Rick Patterson
Guest
My wife and I just returned from a week in the Cayman Islands onboard the Nekton Rorqual. This is my first attempt at writing a trip, but after reading many others posted here, I thought it was about time I stopped being so lazy and write one myself. The trip was uneventful going from Richmond, Virginia to Charlotte and then on to Grand Cayman. We flew on US Airways and all of our bags made it down with out any problems. A representative had called me from Nekton the week before we were to arrive with some details about the trip. The only change from the norm was that we were to take a taxi to the Sunsethouse and get a receipt for the cab ride to be reimbursed on the trip later time. The transfer went smoothly and after a nice lunch at the bar at the Sunset house we hired a cab to head into town to checkout the sites before we were to be picked up at 7 PM for the transfer to the Rorqual. Remember to bring sunscreen for the wait before you are picked up to transfer to the boat. Also checkout Cathy Churchs shop downstairs. Her photos are great and she seems like a very personable friendly person as well. We had dinner at the SeaHarvest restaurant at Sunsethouse and it was very good. The boat was pretty much what I expected, having been on the Nekton Pilot in August of 2005. The interior of the two vessels looks to be almost identical.
We arrived on the boat and were shown to our room. We were given a safety briefing about the boat and had a lifejacket drill before we left the dock. We departed around 9 PM and headed to a mooring for the night and the first site Jax Dax. This is a short distance from the dock (less than 30min). A good checkout get your feet wet again dive site. They use steel tanks on board the Nekton boats so try to go extra light on your addition of weights to your weight belt. I started with four pounds and sunk like a stone. I removed all weights before I entered the water on the next dive and had no issues for the remainder of the trip. The typical schedule is to do two dives in the morning on one site then move to another site and do two in the afternoon and a night dive on another site.
The next site was Doc Pulsen. The Doc Pulsen is a tugboat that was sunk and is an interesting site, but nothing spectacular. On the second afternoon dive I went with one of the dive masters on board. Skeeter (yes, that is the name he prefers) and I headed out towards a small wall and then made the turn to head towards the wreck and were greeted by an eagle ray cruising by. We kept swimming and missed the wreck. We were starting to get low on air and both pretty much figured out we had missed a 50ft+ long wreck in 100ft viz and we were taking the extra scenic route back to the Nekton. We eventually determined that one of us was going to have to take a peak and figure out how far away from Cuba we really were. Skeeter headed to the surface while I hung out at around 15ft. When he started back down he pointed in the direction of the boat (about 100yrds or so over our left shoulder), and a Manta Ray came gliding by. This was my first experience seeing one of the animals in the water and it was spectacular. The only bad thing was we were pretty low on air and could not hang out. I did get some video of it and if I get around to it I will try and post a clip later.
The rest of the trip was not quite as exciting as the first dive day for me, but it was still good. We made our way over to Little Cayman and then to Cayman Brac. The plan was a dawn dive on the Keith Tibbits in Cayman Brac and then two more morning dives before we were put ashore to spend some tourist dollars in the Cayman Islands. Unfortunately I was awoken early in the morning with a lot of movement from the boat rocking in the waves. A storm came up suddenly and was beating us up a bit more than I would have liked. When I got up out of bed and made my way to the deck the captain and two other crewmembers were awake and handling the boat. I was very happy to see the crew taking care of things and they were where they needed to be if anything did get worse. I was not able to sleep much that night myself, but the captain decided to unhook from the Tibbits and move the boat to a more sheltered location on the other side of the Island. The ride over was much smoother and everyone seemed to be able to go back to sleep if they were awaken at all in the first place. We missed the Keith Tibbits dive and the captain decided to try and maximize our diving time so we eliminated the Cayman Brac land excursions. We dove more on that side of the island and head to Little Cayman that evening. We were caught by another thunderstorm on Wednesday evening and divers had to be recalled from the night dive so we could get underway and seek a more sheltered spot. The captain and crew kept everyone informed of what was going on and why, the passenger safety was going to come first.
The rest of the trip was exactly as you would expect on a liveaboard dive boat. I would like to thank the Captain and crew for taking great care of us and showing us a great time in the Cayman Islands. The food on board was excellent and plentiful. Captain Nelson took extra time out of his schedule to go over the weather fax reports with me regularly so I could be a little bit more at easy with the trip.
Now to the important stuff, complaints and gripes. I have very few complaints actually, the shiny side remained up the entire time and that makes for a good trip in my book. The Rorqual was showing a bit of wear and tear from its time at sea. The boat is heading into drydock or has already arrived as I write this and there appeared to be several things that the crew had planned on doing to spruce up the vessel. The air conditioner was rarely very cold in our cabin and on sunny hot days it was not as pleasant as it could have been in there. I was told that the front two cabins on the upper deck did generate most of the complaints about this and it was mostly because they have two walls facing the sun and the rooms get hotter than any of the others. It was a little warm, but by no means a real issue. The television that is in the main salon was not working properly and the picture was not visible sometimes. This made the photo contest at the end very of the trip annoying to watch. Most if not all of these things will probably be handled in drydock. I would definitely recommend the Nekton boats for a dive vacation, and if you have never been to the Cayman Islands this is a great way to go and enjoy a lot of diving with big and small creatures all around. Sorry if it was a bit long.
Rick Patterson
We arrived on the boat and were shown to our room. We were given a safety briefing about the boat and had a lifejacket drill before we left the dock. We departed around 9 PM and headed to a mooring for the night and the first site Jax Dax. This is a short distance from the dock (less than 30min). A good checkout get your feet wet again dive site. They use steel tanks on board the Nekton boats so try to go extra light on your addition of weights to your weight belt. I started with four pounds and sunk like a stone. I removed all weights before I entered the water on the next dive and had no issues for the remainder of the trip. The typical schedule is to do two dives in the morning on one site then move to another site and do two in the afternoon and a night dive on another site.
The next site was Doc Pulsen. The Doc Pulsen is a tugboat that was sunk and is an interesting site, but nothing spectacular. On the second afternoon dive I went with one of the dive masters on board. Skeeter (yes, that is the name he prefers) and I headed out towards a small wall and then made the turn to head towards the wreck and were greeted by an eagle ray cruising by. We kept swimming and missed the wreck. We were starting to get low on air and both pretty much figured out we had missed a 50ft+ long wreck in 100ft viz and we were taking the extra scenic route back to the Nekton. We eventually determined that one of us was going to have to take a peak and figure out how far away from Cuba we really were. Skeeter headed to the surface while I hung out at around 15ft. When he started back down he pointed in the direction of the boat (about 100yrds or so over our left shoulder), and a Manta Ray came gliding by. This was my first experience seeing one of the animals in the water and it was spectacular. The only bad thing was we were pretty low on air and could not hang out. I did get some video of it and if I get around to it I will try and post a clip later.
The rest of the trip was not quite as exciting as the first dive day for me, but it was still good. We made our way over to Little Cayman and then to Cayman Brac. The plan was a dawn dive on the Keith Tibbits in Cayman Brac and then two more morning dives before we were put ashore to spend some tourist dollars in the Cayman Islands. Unfortunately I was awoken early in the morning with a lot of movement from the boat rocking in the waves. A storm came up suddenly and was beating us up a bit more than I would have liked. When I got up out of bed and made my way to the deck the captain and two other crewmembers were awake and handling the boat. I was very happy to see the crew taking care of things and they were where they needed to be if anything did get worse. I was not able to sleep much that night myself, but the captain decided to unhook from the Tibbits and move the boat to a more sheltered location on the other side of the Island. The ride over was much smoother and everyone seemed to be able to go back to sleep if they were awaken at all in the first place. We missed the Keith Tibbits dive and the captain decided to try and maximize our diving time so we eliminated the Cayman Brac land excursions. We dove more on that side of the island and head to Little Cayman that evening. We were caught by another thunderstorm on Wednesday evening and divers had to be recalled from the night dive so we could get underway and seek a more sheltered spot. The captain and crew kept everyone informed of what was going on and why, the passenger safety was going to come first.
The rest of the trip was exactly as you would expect on a liveaboard dive boat. I would like to thank the Captain and crew for taking great care of us and showing us a great time in the Cayman Islands. The food on board was excellent and plentiful. Captain Nelson took extra time out of his schedule to go over the weather fax reports with me regularly so I could be a little bit more at easy with the trip.
Now to the important stuff, complaints and gripes. I have very few complaints actually, the shiny side remained up the entire time and that makes for a good trip in my book. The Rorqual was showing a bit of wear and tear from its time at sea. The boat is heading into drydock or has already arrived as I write this and there appeared to be several things that the crew had planned on doing to spruce up the vessel. The air conditioner was rarely very cold in our cabin and on sunny hot days it was not as pleasant as it could have been in there. I was told that the front two cabins on the upper deck did generate most of the complaints about this and it was mostly because they have two walls facing the sun and the rooms get hotter than any of the others. It was a little warm, but by no means a real issue. The television that is in the main salon was not working properly and the picture was not visible sometimes. This made the photo contest at the end very of the trip annoying to watch. Most if not all of these things will probably be handled in drydock. I would definitely recommend the Nekton boats for a dive vacation, and if you have never been to the Cayman Islands this is a great way to go and enjoy a lot of diving with big and small creatures all around. Sorry if it was a bit long.
Rick Patterson
You lucky dawgs you. You're right about the work being done on the Rorqual. She is scheduled to get new paint inside and out. New carpet in the cabins (the rest was changed last year), new towels, linens and pretty stuff, new cushions in the salon and dining area and they will pull the air handlers and redo them. The TV will be pulled and repaired as well. Man that stuff goes quick out there. I know there is other stuff, just can't think of everything now. Thanks for putting your trust in us....it means alot.
