Nekton Pilot in Belize

[Pam_In_Paradise]

Both the Northwest Bahamas and the Cay Sal Bank itineraries are wonderful diving each in their own way. Northwest Bahamas is what I call "sweet diving". For the most part it is more shallow than Cay Sal Bank. It has a variety of diving from dolphins and many times sharks to some old broken apart wrecks in about 30 feet that are totally covered in fish and other life. The fish on both the Sugar Wreck and the Hesparus totally overwelm my senses. My favorite night dive in the world is the Sugar Wreck. For those divers that are photographers, this would be a great choice. There is one deep wreck, the Theo, which starts at about 80 ft and hits 110 in the sand. If I have someone tell me they want relaxing diving, they are newish divers or if they are youngsters, the Northwest itinerary is one I especially recommend. I am taking my 12 yo granddaughter on this trip to finish up her diving certification as it is perfect to limit the depths she can reach (except for the deep wreck which she will just have to sit out while her Grammy makes the dive )

The Cay Sal Bank trip is fabulous. It is best described as beautiful blue holes and sharks. The blue holes actually have stuff to see in them and are well within recreational limits. Just think of them as great walls in a circle! At Big Hole you likely will find more sharks than you can count. I was there in August and there were so many I had to be careful when jumping in that I didn't land on one. I hung under the boat for about 15 minutes and they cruised right around me. I finally decided to leave so I could go dive the hole. I could have stayed there on that one hole for the entire week. One day you will do some fun drift diving - there's nothing like seeing that big boat backing up to pick you up. On one of the dives there was a hawksbill turtle that joined our group for the entire time. It was just plain fun.

I hope this helps - I'm sure you'll enjoy whichever one choose.

Happy Diving!

 

[BeenThereDoveThat]

There isn't any amount of "luxury" or "upscale" experience that would get my on the Sun Dancer vs. the Pilot after watching the Sun Dancer pitch and yaw horribly during the storm in Belize in December. As we were eating dinner on the Pilot, we watched the Sun Dancer's lights disappear and reappear as she pitched in the storm, while on the Pilot our dishes weren't even moving on the table. All of us at dinner agreed that not many folks were eating on the Sun Dancer that night!

That seems to represent the case with most posts of trip reports. Divers have only this one experience to report upon. Some have been aboard both boats, you had the luxury of observing the other ship from a safe distance. I think what you believe was going on aboard the other craft is accurate. I have seen it first hand.

For my hard earned vacation time, especially with my lengthy travel connections, if I'm going to dive Belize it has to be on a live aboard. The Bahamas? So glad we gave them their independence, but diving the Bahamas is the outer islands if anything. So, it's a liveaboard again.

I'd been diving them for years. I have seen each and every one. Even stepped aboard the Aqua Cat just to have a look. I really like the Nektons as a ship and as a rotating crew. It is nice to see familiar faces, but even the new ones always show me a grand time. The boat is a wonder of design. Brilliant.

Nekton is a superior offering. Not to be missed.

 

[Footslogger]

Been on the Nekton 4 times ...twice in the Bahamas and twice in Belize. I actually got married by the captain onboard the Rorqual in 2002.

Have moored right next to the SunDancer and the Agressor but haven't been onboard either. Just have seem them in the same seas and it seemed that they were pitching and rolling quite a bit more than we were.

For my money and time it's got to be something I can depend on and the Nekton has never let me down.

'Slogger

 

[Damselfish]

Of course the Nekton is going to rock & roll less than the monohulls, that's exactly what it's designed for, no great mystery there.

I've actually never seen anyone having problems with seasickness on the others, not that it doesn't happen of course but I think it's somewhat a self-selecting thing - people more prone to seasickess, at least those that can't find a solution, will either avoid liveaboards or gravitate towards boats like the Nekton. If you don't get seasick, and some people don't, then that's not a deciding factor.