Nekton - Cal Sal Bank (anyone been?)

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deltat

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Searched on the forums for "cay sal" and nothing came up.

Has anyone gone on the Cay Sal Bank itinerary with Nekton cruises?

If so, what did you think? How was the diving? How did it compare to other places you have been. Any info, pictures, dive reports, etc. would be greatly appreciated.
 
Thanks mike_s, exactly what I was looking for!
 
that second report was mine....... I can still say, looking back, I would do that trip again. The vis wasn't great on a couple of dives but that was because the nutrients in the water were so thick! I would say vis ranged from 100' on some sights to 40' on a few. Excellent range of types of dives: some deep, some shallow, sharks, blue holes, walls, a couple of drifts. I don't think it is a good trip for a newly certified diver as there are so many that are deeper than the 60' limit plus current at a few. But other than that it is a trip that any diver can enjoy because of the variety. We have since done the Medio Reef trip and loved it also. My trip report for that is here: http://www.rnrscuba.net/NektonRorqual_TripReport.html
Cay Sal and Medio itineraries overlap a bit, so both trips visit many of the same reefs. The only difference is that Cay Sal trip spends more time over at Blue Holes, Medio spends more time on shallower reefs east.

robin:D
 
robint,

All divers going are experienced (75+ dives most to deeper cold water wrecks). Given that information, which itinerary do you think would be more interesting to us and why?

Which one did you enjoy the most?
 
deltat:
robint,

All divers going are experienced (75+ dives most to deeper cold water wrecks). Given that information, which itinerary do you think would be more interesting to us and why?

Which one did you enjoy the most?
Click to expand...

Excellent! I would say Cay Sal Bank might be more interesting given that there is more variety. However,...... we were the very first group to do Medio last year. Much of our trip was a planner trip - we, the group of divers on the boat, got to dive a few sights and tell the captain if it was worth diving as a regular part of future trips there or not. We liked them all, but a few divers though some were too deep, some divers wanted more shallow sights. So... I have no idea which reefs they have decided on as the permanent "Medio Reef" itinerary. As an underwater photographer/videographer I would give Medio a higher mark as the sites were easier and shallower. Both are excellent, both visit many of the same reefs..... Cay Sal does several deeper dives, Medio is strictly reefs 50-70' depth with the exception of the one day over at the Blue Holes. Pick which ever one fits your schedule the best.

Check out my videos of Medio Reef on Vimeo and my Cay Sal videos on YouTube:



robin:D
 
Hi,

Robin and her group were on the same trip with my husband, son and I. We enjoyed Medio Reef so much we are going again this year, actually we are doing 2 cruises to Medio Reef back-to-back in May. I guess that tells you how much we like it. My husband also like to video so the shallower Medio Reef area provides better light and dive times. We did do a stop at the Blue Holes as Robin said and they are great, too. But all-in-all one day over the Blue Holes was good enough for us. We have made 2 trips on the Rorqual, but none on the Pilot these will be our first on this boat. Our experience with the boat and crews was extremely positive. I know the Pilot is the older of the 2, but both were renovated in 2008 so I expect things to be very similar.

emeyer36
 
We did Cay Sal 2 summers ago and would do it again in a heartbeat!! Robin's trip report and videos are extremely accurate to what we experienced, except we had excellent visibility throughout our entire July trip. Water temperature was 84-85 degrees and we often left our wetsuits on the boat.
 
Hola from Cozumel. We are on vacation here right now and I gotta say I was actually saying to my hubby today that I wished we were back on the Nekton. Our first dive we dropped in on another group of divers, yuck, then the next thing you know another one shows up. It was a complete circle ...... and I got back on the boat and said to Ron "dang, that makes me miss the dives on the Nekton!" The reason is that on the Nektonn you might have 20+ divers but once everyone hits the water they are off in different directions. You don't see other divers again until you are under the boat doing your safety stop.... that wasn't what it was like here today!!!
 
LOL, Its also hard to get 5 dives a day and 3 meals in each day in Cozumel. Much easier on the Nekton. However, either place sounds good to me since I'm looking at about 4" of snow right now.
 
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