Nitrox on Nekton

[aedavidson]

I am on the nekton Pilot 1-7-06 to 1-14-06 , I am trying to get some input from others on whether it is worth the extra cost for nitrox. It is $15 per tank or $250 for the week. They use EAN29 , which seems conservative for most of the dive profiles . I would greatly appreciate your input as I am cheap and would hate myself for the week if I paid $250 for nothing

 

[Pam_In_Paradise]

I think that you will find that they are pumping a fairly consistant 31-32%. There are approximately 30 dives that you could potentially make on that itinerary so that would be an estimated $8.10 per tank if you do all the dives and pay for the week. There are several reasons people dive nitrox and I would look at your reasons and see if it works for you. Hope this helps!

 

[wdlk]

I have dove with Nekton several times. I recorded the EAN% before each dive and my logs state that i used ~32% on each dive. I have used nitrox everytime I dove with Nekton and would do it again. I prefer the added bottom time it provides. After a week of diving when everyone else is pushing their limits, its nice to have the extra cushion that Nitrox provides.

 

[DiveMaven]

We leave on the Nekton Pilot TOMORROW and chose not to dive Nitrox because the cost was simply too high for two of us. After long conversations, we decided that we were okay with the idea of sitting out a dive or two to off-gas if need be. We also decided to do an extra few days in Belize, and the money we saved not buying Nitrox paid for over 1/2 of that.

It basically comes down to a purely personal decision that only you can make.

 

[Doc]

I have been aboard her and diving many times.

I dive as much as the dive deck is open.

On the Belize itin, I didn't come close to needing it. I dove air. Of course, the best stuff in Belize is shallow, so if you dive it "correctly", you'll stay in the green/yellow.

In the Bahamas, I can see where it might be worth it, but I still dove as much as possible on air and never got so close to red that I sat out a dive. Most fellow divers consider me pretty far to the conservative end of the scale in such judgements.

 

[vertaqua]

Besides the extended time and safety factor when diving EANX your also a lot less tired versus diving air because your body doesn't have to work as hard to off gas. When on a liveaboard I always try and dive nitrox. Ussually its not as much as Nekton but it beats sitting out a dive to off gas. My last trip on the CE 1 they actually gave us free EANX because the airline screwed up our flight to george town.

 

[ocpaul]

Just came off Pilot 12/3/12/10 trip. Didn't use Nitrox and did 28 dives. Missed 3 dives due to problems with Federales! Only got into yellow once, so I don't think Nitrox would be a good investment for me on this particular itinerary.

Planned to use Nitrox on Cay Sal trip last July, but Nitrox compressor was down. Really didn't limit my diving on that trip either - did 25 dives - got into yellow a number of times but profiles were more agressive.

In the end it is what you are comfortable with. For my taste and experience it is not worth the extra money and added time on deck checking mix, etc. Savings pretty much takes care of tip.

 

[vertaqua]

Nekton definitely overprices there EANX, which would make me less likely to choose them over a compareable liveaboard vacation. I do think that for the ammount of diving you do on a typical liveaboard vacation nitrox is a very good idea. Could you get by with out it sure, but in saving that extra money your taking an additional risk of getting bent.

PS; What was with the feds?

 

[aedavidson]

I would like to know the problem with the federales as well.

 

[DiveMaven]

We just got back from our Nekton Belize trip and didn't miss a dive while diving air. Our computers never got into yellow and we were doing 50+ minute dives 4x a day (except Wed when a storm came in).

This itinerary is easily done on air (thanks RoatanMan!) so the only reason you should spend the money on Nitrox is if you prefer it and don't mind dropping $250 for the week. Also, they were pumping a pretty consistent 32% according to the folks who were diving Nitrox.