WOODMAN
Contributor
Before I start out, let me apologize for the length of this report. However, there were those who wanted info on this operation, so I tried to provide it. If long analysis turns you off, be warned. However, if attention to detail is what you want, read on...
We found the Juliet docked across from the Hard Rock Cafe in Miami, at the end of a confusing tangle of streets culminating in the Bayside Marina. She is a 3 masted schooner with engine main drive, and is about 100 ft. long and 24 ft. wide. She is rather slow on engine drive (about 7 knots), but when they unfurl those sails and she gets a proper wind, her speed increases. She accomodates up to 12 divers in really nice little 2 person staterooms, but due to an unusual turn of events, we only had 7 passengers, so we had lots of room. She is fully air conditioned, with variable temp controls in the staterooms. The cabins are some of the nicest I have seen on a small liveaboard, although I have not tried any of the luxury boats, so I cannot coment on how she stacks up with them. Everything is varnished and shining wood surfaces, with lots of nautical decor. I did not see all the staterooms, but everything I saw was nice. We had the largest cabin, and it was big enough for a really nice almost queen sized bed, along with a comfy armchair next to the bed and plenty of room to move around. There were lots of drawers and shelves for storage, along with a small but adequate closet for hanging items, all hidden away behind polished and louvered doors. Lighting was fairly good, and there were 110 and 220 volt outlets available next to a small hidden sink with a cold water tap.
There are 3 marine heads, 2 forward and one at the back, ( basically at each end of the belowdecks walkway where all the cabins are) and there are 2 showers as well. There is also a fresh water shower on the main deck next to the dive stations. Storage for big suitcases and divebags in the rooms is rather tight, as the underbed areas are mostly drawers and such, but they have a special room dedicated to storage and they can put large items here after emptying. They do ask you to limit luggage if possible, however. The belowdecks area is parcelled of into 4 separate compartments, divided by bulkheads with those infernal round-cornered rectangular hatch doors in themwhich one sees in all the old naval vessel movies. At times I felt like I was on a submarine, and it took awhile to get the hang of slithering through those hatches. (It didn't help any that I am 6'3" and hefty in size
) Access to the belowdecks is via a main ladder-type stairway at the back of the boat, which comes up in the main cabin area, and also via 2 smaller laddered hatchways that come up through the deck farther forwards, through watertight hatches.
The main cabin topside has the bridge at the front, with a large, spacious salon behind it. There is an enormous varnished table with seating around it on one side of the salon, and a buffet serving area on the other side, with some more seating area against the far wall. The galley is at the back of the cabin. There3 is an icemaker below the serving area, along with the liquor cabinet. There is a 2 doored waist high fridge at the back of the serving area, with various sodas behind one door and canned beer behind the other. (As with most operations, your first drink of the day is also the end of your diving for that day.) There are 2 large Igloo drink coolers also, which contain cold water and some sort of powdered drink mix, respectively. ( I don't know what they were putting in the drink mix Igloo, but I have to say I didn't much like it. Oh well:icorolley )There is a large coror TV with the usual DVD/video/stereo arrangements, and a large library of movies and such.. They also have a satellite radio hookup. There are shelves of paperback books in all the cabins that I saw, and a small but nice reef reference library in the salon. The boat carries a large fresh water supply, and has a 45 gal/hr desalinator, so water usage is not normally a problem, as long as you don't get crazy about it. The usual emergency supplies and gear is all here, including oxygen, a defibrillator, emergency satellite tracking locator, self-inflating liferafts, and all the rest.
Outside the cabin, the divestations consist of a double-sided bench forward from the main cabin, with 6 tanks racked along each side and several more spares across the front. A large lidded compartment behind each tank provides storage for divegear. They do offer Nitrox at additional cost, and carefully check each tank after filling is completed and show you the reading. All tanks are filled at their divestations, so you never need to break down your rig after setting up the first time. They offer standard aluminum 80's, but as I am a card-carrying airhog, I asked if I could bring a larger rental tank. No problem, they said, and they didn't bat an eye when I dragged a steel hi-pressure 130 tank on board. They couldn't get it filled all the way to 3500 psi, but I normally got about 3300 from their compressor without difficulty. They normally do 4 dives a day, including a night dive, and usually will not dive before breakfast. There are 2 gates in the boat railings for water entry, with about a 5 foot drop to the water. (cameras are lowered down to you on a rope.) One of these gates has been modified with a unique fold-up stairway that extends down about 4 feet into the water, and which makes water exits absurdly easy. They float a long tagline from the stairway, and also put over a 15 ft. deep hangbar for safety stops. There is always someone there to take your fins and camera, and to see you safely back to your bench seat. There are 2 large plastic garbage cans full of fresh water for camera soaking, and also a cooler with fresh water for mask rinsing. They have overhead lights that they turn on for night diving, which are easily seen from below, and they also try to lower a strobe light to assist with boat locating.
As for other activities, they offer fishing off the stern, along with snorkle spearfishing for those so inclined. There is a large storage locker on the forward deck which has a padded cover and serves as lounging area for sunbathers, and there is also "the beach". The entire top of the main cabin is wood floored and railed, and they keep a selection of folding chairs and chaises up there for lounging in style. ( The Beach is not open when the boat is under sail, as the main boom which runs right down the center of this area would give sunbathers some competition when it swings.)
They also offer daily classes on reef lore, as the first mate Steve is also a marine biologist. The captain (and owner) is John, and the divemaster is Dennis. Israel the cook rounds out the crew, ande a masterful cook he really is. All hands are super helpfull and eager to please. Most diving is done on your own profiles, although they do ask you to adhere to sport diving limits. Occasionally Steve or Dennis will hop in with the gang, especially if someone is lacking a partner, and will help with critter finding. As to food, it was uniformly excellent, with an unusual amount of variety in the meals. Breakfast was fairly standard fare, although Israel put some different slants on things, such as sausage and egg burritos one morning. Lunches were usually build your own affairs (with all the fixings) such as burgers, BLT's, pizza (4 kinds!) and fish tacos (Lord, those were good!) Supper ranged from herbed tuna steaks, to lamb chops, lasagna, steaks, stuffed pork chops, etc. We never saw the same meal twice. Some sort of snack was provided every afternoon, and there was always a fresh cake or pie or somesuch for dessert after supper. Bags of munchies were always available, and they kept a small hammock filled with fresh fruit hanging near the serving area. No one went hungry, and there was always plenty for seconds (or thirds..) END OF PAGE ONE
We found the Juliet docked across from the Hard Rock Cafe in Miami, at the end of a confusing tangle of streets culminating in the Bayside Marina. She is a 3 masted schooner with engine main drive, and is about 100 ft. long and 24 ft. wide. She is rather slow on engine drive (about 7 knots), but when they unfurl those sails and she gets a proper wind, her speed increases. She accomodates up to 12 divers in really nice little 2 person staterooms, but due to an unusual turn of events, we only had 7 passengers, so we had lots of room. She is fully air conditioned, with variable temp controls in the staterooms. The cabins are some of the nicest I have seen on a small liveaboard, although I have not tried any of the luxury boats, so I cannot coment on how she stacks up with them. Everything is varnished and shining wood surfaces, with lots of nautical decor. I did not see all the staterooms, but everything I saw was nice. We had the largest cabin, and it was big enough for a really nice almost queen sized bed, along with a comfy armchair next to the bed and plenty of room to move around. There were lots of drawers and shelves for storage, along with a small but adequate closet for hanging items, all hidden away behind polished and louvered doors. Lighting was fairly good, and there were 110 and 220 volt outlets available next to a small hidden sink with a cold water tap.
There are 3 marine heads, 2 forward and one at the back, ( basically at each end of the belowdecks walkway where all the cabins are) and there are 2 showers as well. There is also a fresh water shower on the main deck next to the dive stations. Storage for big suitcases and divebags in the rooms is rather tight, as the underbed areas are mostly drawers and such, but they have a special room dedicated to storage and they can put large items here after emptying. They do ask you to limit luggage if possible, however. The belowdecks area is parcelled of into 4 separate compartments, divided by bulkheads with those infernal round-cornered rectangular hatch doors in themwhich one sees in all the old naval vessel movies. At times I felt like I was on a submarine, and it took awhile to get the hang of slithering through those hatches. (It didn't help any that I am 6'3" and hefty in size
) Access to the belowdecks is via a main ladder-type stairway at the back of the boat, which comes up in the main cabin area, and also via 2 smaller laddered hatchways that come up through the deck farther forwards, through watertight hatches.The main cabin topside has the bridge at the front, with a large, spacious salon behind it. There is an enormous varnished table with seating around it on one side of the salon, and a buffet serving area on the other side, with some more seating area against the far wall. The galley is at the back of the cabin. There3 is an icemaker below the serving area, along with the liquor cabinet. There is a 2 doored waist high fridge at the back of the serving area, with various sodas behind one door and canned beer behind the other. (As with most operations, your first drink of the day is also the end of your diving for that day.) There are 2 large Igloo drink coolers also, which contain cold water and some sort of powdered drink mix, respectively. ( I don't know what they were putting in the drink mix Igloo, but I have to say I didn't much like it. Oh well:icorolley )There is a large coror TV with the usual DVD/video/stereo arrangements, and a large library of movies and such.. They also have a satellite radio hookup. There are shelves of paperback books in all the cabins that I saw, and a small but nice reef reference library in the salon. The boat carries a large fresh water supply, and has a 45 gal/hr desalinator, so water usage is not normally a problem, as long as you don't get crazy about it. The usual emergency supplies and gear is all here, including oxygen, a defibrillator, emergency satellite tracking locator, self-inflating liferafts, and all the rest.
Outside the cabin, the divestations consist of a double-sided bench forward from the main cabin, with 6 tanks racked along each side and several more spares across the front. A large lidded compartment behind each tank provides storage for divegear. They do offer Nitrox at additional cost, and carefully check each tank after filling is completed and show you the reading. All tanks are filled at their divestations, so you never need to break down your rig after setting up the first time. They offer standard aluminum 80's, but as I am a card-carrying airhog, I asked if I could bring a larger rental tank. No problem, they said, and they didn't bat an eye when I dragged a steel hi-pressure 130 tank on board. They couldn't get it filled all the way to 3500 psi, but I normally got about 3300 from their compressor without difficulty. They normally do 4 dives a day, including a night dive, and usually will not dive before breakfast. There are 2 gates in the boat railings for water entry, with about a 5 foot drop to the water. (cameras are lowered down to you on a rope.) One of these gates has been modified with a unique fold-up stairway that extends down about 4 feet into the water, and which makes water exits absurdly easy. They float a long tagline from the stairway, and also put over a 15 ft. deep hangbar for safety stops. There is always someone there to take your fins and camera, and to see you safely back to your bench seat. There are 2 large plastic garbage cans full of fresh water for camera soaking, and also a cooler with fresh water for mask rinsing. They have overhead lights that they turn on for night diving, which are easily seen from below, and they also try to lower a strobe light to assist with boat locating.
As for other activities, they offer fishing off the stern, along with snorkle spearfishing for those so inclined. There is a large storage locker on the forward deck which has a padded cover and serves as lounging area for sunbathers, and there is also "the beach". The entire top of the main cabin is wood floored and railed, and they keep a selection of folding chairs and chaises up there for lounging in style. ( The Beach is not open when the boat is under sail, as the main boom which runs right down the center of this area would give sunbathers some competition when it swings.)
They also offer daily classes on reef lore, as the first mate Steve is also a marine biologist. The captain (and owner) is John, and the divemaster is Dennis. Israel the cook rounds out the crew, ande a masterful cook he really is. All hands are super helpfull and eager to please. Most diving is done on your own profiles, although they do ask you to adhere to sport diving limits. Occasionally Steve or Dennis will hop in with the gang, especially if someone is lacking a partner, and will help with critter finding. As to food, it was uniformly excellent, with an unusual amount of variety in the meals. Breakfast was fairly standard fare, although Israel put some different slants on things, such as sausage and egg burritos one morning. Lunches were usually build your own affairs (with all the fixings) such as burgers, BLT's, pizza (4 kinds!) and fish tacos (Lord, those were good!) Supper ranged from herbed tuna steaks, to lamb chops, lasagna, steaks, stuffed pork chops, etc. We never saw the same meal twice. Some sort of snack was provided every afternoon, and there was always a fresh cake or pie or somesuch for dessert after supper. Bags of munchies were always available, and they kept a small hammock filled with fresh fruit hanging near the serving area. No one went hungry, and there was always plenty for seconds (or thirds..) END OF PAGE ONE
, and suffice it to say that the problem was totally gone by morning. The rest of the trip was uneventfull, weather-wise, and we spent a glorious time cruising along the western edge of the Bahamas. A few of us adventurous sorts even got a little shore time when the captain took us with when he ran into port with the skiff for immigration purposes. He dropped us off at an idyllic white sand beach with no one in sight, and we waded around for about an hour in the shallows and had adolescent stingrays come in and tickle our toes with their noses. 
