Nekton Rorqual Jan 23-30

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1_T_Submariner

Contributor
Messages
3,010
Reaction score
12
Location
Pontiac, IL
# of dives
500 - 999
My wife and I went on the Nekton Rorqual last week. We had a great time.
I posted some pictures in the Cannon forum since I had done some a lot of reading there before buying a camera for Christmas (Cannon G11 with cannon Housing)
http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/canon-corner/321542-amerature-g11.html

The Crew - Awesome. They where helpful, friendly, safety concious, funny and very accomodating! They became friends over the week.

The boat - Ready for the ship yard. One water pump didn't work the other did so fresh water was not really plentiful. Basically the lower level needs to be gutted and remodeled. The middle level was in ok shape but could use some touch up. If you are going request the middle level.

The diving - Great! The only small complaint was visiting one site 3 times. It was due to weather and an ok site. Lots of healthy reefs and pretty good small wrecks.
The Pier in Frederiksted was great! I did 5 dives on it lots of everything, 4 frog fish on one dive. 24 dives for the week

The food - Really good Fancy no filling and good quality yes. Be early for breakfast and late for lunch/dinner. Late because they prepare quite a bit ahead so you will get food out of the oven if you wait a little while. Great snacks lots of fresh cookies between dives in the AM and other stuff in the afternoon.


In summary I will probably go on a different Itenerary someday (just because there is more of the world to see) when and only when either the Rorqual or the Pilot get overhauled in the shipyard. Sad but they have got their money's worth out of the boat and its time for some big time maintenance.
 
...glad you had a good time. ...about the condition of the boat.....Nekton has had EONS of time to overhaul those boats.....if they didn't do it when the economy was booming a few years ago, it's very hard to imagine them having the $/inclination to do it now, not with the economy/travel industry being in the crapper...remember the 1st rule of scuba...don't hold yer breath!
 
Glad to hear you had a great time! We are big fans of the Nekton but wish they were diving some new destinations. That Mayaguana trip this spring sounds cool but not in our plan this year. I hope once they get both boats done with refit and remodelling they start a new itinerary or go back to Belize, S. Bahamas, or Caymans.
 
Unfortunately it appears that if Nekton wants to stay in business, they're going to have to completely overhaul at least one of the boats to bring customers back.
 
Glad you had a great time. I am looking forward to doing the Mayaguana itinerary in early April. I was there in November (a non-diving excursion) and it looks like it has amazing potential!
 
the Nekton Pilot is in the shipyard for refit. I got conflicting stories on how long it would be some of the crew said later this year others said they had stopped working on it. I think the boat is a great concept just too bad they don't take advantage of the slow time to refit.

We did not make it very far on the north side.
 
Hey! We were on that trip too. I must say that the St Croix pier absolutely made the trip. The Bonaire town pier dive pales by comparison. After diving it I am surprised that I haven't read more about it in a dive magazine somewhere. And on the Rorqual we got to do 5 dives there!

I agree about visiting one dive site too many times and I would have liked to have done the north side more. I did like the dives that we did there at the north side.

The ship is getting dated but the price of that cruise is very cheap by liveaboard standards.
 
The ship is getting dated but the price of that cruise is very cheap by liveaboard standards.

.....personally, I'm not too concerned about a 'dated' boat...I'm a diver, not a sailor....a 30 or 40 yr old boat is fine......as long as it's maintained and fully functional....and not rusted out, half the systems 'down'...and the freaking NITROX compressor/fill system is brought up to modern standards like any other boad offering NITROX.
 
1 T Submariner,

Do you know what percentage Nitrox they were able to fill to?

I'm going on the Rorqual to Mayaguana on 02/20 and was planning on using Nitrox if they can fill to a reasonable level. I've heard mixed reports that they've both fixed the issues of low percentages and also that they are still having problems with the compressor. Thanks.
 

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