Typical duration of dives with West End operations?

[Harro10]

I am looking into setting up a dive trip to West End this coming June. I was there five years ago and enjoyed the town and the diving. One reason I have not gone back there was the length of time of the dives. I used a very highly rated operation and they were good in all but that aspect. All the dives were guided due to the marine park rules and every dive would end at about 45 - 48 minutes so that the operation could maintain their dive schedule (I was told by one DM). Air consumption and gas build up were not factors. Maybe I am spoiled by other destinations but on my recent Cozumel trip all my dives were between 60 - 85 minutes and we pretty much dove our computers (conservatively).
Can anyone here suggest West End operators that either let you dive your computer or at least offer longer dives?
Thanks.

 

[Doc]

Sometimes you can analyze things... remotely.

If you look at the daily schedule of any dive op's offered dives, it becomes a heuristic equation. (fancy speak for using what we know about boats and diving, equating it into minutes per day needed to perform a task)

Yes, it's all about getting the boat back for the next sailing time. Marine Park Rules? I don't think so.

One big operation, Coconut Tree, does it this way:

0900 Two Tank trip
1300 single
1430 single

Look at the clock, do some math.

Depart at 0900
Splash at 0920
Out at 1020
SI until 1050
Splash at 1050
Out at 1150
Dock at 1210

(This assumes a 20 minute ride to mooring and set, plus a 1 hr BT max)

Boat change out, crew refersh +50 minutes, that puts you at

1300 depart
1320 splash
1420 out
1440 tie up

whoops... missed the 1430 trip departure.

The math doesn't make sense- not if you are looking for 1 hr BT's.

Some operations do run multiple boats. All well and good, but you can't get on boat #3 if you're still coming back in on boat #2.

Another big operation, Bananarama goes out at

0830 two tank
1300 two tank

and offers an alternative of

1400 single tank trip.

A lot of these operations on West/Northwest are aligned with the cruise ship diver and schedule. Two things to know about cruise ship divers: 1) they must always be finished on time, and 2) they usually think they need 120 cu ft tanks (maybe they do). These ops are small, and they do mix up groups- they have to.

Northwest and West diving is generally considered deep, certainly when compared to the South shore. BT and nitrogen loading are a concern, maybe not for you, but for the DMs and some of the Pod People.

A lot of other anecdotal answers out there, I'm just looking at the calculator and a clock. I can deduce what is actually possible by the constraints of time, what they decide to do is another matter.

 

[scubafied]

I was there for the entire month of May last year and dove with Native Sons. Looking back through the logbook, most of my dives were almost spot on an hour and I remember them asking politely to be up around the 60min mark so as to keep with the time scheduling. The boat schedule that Doc pointed out is a pretty good indicator of how most of them run their time frames. Native Sons was going out at 9, 11 and 2 for single tank dives which leaves you with a 15-20 minute ride each way with 20-30 left to load new tanks and add/subtract divers from the boat. It's always going to vary slightly due to how many customers have signed up for each dive time and which courses they may be teaching at the moment as well. I did notice each shop staggers their time by a slight 10-15 minutes or so from each other in order to avoid more than one boat splashing the same site at the exact same time. If you go again, plan your trip for the few days before or after a full moon and do the "string of pearls" night dive. Probably one of my favorite dives to date.

 

[Harro10]

Thanks for the insights, Doc and scubafied,

 

[DeputyDan]

It just the way it is. Go to coco view - the time limit on the great shore dive is the air in you tank....

 

[oreocookie]

Doc, I'm not going to argue with your Coconut Tree math too much, but 1 hour bottom times are not uncommon (in the 3 months I was there, I did a few that were in the 65-70 minute range, but most of my dives were in the 50-55 minute range since, being a DMT, when a customer got low on air, my dive was over too.). The morning boat rarely got back to the dock before 12:30. The 1:00 boat usually goes to closer sites to be back in time for a very quick turnaround at 2:30... The schedule does work with 1 hour bottom times... The big factor I found wasn't so much the schedule but who was leading the dive, some consistently led longer dives than others.

 

[beluga2]

I think your best bet is talk to some of the smaller shops and build up some trust with them over a couple of days. If you and your buddy can demonstrate you are safety conscious, can shoot an SMB and will get back to the boat in the agreed on time then they may let you finish out at 60 mins even if others have to stop at 45.

Attached is my log of Roatan dives for last two years. Some of these ended early for group dynamics reasons and it still averages 57.83 mins over 59 dives. Hour long dives are available in Roatan.