This report is in two parts. I talk about the liveaboard here, and there's more about the diving at ...
http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/so...ing-malpelo-aboard-yemaya-ii.html#post6027166
Note: The statements below are all my personal opinions. Your experiences may differ.
Yemaya II started life as a supply boat, built on the Gulf of Mexico, transporting people and equipment to the offshore oil wells there. She's 115' and 247 tons, built of steel, and powered by two Detroit Diesel engines. So far, that's all the basis for a good, sound sea boat, but some issues get in the way.
The dive deck provides a good-sized locker under each seat, but it doesn't solve the space issues. I have been on liveaboards with twice the dive deck area of this boat, and the effect of this is evident at gearing-up time. Too many bodies in not enough space. This was an irritating result of the boat not being purposely designed and built for diving.
There are shelves intended for camera rigs (no camera table on the dive deck), but anyone bringing aboard a seriously big camera rig would find these shelves too small. The supposedly dedicated camera rinse tank was big in surface area but shallow, causing a camera to bump on the bottom of it if left unattended. This was also a convenient place for one of the DM's to rinse out his booties. Three were also a few others who could never understand that it was a dedicated camera tank.
Your dive rig stays aboard the dive skiff for the entire trip. The crew pulls a manifold on a long hose, with four whips, onto the skiff to fill tanks. Everyone dives Nitrox, which is not included in the base price, but which is the default gas aboard. Nitrox was at 32% +/-, and dives were based on a PPO2 of 1.6. If someone had said they were sticking with 1.4, I'm not sure how it would have been handled. But on a 3-dive day, there was barely a case for Nitrox at all, and there were no adverse issues for anyone.
The food was a definite high point of the boat operation. Juan Carlos, a trained Cuban chef, did an excellent job. Breakfast was pretty basic, and mostly handled by his Panamanian assistant, but lunches and dinners were quite good. My only complaint was a couple of items that were not diver-friendly, at least for me ... one being some spicy, greasy sausages between the first two dives, and also a beef filet for lunch. The beef was done perfectly, but too heavy for me in the middle of a dive day.
Ah yes, I promised in the dive report that I would talk about the anchoring adventure here ...
On the first night out, the boat anchored at Isla Coiba, the last stop before the crossing to Malpelo. The boat carried a properly-sized anchor with about 60' of chain, but it was backed by wire rope (cable) of about 3/4" diameter. That might sound pretty stout, but with a 247 ton boat bucking against the anchor, it would only take dragging the wire over some sharp coral a couple of times to abrade it enough to cause it to part ... and it did. They set the emergency anchor, and the next day, which was to be our crossing to Malpelo, was consumed by searching for the lost anchor.
Most of the guests "volunteered" to search for the anchor for two dives, forming long lines and combing the bottom. Finally, on the last search dive, the owner found the anchor. We spent yet another night at Coiba, and departed for Malpelo the next morning. In my opinion, the ground tackle setup for this boat was too light, and was the cause of the anchor loss (and the loss of a day at Malpelo). The owner has since decided to go to an all chain rode. I thought it would have been a nice gesture for him to at least spring for everyone's alcohol for the trip, given the lost day plus our search dives. To my knowledge, there was no apology (the original ground tackle was his choice), no thanks, and no compensation.
Although the interior spaces of the boat are air conditioned, the result was rather unbalanced. Our (very compact) cabin suffered, and was so stuffy one night I had to abandon it at 3:00 AM and go crash on a settee in the saloon. Our neighbors had to sleep with their cabin door open to the interior passage just to get some kind of air exchange. Complaints about the A/C brought no change.
This boat has been modified to make it more acceptable to paying passengers. A second galley, settee space, and an aluminum superstructure have been added, providing day use space and a covered area for dining. This is certainly useful, but this weight is all added well above the boat's original CG (center of gravity). This has a negative effect on the boat's ultimate stability, and changes the roll period and arc. On our extremely bumpy crossing to Malpelo, the boat rolled through an arc nearing 70 degrees, in my estimation. Deck furniture and dishes were flying everywhere for a good part of the day. I thought about the effect of taking a big wave fully broadside, and didn't like what I was thinking.
My wife asked, during the trip, if I would recommend the boat to our diving friends. I answered, "No" without a pause. There were too many issues that could have been improved, many without serious cost implications, but they were not. These issues were experienced in addition to the poor visibility, which I understand is a crap shoot, and has nothing to do with the boat's operation. Right now, there are a total of five boats going to Malpelo, and this one is, in some respects, the best choice. You will have to decide for yourself if you want to visit this destination.
http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/so...ing-malpelo-aboard-yemaya-ii.html#post6027166
Note: The statements below are all my personal opinions. Your experiences may differ.
Yemaya II started life as a supply boat, built on the Gulf of Mexico, transporting people and equipment to the offshore oil wells there. She's 115' and 247 tons, built of steel, and powered by two Detroit Diesel engines. So far, that's all the basis for a good, sound sea boat, but some issues get in the way.
The dive deck provides a good-sized locker under each seat, but it doesn't solve the space issues. I have been on liveaboards with twice the dive deck area of this boat, and the effect of this is evident at gearing-up time. Too many bodies in not enough space. This was an irritating result of the boat not being purposely designed and built for diving.
There are shelves intended for camera rigs (no camera table on the dive deck), but anyone bringing aboard a seriously big camera rig would find these shelves too small. The supposedly dedicated camera rinse tank was big in surface area but shallow, causing a camera to bump on the bottom of it if left unattended. This was also a convenient place for one of the DM's to rinse out his booties. Three were also a few others who could never understand that it was a dedicated camera tank.
Your dive rig stays aboard the dive skiff for the entire trip. The crew pulls a manifold on a long hose, with four whips, onto the skiff to fill tanks. Everyone dives Nitrox, which is not included in the base price, but which is the default gas aboard. Nitrox was at 32% +/-, and dives were based on a PPO2 of 1.6. If someone had said they were sticking with 1.4, I'm not sure how it would have been handled. But on a 3-dive day, there was barely a case for Nitrox at all, and there were no adverse issues for anyone.
The food was a definite high point of the boat operation. Juan Carlos, a trained Cuban chef, did an excellent job. Breakfast was pretty basic, and mostly handled by his Panamanian assistant, but lunches and dinners were quite good. My only complaint was a couple of items that were not diver-friendly, at least for me ... one being some spicy, greasy sausages between the first two dives, and also a beef filet for lunch. The beef was done perfectly, but too heavy for me in the middle of a dive day.
Ah yes, I promised in the dive report that I would talk about the anchoring adventure here ...
On the first night out, the boat anchored at Isla Coiba, the last stop before the crossing to Malpelo. The boat carried a properly-sized anchor with about 60' of chain, but it was backed by wire rope (cable) of about 3/4" diameter. That might sound pretty stout, but with a 247 ton boat bucking against the anchor, it would only take dragging the wire over some sharp coral a couple of times to abrade it enough to cause it to part ... and it did. They set the emergency anchor, and the next day, which was to be our crossing to Malpelo, was consumed by searching for the lost anchor.
Most of the guests "volunteered" to search for the anchor for two dives, forming long lines and combing the bottom. Finally, on the last search dive, the owner found the anchor. We spent yet another night at Coiba, and departed for Malpelo the next morning. In my opinion, the ground tackle setup for this boat was too light, and was the cause of the anchor loss (and the loss of a day at Malpelo). The owner has since decided to go to an all chain rode. I thought it would have been a nice gesture for him to at least spring for everyone's alcohol for the trip, given the lost day plus our search dives. To my knowledge, there was no apology (the original ground tackle was his choice), no thanks, and no compensation.
Although the interior spaces of the boat are air conditioned, the result was rather unbalanced. Our (very compact) cabin suffered, and was so stuffy one night I had to abandon it at 3:00 AM and go crash on a settee in the saloon. Our neighbors had to sleep with their cabin door open to the interior passage just to get some kind of air exchange. Complaints about the A/C brought no change.
This boat has been modified to make it more acceptable to paying passengers. A second galley, settee space, and an aluminum superstructure have been added, providing day use space and a covered area for dining. This is certainly useful, but this weight is all added well above the boat's original CG (center of gravity). This has a negative effect on the boat's ultimate stability, and changes the roll period and arc. On our extremely bumpy crossing to Malpelo, the boat rolled through an arc nearing 70 degrees, in my estimation. Deck furniture and dishes were flying everywhere for a good part of the day. I thought about the effect of taking a big wave fully broadside, and didn't like what I was thinking.
My wife asked, during the trip, if I would recommend the boat to our diving friends. I answered, "No" without a pause. There were too many issues that could have been improved, many without serious cost implications, but they were not. These issues were experienced in addition to the poor visibility, which I understand is a crap shoot, and has nothing to do with the boat's operation. Right now, there are a total of five boats going to Malpelo, and this one is, in some respects, the best choice. You will have to decide for yourself if you want to visit this destination.
