RICHinNC
Contributor
Hey all
.
We are back from our 2006 trip to Barbados. We had a ball and was lucky in many respects. This was my third trip, my girl friends (GF) second trip .and .my daughter and her hubbys first time there. The whole idea of this trip was because this year is my daughters 30th birthday year and this was my present to her. I picked Barbados as the destination because they had never been to the Carib (actually Dutch West Indies) and I wanted to take them to an island I was very familiar with on what worked and what did not work.
My GF and I arrived on Wed the 13th Sep and they didnt arrive until that Friday the 15th. We got in very late because wonderful AA canceled and changed all our incoming flights. So the car rental people instead of meeting us at the airport just brought the car to the hotel the next day.
Ok, so lets get to the diving. This was my son in laws first time diving warm water.
FIRST DAY DIVING: Our first dive was at Carlisle Bay. I got tanks from John Moore of Dive Barbados LTD (http://divebarbados.net/ ). He runs a small dive ops on the West side and I have dove with him before. Great, no nonsense kind of guy.
Carlisle Bay is right across the street from the Prime Ministers Office and there is a huge band pavilion available and lots of benches to lay gear on or just rest. There are 8 wrecks less than 100 yards off the shore line. We geared up and easily walked into the sea and surface swam out to the first buoy. We descended on to the wreck and proceeded to check it out and move on to the other wrecks as well. As I said, this was my son in laws first warm water dive and he was pretty excited. We saw lots of fish and things. I suck when it comes to remembering fish names but we saw the one with the huge fins and spines and you dont want to touch it.
We surfaced, changed tanks, did our SI and returned to check out some of the other wrecks. Same type of dive ..great.
SECOND DAY DIVING: Our second day of diving was with John Moore. Like I said, John is a no nonsense kind of guy. He will watch you a while, then, if comfy with your capabilities, he will leave you alone if you want. And, he loves to FILL the tanks. I have recommended John in the past and got one bad review. John uses a small six pack wooden boat. You walk out into the water to get into the boat .you back roll out of the boat .and when done you jump in the water (knee deep) and walk back to shore. I guess some want a red carpet rolled out or a dive boat the size of the QE II. If that is your style, John wont cut it for you. But, if you want a great DM and great dives .call John (you will probably get Mary, his wife .she is cool too.)
Our first dive with John was on a wreck called the Pamir. I had arranged that particular dive because it is about a 60 ft ship sunk in about 60 ftsw. It has great, safe, swim throughs and lots of life around it. In fact, we came across a STING RAY with about a 3 foot wing span. John kept signaling he wanted my knife or snippers. Didnt have either with me. Then I watched him lay down about 20 feet in front of the sting ray and start to work his way toward it. I finally noticed John had a piece of monofilament in his hand. The ray had swallowed a hook and John was trying to minimize the 20 or so feet of fishing line it was trailing. He got as close as he dared and actually bit the line as short as he could. It was like the ray knew John was trying to help it. It just laid there and when John was done it came up out of the sand and glided off. Simply amazing.
Our second dive with John was a reef dive. Not our best dive there in the way of life but good none the less.
THIRD DAY DIVING: Out third and final day of diving was with a ops I had dove with before and was not happy with, but to my knowledge, they were the only dive ops that worked with the local university and took oceanography students out to tag turtles. Plus, my GF and daughter could come along as bubble watchers and watch them tag the turtles, take DNA samples and all the other stuff they did with the turtles on the boat we the divers had caught below. They use a converted glass bottom pontoon boat and there is lots of room.
The dive ops has made a lot of changes so I was pleased with how things went this time for the most part. The first dive, however, was totally uneventful. I dont think I saw a single living animal much less a turtle.
But, the second dive was phenomenal. It too was a reef dive like the first, but, this is where all the life was hanging out. We caught three turtles for tagging. Two got away. My son in law and I found 3 great eels, a good size rock fish and lots of other things. He was like a kid in a candy store. The idea of this trip was for my daughter, but I almost think he got more out of it! Earl was our DM and he did a very nice thing. He had caught a turtle and brought it over to my son in law and let him hold it so I could take a picture of him holding the turtle underwater. Then he took it back and by then one of the university students had come back down and took it to the surface for tagging. For that little act of niceness, when back on board, Earl saw I had on an Airborne (military) tee shirt. He went nuts over it (being retired Barbados military himself) so I took it off and gave it to him. Was he ever surprised. Kindness for a kindness is my thought.
We are back from our 2006 trip to Barbados. We had a ball and was lucky in many respects. This was my third trip, my girl friends (GF) second trip .and .my daughter and her hubbys first time there. The whole idea of this trip was because this year is my daughters 30th birthday year and this was my present to her. I picked Barbados as the destination because they had never been to the Carib (actually Dutch West Indies) and I wanted to take them to an island I was very familiar with on what worked and what did not work.
My GF and I arrived on Wed the 13th Sep and they didnt arrive until that Friday the 15th. We got in very late because wonderful AA canceled and changed all our incoming flights. So the car rental people instead of meeting us at the airport just brought the car to the hotel the next day.
Ok, so lets get to the diving. This was my son in laws first time diving warm water.
FIRST DAY DIVING: Our first dive was at Carlisle Bay. I got tanks from John Moore of Dive Barbados LTD (http://divebarbados.net/ ). He runs a small dive ops on the West side and I have dove with him before. Great, no nonsense kind of guy.
Carlisle Bay is right across the street from the Prime Ministers Office and there is a huge band pavilion available and lots of benches to lay gear on or just rest. There are 8 wrecks less than 100 yards off the shore line. We geared up and easily walked into the sea and surface swam out to the first buoy. We descended on to the wreck and proceeded to check it out and move on to the other wrecks as well. As I said, this was my son in laws first warm water dive and he was pretty excited. We saw lots of fish and things. I suck when it comes to remembering fish names but we saw the one with the huge fins and spines and you dont want to touch it.
We surfaced, changed tanks, did our SI and returned to check out some of the other wrecks. Same type of dive ..great.
SECOND DAY DIVING: Our second day of diving was with John Moore. Like I said, John is a no nonsense kind of guy. He will watch you a while, then, if comfy with your capabilities, he will leave you alone if you want. And, he loves to FILL the tanks. I have recommended John in the past and got one bad review. John uses a small six pack wooden boat. You walk out into the water to get into the boat .you back roll out of the boat .and when done you jump in the water (knee deep) and walk back to shore. I guess some want a red carpet rolled out or a dive boat the size of the QE II. If that is your style, John wont cut it for you. But, if you want a great DM and great dives .call John (you will probably get Mary, his wife .she is cool too.)
Our first dive with John was on a wreck called the Pamir. I had arranged that particular dive because it is about a 60 ft ship sunk in about 60 ftsw. It has great, safe, swim throughs and lots of life around it. In fact, we came across a STING RAY with about a 3 foot wing span. John kept signaling he wanted my knife or snippers. Didnt have either with me. Then I watched him lay down about 20 feet in front of the sting ray and start to work his way toward it. I finally noticed John had a piece of monofilament in his hand. The ray had swallowed a hook and John was trying to minimize the 20 or so feet of fishing line it was trailing. He got as close as he dared and actually bit the line as short as he could. It was like the ray knew John was trying to help it. It just laid there and when John was done it came up out of the sand and glided off. Simply amazing.
Our second dive with John was a reef dive. Not our best dive there in the way of life but good none the less.
THIRD DAY DIVING: Out third and final day of diving was with a ops I had dove with before and was not happy with, but to my knowledge, they were the only dive ops that worked with the local university and took oceanography students out to tag turtles. Plus, my GF and daughter could come along as bubble watchers and watch them tag the turtles, take DNA samples and all the other stuff they did with the turtles on the boat we the divers had caught below. They use a converted glass bottom pontoon boat and there is lots of room.
The dive ops has made a lot of changes so I was pleased with how things went this time for the most part. The first dive, however, was totally uneventful. I dont think I saw a single living animal much less a turtle.
But, the second dive was phenomenal. It too was a reef dive like the first, but, this is where all the life was hanging out. We caught three turtles for tagging. Two got away. My son in law and I found 3 great eels, a good size rock fish and lots of other things. He was like a kid in a candy store. The idea of this trip was for my daughter, but I almost think he got more out of it! Earl was our DM and he did a very nice thing. He had caught a turtle and brought it over to my son in law and let him hold it so I could take a picture of him holding the turtle underwater. Then he took it back and by then one of the university students had come back down and took it to the surface for tagging. For that little act of niceness, when back on board, Earl saw I had on an Airborne (military) tee shirt. He went nuts over it (being retired Barbados military himself) so I took it off and gave it to him. Was he ever surprised. Kindness for a kindness is my thought.
