Dannybot
Contributor
- Messages
- 349
- Reaction score
- 194
- # of dives
- 200 - 499
I attended the Surge 2019 in Curaçao with my family and my son won the Blackbeards trip.
Alex is not as avid a diver as I am, so he gifted me the trip. I just got back from the September 14-20 trip. It was a really good experience for me. I had been wanting to go on a Blackbeards trip since I first read about it about ten years ago, but never had the time.
With my current job, and the kids grown up and out of the house, I have more time for me, so it finally happened!
If you are not familiar with Blackbeards, they describe it as ‘camping at sea’. I would say it’s better than that for sure. It’s gar better than that because you don’t have to do any of the work. They cook for you and fill your tanks. All you have to do is get up in the morning and then dive.
About all I did was dive and eat. The food was good and plentiful.
As for accommodations the boat is small, a 65 ft sloop. You sleep in bunks about the size if an RV. For surface intervals there is a shaded bunk, or you can sun on the deck, swim, snorkel or hang out in the galley.
There were 17 divers and six crew on the boat, but it didn’t seem at all crowded. All the divers got along well and the crew was great.
As for the diving, it was mostly unguided with the crew in the water for the first couple dives to make sure all the divers were comfortable and properly weighted. We were moored or anchored for all the dives, and the moorings were all close to the dive sites, so navigation was simple to find your way back to the boat without much difficulty. Even so my buddy and I did wander out a bit and when we surfaced had a surface current that pulled us from the boat, so we had the ride of shame back in the dinghy on one dive.
There were lots of reef and nurse sharks seen through out the week. Some of the smaller fish were hiding probably due to all the storm activity in the area in the weeks before our trip, hurricane Dorian had just passed through and there were other tropics disturbances in the area. We had good weather for our trip and the waters were relatively calm.
The boat took the waters well, and only one person got sea sick on the first day when we made the long trip to the marine park from Nassau. I only used a single scopolamine patch and it lasted the whole week.
The crew were great, and the chef was accommodating for special diets too. One morning there was lobstering, but I skipped it because I had only seen three or four on the night dive prior to the lobstering, but those who went got enough that they were cooked up for the afternoon snack.
If you want an economical trip where all you do is dive, I certainly would recommend this one! It is easier diving than at any resort I have been to. The air fills were generous, so bottom was only limited by your NDL; you really need a computer for a trip like this.
We dove 19 dives in five days: four dives on two days, five dives on two days and one dive on the last day. The last three dives were 25 ft or less.
Alex is not as avid a diver as I am, so he gifted me the trip. I just got back from the September 14-20 trip. It was a really good experience for me. I had been wanting to go on a Blackbeards trip since I first read about it about ten years ago, but never had the time.
With my current job, and the kids grown up and out of the house, I have more time for me, so it finally happened!
If you are not familiar with Blackbeards, they describe it as ‘camping at sea’. I would say it’s better than that for sure. It’s gar better than that because you don’t have to do any of the work. They cook for you and fill your tanks. All you have to do is get up in the morning and then dive.
About all I did was dive and eat. The food was good and plentiful.
As for accommodations the boat is small, a 65 ft sloop. You sleep in bunks about the size if an RV. For surface intervals there is a shaded bunk, or you can sun on the deck, swim, snorkel or hang out in the galley.
There were 17 divers and six crew on the boat, but it didn’t seem at all crowded. All the divers got along well and the crew was great.
As for the diving, it was mostly unguided with the crew in the water for the first couple dives to make sure all the divers were comfortable and properly weighted. We were moored or anchored for all the dives, and the moorings were all close to the dive sites, so navigation was simple to find your way back to the boat without much difficulty. Even so my buddy and I did wander out a bit and when we surfaced had a surface current that pulled us from the boat, so we had the ride of shame back in the dinghy on one dive.
There were lots of reef and nurse sharks seen through out the week. Some of the smaller fish were hiding probably due to all the storm activity in the area in the weeks before our trip, hurricane Dorian had just passed through and there were other tropics disturbances in the area. We had good weather for our trip and the waters were relatively calm.
The boat took the waters well, and only one person got sea sick on the first day when we made the long trip to the marine park from Nassau. I only used a single scopolamine patch and it lasted the whole week.
The crew were great, and the chef was accommodating for special diets too. One morning there was lobstering, but I skipped it because I had only seen three or four on the night dive prior to the lobstering, but those who went got enough that they were cooked up for the afternoon snack.
If you want an economical trip where all you do is dive, I certainly would recommend this one! It is easier diving than at any resort I have been to. The air fills were generous, so bottom was only limited by your NDL; you really need a computer for a trip like this.
We dove 19 dives in five days: four dives on two days, five dives on two days and one dive on the last day. The last three dives were 25 ft or less.
