Lucy's Diver
Contributor
So my wife (shelfrick) and I decided to spend a couple days at Breezes Runaway Bay in Jamaica. It's billed as an all inclusive with scuba as an activity. We did not expect a Bonaire or Roatan type dive resort, just a long weekend with a couple days of decent diving included. Here are the high and low points:
First of all, they don't let you sign up for diving (part of the allegedly all inclusive program) ahead of time by phone. Upon calling them from home the night before, I was given several different stories, none of which was "as certified divers just sign up, we'll have room for you." Long story short, I ended up finding some guy named Everett who is associated with Resort Divers Jamaica: PADI Scuba Diving, Parasailing, Deep Sea Fishing in Montego Bay, Ocho Rios, Runaway Bay Centre, who provided us with a couple days of really good diving. This of course was not included in the all inclusive as it was an offsite vendor. No matter, clearly it was the only way we were diving reasonably. I'll spare you the gory details, but based on my observations on the water (Breezes was out on the same sites) and discussions with others at the resort, it seemed apparent that Breezes caters to really new divers, limits your bottom time and profile, and shepherds you around as part of a large group. Part of this may have been based on the fact that their boat was broken, which forced them to borrow the Hedonism dive boat (the one with the naked scuba diver on the side) on Hedonism's schedule.
Everett picked us up in his pickup each morning. When we got to Everett's shop, it became clear that he was the guy fixing the Breezes boat. And benefitting from the Breezes diver overflow. That repair may take some time.
The only downside of Resort Divers was that the fills tended to be short (2700 to 2800 for the most part) and the O rings were in bad shape. Over the course of two days I swapped out one for me and one for my wife. On the other hand, the operation was reliable and once they saw that we knew what we were doing diving wise they let us pick our dive sites and just casually showed us around (they do put a DM in the water) not forcing us into any given profile. I got the impression that Jamaica sees a lot of really scary novice divers. I was glad to spend the $100 per two tank for the diving.
The first dive included a reef, three small planes sunk as an artificial reef, and an actual wreck. These are really two dives, Ganja Planes and Reggae Queen. I don't know if it was a deliberate sinking. The fact that it had an engine and electronics in the engine room suggests it was not an intentional sinking (or just that there was little or no prep work).
The wreck (in maybe 55 to 65 fsw) was not really broken up, but was largely open. This is a big but not huge wreck, maybe 100 or 120 feet long, though it's hard to tell due to the way that the bow section is broken up. To get in the engine room did require getting under the old deck steel crossbeams near the stern, through a hatch, and into the room itself. It's kind of a tight squeeze to get through the hatch. The front end of the room was totally open, with no overhead or walls, but there were portions in the rear (by the fuses) that was overhead. I found it interesting, with the main engine intact, what looked like a gen set, and other machinery, to include a large fuse panel with wiring (suggesting that it was not artificial, this likely would have been stripped out along with the engine).
After getting out of the engine room my dive buddy (my wife) and I explored the exterior at the stern for some time. The large prop and rudder assembly is exposed; I find things like this interesting. Soon the DM (Everett), who was working with an AOW student, signaled us that they were done but we could stay. After some more time on the wreck, we started back to the boat. I followed the landmarks back no boat. No mooring. I thought I must have missed it. I heard boats above us. I was at about 35 or 40 fsw, having navigated back at a depth at which I could see the bottom for the landmarks and also the surface for the boat. I was low on air so I sent up and SMB on a reel. I had not done this in some time. You really don't need to put much air in that thing from 45 fsw to have it firmly inflated at the surface. Anyway, we went up the line, me reeling in, and did the 3 minute stop. Upon surfacing the boat was right there. I had navigated back to the right spot but the mooring had pulled - as in pulled the whole mooring block, it was gone. The mooring black had appeared to be just a tire rim and some concrete. The boat traffic I heard was largely our boat trying to keep up with our bubbles.
For the second dive a DM named Troy took my wife and I (after dropping the AOW guy and Everett off at his shop) on a dive called Canyons. This was our request, and did end up being somewhat of a reverse, as it was deeper than our first dive for a time. The first dive was a largely square profile and the second only dipped deeper for a short time before multi-leveling up shallower, ending at maybe 25 or 30 fsw. Canyons was a pretty wall dive. It is kind of a complex wall system, including, not surprisingly, a double wall area that was like a canyon. It included a few archway type swim throughs. We never saw a lot of wildlife, but we did see a few lobsters, a pretty large turtle, and a skate.
We were picked up at 9 am and had a long surface interval. They dropped us at the beach at our resort and were able to shower, rinse gear, and be at a late lunch by 2 or 2:30. I liked this relaxed pace.
For the second day a couple who we are friends with, who are also avid divers, joined us. They had arrived a day behind us. My wife and I were the only paying customers (other than the one AOW student) on the boat the first day, and the four of us were the only ones on the boat the second day. Everett explained our dive site options, and we ended up doing Ricky's Reef on the first dive and the Ganja Planes and Reggae Queen on the second. Ricky's Reef is a good wall dive that lends itself to a deep initial descent (well deeper than 100 fsw, in fact it drops off into the blackness) with a multi-level up to 40 fsw or so at the end. The coral was in decent shape, but there was not a lot of fish. The coral seemed covered by a thin dull film. We were told this was debris from a recent hurricane, and it was slowly washing away. Damage and repair work to topside structures seemed to corroborate this. There was a lot of real nice black coral at depth. This dive was done drift style based on Troy's read of the currents.
For both of the day two dives I decided to practice with the SMB by shooting it from the 15 fsw stop (both dives had no anchor line). It was good to refresh the skill, I was reminded how much more air you need to put in the thing from 15 to get it full, and how difficult this can be at the end of the dive when you're pretty buoyant due to the AL80 swing. The other thing I learned was that the thing really fills with water if it is only half full of air and you try to swim with it. The SMB I have is the type with an OPR valve and a one way type bottom opening.
Our second dive went well, I like wrecks and had requested to see this one again. After some time on the Ganja Planes (which must be artificial, there are three of them right there and their engines had been removed) we made our way to the wreck. My wife and I entered the engine room through the largely broken open ceiling and exited to the rear through the hatch. There really is very little true overhead environment here. It's a lot more cavern like; there nothing to silt up and you can see multiple exit points at any given time. The only issue if you got in trouble would be that some of these exit points are a tight fit. Going from bow to stern in the engine room gave me a good look at the fuse panel. There is some loose wiring there, that could be a bit of an entanglement hazard. After we were through the engine room we spent some time up at the bow, inspecting the largely broken open deck. The anchor locker (full of huge chain) is exposed. I was told that the recent hurricane had done some damage to the wreck, I kind of suspect it opened up the engine room a bit.
My overall impression of Jamaica diving, at least the Runaway Bay dive sites, is mixed. There is not much fish life compared to other islands in the region. The overfishing is apparent. The coral, however, is in much better shape (at least here) than a lot of information on the internet suggests. As long as you consider it as a nice tropical vacation with some diving, and not a dedicated dive vacation, its good. I appreciated the service Everett gave us, and highly recommend diving with him. He can be reached through the contact us section of resortdivers.com.
First of all, they don't let you sign up for diving (part of the allegedly all inclusive program) ahead of time by phone. Upon calling them from home the night before, I was given several different stories, none of which was "as certified divers just sign up, we'll have room for you." Long story short, I ended up finding some guy named Everett who is associated with Resort Divers Jamaica: PADI Scuba Diving, Parasailing, Deep Sea Fishing in Montego Bay, Ocho Rios, Runaway Bay Centre, who provided us with a couple days of really good diving. This of course was not included in the all inclusive as it was an offsite vendor. No matter, clearly it was the only way we were diving reasonably. I'll spare you the gory details, but based on my observations on the water (Breezes was out on the same sites) and discussions with others at the resort, it seemed apparent that Breezes caters to really new divers, limits your bottom time and profile, and shepherds you around as part of a large group. Part of this may have been based on the fact that their boat was broken, which forced them to borrow the Hedonism dive boat (the one with the naked scuba diver on the side) on Hedonism's schedule.
Everett picked us up in his pickup each morning. When we got to Everett's shop, it became clear that he was the guy fixing the Breezes boat. And benefitting from the Breezes diver overflow. That repair may take some time.
The only downside of Resort Divers was that the fills tended to be short (2700 to 2800 for the most part) and the O rings were in bad shape. Over the course of two days I swapped out one for me and one for my wife. On the other hand, the operation was reliable and once they saw that we knew what we were doing diving wise they let us pick our dive sites and just casually showed us around (they do put a DM in the water) not forcing us into any given profile. I got the impression that Jamaica sees a lot of really scary novice divers. I was glad to spend the $100 per two tank for the diving.
The first dive included a reef, three small planes sunk as an artificial reef, and an actual wreck. These are really two dives, Ganja Planes and Reggae Queen. I don't know if it was a deliberate sinking. The fact that it had an engine and electronics in the engine room suggests it was not an intentional sinking (or just that there was little or no prep work).
The wreck (in maybe 55 to 65 fsw) was not really broken up, but was largely open. This is a big but not huge wreck, maybe 100 or 120 feet long, though it's hard to tell due to the way that the bow section is broken up. To get in the engine room did require getting under the old deck steel crossbeams near the stern, through a hatch, and into the room itself. It's kind of a tight squeeze to get through the hatch. The front end of the room was totally open, with no overhead or walls, but there were portions in the rear (by the fuses) that was overhead. I found it interesting, with the main engine intact, what looked like a gen set, and other machinery, to include a large fuse panel with wiring (suggesting that it was not artificial, this likely would have been stripped out along with the engine).
After getting out of the engine room my dive buddy (my wife) and I explored the exterior at the stern for some time. The large prop and rudder assembly is exposed; I find things like this interesting. Soon the DM (Everett), who was working with an AOW student, signaled us that they were done but we could stay. After some more time on the wreck, we started back to the boat. I followed the landmarks back no boat. No mooring. I thought I must have missed it. I heard boats above us. I was at about 35 or 40 fsw, having navigated back at a depth at which I could see the bottom for the landmarks and also the surface for the boat. I was low on air so I sent up and SMB on a reel. I had not done this in some time. You really don't need to put much air in that thing from 45 fsw to have it firmly inflated at the surface. Anyway, we went up the line, me reeling in, and did the 3 minute stop. Upon surfacing the boat was right there. I had navigated back to the right spot but the mooring had pulled - as in pulled the whole mooring block, it was gone. The mooring black had appeared to be just a tire rim and some concrete. The boat traffic I heard was largely our boat trying to keep up with our bubbles.
For the second dive a DM named Troy took my wife and I (after dropping the AOW guy and Everett off at his shop) on a dive called Canyons. This was our request, and did end up being somewhat of a reverse, as it was deeper than our first dive for a time. The first dive was a largely square profile and the second only dipped deeper for a short time before multi-leveling up shallower, ending at maybe 25 or 30 fsw. Canyons was a pretty wall dive. It is kind of a complex wall system, including, not surprisingly, a double wall area that was like a canyon. It included a few archway type swim throughs. We never saw a lot of wildlife, but we did see a few lobsters, a pretty large turtle, and a skate.
We were picked up at 9 am and had a long surface interval. They dropped us at the beach at our resort and were able to shower, rinse gear, and be at a late lunch by 2 or 2:30. I liked this relaxed pace.
For the second day a couple who we are friends with, who are also avid divers, joined us. They had arrived a day behind us. My wife and I were the only paying customers (other than the one AOW student) on the boat the first day, and the four of us were the only ones on the boat the second day. Everett explained our dive site options, and we ended up doing Ricky's Reef on the first dive and the Ganja Planes and Reggae Queen on the second. Ricky's Reef is a good wall dive that lends itself to a deep initial descent (well deeper than 100 fsw, in fact it drops off into the blackness) with a multi-level up to 40 fsw or so at the end. The coral was in decent shape, but there was not a lot of fish. The coral seemed covered by a thin dull film. We were told this was debris from a recent hurricane, and it was slowly washing away. Damage and repair work to topside structures seemed to corroborate this. There was a lot of real nice black coral at depth. This dive was done drift style based on Troy's read of the currents.
For both of the day two dives I decided to practice with the SMB by shooting it from the 15 fsw stop (both dives had no anchor line). It was good to refresh the skill, I was reminded how much more air you need to put in the thing from 15 to get it full, and how difficult this can be at the end of the dive when you're pretty buoyant due to the AL80 swing. The other thing I learned was that the thing really fills with water if it is only half full of air and you try to swim with it. The SMB I have is the type with an OPR valve and a one way type bottom opening.
Our second dive went well, I like wrecks and had requested to see this one again. After some time on the Ganja Planes (which must be artificial, there are three of them right there and their engines had been removed) we made our way to the wreck. My wife and I entered the engine room through the largely broken open ceiling and exited to the rear through the hatch. There really is very little true overhead environment here. It's a lot more cavern like; there nothing to silt up and you can see multiple exit points at any given time. The only issue if you got in trouble would be that some of these exit points are a tight fit. Going from bow to stern in the engine room gave me a good look at the fuse panel. There is some loose wiring there, that could be a bit of an entanglement hazard. After we were through the engine room we spent some time up at the bow, inspecting the largely broken open deck. The anchor locker (full of huge chain) is exposed. I was told that the recent hurricane had done some damage to the wreck, I kind of suspect it opened up the engine room a bit.
My overall impression of Jamaica diving, at least the Runaway Bay dive sites, is mixed. There is not much fish life compared to other islands in the region. The overfishing is apparent. The coral, however, is in much better shape (at least here) than a lot of information on the internet suggests. As long as you consider it as a nice tropical vacation with some diving, and not a dedicated dive vacation, its good. I appreciated the service Everett gave us, and highly recommend diving with him. He can be reached through the contact us section of resortdivers.com.
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