Nekton Rorqual Review

[Ed Jackson1]

I'm sorry to hear Denise is burnt out. She and her husband have been with the nekton for along time and are great people. I like the Nekton, but it does look like a very hard life if you work on the boat.

 

[Toni2]

It doesn't suprise me that the boat,crew and especially Denise the captain are falling apart. The company itself has been in trouble for a long time. When a crew does not get paid on time and a lack of leadership( a real captain ) is not present, it will start to crumble. I was very dissappointed to hear that many of the old crew (Robert, Tucker, Kimberly, Austin) and others of the era are no longer with the company. We are planning a live aboard vacation this summer, but not with Nekton.

 

[scubafanatic]

it is my impression, based on many reviews/reports I've seen here on Scubaboard...read on 'Undercurrent'.....and from a couple I used to know who did a Bahamas trip on one of their boats a few years back.......that Nekton boats are basically one 'notch' above the 'Blackbeard's' boats, which are, in turn, one notch above...barely.....a WWII U-Boat with respect to comfort/features/frills.

 

[cappyjon431]

I guess I'm classified as one of those "nektoids" who always come to the defense of Nekton, but in this case there is really nothing to defend. I can say that it seems unusual that the response from the office was so minimal. I worked on the Pilot for eight years (and in the office for two) and the one thing I remember is that when there were problems like these the office (and the owner) were very quick to respond.

Burnout does happen. I was on the boat for eight years (and in the same cabin for all of them) and I saw hundreds of instructors come and go. It also seems to be a cyclical thing. The average length of employment on the Nekton boats has always been about six months, but there were times on the Pilot (late 90s come to mind) when many of the crew had been there for years (Capt. Ephey, Chris, Paula, Mikey, Kevin, Jerra, Arminda, myself) and it showed. In all that time, I never felt "burned out"--there were many days when I worked on the divedeck as an instructor and in the wheelhouse as a captain and thought to myself I can't believe they actually pay me to do this! My personal opinion is that hiring a younger crew causes problems, as they tend to want to move to new locations and new surroundings after a short period of time. The best crews we ever had had a strong nucleus of older, more mature crew members which brought stability to the crew and had strong work ethics.

I was the one who originated the slide shows (I did 5 per week--coral reef ecology, Fish ID, reef critter ID, Sea turtle conservation, and photo contest/trip video) and I enjoyed doing them every week. It saddens me that these are no longer being done, but if I know the owner, this is a temporary problem and he will have new crew trained up to do these presentations.

I'm sorry that your experience was not a good one and I hope that Nekton management responds further to your concerns.

 

[Doc]

Nektoid here.

 

[ncchuck]

I'm not at all surprised the management doesn't respond. Their boats are in bad shape, they have the highest turnover rate of any liveaboard in the region and they hire newbies with almost no experience and they provide no training for the staff. What can they say? I speak from experience as a former staff member. They lost 3 crew members in 2 weeks when I was there. They hired one guy living in his car on the beach. They strongly discouraged DM's from entering the water unless specifically asked by the guests. I dove 3 times in one week and was told that was too much diving. Most DM's had never seen the dive sites. They even cheated on coast guard inspection. They hired temp staff to meet the requirements for STCW-95.
I'm a big liveaboard advocate and have been on at least 10. Nekton rates at the bottom of my list. It's cheap but you get what you pay for.

 

[fda483]

I guess I was a Nektoid for a while too. My first two liveaboards were on the Pilot. I think the first one was like the honeymoon, but I was more in love with the concept and convenience of a liveaboard than Nekton. On the second trip some more of the faults came out. The age and condition of the ship and the lack of experience of the crew. Most of the crew had never dived these sites before. But as divers we tend to put up with a lot as long as we get to dive.

This year I took my hard earned diving $$$ and took a trip on the Turks and Caicos Explorer II. Much better experience overall, doors closed, ship was very well kept, no strange sewage smells, and the crew had been together for a while and knew what they were doing. While it was not perfect, overall it was a much better experience. It will take a lot to turn me back into a Nektoid again.

 

[Shasta_man]

Interesting comments, CappyJon. I think you're exactly right: you need the core of experienced crew to manage the new guys to work well and not be overwhelmed by their inexperience. It is amazing in that I think many people think what an amazing job but there is a lot of work involved and your experience can depend on the people you work with, both crew and particularly guests. I'd find it hard to have a smile if I'm not treated as such.

 

[UnderwaterBumbleBee]

Thanks for your comments fda483, we had our first and last trip on the Pilot a year 1/2 ago and you pretty much summed it up. We are looking at booking CEII for Turks 7 Caicos in early June so I was glad to hear you had a good time on that trip! You don't have any photos of that trip do you?

 

[bcaderunr]

Just got off my first Nekton Cruise -- Pilot in Medio this week. I've been on Blackbeards, Aggressor, Juliet and Paradise Charters -- so I've seen other ops. Op is a bit frayed around the edges. You get what you pay for. Crew smokes a lot. Reality of "We request that you depart the boat by 9:30am on the day of return" translated to 3 crew members knocking on our door at 8:00am saying: "We NEED you aff the boat NOW." Thanks for coming, eh? Feel the love.