New from the Virgin Islands

[ScubaBurt]

Hello Yachtopus,
Welcome from the Commonwealth of Virginia and to the best dry diving site in the vast webdom. You ask about cave diving in Mexico. My wife and I were in Cozumel last May and took a day off and ferried to the mainland to experience cave diving. We dove with Aquatech in Akumal Mexico. We set up the diving via the net and were pleased with the service. Nancy DeRosa was our contact. She and her husband own Aquatech and Villas DeRosa. We are not cave certified so were had to have a guide and we were limited to the cavern area of the caves. However, the diving was awesome. If you are cave certified I am sure you would be able to experience a lot more than what we saw. The caverns have some of the most beautiful stalactites and stalagmites I have ever seen. They were enormous. I highly recommend contacting Aquatech if you are serious about cave diving in Mexico. Good Luck.
Burt

 

[greg somers]

Greetings from New Zealand.I have never been to the VI's and maybe I shouldn't.Do you guys have back up names for the place?
There can be only one,
The Gasman

 

[syruss32]

Well everyone I have had the oportunity to meet both of the owners of Yacht Opus. And even had the privaledge to spend the day in their company aboard their yacht!

I don't know where to start the praise! Michelle met us on docks at about 10am and took us out to Yacht Opus. Once there we headed out on the most beautiful yacht I have ever been on, it was all freshly painted and lovely looking. It is a 50' Tri-Maran (sp) and wow it is great. We headed out to Buck Island to do some diving.

Both Michelle and Lenny made us feel like we were friends they hadn't seen in years! They are definately people we will keep in touch with. My wife had all of her OW dives done except the last two, so on arrival, Michelle completed my wifes training. (Both of the owners are certified instructors as well as their boat being a certified PADI resort)

Before we dove, Michelle cooked us a great lunch, she is also a great chef! We had quiche(sp) and a great salad or so my wife said since I am not a healthfood nut or a rabbit hehehehe

On the first dive Lenny and I headed for some deeper water and saw two stingrays and a medium sized turtle! It was awesome! My wife and Michelle completed her skills and headed to meet us. During the dive Michelle was filming with her underwater video camera.

After the first dive we moved to another location off of buck island, right near a wreck sitting in about 30 feet of water. So we checked that out while my wife did her final dive! It was the most beautiful dives of the 8 ocean dives I have done.

After to dive we set sail for the harbor, and it was so beautiful! The boat is like floating on a cloud, and the company was excellent, we talked about all kinds of things.

Once back in the harbor, we sat around for probably another 4 hours or so eating snacks and just chatting, it was great.

I can honestly say that the day we spent with Michelle and Lenny onboard Yacht Opus was the best time I have EVER had on a vacation!

We will be going back some time next year to spend a whole week with them as soon as we save up some money!

I will post more on the dives in the destinations section as well as more on the Yacht and the great time we had!

Thanks Michelle and Lenny!

 

[DivingGal]

Syruss my friend, when you told me you had been on a yacht, well I questioned your description of it. I am impressed.

I can see why you had such a marvelous time.

Michelle and Lenny - don't know how I missed welcoming to our extended family - but hi there from Ottawa Canada.

If you ever want to freeze something, you'd be more than welcome to visit -- that's in the winter.... in the summer it gets positively balmy around here.

 

[syruss32]

See I told you.... This isn't some "pack em up and get em diving boat" This is a 5 star luxury diving experience in my book.

Not only was the boat beautiful, but the food provided was gourmet and the friendship we made on board will last a lifetime.

The diving was by far the best of all 8 dives I did while I was in St. Thomas. And I have the video to prove it! Thanks Michelle.

BTW: Does anyone know where I can get a VCR tape converted to AVI or MPEG so I can post it on my website?

 

[FinMeister]

Yacht Opus...Michelle and Lenny,

First, I'd like to add my welcome to the many you've already received from other members of this board. I'm looking forward to future posts from you both. Having dual experience as charter boat captains and instructors should make the reading both interesting and informative for the rest of us.

I'm sorry I can't help with with your request for good Mexican caving info, but others on this board with such experience will respond soon, I'm sure.

My wife and I have bareboated the USVI/BVI in years past. Considering the fun we had it's high time we do it again. Great weather, good wind, fun diving and beautiful water.

By the way, where is Yacht Opus berthed, Charlotte Amale or Christiansted? Reading Syruss32's post about your spending time off Buck Island made me think you might be based in St. Croix. Of course with a big tri like YO the reach from St. Thomas to St. Croix wouldn't take all that long.

Again, welcome, and good luck in getting the caving info.

Warren

 

[keralucu]

Am I [size=large]jealous??[/size]

Uh...... YEAH!!

Syruss, sounds like an amazing trip - as I said before, I would love to get to VI one day. Can't wait to see your pics and vdo footage...

 

[artsprite]

Welcome yachtopus,
I'm going to be in your neck of the woods next spring. I'm going to the BVI's 4/28 - 5/04, and looking forward to it. I wish I could meet you, but I'll be on a Windjammer cruise and using their scuba excursions. I don't know if I could slip away to your place or not. I think you'll have fun here on the board...I do!

 

[Scubadawg]

Tought i would say hello from the Ozarks, and hope to see you around