danwig
Registered
A group of 12 of us spent June 3-10 with Deep Blue Resort/Divers, had a great time.
The facilities are just as advertised, and are as pictured on the website. Rooms are comfortable, with AC, balconies with a hammock, comfortable beds, with showers and a bathroom. Nice dining room-bar-lounge, also AC with 2 computers with internet access and connections for photo work, fish books, pool table, dart board, reading material, a deck that looks out on the Caribbean with Honduras in the background, etc. Jasmine makes sure you get three good meals a day, get choices for your dinners, drinks always at the ready.
The diving was really good. Boat crew Matt, Kelly, and captain Swin were excellent guides/hosts, and Steve and Jasmine tagged along on some dives. Good briefings on terrain with special notes on what to look for at particular sites, followed by an either escorted, or on your own dives, no time limits. Even if not escorting people, the DM were in the water, and pointing out interesting sea-life to anyone in their range. They also were very willing to help out, as one in our group hadnt been diving in a while and had some buoyancy issues, Matt offered to buddy up with her to help her work it out for a couple of dives, and she was good to go. After you came up, they assisted you if needed, and would switch out your gear to a fresh tank, and fresh fruit and water were readily available. At the end of the day, they would rinse your gear and take care of it, next morning it would be on the boat, rigged and ready to go. They were also very flexible, on most days when we would come back from the morning dives (the boat radios, so lunch is ready whenever you get back) and ask when were we going back out for afternoon dives, most times it was "what time do you want to go out?" and we would work out an agreed on time. One day we wished to change the night dive for an afternoon dive, Steve said, "if its ok with the boat crew, its fine with me", the boat crew was willing so the change was made. Shore diving was easy right out in front of the resort, swim through a sand channel and out to the wall. The best part, is if you told them you wanted to do a shore dive, they would bring all your gear and tanks to their sea wall at the appointed time, you did the dive, then they took it back, rinsed it, and it was ready on the boat for your next boat dive.. what a deal.
Our favorite sites were the sea mounts we were able to dive, because of the calm conditions the week we were there. We got to do 'Black Hills' twice (2nd our request), and even a yet unnamed mount where we did a 'drift' dive as there was no mooring, the sea life and coral conditions at these sites were outstanding. During the week we saw, besides the usual suspects, 4 seahorses, a frog fish, toadfish, eagle rays, nudibranch, and numerous turtles. On Wed. we got a special thrill, though Utila and Deep Blue are known for it we were very late in the season we were not counting on it, but we got to see and snorkel with a whale shark and manta's rays (well, mobula rays Steve corrected) . Through some word of mouth Steve had received about a sighting, the boat crew asked us if we would be willing to do some searching at a certain area, at a certain time (later in the day) to see what we could see. We of course agreed. Swin and Matt led us to that area, and it starting coming together.. boils, birds, tuna, I asked Matt what else they look for, he said "this is about as good as it gets".. and had us get in snorkel gear on the rail... a few moments later Swin exclaims "Manta's on the surface!", and right by the boat rays at the surface. We jumped in for a look, and damn if they didnt swim back under us again(maybe they were curious). We got back on the boat and went over to were the boil had moved to.. Matt said to be ready.. a few seconds later.. "There he is!!!..whale shark right by the boat, Go,Go!" and in we went. We got to do 3 jumps on different 'surfaces', and several of us got some decent pictures. It was a thrill, its one of those things you cant do justice with explanation..
It was truly a great dive trip, and Deep Blue definitely knows creature comforts geared for divers. It was really 'still' weather while we were there, which was great for the diving.. and the no-seemums as well, so you do need to have DEET on hand, but they were not an issue in the buildings themselves. Steve, Jasmine, and Matt were always on top of the Fish IDs and any and all dive discussions and info, although at the end of the week we photographed a foot and a half long 'worm' and we thought we had them stumped. But Steve followed up with some contacts of his, and he sent us an email (also a thread in scubaboard on "Name that Critter") with an ID, Sipunculus, first known sighting on Utila. Thanks again to Steve, Jasmine, Shirley and all the staff at Deep Blue for a great week.
The facilities are just as advertised, and are as pictured on the website. Rooms are comfortable, with AC, balconies with a hammock, comfortable beds, with showers and a bathroom. Nice dining room-bar-lounge, also AC with 2 computers with internet access and connections for photo work, fish books, pool table, dart board, reading material, a deck that looks out on the Caribbean with Honduras in the background, etc. Jasmine makes sure you get three good meals a day, get choices for your dinners, drinks always at the ready.
The diving was really good. Boat crew Matt, Kelly, and captain Swin were excellent guides/hosts, and Steve and Jasmine tagged along on some dives. Good briefings on terrain with special notes on what to look for at particular sites, followed by an either escorted, or on your own dives, no time limits. Even if not escorting people, the DM were in the water, and pointing out interesting sea-life to anyone in their range. They also were very willing to help out, as one in our group hadnt been diving in a while and had some buoyancy issues, Matt offered to buddy up with her to help her work it out for a couple of dives, and she was good to go. After you came up, they assisted you if needed, and would switch out your gear to a fresh tank, and fresh fruit and water were readily available. At the end of the day, they would rinse your gear and take care of it, next morning it would be on the boat, rigged and ready to go. They were also very flexible, on most days when we would come back from the morning dives (the boat radios, so lunch is ready whenever you get back) and ask when were we going back out for afternoon dives, most times it was "what time do you want to go out?" and we would work out an agreed on time. One day we wished to change the night dive for an afternoon dive, Steve said, "if its ok with the boat crew, its fine with me", the boat crew was willing so the change was made. Shore diving was easy right out in front of the resort, swim through a sand channel and out to the wall. The best part, is if you told them you wanted to do a shore dive, they would bring all your gear and tanks to their sea wall at the appointed time, you did the dive, then they took it back, rinsed it, and it was ready on the boat for your next boat dive.. what a deal.
Our favorite sites were the sea mounts we were able to dive, because of the calm conditions the week we were there. We got to do 'Black Hills' twice (2nd our request), and even a yet unnamed mount where we did a 'drift' dive as there was no mooring, the sea life and coral conditions at these sites were outstanding. During the week we saw, besides the usual suspects, 4 seahorses, a frog fish, toadfish, eagle rays, nudibranch, and numerous turtles. On Wed. we got a special thrill, though Utila and Deep Blue are known for it we were very late in the season we were not counting on it, but we got to see and snorkel with a whale shark and manta's rays (well, mobula rays Steve corrected) . Through some word of mouth Steve had received about a sighting, the boat crew asked us if we would be willing to do some searching at a certain area, at a certain time (later in the day) to see what we could see. We of course agreed. Swin and Matt led us to that area, and it starting coming together.. boils, birds, tuna, I asked Matt what else they look for, he said "this is about as good as it gets".. and had us get in snorkel gear on the rail... a few moments later Swin exclaims "Manta's on the surface!", and right by the boat rays at the surface. We jumped in for a look, and damn if they didnt swim back under us again(maybe they were curious). We got back on the boat and went over to were the boil had moved to.. Matt said to be ready.. a few seconds later.. "There he is!!!..whale shark right by the boat, Go,Go!" and in we went. We got to do 3 jumps on different 'surfaces', and several of us got some decent pictures. It was a thrill, its one of those things you cant do justice with explanation..
It was truly a great dive trip, and Deep Blue definitely knows creature comforts geared for divers. It was really 'still' weather while we were there, which was great for the diving.. and the no-seemums as well, so you do need to have DEET on hand, but they were not an issue in the buildings themselves. Steve, Jasmine, and Matt were always on top of the Fish IDs and any and all dive discussions and info, although at the end of the week we photographed a foot and a half long 'worm' and we thought we had them stumped. But Steve followed up with some contacts of his, and he sent us an email (also a thread in scubaboard on "Name that Critter") with an ID, Sipunculus, first known sighting on Utila. Thanks again to Steve, Jasmine, Shirley and all the staff at Deep Blue for a great week.
