Nope, not at all. You’ve not been on the forum long enough to see the history. Some posters like to constantly belittle (my words) those of us that use charters. My only point in that post was that some of us use charters by choice. Not everyone who can afford a boat wants a boat. That was my only point.
I guess there times we all feel like "our way" is being put down one way or another.
I recognize that seldom i let a charter conversation go by without broadcasting my displeasure for them.
Parallel to that, I keep reading about the myth of how owning a boat is a ridiculous expense, than only the super rich or the feeble minded would get one.
Before meeting my husband, I dove off my kayak and paid for charters once or twice a month. Not once was i treated like a drooling idiot. Felt no need to own a boat. Like many I thought it would be an unnecesary headache since I went to the boat did my dive and came back home to continue my day as I pleased.
Then life happened and I moved to Panama City Beach. That's a different world already, but it got compounded with some sort of change on the charter rules in general.
More and more I was told that this or that was not allowed.. the mate HAS to check your valve, you can NOT take 2 steps to the stern with fins, on the way back the mate HAS to grab you by the
valve all the way to your place, and more silly stuff that felt just random nonsense... What 60min dive ? Oh no, only 45 for now on .... Not knowing how to set the gear was fine, coming up to the surface like a cork of sparkling wine ? totally fine... Discovering boats with empty O2 bottles, no problem. Being taking to the same Black Bart wreck every Saturday was their easy way out to churn divers that came to the coast from the surrounding square states.
On top of more silly rules that would come up from random charters we tried to see if there was any "normal" one, the cost up there for a 2 tank is $80-120.
Cancelling trips 45 min. before departure time, because half of the people was hungover and didn't show up, became a norm during the summers in PCB. During the winter there would be 1 or 2 boats going out and you were at their mercy.
I travelled to many many places for work those years and noticed the charters treating divers like drooling idiots was becoming a worldwide norm instead of the exception. I expect some caution from a charter in a cou try where i don't even speak the language. But if I buy 10 dives at a time from my local charter there should be just a tad of trust. No special treatment but maybe a heads up that tomorrow's boat is filled with guys that just came by the shop totally drunk at closing time to add another person they met at the bar,. I realize I expected way too much consideration, i guess i was a "Karen" before that was a thing.
So few years of that, I felt that buying a boat would be cheaper than getting arrested for assaulting a Charter captain or DM.
Then I discover the wonders of owning your own boat. You know how we talk about the face of people after the first dive? To me it was more magical than that, been going out to sea all my life but going on my own boat was like nothing i experienced before.
It has been many years since that 1st day but the magic remains, and for our particular single engine veasel, the annual cost for insurance, service and fuel is quite less than what people may think.
So to any one who feels insulted in any way, my apologies... If anything I'm glad there's not one boat for every diver out there.
I'll step down my soap box, today is sort of a cloudy gray lazy morning outside, feels like the perfect time to go cruise in the water and make an easy birthday dive, to celebrate that I made it to my 60th with decent health and people that get me.