I just returned from the Nekton Rorqual live aboard to the Cayman Islands. As usual, the Nekton folks did a fine job. My other Nekton trip was in the Bahamas with the Nekton Pilot. It turns out that Nelson and his crew are every bit as friendly, helpful, and eager to please as Ephey and his crew were.
There were a couple of disappointments, but nothing to seriously effect the overall enjoyment of the diving. The video equipment was non-operational, so there was no video record of the trip. There was supposed to be a CD of still photos from the dive trip but that got canceled due to unanticipated events.
One of the outstanding events that occured on the trip was the presence of Cathy Church and her husband. Cathy wasn't hawking snake oil, selling pictures or anything of a commercial nature. She was just along as a dive guest. However, she is funny, bright, opinionated and not particularly politically correct. In a word, she's a hoot. On Friday evening, after things settled down and we were headed back to Grand Cayman, Cathy did a presentation of the photos she had taken on the trip. She talked about how and why she took the pictures and a little bit about how she might photo shop them in the future. I learned more about photography in that hour than I had in my several years of underwater photography dabbling.
We had divers from New Jersey, Florida, southern California (un-employed comedians, I suspect), Utah, Washington, DC, and Missouri. Two doctors, a nurse, several engineers, and of course, the unemployed comedians.
The diving surprised me a little. I had been to Grand Caymen in the past and I was surprised at the condition of the shallower reefs. They look visibly damaged. When I asked Cathy about it, she said recent storms have had an impact on the shallow reefs. The walls are, however, in pretty good shape. I did think that the fish diversity had suffered a bit as well as the "fish density". Still plenty of colorful fish and other critters, just not as many as I remembered. The Captain Kieth Tibbetts has been ripped into a separate bow and stern segment by a hurricane. The stern still sits upright about 70 feet down and the bow is lying on it's side at about 90 feet. The wreck seems to be attracting sea life but it will be better in the future. I wasn't too impressed with a fake Atlantis that is being built underwater, but the reef in that area made for some great night diving.
There was a mandatory surface interval on the beach Wednesday afternoon. My dive buddy and I rented a jeep and drove pretty much all over Cayman Brac (there are only two roads). We parked and climbed up to Pete's Cave. It's not a long way, but it is pretty much straight up. Did I mention the heat and humidity? The cave was used as a natural hurricane shelter during the 1930's hurricane that devastated the island. The storm produced 200 mph winds and a 30 foot storm surge. A grundle of people died. Then we ate lunch. We reboarded the boat at about 4:30 PM.
I had a great time on the dives and I was sorely impressed by Curtis of the dive deck. I found out later that he had had a brief career in marketing in the super market industry. I guess it should have been obvious when he announced over the intercom that the day's "inspiring dive briefing" was about to commence. Or when Cathy Church was late to a briefing, he paged her and her party telling her that her table was ready.
We did lose some dives right at the end of the trip. One of the divers suffered a medical emergency that required immediate medical treatment. The crew handled the situation like they had practiced for it. This happened early Friday afternoon. Divers were recalled and the dive deck was closed. We docked the Rorqual at Cemetary Dock on Cayman Brac where an ambulance met us to transport the stricken diver to the local hospital. After medical assessment, they moved the diver by air to Grand Cayman. All was done with professionalism, competance and efficiency. This is the disruption to routine that interferred with the production of the still photo CD of the week. Under the circumstances, nobody minded. It was clear that the guest diver's welfare was an overriding priority.
So once again, I am giving Nekton two thumbs up on their performance. And I intend to vote by going on one of their Belize trips as soon as finances permit.
Art
There were a couple of disappointments, but nothing to seriously effect the overall enjoyment of the diving. The video equipment was non-operational, so there was no video record of the trip. There was supposed to be a CD of still photos from the dive trip but that got canceled due to unanticipated events.
One of the outstanding events that occured on the trip was the presence of Cathy Church and her husband. Cathy wasn't hawking snake oil, selling pictures or anything of a commercial nature. She was just along as a dive guest. However, she is funny, bright, opinionated and not particularly politically correct. In a word, she's a hoot. On Friday evening, after things settled down and we were headed back to Grand Cayman, Cathy did a presentation of the photos she had taken on the trip. She talked about how and why she took the pictures and a little bit about how she might photo shop them in the future. I learned more about photography in that hour than I had in my several years of underwater photography dabbling.
We had divers from New Jersey, Florida, southern California (un-employed comedians, I suspect), Utah, Washington, DC, and Missouri. Two doctors, a nurse, several engineers, and of course, the unemployed comedians.
The diving surprised me a little. I had been to Grand Caymen in the past and I was surprised at the condition of the shallower reefs. They look visibly damaged. When I asked Cathy about it, she said recent storms have had an impact on the shallow reefs. The walls are, however, in pretty good shape. I did think that the fish diversity had suffered a bit as well as the "fish density". Still plenty of colorful fish and other critters, just not as many as I remembered. The Captain Kieth Tibbetts has been ripped into a separate bow and stern segment by a hurricane. The stern still sits upright about 70 feet down and the bow is lying on it's side at about 90 feet. The wreck seems to be attracting sea life but it will be better in the future. I wasn't too impressed with a fake Atlantis that is being built underwater, but the reef in that area made for some great night diving.
There was a mandatory surface interval on the beach Wednesday afternoon. My dive buddy and I rented a jeep and drove pretty much all over Cayman Brac (there are only two roads). We parked and climbed up to Pete's Cave. It's not a long way, but it is pretty much straight up. Did I mention the heat and humidity? The cave was used as a natural hurricane shelter during the 1930's hurricane that devastated the island. The storm produced 200 mph winds and a 30 foot storm surge. A grundle of people died. Then we ate lunch. We reboarded the boat at about 4:30 PM.
I had a great time on the dives and I was sorely impressed by Curtis of the dive deck. I found out later that he had had a brief career in marketing in the super market industry. I guess it should have been obvious when he announced over the intercom that the day's "inspiring dive briefing" was about to commence. Or when Cathy Church was late to a briefing, he paged her and her party telling her that her table was ready.
We did lose some dives right at the end of the trip. One of the divers suffered a medical emergency that required immediate medical treatment. The crew handled the situation like they had practiced for it. This happened early Friday afternoon. Divers were recalled and the dive deck was closed. We docked the Rorqual at Cemetary Dock on Cayman Brac where an ambulance met us to transport the stricken diver to the local hospital. After medical assessment, they moved the diver by air to Grand Cayman. All was done with professionalism, competance and efficiency. This is the disruption to routine that interferred with the production of the still photo CD of the week. Under the circumstances, nobody minded. It was clear that the guest diver's welfare was an overriding priority.
So once again, I am giving Nekton two thumbs up on their performance. And I intend to vote by going on one of their Belize trips as soon as finances permit.
Art
