Johnny Mojo
Contributor
Slightly tardy in posting this, but as soon as we got back things have been sort of crazy.
Recentely, over Thanksgiving, we took a cruise with Holland America with several ports of call that would allow me, my brother and my 15 year old daughter to dive. We scheduled 2 morning dives with Blue Water Divers in Grand Turk and 2 morning dives with St. Thomas Diving Club in St. Thomas. All of this was done independent of the cruise line since we had read stories of cattle boats etc.
All day and during the night prior to arriving in Grand Turk, sea's were rough. Not terrible mind you, but more than just noticable and we had just a touch of rain. Got up in the morning when coffee was delivered
and went out on the balcony.....beautiful! The water was a wonderful deep blue and I could just see Grand Turk on the horizon. This is going to be a good day! My daughter gets up and comes out and we begin to talk about the possibilities of our 2 dives for the day. What will we see? How great it will be to dive in such renowned visability (she was certified in a quarry and this would be her first ocean dive). As we got closer to the island we saw the water color change with the change in depth as we got closer. We saw all the six packs and larger boats idling in the cove adjacent to the mooring. Presumably, one of these would be for us. We see the spot where we will tie up. Time to get our gear and get down to my brother's stateroom so we could get down to the deck where we would get off the ship together. That's when it happened:
"Good morning ladies and gentlemen this is the Captain speaking. I'm sure you can all see that we have arrived for our Grand Turk stop, however, we are experiencing some rather high winds presently. Due to the relative small size of our mooring location and for safety purposes, the maximum sustained winds allowed for a ship of our size to maneuver safely here is 21 knots. Current winds are approximately 32 knots. We will remain here for a while to see if we have any change in conditions. In the meantime......yada, yada, yada....." The phone rings and my brother says "you hear that?" The whole time, my daughter is looking at me like what does this mean? Will we still be able to dive? I hang up with my brother after we decided to be flexible and hope for the best. My daughter says "I guess we're not diving in Grand Turk huh!", as only a teenage girl can when she is disappointed.
After about 45 minutes of this waiting, we decide to call the dive op via cell phone (we were close enough for service). I had spoken with Audrey of Blue Water Divers via email many times prior to this point during the reservation process and to discuss rental gear requirements etc. She answered the phone and I identified myself. "Oh hi John. Yeah, we just heard the bad news from the harbor master that you guys had to cancel your port." That was news to me, since the Captain had not come back on to let us know anything. Audrey assured me that this rarely happens, but she was confident that we would not be in due to the high winds. Blue Water divers were very flexible and a pleasure to deal with. The only thing that would have made that stop more enjoyable would have been to actually dive with them! Audrey was extremely accomodating regarding the circumstances, and I can assure you that we will dive with them in the future, possibly as a stand alone trip.
Next stop St. Thomas Diving Club. Just as with Audrey, we had communicated with Jen of St. Thomas Diving Club frequently for the reservations and gear requirements. My brother and I talked and decided that since we were just sitting there off the coast of Grand Turk with cell coverage, why not call St. Thomas and see if we could book a couple of more dives in the afternoon in addition to the morning dives? Afterall, we didn't want to disappoint my daughter......ahem
. After a quick call, all afternoon dives were pretty much booked, but Jen would see about getting us out on a private dive. Later we confirmed everything via email and were set.
Upon arrival in St. Thomas, Andre (the owner) met us in a center console boat at a transient dock 75 yards from the steps of the ship and we (along with another couple from our cruise) were off. We set out accross the bay for a short ride to Bolongo Bay Beach Resort where thier facility is. After filling out the paperwork and meeting Jen for the first time, we loaded up and were off to the first dive site. I guess there were a total of 10 or 12 of us on the boat. Allen was our Capt. Very likable guy with a quick smile and willing to help you with anything. Andre and a very nice young lady named Kiersten were our DM's as we dove in 2 groups. The first two dives we did were Dive Flag Rock and Armmando's Paradise. Andre was our DM and was finding all kinds of critters and such for us to see as well as pointing out various sites. My daughter had a blast! After the two morning dives, we did our SI back at the resort where there is a fine establishment known as Iggie's. I would love to hang out there for a few adult beverages some time in the future.
Our afternoon dives were done from the center console boat with me, my brother, my daughter and a different DM named Dani. Andre acted as our Captain. Dani buddied with my daughter and made sure she was comfortable with some swim-thru's and such. She was also an eagle eye with the lionfish. She carried markers that consisted of a flat washer with some type of plastic yellow ribbon tied to them. When she saw a lionfish, she would take out a marker and unfurl the ribbon, then place the marker next to the fish. The ribbon would float up and the washer acted as an anchor. After the first afternoon dive, I asked her for more information. Basically, the marker is to identify the location (it's my understanding that the lionfish hang in a spot for quite some time) so that whoever has slaying duty can come back later and exterminate the critter
When I asked her why not right then, she explained that they would rather focus on the needs of their customers and not risk someone getting hurt. Anyway, between dive 3 and 4, she let another operator know where she had placed markers and he relayed that information to (I presume) the executioner. It seemed like they were all working together to control the situation as best they could.
The two afternoon dives we did were Wye Reef and Navy Barges. After the last dive we headed straight for the spot where Andre first picked us up. Got back onto the boat and were gone in less than an hour. WOW, what a dive packed day! All of the boats were well equipped. The staff was wonderful and made available drinks, fruit and candy between dives. On the first dive of the day my daughter developed a very small leak coming out of her console. When we got back on the boat, it was promptly replaced. I mentioned Jen earlier. She runs a tight shop (thanks Jen for everything). All of the staff had an obvious enthusiasm for diving and a desire to make our experience memorable.
I would highly recommend St. Thomas Diving Club to anyone who is looking for an operator in St. Thomas, they are great people with great attitudes who take you to great locations. We hope to be back with them again in the future.
John
The Pic is of Andre - "Hold on to your hair-pins ladies. We're goin diving!!!!!"
Recentely, over Thanksgiving, we took a cruise with Holland America with several ports of call that would allow me, my brother and my 15 year old daughter to dive. We scheduled 2 morning dives with Blue Water Divers in Grand Turk and 2 morning dives with St. Thomas Diving Club in St. Thomas. All of this was done independent of the cruise line since we had read stories of cattle boats etc.
All day and during the night prior to arriving in Grand Turk, sea's were rough. Not terrible mind you, but more than just noticable and we had just a touch of rain. Got up in the morning when coffee was delivered
and went out on the balcony.....beautiful! The water was a wonderful deep blue and I could just see Grand Turk on the horizon. This is going to be a good day! My daughter gets up and comes out and we begin to talk about the possibilities of our 2 dives for the day. What will we see? How great it will be to dive in such renowned visability (she was certified in a quarry and this would be her first ocean dive). As we got closer to the island we saw the water color change with the change in depth as we got closer. We saw all the six packs and larger boats idling in the cove adjacent to the mooring. Presumably, one of these would be for us. We see the spot where we will tie up. Time to get our gear and get down to my brother's stateroom so we could get down to the deck where we would get off the ship together. That's when it happened:"Good morning ladies and gentlemen this is the Captain speaking. I'm sure you can all see that we have arrived for our Grand Turk stop, however, we are experiencing some rather high winds presently. Due to the relative small size of our mooring location and for safety purposes, the maximum sustained winds allowed for a ship of our size to maneuver safely here is 21 knots. Current winds are approximately 32 knots. We will remain here for a while to see if we have any change in conditions. In the meantime......yada, yada, yada....." The phone rings and my brother says "you hear that?" The whole time, my daughter is looking at me like what does this mean? Will we still be able to dive? I hang up with my brother after we decided to be flexible and hope for the best. My daughter says "I guess we're not diving in Grand Turk huh!", as only a teenage girl can when she is disappointed.
After about 45 minutes of this waiting, we decide to call the dive op via cell phone (we were close enough for service). I had spoken with Audrey of Blue Water Divers via email many times prior to this point during the reservation process and to discuss rental gear requirements etc. She answered the phone and I identified myself. "Oh hi John. Yeah, we just heard the bad news from the harbor master that you guys had to cancel your port." That was news to me, since the Captain had not come back on to let us know anything. Audrey assured me that this rarely happens, but she was confident that we would not be in due to the high winds. Blue Water divers were very flexible and a pleasure to deal with. The only thing that would have made that stop more enjoyable would have been to actually dive with them! Audrey was extremely accomodating regarding the circumstances, and I can assure you that we will dive with them in the future, possibly as a stand alone trip.
Next stop St. Thomas Diving Club. Just as with Audrey, we had communicated with Jen of St. Thomas Diving Club frequently for the reservations and gear requirements. My brother and I talked and decided that since we were just sitting there off the coast of Grand Turk with cell coverage, why not call St. Thomas and see if we could book a couple of more dives in the afternoon in addition to the morning dives? Afterall, we didn't want to disappoint my daughter......ahem
. After a quick call, all afternoon dives were pretty much booked, but Jen would see about getting us out on a private dive. Later we confirmed everything via email and were set.Upon arrival in St. Thomas, Andre (the owner) met us in a center console boat at a transient dock 75 yards from the steps of the ship and we (along with another couple from our cruise) were off. We set out accross the bay for a short ride to Bolongo Bay Beach Resort where thier facility is. After filling out the paperwork and meeting Jen for the first time, we loaded up and were off to the first dive site. I guess there were a total of 10 or 12 of us on the boat. Allen was our Capt. Very likable guy with a quick smile and willing to help you with anything. Andre and a very nice young lady named Kiersten were our DM's as we dove in 2 groups. The first two dives we did were Dive Flag Rock and Armmando's Paradise. Andre was our DM and was finding all kinds of critters and such for us to see as well as pointing out various sites. My daughter had a blast! After the two morning dives, we did our SI back at the resort where there is a fine establishment known as Iggie's. I would love to hang out there for a few adult beverages some time in the future.
Our afternoon dives were done from the center console boat with me, my brother, my daughter and a different DM named Dani. Andre acted as our Captain. Dani buddied with my daughter and made sure she was comfortable with some swim-thru's and such. She was also an eagle eye with the lionfish. She carried markers that consisted of a flat washer with some type of plastic yellow ribbon tied to them. When she saw a lionfish, she would take out a marker and unfurl the ribbon, then place the marker next to the fish. The ribbon would float up and the washer acted as an anchor. After the first afternoon dive, I asked her for more information. Basically, the marker is to identify the location (it's my understanding that the lionfish hang in a spot for quite some time) so that whoever has slaying duty can come back later and exterminate the critter
When I asked her why not right then, she explained that they would rather focus on the needs of their customers and not risk someone getting hurt. Anyway, between dive 3 and 4, she let another operator know where she had placed markers and he relayed that information to (I presume) the executioner. It seemed like they were all working together to control the situation as best they could. The two afternoon dives we did were Wye Reef and Navy Barges. After the last dive we headed straight for the spot where Andre first picked us up. Got back onto the boat and were gone in less than an hour. WOW, what a dive packed day! All of the boats were well equipped. The staff was wonderful and made available drinks, fruit and candy between dives. On the first dive of the day my daughter developed a very small leak coming out of her console. When we got back on the boat, it was promptly replaced. I mentioned Jen earlier. She runs a tight shop (thanks Jen for everything). All of the staff had an obvious enthusiasm for diving and a desire to make our experience memorable.
I would highly recommend St. Thomas Diving Club to anyone who is looking for an operator in St. Thomas, they are great people with great attitudes who take you to great locations. We hope to be back with them again in the future.
John
The Pic is of Andre - "Hold on to your hair-pins ladies. We're goin diving!!!!!"
