Pirate King trip 10 Jul

[sylvester]

Guys, I have to appoligize to ya'll again, I really wanted to be on the boat today. I hope the seas were calm and vis was good. Qglad I sent an email explaining what was happening sorry to have bailed on ya at the last min, Dan we spoke about it this morning, again I appoligize I know you were counting on me to share driving duties with you. Hell, I even had plenty of licky chewies to bring along.

Any body catch anything? With my luck since I had to bail, I am sure ya'll all limited out on bugs.

 

[qglad]

Guys, I have to appoligize to ya'll again, I really wanted to be on the boat today. I hope the seas were calm and vis was good. Qglad I sent an email explaining what was happening sorry to have bailed on ya at the last min, Dan we spoke about it this morning, again I appoligize I know you were counting on me to share driving duties with you. Hell, I even had plenty of licky chewies to bring along.

Any body catch anything? With my luck since I had to bail, I am sure ya'll all limited out on bugs.

No problem. I understand you had duties to attend to.

I'm sure you talked to Dan, but I'll give you the quick run down now.

The weather and seas were GREAT! Warm and smooth as glass. I dropped over the side on my first dive and I could sea the barge at 60ft from the surface.

On the second dive I spent the whole time crusing the bottom on the barge and the sand off to the sides for bugs. I found several holes and saw some claws. However, I was only able to get my hands on one.

I really could of used you down there Sylvester, the guy I buddied up with wanted to race around the wreck and sucked up all his gas pretty quick. If I had someone to cruise slower with and use their eyes, I'm sure we could have come up with a couple of bugs apeice.

Let me know next time your looking at going off shore and I'll tag along.

 

[sylvester]

Now I am even more bummed I couldn't make it. Figures seas would have been good and bugs abundant. I haven't spoke to Dan yet I hope he was he able to find someone to buddy up with?

 

[diveh3]

Picture perfect! Sea was flat & vis was excellent.
I'd ditto qglad's comments about being off to the races, I think my buddies wanted to see how fast they could circle the barge. I tried to take my time and made them come back and look for me a few times.
this would be a good site to hunt fish, as many opportunities were presented but I had no gun.

The Pirate King is a nice boat, plenty of room to accomodate divers and gear.

All in all, it was a great trip to break the cherry in the north atlantic!

Wish you could have been there,
Dan

 

[qglad]

Ok, Dive Boat Critique…

THE BOAT
This is a nice, fairly new boat.

The boat left on time and made good time to the wreck. Plenty of room to store tanks however half of that space was forward on an elevated deck. Not my idea of a good time to lug a steel tank forward up a set of stairs.

The trip out was wonderful. LOTS of room for dry gear with a HUGE cabin to sit in incase of wet or cold weather.

The area to gear up was plenty large. There is one platform in the center of the gear-up area to rest your rig on while you are gearing up. However it a little over waist height which is a LONG way to lift a full rig. Anyone running doubles had better have a strong back. I prefer a “Sitting down” platform to gear up on.

The boat Captain and Mate where both friendly and helpful. They assisted us in gear-up, entry, and exit with no problem. They were helpful in assisting with the old “Oppss, I forgot my mask over there could you get it for me?” No grumbling or problems.

Oxygen, first aid, and the regular accompaniment of safety equipment were on board. In addition, since we were diving closer in shore both the captain and the mate kept a good look-out for approaching boats and warned them away (why don’t other boaters know what a dive flag looks like?). My one critique of the boat crew would be that the mate isn’t a certified diver. I’m not sure how common this is, but it did raise an eyebrow for me.

THE DIVE SHOP
The dive shop running the trip was very accommodating in setting up the trip and making sure I had my paperwork etc. in line before I got to the dock. I misplaced my c-card during the week before the trip. I called the shop, gave them my name and birthday, they called PADI and checked back with a courtesy call to let me know I was ok. No muss, no fuss.

They were organized in getting gear on board in a timely and efficient manner. Most of the divers were renting gear from the shop which the shop delivered at the dock and helped load onto the boat.

The dive safety and briefings where run by the dive shop. Not the boat. The brief consisted of water temp and vis. We did not hook to the planed wreck (a common occurrence) so a little more detailed brief would have been appreciated including distance to the sand, current, lay, and condition of the wreck. However, when I asked for this information it was quickly supplied.

The shop put together a buddy list for each dive and checked each diver in and out of the water. In addition they took a roll call after BOTH dives. Nice!

The dive shop had 3 DM/Instructors on board (that I was aware of) 2 of which where very professional and friendly. They provided information on the wreck and NE diving in general for the new divers on board. The 3rd (who set the hook for us) acted like he owned the boat and like the PAYING CUSTOMERS where on the boat as unwelcome guests.

THE WRAP UP
I had two enjoyable dives and a good experience on the boat.

I will dive on the Pirate King II again.

However, because of the lack of customer service on the part of one employee, I will not dive with the shop that charted this trip again.

 

[captainrob]

Ok, Dive Boat Critique…

THE BOAT
This is a nice, fairly new boat.

The boat left on time and made good time to the wreck. Plenty of room to store tanks however half of that space was forward on an elevated deck. Not my idea of a good time to lug a steel tank forward up a set of stairs.

The trip out was wonderful. LOTS of room for dry gear with a HUGE cabin to sit in incase of wet or cold weather.

The area to gear up was plenty large. There is one platform in the center of the gear-up area to rest your rig on while you are gearing up. However it a little over waist height which is a LONG way to lift a full rig. Anyone running doubles had better have a strong back. I prefer a “Sitting down” platform to gear up on.

The boat Captain and Mate where both friendly and helpful. They assisted us in gear-up, entry, and exit with no problem. They were helpful in assisting with the old “Oppss, I forgot my mask over there could you get it for me?” No grumbling or problems.

Oxygen, first aid, and the regular accompaniment of safety equipment were on board. In addition, since we were diving closer in shore both the captain and the mate kept a good look-out for approaching boats and warned them away (why don’t other boaters know what a dive flag looks like?). My one critique of the boat crew would be that the mate isn’t a certified diver. I’m not sure how common this is, but it did raise an eyebrow for me.

THE DIVE SHOP
The dive shop running the trip was very accommodating in setting up the trip and making sure I had my paperwork etc. in line before I got to the dock. I misplaced my c-card during the week before the trip. I called the shop, gave them my name and birthday, they called PADI and checked back with a courtesy call to let me know I was ok. No muss, no fuss.

They were organized in getting gear on board in a timely and efficient manner. Most of the divers were renting gear from the shop which the shop delivered at the dock and helped load onto the boat.

The dive safety and briefings where run by the dive shop. Not the boat. The brief consisted of water temp and vis. We did not hook to the planed wreck (a common occurrence) so a little more detailed brief would have been appreciated including distance to the sand, current, lay, and condition of the wreck. However, when I asked for this information it was quickly supplied.

The shop put together a buddy list for each dive and checked each diver in and out of the water. In addition they took a roll call after BOTH dives. Nice!

The dive shop had 3 DM/Instructors on board (that I was aware of) 2 of which where very professional and friendly. They provided information on the wreck and NE diving in general for the new divers on board. The 3rd (who set the hook for us) acted like he owned the boat and like the PAYING CUSTOMERS where on the boat as unwelcome guests.

THE WRAP UP
I had two enjoyable dives and a good experience on the boat.

I will dive on the Pirate King II again.

However, because of the lack of customer service on the part of one employee, I will not dive with the shop that charted this trip again.

qglad,
Thanks for joining us last weekend and I am sorry I was not on board but I had to attend a wedding in New York. First, thank you for the positive post about my boat and my crew who work very hard to accomadate the divers and make the trip as comfortable and enjoyable as we can. I would also like to appoligize about the dive master you mention from that particulliar shop that may have given you an attitude. I don't know what the issues were but if you would call me I would like to here what happened and resolve any issues ASAP. My dives are all run with a minimum of two boat staff and two dive staff that is a total of four staff on board all dives. My full time mate Brian is not a diver nor does he need to be as he cannot leave the boat in an emergency, he is to perform his duties aboard the vessel that are required by the CFR's and the USCG in the safe opperation of the vessel as the COI of my vessel states, I my self am a current certified divemaster. You can't tell Brian this but for Christmas I am going to pick up the tab for him to get certified over the winter and do his check out dives in the Keys. Thanks again for you business and please give my a call to talk about the DM.
Thank you,
Capt. Rob
PS. The benches for the back will be done soon.

 

[qglad]

Thanks again for the ride. I had a great time.

I'm not sure but maybe this is not a great place to post your Christmas supprise! Hopefully Brian won't check out the post and find out.

To be clear... Was I correct in stating the the dive shop was running the dive operations (setting the hook, checking divers in and out, etc.) and not the boat staff? I made some assumptions and I want to make sure I'm not giving out false information.

I'll give you a call when I get the chance and let you know the specifics of my "Issue" however, I'm absolutly sure everyone on the boat saw and heard the exchange. Like I said, as a paying customer I expect to be treated in certain manner and I always vote with my wallet.