djanni
Contributor
It was a great trip and we would do it again in a heart beat.
The boat was just fine. Accommodations were clean and the rooms were tended daily. The upper sun deck is huge. Always a lounge chair and the hot tub is kept hot. Arminda, our chef, was a great cook. The menu pretty well followed the one shown on the web site. The food was very good and plentiful. Cold juices and tea and hot tea and coffee are available around the clock.
There were 22 divers and 10 crew members. As advertised, it was eat, dive, surface interval, dive, eat lunch while boat moves to new reef, dive, surface interval, dive, eat dinner, night dive, sleep and repeat. Two mornings there were opportunities for dawn dives so on those days you could do 6 dives. In total one could dive 32 times. The most I heard of was 28. We did 21. Interestingly, there were a lot of dive masters and instructors on the trip. Oh I forgot… exit the water, take a hot shower right there on the dive deck. Take a couple of steps and grab a hot towel to wrap up in as you head to the salon for a hot cookies right out of the oven.
Every dive site, except the last one of the week, was a wall dive. At one of the dive sites we encountered very poor visibility and a pretty strong surge. The visibility for all the other dives was in the 80 to a 100 foot range and there was zero current which was great.
We flew into Belize City and boarded the Pilot thinking we were doing the Central itinerary but as it turned out we did the Southern. I think weather was the determining factor but I’m not sure. Another couple said they knew we were going on the southern itinerary. That trip took us to Glovers and we worked our way back from there.
The Pilot’s dive masters were often in the water but basically you are on your own. Being that these were wall dives you don’t have to worry about getting lost as long as you know where the wall is and which way you were going. In addition, the tops of the hard coral reefs are in 25’ to 40’ of water so surfacing for a peek would be okay if you had too.
Lot’s of Tarpin and Barracuda. Pretty big ones too. Yellow fin and blue tang everywhere. Lot’s of tunicates. Huge hard coral and lot’s of barrel sponge. Generally the fish were plentiful. Several rays in sandy areas. Turtles were scarce. Sharks were very scarce. Eels were scarce. My beautiful bride found the only toadfish and she was the hero of the day.
Water temp was from 78 to 81 degrees. A 3mm would be fine. One guy dove the whole week in a 5mm and we took a 5 with us and used it on the night dives but we really didn’t need it. Another guy wore just a bathing suit on every dive. Saw a couple of shorties. A lot of people wore skins.
It’s a great experience. We’re going to do one of the Bahama trips next and it’ll be with Nekton.
The boat was just fine. Accommodations were clean and the rooms were tended daily. The upper sun deck is huge. Always a lounge chair and the hot tub is kept hot. Arminda, our chef, was a great cook. The menu pretty well followed the one shown on the web site. The food was very good and plentiful. Cold juices and tea and hot tea and coffee are available around the clock.
There were 22 divers and 10 crew members. As advertised, it was eat, dive, surface interval, dive, eat lunch while boat moves to new reef, dive, surface interval, dive, eat dinner, night dive, sleep and repeat. Two mornings there were opportunities for dawn dives so on those days you could do 6 dives. In total one could dive 32 times. The most I heard of was 28. We did 21. Interestingly, there were a lot of dive masters and instructors on the trip. Oh I forgot… exit the water, take a hot shower right there on the dive deck. Take a couple of steps and grab a hot towel to wrap up in as you head to the salon for a hot cookies right out of the oven.
Every dive site, except the last one of the week, was a wall dive. At one of the dive sites we encountered very poor visibility and a pretty strong surge. The visibility for all the other dives was in the 80 to a 100 foot range and there was zero current which was great.
We flew into Belize City and boarded the Pilot thinking we were doing the Central itinerary but as it turned out we did the Southern. I think weather was the determining factor but I’m not sure. Another couple said they knew we were going on the southern itinerary. That trip took us to Glovers and we worked our way back from there.
The Pilot’s dive masters were often in the water but basically you are on your own. Being that these were wall dives you don’t have to worry about getting lost as long as you know where the wall is and which way you were going. In addition, the tops of the hard coral reefs are in 25’ to 40’ of water so surfacing for a peek would be okay if you had too.
Lot’s of Tarpin and Barracuda. Pretty big ones too. Yellow fin and blue tang everywhere. Lot’s of tunicates. Huge hard coral and lot’s of barrel sponge. Generally the fish were plentiful. Several rays in sandy areas. Turtles were scarce. Sharks were very scarce. Eels were scarce. My beautiful bride found the only toadfish and she was the hero of the day.
Water temp was from 78 to 81 degrees. A 3mm would be fine. One guy dove the whole week in a 5mm and we took a 5 with us and used it on the night dives but we really didn’t need it. Another guy wore just a bathing suit on every dive. Saw a couple of shorties. A lot of people wore skins.
It’s a great experience. We’re going to do one of the Bahama trips next and it’ll be with Nekton.
