Nekton Pilot in Belize

[aedavidson]

I was on Nekton Belize in January, great trip. The crew was great and I thought that the food was as well. I dove Nitrox and their price on that is a bit steep, maybe my only complaint. I would not do a liveaboard without Nitrox though, I was doing 5 dives most days and six on a couple. I have already booked Nekton on the Rorquel in Caymen next January.

 

[DiveMaven]

There isn't any amount of "luxury" or "upscale" experience that would get my on the Sun Dancer vs. the Pilot after watching the Sun Dancer pitch and yaw horribly during the storm in Belize in December. As we were eating dinner on the Pilot, we watched the Sun Dancer's lights disappear and reappear as she pitched in the storm, while on the Pilot our dishes weren't even moving on the table. All of us at dinner agreed that not many folks were eating on the Sun Dancer that night!

As somone with motion sick issues (must wear a patch), the SWATH design of the Nekton boats totally sold itself to me on this trip. I will always choose it over a traditional hull for my comfort, since "luxury" doesn't matter much when you're sick and puking.

I agree about what Nekton charges for Nitrox, which is why we chose to dive air in Belize. We dove 4x a day everyday (except one when the storm prevented our 2nd afternoon dive), and never had a problem with nitrogen loading. It simply required a little more attention to our profiles, extra long safety stops, and some shallow diving to off-gas on each of our dives, but we never even got close to the red on our computers, and barely saw yellow.

We'll do the same thing on our Cay Sal Nekton cruise next year. Dive air and just pay extra attention to what we're doing with safety being more important than anything. Nitrox would be much better, but the extra money for Nitrox is going to pay for an extra 3 days to dive in Key Largo before we board the Pilot. And if my choice is 3 extra days of vacation vs. Nitrox, I'll take the vacation!

 

[stevenq99]

Quick questions. can you dive whenever you want or are they divemaster led? is the boat in 1 spot all day or dose it move to different sites?

 

[Footslogger]

Quick questions. can you dive whenever you want or are they divemaster led? is the boat in 1 spot all day or dose it move to different sites?

=============================
If the dive deck is open and you've got a buddy (or are ceritifed Solo) then you're on your own. They move the boat once or twice daily. A dive breifing is given and then the "pool is open" and a designated "back on boat" time is given, which generally coincides with meal time. There are divemasters available and willing to dive with you as a buddy if you need or want one but otherwise it's your dive.

'Slogger

 

[Darnold9999]

There isn't any amount of "luxury" or "upscale" experience that would get my on the Sun Dancer vs. the Pilot after watching the Sun Dancer pitch and yaw horribly during the storm in Belize in December. As we were eating dinner on the Pilot, we watched the Sun Dancer's lights disappear and reappear as she pitched in the storm, while on the Pilot our dishes weren't even moving on the table. All of us at dinner agreed that not many folks were eating on the Sun Dancer that night!

As somone with motion sick issues (must wear a patch), the SWATH design of the Nekton boats totally sold itself to me on this trip. I will always choose it over a traditional hull for my comfort, since "luxury" doesn't matter much when you're sick and puking.

I agree about what Nekton charges for Nitrox, which is why we chose to dive air in Belize. We dove 4x a day everyday (except one when the storm prevented our 2nd afternoon dive), and never had a problem with nitrogen loading. It simply required a little more attention to our profiles, extra long safety stops, and some shallow diving to off-gas on each of our dives, but we never even got close to the red on our computers, and barely saw yellow.

We'll do the same thing on our Cay Sal Nekton cruise next year. Dive air and just pay extra attention to what we're doing with safety being more important than anything. Nitrox would be much better, but the extra money for Nitrox is going to pay for an extra 3 days to dive in Key Largo before we board the Pilot. And if my choice is 3 extra days of vacation vs. Nitrox, I'll take the vacation!

TOTALLY agree re seasick, no amount of "luxury" will make up for "feeding the fish".

Re Nitrox, agree it is pricy - worked out to slightly less than $10 a tank for me, but you can easily do 5 dives a day and a couple of days with dawn dives 6 dives. Prefer to not have to worry about getting close to NDL, and with 5 dives a day you will be getting close, particularly with the large steel tanks allowing longer bottom times.

Also - bring a tank light if you plan on doing night dives.

 

[Footslogger]

Also - bring a tank light if you plan on doing night dives.

==============================
Yeah ...this is something new since my last Nekton trip last March in Belize. They have started to charge for Cyalume sticks. Can't blame them really. Funny thing though is that since they didn't charge last year we left our little blinker lights at home - OUR BAD !! They use an honor system and ask you to total up the number of sticks used and then charge you $3 each when you settle up your bill at the end of the week. If you own little lights or have your own Cyalume Sticks I suggest you bring them.

As for the cost of EANx ...while it may be a tad pricey I look at it from the age/safety standpoint. At 56 I no longer try for the 5 dives/day but I do make 3 - 4 really long ones. I have a camera and like to hang out near a coral head and shoot macro for about an hour or more of bottom time on each dive ...so the residual nitrogen builds up over the week. We use the Gekko's which are pretty conservative and don't worry about nitrogen or flying the day after our last dive when we're on EANx. It's a personal decision but that's my take on it.

'Slogger

 

[chris z]

I'm in the process of planning an Nekton trip for DH and I as a graduation present for him. I realize that the diving is generally not DM lead. I was wondering if someone could speak to the typical profiles for sites on the Northwest and Cay Sal Bahamas itineraries.

 

[ScubaLuke]

I'm in the process of planning an Nekton trip for DH and I as a graduation present for him. I realize that the diving is generally not DM lead. I was wondering if someone could speak to the typical profiles for sites on the Northwest and Cay Sal Bahamas itineraries.

The Northwest Bahamas route has mostly shallow sites. There is one deepish wreck. I think it was about 80 to 100 feet. But most of the sites are pretty shallow. There are two real nice sites where you're in less than 20 feet of water.

I haven't done the Cay Sal route in 10 years (I'm going again this summer. Whoo Hoo!) but as I recall it tended to be deeper. I do remember hitting my max depth ever there on a drift dive (116 ft).

Luke

 

[DiveMaven]

As I understand it, Luke is correct about the depth differences between the NW Bahamas and Cay Sal. NW Bahamas is mostly reefs with a couple of wrecks thrown in, one being deep. On the other hand, Cay Sal is reefs, blue holes, and sharks. One of the Nekton folks on the board described the NW Bahamas as "sweet diving", and Cay Sal as a more varied itinerary.

I had the NW itinerary in my mind until I saw the ScubaCore DVD where they are on the Rorqual at Cay Sal. After seeing the blue hole diving and larger pelagics (like sharks, rays, and turtles), I was sold, so it'll be Cay Sal next year for sure!!

Remember that the Nekton crew are always happy to dive with you, so if you want your dives DM lead, they are happy to get in the water and give you a tour. Not sure they'd do that 4x a day, but if you were on a sight that you were a little unsure of for navigation, you could certainly have the DM on those dives.

 

[chris z]

Thank You Luke and DiveMe for the info.

We are trying to decide between the two and my husband wanted an idea for what the profiles would look like. Personally, I would prefer the Cay Sal trip, but it is his graduation present so I will be defering to his decision.

Thanks again for the information.
-Chris