Ron G.
Contributor
I was on the December 6 trip, my first liveaboard.
Frankly, I was hoping others would have reported here about the trip. (I think trip reports are more interesting if the writer has been on other liveaboards.)
I'd read quite a bit here and elsewhere about Nekton and the Mona Island itinerary and had high expectations. I had about 45 dives under my belt when I started the trip, including land-based trips to Bonaire and Cozumel.
The boat was nearly at capacity (28 passengers with a capacity of 32). Interestingly, the trip the previous week went with only four passengers. 28 seems to be well above the norm, so I was a bit concerned, but had no reason to be. The only downside to being near-capacity was that I had to share a room with another single (which worked out fine).
Overall, this was a great trip. The crew were great. I was 100% impressed by everyone's obvious desire to serve the passengers....from the dive deck to the galley to the rooms. The captain and co. management should be very pleased with the crew's performance. They were quick to help out with gear on the dive deck, accompany a solo diver on a dive, etc., etc. This attitude was reflected throughout the crew. Everyone seemed anxious to provide a great experience for the divers. (I was also amazed to see the captain directly participating in menial tasks throughout the week, in addition to his other duties.)
The only real negative was the transportation from the airport to the dock. It's a 3-hour drive, but we took six in a rickety, crowded school bus. This was only their second run with this itinerary and their first with this many passengers. We hit a lot of traffic leaving San Juan, but it was made worse because we were unsure if we were going to be fed upon arrival at the boat (at about 10:00 pm). The Nekton documents said that we needed to eat before arrival at the boat. Since we boarded the bus at around 4:45 pm, I don't think anyone had eaten. So, we stopped for a fast food dinner en route. We had no group leader, so the food stop was disorganized....it turned out that some got their meals to go, others sat and ate (in a different restaurant). It ended up being a wasted hour 'cause they did feed us when we arrived. (If only we knew in advance.) We also made a scheduled stop along the way to by liquor, soft drinks, etc. For some reason, we made this stop about half way there, so folks who bought stuff had to handle it for half the trip. There were obviously many supermarkets much closer to the dock. Having said all this, Nekton was quick to change the return transportation. We had three nice vans to ride back in and it went perfectly smoothly.
The Nekton boat is great. I had at one time considered Blackbeard and think I would have been very disappointed...especially compared to Nekton. The passenger rooms were relatively roomy. My had two twin beds, a private bath and several shelves/cubbies for your stuff. Also, there was room under the beds to shove your bags, etc. The room had large picture windows, which was great. Everything inside was nicely air conditioned. they provided towels and wash cloths, but no shampoo.
The main deck included several cabins, a dining area and galley and a "salon". The salon was a common living area with a flat screen tv, dvr, etc. (It also had a computer for photographers to transfer their pics from their media to cd's, which were provided.) The salon was a very comfortable area to hang out between dives...if you wanted to be inside.
The top deck was about 2/3 uncovered with chaises. The other 1/3 was covered and included chairs, a couple tables and an area for the daily dive briefings. It also had a wall of cubbies for divers to store their dry misc. stuff. I liked being able to be outside, yet covered (if I chose).
I thought the diving was great, and somewhat adventurous. Some folks were disappointed because they were expecting to see many, large critters. We did see some small-ish turtles and nurse sharks, some octopus, etc., but not a lot of big stuff. (If you read the itinerary description on the Nekton website, it does raise one's expectations for big sea life.) I'm a newer diver and I enjoyed the walls, reefs, rock formations, coral, etc. No disappointment on my end.
The first dive day lost some time to the orientation, etc. Other days they made sure we could do four day dives plus a fifth, night dive. I did 21 dives, some did about 25. (We visited a small Puerto Rican port on the last afternoon/evening, so there were only two morning dives on Friday. I suppose that was to give everyone 24 hours surface time before their flights. I would have liked to have had the option of afternoon dives, but most folks seemed to like being able to go ashore. I'm not certain, but I think there may have been some drinking.
The set-up is great for diving. You put your BC on a tank at the beginning of the week and you never have to take it off. They fill the tanks in place, air or Nitrox. It was very convenient. There were two entry points off the back of the boat and on on each side. Even with 28 passengers, we were able to get in and out of the water pretty smoothly.
They do a number of dives without mooring, so they do what they call a "live" dive. It's basically a drift dive where everyone enters the water very quickly and immediately descends...trying to keep folks together. When it's time to re-board, you all wait in a group on the surface and they back this large boat up to you (often in relatively strong swells). At the captain's signal, two dives swim quickly to the ladders at the back of the boat, grab on an board. Then the next two and the next two. The swells can make this a pretty exciting process. (After the first, one of the other divers grinned at me and said, "once again, we've cheated death".
Based on the positive reviews I'd read, I booked a second (discounted) trip on Nekton to St. Croix on January 31 (on the same boat). I had a great time on the first and look forward to the next.
Oh, a comment about "luxury". I thought the Nekton amenities were exactly right for a dive trip. I've heard of others offering massages, linen table cloths, etc. That's not what I'm looking for. Nekton did have warm towels and cookies available when you finished your dives....no back rubs. I thought naugahyde in the salon made practical sense. Blackbeard would have been too spartan for my tastes, but Nekton was just right.
Ron
Frankly, I was hoping others would have reported here about the trip. (I think trip reports are more interesting if the writer has been on other liveaboards.)
I'd read quite a bit here and elsewhere about Nekton and the Mona Island itinerary and had high expectations. I had about 45 dives under my belt when I started the trip, including land-based trips to Bonaire and Cozumel.
The boat was nearly at capacity (28 passengers with a capacity of 32). Interestingly, the trip the previous week went with only four passengers. 28 seems to be well above the norm, so I was a bit concerned, but had no reason to be. The only downside to being near-capacity was that I had to share a room with another single (which worked out fine).
Overall, this was a great trip. The crew were great. I was 100% impressed by everyone's obvious desire to serve the passengers....from the dive deck to the galley to the rooms. The captain and co. management should be very pleased with the crew's performance. They were quick to help out with gear on the dive deck, accompany a solo diver on a dive, etc., etc. This attitude was reflected throughout the crew. Everyone seemed anxious to provide a great experience for the divers. (I was also amazed to see the captain directly participating in menial tasks throughout the week, in addition to his other duties.)
The only real negative was the transportation from the airport to the dock. It's a 3-hour drive, but we took six in a rickety, crowded school bus. This was only their second run with this itinerary and their first with this many passengers. We hit a lot of traffic leaving San Juan, but it was made worse because we were unsure if we were going to be fed upon arrival at the boat (at about 10:00 pm). The Nekton documents said that we needed to eat before arrival at the boat. Since we boarded the bus at around 4:45 pm, I don't think anyone had eaten. So, we stopped for a fast food dinner en route. We had no group leader, so the food stop was disorganized....it turned out that some got their meals to go, others sat and ate (in a different restaurant). It ended up being a wasted hour 'cause they did feed us when we arrived. (If only we knew in advance.) We also made a scheduled stop along the way to by liquor, soft drinks, etc. For some reason, we made this stop about half way there, so folks who bought stuff had to handle it for half the trip. There were obviously many supermarkets much closer to the dock. Having said all this, Nekton was quick to change the return transportation. We had three nice vans to ride back in and it went perfectly smoothly.
The Nekton boat is great. I had at one time considered Blackbeard and think I would have been very disappointed...especially compared to Nekton. The passenger rooms were relatively roomy. My had two twin beds, a private bath and several shelves/cubbies for your stuff. Also, there was room under the beds to shove your bags, etc. The room had large picture windows, which was great. Everything inside was nicely air conditioned. they provided towels and wash cloths, but no shampoo.
The main deck included several cabins, a dining area and galley and a "salon". The salon was a common living area with a flat screen tv, dvr, etc. (It also had a computer for photographers to transfer their pics from their media to cd's, which were provided.) The salon was a very comfortable area to hang out between dives...if you wanted to be inside.
The top deck was about 2/3 uncovered with chaises. The other 1/3 was covered and included chairs, a couple tables and an area for the daily dive briefings. It also had a wall of cubbies for divers to store their dry misc. stuff. I liked being able to be outside, yet covered (if I chose).
I thought the diving was great, and somewhat adventurous. Some folks were disappointed because they were expecting to see many, large critters. We did see some small-ish turtles and nurse sharks, some octopus, etc., but not a lot of big stuff. (If you read the itinerary description on the Nekton website, it does raise one's expectations for big sea life.) I'm a newer diver and I enjoyed the walls, reefs, rock formations, coral, etc. No disappointment on my end.
The first dive day lost some time to the orientation, etc. Other days they made sure we could do four day dives plus a fifth, night dive. I did 21 dives, some did about 25. (We visited a small Puerto Rican port on the last afternoon/evening, so there were only two morning dives on Friday. I suppose that was to give everyone 24 hours surface time before their flights. I would have liked to have had the option of afternoon dives, but most folks seemed to like being able to go ashore. I'm not certain, but I think there may have been some drinking.
The set-up is great for diving. You put your BC on a tank at the beginning of the week and you never have to take it off. They fill the tanks in place, air or Nitrox. It was very convenient. There were two entry points off the back of the boat and on on each side. Even with 28 passengers, we were able to get in and out of the water pretty smoothly.
They do a number of dives without mooring, so they do what they call a "live" dive. It's basically a drift dive where everyone enters the water very quickly and immediately descends...trying to keep folks together. When it's time to re-board, you all wait in a group on the surface and they back this large boat up to you (often in relatively strong swells). At the captain's signal, two dives swim quickly to the ladders at the back of the boat, grab on an board. Then the next two and the next two. The swells can make this a pretty exciting process. (After the first, one of the other divers grinned at me and said, "once again, we've cheated death".
Based on the positive reviews I'd read, I booked a second (discounted) trip on Nekton to St. Croix on January 31 (on the same boat). I had a great time on the first and look forward to the next.
Oh, a comment about "luxury". I thought the Nekton amenities were exactly right for a dive trip. I've heard of others offering massages, linen table cloths, etc. That's not what I'm looking for. Nekton did have warm towels and cookies available when you finished your dives....no back rubs. I thought naugahyde in the salon made practical sense. Blackbeard would have been too spartan for my tastes, but Nekton was just right.
Ron
