination's appeal?

Richard.

 

[Sunn]

Stay as a tight group holding on a rock can be needful.
In some places of Malpelo, you just wait and the shark show comes to you.

Don't forget you are 300 miles away from the coast and one of the important parts of the conditions : the divers. The guide has to combine with the sea, the wind, the level of the divers (not what is written on a card, the real level and experience for that place), their air consumption and he knows there can be strong currents, sometimes impredictable, going north, south, up, down... Malpelo is not the easiest place to be divemaster.

Speaking of the style, that's what they are used to do in Colombia most of the times. For foreigners, it can impact the destination's appeal, yes, and when you compare the cost of such a trip with a trip to Maldives.... you may think a bit....

 

[Dan]

 

[divergirlLinda]

what's his name ?

Unfortunately we cannot remember his name.