Captain Lost Our Group

[nimoh]

Probably not very hard, but rude as hell if she was dining with guests. If I was dining with Christi I would have really appreciated her not having her phone on the table and putting her fork down to answer emails on her phone. Maybe that's just me.

Christi, I think the expense of refunding the OP will be more than made up in new bookings from people reading this thread. Things happen, but you went above and beyond to make it right. I for one, will look for your dive shop the next time I am in Cozumel.

 

[markmantei]

Fishndive, I don't really owe you this explanation, but for the benefit of others, I will provide one.

You don't know me and have never met me, so you have no idea what I would or would not have done. I refunded the credit card and fired the captain as soon as I heard what happened, not after the scubaboard post. And, as I said and meant, I had every intention of contacting them. Perhaps I should have tried harder to find them on Saturday, perhaps I should ave hung around the hotel waiting for them to return, but I knew that they would not be hanging around the hotel all day on their last day and knew that they were leaving Sunday morning. Maybe it was a flaw on my part in some opinions that my plan after not reaching them on Saturday was to wait until they got back home when I knew I would be able to reach them.

Yes, I could reply from my phone had there been an e-mail and had I had my phone on the dinner table with me on Thursday evening while at dinner with my other divers - but there was not an e-mail and I did not have my phone on the dinner table with me , it was in my purse. I did have 2 phone messages when I checked after dinner one from Steve, and one from Dan - again, it was after 10pm and too late to call. Still no e-mail on Thursday evening. I am sorry if you or others feel that I (dive op owners) am not entitled to a few hours of personal time and that my failure to be on call after 7pm for a check-in is a character flaw or considered faulty communication. I'm also not perfect, so that complicates things a little bit as well.

I was at dinner with divers/friends on Friday evening when the boat came in, and DID have my phone with me at the table because the boat had not come in when I left for dinner. At 7:38pm, I received an urgent message from Pedro and called him immediately! At that moment, I said "he (referring to the captain) is not taking another trip out - we need to find someone to cover him immediately - there is absolutely no acceptable excuse for this." I did not have the number to the hotel with me, and we don't have directory assistance here, so I planned and did go to the hotel Saturday morning, but they were already gone. I figured that I would get a call from them when they got back, but I never received any phone calls from them or any e-mails either. I am not passing blame, but I was surprised not to hear from them after the incident. Again, I should have tried to go by there again later, but here comes that part about me not being perfect - the day did get away from me because we had a very busy day on Saturday as well.

Steve and I have spoken and as mentioned from both of us, we had a very nice conversation aside from the topic itself.

As far as the BCD, that BCD was taken out of service, we certainly did not intentionally send out a non-working BCD - it worked on the first dive and obviously had no problems with the previous renter, or it would have been reported and taken in for service. Our equipment is regularly maintained and we keep a log of all equipment maintenance but as most people know and understand, equipment problems happen and without warning most times.

Again, I don't know what else I could have done to make this right. I could have tried harder to reach them on Saturday, yes - but for you to say what I would or would not have done is actually what is off base here.

Pete - what flavor kool-aid do you like, I'll make sure to have some for you! haha!

Christi, the way you have delt with this unfortunate incident has been classy all the way. For all of the negativity that can happen from time to time on this board, particularly in the coz forum (some of it warranted, some not), it is refreshing to find someone who is willing to go above and beyond to defend their response to the situation even when it is clearly not required, and to do so with tact. I have not dove with you before, but I would not hesitate to do so in the future.

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Probably not very hard, but rude as hell if she was dining with guests. If I was dining with Christi I would have really appreciated her not having her phone on the table and putting her fork down to answer emails on her phone. Maybe that's just me.

Now, everyone deserves some off time and I'm not saying that Christi should have been replying at 10pm, but there's a difference between someone texting all through dinner like a 16 year old, and an on-call business person taking care of their customers. I would not have found it rude at all.

 

[mediumone]

Christi, the way you have delt with this unfortunate incident has been classy all the way. For all of the negativity that can happen from time to time on this board, particularly in the coz forum (some of it warranted, some not), it is refreshing to find someone who is willing to go above and beyond to defend their response to the situation even when it is clearly not required, and to do so with tact. I have not dove with you before, but I would not hesitate to do so in the future.

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Now, everyone deserves some off time and I'm not saying that Christi should have been replying at 10pm, but there's a difference between someone texting all through dinner like a 16 year old, and an on-call business person taking care of their customers. I would not have found it rude at all.

I would have found it exceedingly rude --- because it is.

When we go out to dinner, my 15 and 17 year old boys leave their phones in the car. If they get caught using them at the dinner table at home, they lose them for a week.

If more parents took my hard line approach, they'd see their kids test scores jump 5% -10%.

Yeah, way off topic, but I couldn't let it go. Sorry for the rant.

 

[DandyDon]

My daughter doesn't let me text at the table either. :sad:

 

[Christi]

Christi, appropriate response, great too have owner/operators deal with a situation ASAP. You and i know each other, but I have never had a chance to dive with you, that might change. ???, what is the protocol for the Capt to notify authorities for help. Here in the West Palm Beach area, if a diver is 15 minutes overdue, Coast Guard is to be called. Did he put it out on radio that he needed help in finding divers. I bet boats would have come out of the harbor immediately to search. As a working DM in Jupiter, I am amazed how many divers don't carry a mirror, which I have used many times, and SMB's.

Chuck, this was another issue I had - that I wasn't contacted by the captain himself (they all have cell phones and of course the radio), that he did not answer his cell phone when I called at 6:30 (about the time I was expecting the crew to be back) and that he did not call for assistance.

The first two divers and Miguel did surface very early and he claims he was not expecting them that early and that they were further north than he expected - this should have been a moot point because conditions were very flat, good light to see surface markers and he should have been following them the whole time, there were no other boats around which would have made his task easier. The other three divers and Pedro surfaced at the expected time, but the captain also claims that they were further north than he expected.

For the record again, our main captain Nibardo ("Nivo") is a very seasoned, experienced and professional captain (he WAS NOT the captain in this unfortunate incident). Nivo has been working here as a Captain for over 15 years and is every bit as good and experienced as our former captain that many of you know! Unfortunately, after 9 years of working for BXTS, he (Mago) moved on to another very good company in February. As always, I will be very selective in choosing my other captain's replacement.

 

[mediumone]

Probably goes without saying, the boys wish I would.:laughing:

 

[Christi]

I had a out of air problem and surfaced halfway through a dive. At the surface the DM and I found the boat captain with his feet up on the dash reading a newspaper! The DM returned to the group below and left me to try to get the captains attention. It wasn't easy. A whistle would have help alot.

I'm not sure how many captains actually watch bubbles. If they watched the bubbles they would be right on top of you and they never are. A lot of the time their so far away they couldn't possibly see your bubbles.

The good captains DO follow and watch the bubbles and are always right there with their divers barring unusual circumstances. They know that they must be aware and "pendiente" for any divers that surface early due to low on air, equipment problems or whatever issue. If I had surfaced to find my captain reading the paper and not paying attention to the divers, he would have been put on suspension or probation at the least. In over 10 years of being in business, this never happened with my other captains!

 

[Brules]

Since the OP & the dive op have hashed this out, come to a good resolution and generally worked out any and all issues, can a mod close this? With the vultures circling and now taking pot shots based on hear-say, 3rd person accounts and rumors from "ex-pats", I fear it will just whirlpool into something more than it needs to be.

I vote close it before more of this happens:

 

[boulderjohn]

Just as a general note, threads do get closed for a variety of reasons, but that is not something that is done readily. Most threads that run their course just run their course because people stop posting in them. It pretty much never happens because some of its participants want it closed. I suggest that everyone who wants this thread to come to a close should stop posting in it. If everything has been ironed out already, then the fact that this has been established will on its own contradict anything that comes in out of the blue later. Just don't respond to it, and it will go away.

If you do want some mod action, don't just start talking to mods in the middle of a post. We don't have sensors that tell us when that happens. I just happened to see this, or it might have been missed altogether. If you want action, just click on the report button and send us a note. That will get everyone's attention, and a controversial topic, such as closing a thread, will be discussed.

 

[Billiken1]

To all:
Interesting to see the thread be used for sharing and learning from experiences of others. As I've said, I'm not the most experienced diver compared to most of you but I do love it and in no way did this experience turn me off from diving. In fact, I believe, it makes me better for the future. I loved being in Cozumel for the first time and I really do look forward to my return...and I will go back to hire Christi and Blue XT Sea. We did, in fact, have a nice conversation and she was completely sincere in every way. She really wants me and my friends to return and use her services again and with the follow up she did, I plan to do just that. I've learned alot by reading some of your posts and some suggestions made, so thank you all! No need to be critical in any way since the issue has been resolved to everyone's satisfaction. Again, Cozumel has become my favorite part of Mexico and I look forward hanging out. having a Sol at Wet Wendy's and certainly more diving.