The big prestige, well organized shop in the area is Rich Coast Divers and they have the best repair shop in the area. DeepBlue seems to have a good boat. I would not want to go to Catalina on the boats that I saw for SummerSalt or Rocket Frog....The [Ocotal Resort] boat had a good ladder and it had a head.
Great to see a recent report on Ocotal Resort's dive op afdgf. Thanks for sharing your experience and glad to hear you had a good time.
To add to the boat discussion, I dove for 2 weeks Dec 2014/Jan 2015 with both Rocket Frog and Rich Coast.
Rich Coast: Of the 2 Rich Coast boats I dove from, 1 had no head and 1 had no ladder. The one with no ladder you pulled yourself on to the swim platform and then boarded from there. It might have been the same vessel with no ladder and no head - I find the ocean cleaner than marine heads so I didn't pay attention to which boat had the head.
Rocket Frog: I dove from both Rocket Frog boats, both RIB format, 1 significantly smaller than the other. Both have ladders, neither have heads. I did only 1 day on the smaller RIB, but it was a Catalina 3 tank. I do not think RF would run that boat to Cats in significant swells; they are very safety conscious. The advantage of Rocket Frog's larger RIB is that it can get you to the Bat Islands - IMO the best diving in the area - in about half the time of other ops. Now whether they can still make it in half the time in non-ideal weather is a question I would love answered. I was surprised at how slowly we moved with what were fairly modest waves - a factor of how deep/shallow the outboards sat in the water is what I was told. Two days our Bats trip was 45 min one way, the third trip it was 2 hours one way with what I would consider fairly modest swells. How The Pacific Express's speed compares to RCD's or OR's boats in similar conditions I cannot tell you, but the selling point for me was that Rocket Frog runs trips to Bats in months that no one else does. It took some work to get enough divers organized, but I would have done a forth Bats trip had one been organized. Bull sharks,
tambja eliora, mobulas triple somersaulting out of the water one day, good chance at schooling rays, larger schools of fish than the local sites, I even had a nice close encounter with a black tip. And no one else for miles.
Ocotal Resort: Besides the fact that the current owners are not keeping up the standards of the old owner, I was told that Ocotal swamped one of their dive boat at Bats and those divers had to be evacuated. Fortunately another Ocotal boat was in the area at the time. Having spent significant time trying to find a dive op operating on Jan 1, I was very surprised to Ocotal Resort's boat apparently heading out that day, since none of the other ops I contacted indicated they would be diving. Whether that was a fluke I don't know, but I would have tried to get on that boat had I known (I had dropped by Ocotal earlier in my trip but everything was locked with no sign of life nearby).
I was told that RF has been asked (not by Ocotal) to follow a smaller dive op's boat closely all the way back from Bats as they were expecting to run out of fuel. Bats is not close to anything - running out of fuel is just irresponsible planning IMHO.
I found both RF and RCD well enough organized - that would not be a significant factor in my choice of operator. I usually dive liveaboards and dedicated dive resorts which are at a different level organizationally. RF was more organized about transfers to/from hotels. RCD was much better about dive guide requests and macro dive guides. RF usually separates students taking courses from certified recreational divers on different boats; RCD often doesn't. Although RCD's students have their own Instructors, the students often influence which dive sites are chosen or ruled out. RF often limited dives to 45 min (despite emailing that there were no dive time limits) and the owner did not fix the problem. An owner of RCD immediately fixed the problem when he was informed their dive guides were limiting dives to around 45 minutes, which was against the 60 minute policy I had been informed of via email. I found both adequately safety conscious.
Edited to add: If you are diving a large camera system, RCD was easier. Surprisingly, neither op had dedicated camera rinse tanks set up even for smaller cameras. I used the reg rinse tank at RCD which was always filled and not in use by the time we returned to the shop but you will have to evacuate once all the dive bags arrive back from the boat. If you pursue it, you can fill your own bin at RF which can allow for a longer soak, but you have to compete with everyone else for the hose.
---------- Post added February 3rd, 2015 at 11:18 AM ----------
Does anyone know who the dive operator is for Villa Sol in Playa Hermosa? Thanks in advance....
DiveDad I dove with a family who had booked Villa Sol via Bill Beards and they were placed with Rocket Frog. It may depend who you book through though. I believe there is only 1 dive op in Hermosa itself - BA Divers.
