Wild Bill,
I love the small quiet resort. The people are very friendly. They do try to please you. However, they did lack VIP services for the prices I'm paying! Resort down side, lunch is serve from 12:30-1:30pm buffet style. After my two tanks dives I like to take a quick shower and fresh-in up. At one time, I arrived at 1pm and they started clearing the buffet at 1:15pm. We were always the last one at the dining room. I like a leisurely lunch. All other meals are 2 hrs, breakfast 7am-9am ( 8am dive departure ) and dinner at 7-9pm which is perfect for divers and non divers. Food was medicore at it's best, love the Indian cuisine. Chicken a bit overcooked! Again, food is decent. You can order from the bar menu, but it's an up charge.
Diving negative reviews: You need to clean your own gears! First day diving arrive at 7:45 to setup other days at 8am. They store your gear on the boat for your next dive day and set up, but will not rinse gears. However, change tanks between dive. They forgot to change my tank, but i changed it myself. That's what happen when you're the last diver. They have a tub and a drying room for gear storage. Each day I rinse my wetsuit. When I was going to rinse my wetsuit after the dusk dive the tub was murky yellow. I rinse mine w a hose and shampoo it in the shower.
Dive guide ratio: if their isn't 12 divers on the boat, they only put one guide in the water, one on the boat and one to guide you. If there're 12 divers, 3 crew, 2 guides and one on surface. For a dusk dive w only one guide for 11 divers not my ideal conditions. They put a guide since I was number 12. One nitrox analyzer for two boats, Lucky Lady(holds 16 divers in comfort) and Lucky Star (12 divers) so you have to wait. I brought my own analyzer, so I analyzed mine and my hubby.
Dive profile: first dive 100 ft/50 mins second dive 60ft/60 mins.
The guide top out at 70 ft on the first dive, if you have a buddy you can go down to 100ft. I wait for the congestion to slow down before boarding the boat, so I get 100ft/60 mins w 500psi back on board. Second dive, I went between 65-80ft w 65-70 mins buddy up w the last diver. So, Yes it's my fault that I only had 1hr to get ready and swallow my lunch.
Dive gears: Didn't use the service so I don't know when and where they clean their rental BC.
On our last day, we took our belonging to get rinse and dry(one tank for BC and wetsuits, yuck!
I rinsed my wetsuit in their tanks since it's fairly decent after am dives. Then, I rinse my wetsuit and BC w the hose next to the dry room. Also, I shampoo everything in the shower and hang it dry ready for depature the following day. I used the hair blow dryer for a final minutes before putting in my luggage.
Advice: Be the first one off the boat on the dive and cleaning your wetsuit. Be the last one off the boat for the second dive and wait for the congestion to clear, but be respectful for lunch hr. 700 psi for safety stop. At one time, my alarm went off on the boat cause I did my safety stop at 800psi and board the boat at 730psi warning me I'm low on air.
On my last day dive, my husband and I where put on the Lucky Lady since it's a bigger boat. I wished our guide was Henry since he knew our diving profile. We got ream after our first dive from Mike: need to be arm's length from my buddy and don't get to closed to the ground. One the second dive, we follow is instructions to the T! Our max depth was 51 ft/68 mins. There was still a diver below that needed a buddy. At that time I came back w more than enough air. The guide touch the fish!
Have a great time, enjoy the peace and quiet! Enjoy the bike around the island, kayak to Owen's Island, or paddle board around for free. We went to the Hungry Iguana for drinks after dinner. We rode the bike over to it and used our dive lights. They seem to push for dusk dives( one tank) not the night dive. After being so closed to us leaving I went on the dusk dive, it was good, but it would be amazing it included another dive at night. They also don't promote the wreck dive near Little Brac since it's 1hr boat ride each way. Again, afternoon, dusk, night, and wreck dives are listed on the website but it's not promoted, only the dusk dives! Have a great dives, the visibility is amazing 100+ feet w the wall starting out at 20ft to 6000ft. I'm a recreational diver, I'm good w 100ft rule..OK 105ft. Lot of groupers, turtles, trigger fish, barracuda, queen angels, trumpet, goat fish, and of course spotted drum fish sightings. Will I use them again? I want to compare before returning to them.
---------- Post added June 14th, 2015 at 07:53 AM ----------
Forgot to mentioned: when we got ream I looked at the other sites in our group. They were too far away from their dive buddy and their bouyancy was sub-standard. Many times I get kicked in the face from divers being vertical and kicked a lot of silts going thru swim thru. But, I didn't see Mike talking to them! For this purpose alone I tend to spread out w my buddy and bring him back to the guide/boat when he's low on air. But, I always new where they where cause I can see their bubbles. Have a great time, Sorry I can't give them 5stars. I probably wouldn't put it on Travel Advisor since my husband lawyer knows the friend that owns the Resort. Maybe, they will improve w my suggestion for 2 cleaning tanks and diver/guide ratios. My expectations wasn't meet w the prices w cleaning and safety issues.
