divingmedic
Contributor
Here is the good, the bad and the ugly on my recent trip with Nekton.
The Good: The crew was great, Capt. Nelson was a good Capt. The DM's were average DM'S. The food was good, the rooms kept in good shape, the dive deck was well run. First time to dive with Steel 95's and I liked diving with those. Got my weight down to 4 lbs with a 3mm wet suit.
The Bad: While I can not blame some of this on the crew I can but a lot of the blame on Nekton it's self. We did not get to dive PR at all, due to the weather, that I understand. But also due to the weather we went over to St Croix USVI. The crossing took 14 hours due to 8-10 foot seas, high winds. Found out later in the week we also crossed over with only the starboard engine as the the port engine was out for the last three weeks. What would have happened if the starboard engine went out in the seas? Would have been ugly. I also noticed when we were getting on the boat, that no tanks were marked for Nitrox. Again at the end of the week, after over hearing several crew members that the Nitrox has been out for at least 4 months with no plans on fixing the Nitrox on the Roqual. Yet I was charged for Nitrox and I am now fighting to get a refund, this is going to be a long and hard fight. The reefs on St Croix are in really bad shape. Most of the hard coral is disimated, the soft coral in good shape, some really great sponges there. Marine life is little to none. Parrot fish is about the largest fish we saw. One shark was seen on the second day, and it was a small nurse shark. A few caribbean ray's seen, several turtles. I elected not to make some dives as the first dive there was very little to see other than some juvenile spanish hogheads, blennies and a few gobies. Most of the fish there was less than 2 inches long. I think Nekton needs to ditch this trip and find something better to take people on.
The Ugly: Men over the age of 50 that look like Chewbaca or Big Foot wearing speedos. American Airlines for sending our luggage to Bogata Columbia from Miami and not to Houston and for me having to speed all day at home waiting on my luggage to show up.
The Good: The crew was great, Capt. Nelson was a good Capt. The DM's were average DM'S. The food was good, the rooms kept in good shape, the dive deck was well run. First time to dive with Steel 95's and I liked diving with those. Got my weight down to 4 lbs with a 3mm wet suit.
The Bad: While I can not blame some of this on the crew I can but a lot of the blame on Nekton it's self. We did not get to dive PR at all, due to the weather, that I understand. But also due to the weather we went over to St Croix USVI. The crossing took 14 hours due to 8-10 foot seas, high winds. Found out later in the week we also crossed over with only the starboard engine as the the port engine was out for the last three weeks. What would have happened if the starboard engine went out in the seas? Would have been ugly. I also noticed when we were getting on the boat, that no tanks were marked for Nitrox. Again at the end of the week, after over hearing several crew members that the Nitrox has been out for at least 4 months with no plans on fixing the Nitrox on the Roqual. Yet I was charged for Nitrox and I am now fighting to get a refund, this is going to be a long and hard fight. The reefs on St Croix are in really bad shape. Most of the hard coral is disimated, the soft coral in good shape, some really great sponges there. Marine life is little to none. Parrot fish is about the largest fish we saw. One shark was seen on the second day, and it was a small nurse shark. A few caribbean ray's seen, several turtles. I elected not to make some dives as the first dive there was very little to see other than some juvenile spanish hogheads, blennies and a few gobies. Most of the fish there was less than 2 inches long. I think Nekton needs to ditch this trip and find something better to take people on.
The Ugly: Men over the age of 50 that look like Chewbaca or Big Foot wearing speedos. American Airlines for sending our luggage to Bogata Columbia from Miami and not to Houston and for me having to speed all day at home waiting on my luggage to show up.
