The Great Escape Dive Boat / Long Beach ...

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DC-Loudsound

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Orange County, CA
I'm looking for information on "The Great Escape" dive boat out of Long Beach. Any and all information will be appreciated. Is the food good ? Are the Capt. and Divemaster pros ? do they select good dive spots ? Do they have a good safety record ?

My girlfriend booked me and a friend for a one day Catalina trip on Sept. 18th ( my Girlfriend is soooo cool ). It will be my first boat dive, so I'm really looking forward to it ... thanks in advance for your responses.

Dean
 
DC-Loudsound:
I'm looking for information on "The Great Escape" dive boat out of Long Beach. Any and all information will be appreciated. Is the food good ? Are the Capt. and Divemaster pros ? do they select good dive spots ? Do they have a good safety record ?

My girlfriend booked me and a friend for a one day Catalina trip on Sept. 18th ( my Girlfriend is soooo cool ). It will be my first boat dive, so I'm really looking forward to it ... thanks in advance for your responses.

Dean


I was on the Great Escape last year for opening of Lobster season. 4 night live aboard. The food was great. The Capt. and DM's were very helpfull. Most of the places we went to were good dive sights. But, "looking" around was not on the agenda, finding lobster was. Looking forward to this year's lobster trip!
 
I haven't been, but during my cert dive we were getting on a boat in the adjacent berth, and the instructors were saying "damn, wish we were going on the Great Escape". From what I've heard it's good food, jacuzzi, lots of room.

It's a good thing....
 
Was on it 2 Fridays ago, been on about 10 times or so...... Very good boat, very good captain, very good crew. One of the few boats I continue to go on (there aren't many). Capt Tim runs a good ship, and he's had a number of lives in his hands. Couple Decembers ago a freak storm came up on a trip to Santa Barbara Island that was diverted to Catalina. Clear sunny skies, heavy winds and 18 foot swells in the channel. Couple boats (Iron Eagle among them) lost gear and had damage. Took us 3 hours, I think to cross (usualy about 2.25), I recall standing at the galley door watching swells as high as the pilot house.... but TIm got us through...

Mikey the DM (if it's an open boat) is good too, hard worker.

Nice camera area if you have one

Food is fairly good, better than most boats. Good brownies and ice cream on the way home :)

Oh, and no jacuzzi (which I never got, I wouldn't go into a jacuzzi after diving)

Chris
 
Personaly have not been on the boat but am waiting for fund to let me. Always looked like a good one. Here is a report for a trip to Farnsworth banks from 08/15/04 from another board that was taken on board the Great Escape. Some nice pics with it to.

http://www.diver.net/bbs/messages/44723.shtml

Hope this helps alittle

Scott
 
DC-Loudsound:
I'm looking for information on "The Great Escape" dive boat out of Long Beach. Any and all information will be appreciated. Is the food good ? Are the Capt. and Divemaster pros ? do they select good dive spots ? Do they have a good safety record ?

My girlfriend booked me and a friend for a one day Catalina trip on Sept. 18th ( my Girlfriend is soooo cool ). It will be my first boat dive, so I'm really looking forward to it ... thanks in advance for your responses.

Dean


You should go to the SoCal room and do a search of our Fav Dive Boats... we all spoke up about the pros and cons of the major So Cal boats. Here's my list

* Good (not excellent) use of deck space - lots of room. There is not enough room for all divers to store their bags under the bench - so get there early if you want to live out of your bag, or else it will be on the bow.

* No Nitrox. Good fills, tho.

* Camera area is good, not excellent. Lots of AC, which is important to those of us charging more than camera batts (dive light batts, lap top batts, etc.)

* Galley serves down the middle - very efficient. There is also enough room in the galley to seat a full boat. The food is better than some, not as good as others. But efficient serving and seating means you'll get hot food and you can sit down to eat. Hot food is always a plus!

* Staterooms are available. I crash, so its no biggie. If you're coming with a family or sig other, might be worth considering.

* Heads are clean, but a little funky. There are two with outside entry, which makes things a little tricky at night or when its rough. The heads are probably the feature of this boat I like the least.

* Bunk room and bunks are as comfy or more comfy and roomy than a lot of the boats out here. I like the GE bunkroom, as you access it from inside... so its usually not all damp and yukky feeling.

* Groovy Playboy Mansion c.1972 circular staircase repleat with rope lights (no kidding.) Very retro, very hip. :eyebrow: Shelves in the bunk room so you're not sleeping with your bag on your bunk. Another plus.

* Cap and crew are top notch. Never an issue.

* Two gates. Always a plus. Getting back on is not as easy as some boats, as I'm not a big fan of the swimstep. But of you're in reasonable shape, its no biggie.

* SC charters this boat a lot - which usually means lots of students and dumbed-down dive sites. I usually try to get on when its NOT an SC charter.

* There is a cool oasis upstairs on the top deck - potted palms and the like. Kinda cool to hang out with a cigar and watch shooting stars at night.


I like this boat a lot. Probably my second fav in the So Cal fleet.

K
 
Of the dozen or so L.A.-area dive boats I've been on, I'd put the G.E. right up at the top of the heap. Capt. Tim is a pro, and the food is known as being unusually good boat grub. Your Sept. 18 charter is through Sport Chalet, which I've always found to be pretty non-intrusive (there are a few stores out there whose charters can be problematic for one reason or another). Only thing it lacks is nitrox (last year Tim asked around online on whether divers preferred that he put in nitrox vs. a hot tub, but for one reason or another he ended up doing neither). Have a great time!
 
Mo2vation:
* Heads are clean, but a little funky. There are two with outside entry, which makes things a little tricky at night or when its rough. The heads are probably the feature of this boat I like the least.

True, but they do have real toilets, not the weird marine head things.

One of my favorite boats, captains, and crew. Have a good time.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/teric/

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