New diver in the Caribbean

[Atta]

Hi!

My family (3 young boys) and I moved onto a sailing catamaran in Martinique about 1.5 years ago. The prior owners of the boat left a dive compressor (Bauer Junior II) and two sets of good quality Scuba gear. We were busy getting started with the whole thing and getting up to speed on boat maintenance. That never ends (going to Trinidad in a couple of weeks to haul it out for the first time and do a bunch of work). But I finally had a good opportunity to take a open water scuba diver course here in Grenada.

I took the SSI Open Water Diver course with Aquanauts and they bundle in a Nitrox (40%) course. I had a great experience and would recommend them. I was able to use almost all of my gear. The instructor was awesome and I got lucky as the University was on break so it was just me in the course. But overall, awesome experience and I'm looking forward to taking more courses and dives with them on the way up from Trinidad.

Gear-wise, I had to rehabilitate the SPGs as the inside of the lenses went white probably due to the heat here. But I was able to use a suction cup to pull the lenses out of each one and some plastic polish. The dive computers (both Suunto Vyper) seem to be dead due to the low battery issue. But otherwise, the gear is great although after doing the course in a jacket style BCD I'm getting a backplate and wing setup.

I got the Baur Junior II up and running. I changed the compressor oil and the triplex filter. It's electric so no engine oil to change. The boat came with two Fabor 12L steel tanks that are European certified. I don't think I can get them checked here in Grenada but apparently it's possible in Curacao and probably Martinique. I opted to use them as they were made in 2019 and I think have minimal usage. So far, the compressor is working great with about 8 fills.

It's a bit of a dream diving wise. I've always been curious about diving but growing up landlocked it wasn't high on my list. But I've spend a serious amount of time snorkling to clean our boat hulls. We have coppercoat as our antifoul which requires frequent cleaning (ideally every two weeks) and the keels are 1.35m below the surface which doesn't seem like much but it gets tiring doing that without an air supply. So the first cleaning with air was great! And I even got a 10m air hose in Martinique from another diver so I can try leaving a tank up on the boat and use a 2nd stage regulator in the water. And then of course there is the whole underwater world beyond our boat hulls.

Anyway, I'll end there but really happy to be here. I've been active on the forsale forums getting gear (and reading up on the Bauer compressor, nitrox sticks and all that on the other forums) and figured I should say hi.

 

[NW Dive Dawg]

Wow!!!! Living the dream!! Welcome to SB. Love to see some pics of your Cat.

 

[Atta]

This is our boat when we first moved on to her in Le Marin, Martinique, before we renamed her to Atta with the proper ceremony to try to ward off the bad luck that supposedly comes with renaming boats.

Atta means "I found it" in Japanese although no Japanese person would actually use that as a name. But my mother in law is Japanese and when I would visit she frequently was looking for her glasses or something like that and would say "Atta!". I felt the same when we found our boat and also with young kids I wanted something easy to say over the radio (Alpha Tango Tango Alpha).

Atta is a 2003 Privilege 465 Easy Cruise (packaged that included stretching the rear steps or "sugar scoops" +3 feet at the factory plus I think a watermaker and other things -- they later renamed the combination to the 495 as it was so popular). She is a big heavy boat with thick strong hulls cored above the water line with foam. But her rig is big and strong too so she sails well particularly in the trade winds (typically strong winds). This year, we made it up to Puerto Rico from Grenada (we did go south to Trinidad for Beryl) before deciding to turn around and come back instead of going to the Bahamas and up to the Eastern USA. Next season, it's either Martinique -> ABC -> north to Dominican Republic, Bahamas, etc or Martinique -> ABC -> Panama to likely transit the canal to the South Pacific. Sailers like to say cruising plans are made in the sands at low tide as they changed so much so we'll see!

 

[Powereng]

If I may ask, where did you live prior to moving on the boat?

 

[Atta]

We lived in the USA -- my wife and I both grew up in the midwest. We boomranged out to California for my career (computer programming) and back before COVID. Before the boat we were living in Marquette, Michigan. We moved onto it in February so it was quite adjustment in climate.

 

[therookie]

South shore of Lake Superior to Grenada in February would indeed be a shock to the system. A second welcome to SB and a belated one to the Caribbean region!

 

[Powereng]

We lived in the USA -- my wife and I both grew up in the midwest. We boomranged out to California for my career (computer programming) and back before COVID. Before the boat we were living in Marquette, Michigan. We moved onto it in February so it was quite adjustment in climate.

I lived in Marquette for 2 years while I finished my bachelors at NMU. I used to sail with the head of my department out of lower harbor on a boat name the Northwind.

My wife and I just moved from Grand Rapids, MI to Belize. Good for you for making the jump. It takes a lot of courage to pick up and moved to another country. All the best to you and your family.