Nekton boats may come back!!

[mitsuguy]

I've heard that kayak diving from shore is really excellent there.

I suppose, however...

Most sites are easily swam to from shore... the farthest site you really would ever want to reach from shore is the wrecks, which are 1600' from shore, just over a 1/4 mile, but not that bad at all... our training area is just 750' from shore with the wall about 100' beyond that... the wall starts around 30-40' and drops to 170-200ish pretty quickly, then its almost a straight drop down to 3000' plus... within 3 miles of shore, its 13,000' and change...

I imagine it would be good for a kayak, but, the swim really isn't bad...

 

[Rainer]

Is there a lot of shore diving then? Kind of hard to justify a boat charter if that's all there is to the swim.

 

[mitsuguy]

Is there a lot of shore diving then? Kind of hard to justify a boat charter if that's all there is to the swim.

Depends on how lazy ya are... There are a handful of sites that aren't reachable via shore because the shore area is just too treacherous / no access, so there are definitely some spots that require a boat... Not everyone likes the swim - a lot of people do boat dives just because it is easier...

I can think of about 14 sites on the North shore that are reachable via shore, and about 7 that aren't easily reachable - most all of these are along the wall, though different sections and different underwater terrain... On the west end, things are a little different, in general the diving isn't really as good and the sites are a further swim, but the ones worth doing are the Pier and the wrecks - the pier is attached to shore, and the wrecks are one of the furthest from shore at 1600'... the rest of the dives on the west are good, but perhaps not worth the swim - we generally use them as backup sites when the north shore weather isn't so good, or vice versa...

 

[DebbyDiver]

I suppose, however...

Most sites are easily swam to from shore... the farthest site you really would ever want to reach from shore is the wrecks, which are 1600' from shore, just over a 1/4 mile, but not that bad at all... our training area is just 750' from shore with the wall about 100' beyond that... the wall starts around 30-40' and drops to 170-200ish pretty quickly, then its almost a straight drop down to 3000' plus... within 3 miles of shore, its 13,000' and change...

I imagine it would be good for a kayak, but, the swim really isn't bad...

True that, I do both shore (long swim) and kayak diving up here, and I love having the yak for a platform, can haul so much with it, bag o' bugs, my camera, cooler with lunch and beverages, and a way to haul back stuff that I find like anchors. I've swam found anchors back to shore...lots easier with a yak!

 

[chenqin]

Believe me I understand how much work needs to be done on the boat!!

I am running all of the numbers and coming up with a business plan now to see if there is any chance of success. It will depend much on the return of our past divers.

If this comes together I can assure everyone that the boat would be back to 100%

I absolutely agree that the boat would need to be foreign flagged. I am looking into that as well.

Any other ideas and comments would be greatly appreciated.

 

[docoltun]

I'm totally on board for future Rorqual trips with familiar staff, have 9 Nekton trips behind me and didn't mind the itinerary changes or poor food (in the end). In fact, I heard from Lahaina Divers that Nelson was considering Puerto Rico as home port, which thrilled me. Nelson gave me one of my best trips (to Mona Isle) ever one Christmas week. I need a live aboard trip over this long winter's break. Guess there's no chance of Rorqual at this point, but are there other fans out there with suggestions or former crew working elsewhere? Otherwise it's back to Maui. Sometimes you find the unusual in the familiar!! Thanks, teacher Debbi Coltun

 

[H2O Gal]

cheap cameras will be the death of the reefs.

Why do you think this, Shasta man? I must admit that I dive with a cheap camera, but I have excellent buoyancy skills so I don't grab the reef to take pictures, and I've seen people with really expensive gear harassing the wildlife and bouncing off or grabbing the reef...I think it's the diver's skill and his/her care for conservation that makes a difference, not the cost of the camera.

 

[DiveMaven]

I have to agree that although I've seen a lot of divers with cheap cameras touch in places they shouldn't, the worst "reef killers" I've ever seen was a group of NJ divers on a NW Bahamas Nekton cruise we did a few years ago. Not only did the group have some of the largest and most expensive camera gear I've ever seen (the rigs were so heavy that they needed pool floaties on the arms of the strobes!), but they LAID ALL OVER the reef to get the shots they wanted. They were the rudest bunch of divers I've ever seen in my life, shoving other divers out of the way to get the shots they wanted, and destroying the reef with their entire bodies and fins wherever they went. It was unreal.

 

[paulv]

mitsu i have to disagree with you theres lots of good shore diving all over st croix, my dislike of nekton and there treatment of st coix comes from my love of what used to be the brotherhood of diving we had an ideal about being caretakers of the sea and each other. today i see cattle boats that do great harm to the places they dive, as you know overdiving is just as much a risk to an area as psyical damage, nexton was famous for dumping to many divers on sites the idea was the site would recover while they were gone with no thought to the local industry. I dont know about you but the idea of diving where all the fish are scared away, the lobsters are hideing, and turtles spooked just isnt apealing to me.
hal knows im a big fan of cane bay but im also a big fan of northstar, the pier, the lions den, strippier pole, the wreck of the victory, garden of eden, and butler ledges all great shore dives all easy to get to and I would not limit my self to one location it can only detract from what people should know, all st corix is great diving and all its operators are good. our diversity is why people should come dive here. companys like nekton earned my disrespect because of the negativity they spread about our island and because of there disreguard for our island economy. have you noticed since they are gone our sea horse population is up, there are twice as many turtles,frog fish. what i say is good riddance to nekton.

 

[paulv]

dan, apparently you never asked a local what nexton did here. i quote you as saying never droped anchor? nekton repeatedly tied onto the local dive boat moorings and ripped them out despite being told the moorings were rated for 38' day boats max, after having torn out the moorings at butler bay they tied to the rail of one of our wreck and ripped the rail off the wreck. they were taken to court for connecting to an old navy mooring chain and dragging it across a reef at sprat hole destroying a area of recovering pillar corals despit being the only boat that tied up there nextons responce was prove it. nexton not only droped its anchor they sent divemasters down to set the anchor in reef because our hard bottopm with 2' of sand cant hold a boat that big. all in all nexton agreed to put in its own moorings at its expence and was suposed to only overnight at its mooring at altona lagoon, where you ever at altoona lagoon? the answer is a respounding no, were you ever at a mooring maintaned by nekton? no because they never maintaned them. all in all the trac record of nekton here was one of disreguard for our island and our people.