Hi all,
Thanks again to you guys for the boat charter tips you gave a couple weeks ago. They were really helpful, and my partner and I had a relatively great time diving the kelp beds. We even saw and swam with a couple sea lions, which was a real joy.
However, the weekend did not go as smooth as it could have, and I'd love your opinion on whether this kind of thing is the norm in socal in case I come back to dive again.
Our final day of diving was supposed to be on the Bottom Scratcher, and we had paid for our dives through a dive shop in the area who had chartered the entire boat. Check in was supposed to be at 6am, and the boat was supposed to depart at 7am. My boyfriend and I ran into a bit of traffic but still made it to the departure site a little after 6:30am. However, we were informed later that the dive shop owner who was on the boat had made the call to the captain to take off at 6:15am! We had called the shop the night before to confirm our rentals, and they knew we were still planning on diving with them, yet they only gave us a 15 minute cushion before jetting off.
I grew up in Socal and know that most people are pretty reasonable. I've also been on plenty of chartered dives in the Great Lakes and was expecting this charter to be the same way, basically to depart when they say they will. Our dives on the Spectre were the same way. They departed when they said they would. I'd hate to get burned and lose such a huge sum of money again. Does anyone know if departing early is a usual thing for socal charters? Am I missing something here?
Thanks again guys,
Karen
Thanks again to you guys for the boat charter tips you gave a couple weeks ago. They were really helpful, and my partner and I had a relatively great time diving the kelp beds. We even saw and swam with a couple sea lions, which was a real joy.
However, the weekend did not go as smooth as it could have, and I'd love your opinion on whether this kind of thing is the norm in socal in case I come back to dive again.
Our final day of diving was supposed to be on the Bottom Scratcher, and we had paid for our dives through a dive shop in the area who had chartered the entire boat. Check in was supposed to be at 6am, and the boat was supposed to depart at 7am. My boyfriend and I ran into a bit of traffic but still made it to the departure site a little after 6:30am. However, we were informed later that the dive shop owner who was on the boat had made the call to the captain to take off at 6:15am! We had called the shop the night before to confirm our rentals, and they knew we were still planning on diving with them, yet they only gave us a 15 minute cushion before jetting off.
I grew up in Socal and know that most people are pretty reasonable. I've also been on plenty of chartered dives in the Great Lakes and was expecting this charter to be the same way, basically to depart when they say they will. Our dives on the Spectre were the same way. They departed when they said they would. I'd hate to get burned and lose such a huge sum of money again. Does anyone know if departing early is a usual thing for socal charters? Am I missing something here?
Thanks again guys,
Karen