stfree
Registered
Reporting Juliet Bahamas livaboard trip July 22-28, 2006:
Capt. John is the owner as well as Master of the Juliet and he's a great guy. Gets you where you want to go and leaves it up to you. If you don't want any shore time, then that's what you can get but if you want landings, that's available too. In short, he'll advise you where the weather is and what's at a particular site and you set your own the itenerary.
The Juliet does go further south than Blackbeard and they have a good many
hidden moorings on some stellar sites. Seems to me that the sites get a good
deal better down south. John really knows his stuff and he's a good operator but he's not a pushy, blow-hard type. He and his dive crew are NAUI folks and that's a plus in my book. We did pass close aboard one of the Blackbeard sloops and looking at all those bodies (25+) crammed on the deck of a vessel about half the size of the Juliet made me be thankful for my choice.
I was surprised but the boat is a excellent dive platform. She has a convertible swing platform for diver drop and recovery off the side and it's a real "giant" stride but fun. Recovery is via a full stair at a nice, easy angle.
Juliet is a all steel hull with steel masts; this is a real blue-water boat.. watertight compartments with bulkhead doors and all. I'd be very comfortable in her in heavy weather. Although she's 104' O/A, she only draws 9' of water so it's possible to work in close without grounding. It's not a deep fin keel but looks more like a kedge style. Can't point too high but sails just fine on a reach or following. Rides nicely at anchor, too.
The Divemaster, Marnie, is just out of training and she's full of enthusiasm but sharp
too. She's the tank tender and keeps it going just fine. You keep the same
tank for the duration and leave it setup at your station. Filling is done right
at the station with whips from a central manifold. Everybody has a top-loading
compartment immediately behind his tank to stow fins and misc. gear between
dives. This was a fairly experienced group, so Marnie did'nt have to do too much other than the dive site briefings. The dive schedule was 3 per day plus 1 night. Sometimes
twice on the same site, sometimes all new sites. Everybody was on computers so
there wasn't much pre-planning required as the profiles were not complex.
Dives were usually in the 40-60' depth range but we did do one wall dive where I just had to see what was at 110'. Turns out the scenery was better up around 60-80 so I
did'nt hang around deep. Membrane Nitrox is available on board and they really pump
it full, no lite fills here. Saw a excellent cast of characters; turtles,
octopus, sharks, grouper, blennies, scorpion fish, stone fish, rays, angels, trumpets, etc. Too bad for my Barbara that lobster season did not start for another week; it'll be a good one. Did do a bit of spear fishing at a non-dive site (I got NADA but the others got a couple of Nassau Grouper and Hog Fish) and they were served up and consumed in short order.
Oh!! ... and all those Dolphins... how about a site that had a "super-pod"
materialize from all points of the compass just before dusk? Musta been 50+ of
'em. I am not pushing it a bit either. Everyone jumped in the water on
snorkels and the Dolphins all decided to play. You free dive - they dive with
you... you flip and they followed ... you spin ... they spin.... pods of
three-four five... then another group.. all flashing through and around. Lasted
a good 20 minutes. I have never seen anything like it. AWESOME!!!!
A treat was the presence of a Marine Biologist as a member of the crew. That
position is permanent on the Juliet's crew but apparently the individuals
rotate. This time we had Barbie from Charleston, SC. She
had very interesting PowerPoint presentations to show us about the history of
the area, marine life and sea lore in general. The boat has a big screen TV in
the main salon for the presentations, so it was a pleasure to have the
diversion.
Food was good, plentiful, on time and well varied. Seemed like anytime we
surfaced, there was a meal or solid snack waiting. The Juliet's long time cook, Israel, has a leave of absence to pursue a visit to Alaska so Brandon (normally a Engineer) filled in as cook. I was plesantly surprised that he was fully up to the task. PS: The supply of my indispensable Diet Coke was quite adequate.
All but one berth is a "door" closable cabin and all have individual air
conditioning 24/7. It's not "freeze you" A/C but it'll more than do to get some
zzz's without sweat soaking your pillow. With a portable fan to direct the air
flow a bit it would as good as you could want. All cabins have 110v power 24/7
for chargers, etc. There are two showers aboard with good HOT water and three
heads. Fresh water capacity is great, no limit on showers or on-deck hose
downs.
To close: I give this operation my best recommendation. In fact, we just booked on a Turks and Caicos run for eary next year. Maybe we'll see you then.
Steve and Barbara Freeman
Charlotte, NC
Capt. John is the owner as well as Master of the Juliet and he's a great guy. Gets you where you want to go and leaves it up to you. If you don't want any shore time, then that's what you can get but if you want landings, that's available too. In short, he'll advise you where the weather is and what's at a particular site and you set your own the itenerary.
The Juliet does go further south than Blackbeard and they have a good many
hidden moorings on some stellar sites. Seems to me that the sites get a good
deal better down south. John really knows his stuff and he's a good operator but he's not a pushy, blow-hard type. He and his dive crew are NAUI folks and that's a plus in my book. We did pass close aboard one of the Blackbeard sloops and looking at all those bodies (25+) crammed on the deck of a vessel about half the size of the Juliet made me be thankful for my choice.
I was surprised but the boat is a excellent dive platform. She has a convertible swing platform for diver drop and recovery off the side and it's a real "giant" stride but fun. Recovery is via a full stair at a nice, easy angle.
Juliet is a all steel hull with steel masts; this is a real blue-water boat.. watertight compartments with bulkhead doors and all. I'd be very comfortable in her in heavy weather. Although she's 104' O/A, she only draws 9' of water so it's possible to work in close without grounding. It's not a deep fin keel but looks more like a kedge style. Can't point too high but sails just fine on a reach or following. Rides nicely at anchor, too.
The Divemaster, Marnie, is just out of training and she's full of enthusiasm but sharp
too. She's the tank tender and keeps it going just fine. You keep the same
tank for the duration and leave it setup at your station. Filling is done right
at the station with whips from a central manifold. Everybody has a top-loading
compartment immediately behind his tank to stow fins and misc. gear between
dives. This was a fairly experienced group, so Marnie did'nt have to do too much other than the dive site briefings. The dive schedule was 3 per day plus 1 night. Sometimes
twice on the same site, sometimes all new sites. Everybody was on computers so
there wasn't much pre-planning required as the profiles were not complex.
Dives were usually in the 40-60' depth range but we did do one wall dive where I just had to see what was at 110'. Turns out the scenery was better up around 60-80 so I
did'nt hang around deep. Membrane Nitrox is available on board and they really pump
it full, no lite fills here. Saw a excellent cast of characters; turtles,
octopus, sharks, grouper, blennies, scorpion fish, stone fish, rays, angels, trumpets, etc. Too bad for my Barbara that lobster season did not start for another week; it'll be a good one. Did do a bit of spear fishing at a non-dive site (I got NADA but the others got a couple of Nassau Grouper and Hog Fish) and they were served up and consumed in short order.
Oh!! ... and all those Dolphins... how about a site that had a "super-pod"
materialize from all points of the compass just before dusk? Musta been 50+ of
'em. I am not pushing it a bit either. Everyone jumped in the water on
snorkels and the Dolphins all decided to play. You free dive - they dive with
you... you flip and they followed ... you spin ... they spin.... pods of
three-four five... then another group.. all flashing through and around. Lasted
a good 20 minutes. I have never seen anything like it. AWESOME!!!!
A treat was the presence of a Marine Biologist as a member of the crew. That
position is permanent on the Juliet's crew but apparently the individuals
rotate. This time we had Barbie from Charleston, SC. She
had very interesting PowerPoint presentations to show us about the history of
the area, marine life and sea lore in general. The boat has a big screen TV in
the main salon for the presentations, so it was a pleasure to have the
diversion.
Food was good, plentiful, on time and well varied. Seemed like anytime we
surfaced, there was a meal or solid snack waiting. The Juliet's long time cook, Israel, has a leave of absence to pursue a visit to Alaska so Brandon (normally a Engineer) filled in as cook. I was plesantly surprised that he was fully up to the task. PS: The supply of my indispensable Diet Coke was quite adequate.
All but one berth is a "door" closable cabin and all have individual air
conditioning 24/7. It's not "freeze you" A/C but it'll more than do to get some
zzz's without sweat soaking your pillow. With a portable fan to direct the air
flow a bit it would as good as you could want. All cabins have 110v power 24/7
for chargers, etc. There are two showers aboard with good HOT water and three
heads. Fresh water capacity is great, no limit on showers or on-deck hose
downs.
To close: I give this operation my best recommendation. In fact, we just booked on a Turks and Caicos run for eary next year. Maybe we'll see you then.
Steve and Barbara Freeman
Charlotte, NC
