diver_driver
Registered
I spent 8 nights on this ship.
The dive sites were fantastic, which were nothing to do with the Thorfinn.
The ship itself (cabin, cleanliness, facilities, food, service) ranged from unacceptable to good. In short, an inconsistent and random performance.
Most important and critical - safety - was a huge FAIL. The condition of the dive boats and the attitude & character of Captain Lance Higgs - were totally unacceptable, unprofessional and unsafe.
Throughout the whole trip, from the time we were ferried between Weno and the ship, and on EVERY dive, the engines of both dive boats were in very poor condition.
They have 2 identically configured dive boats. Each twin-engined dive boat is designed for 8 divers and 2 crew. When new it is designed to get up on plane and cruise at about 35 knots. However, when we were there, neither boat could plane once it had 3 or more divers on board. Only on 1 dive (with just 2 divers) was the dive boat actually planing. Even then, at full throttle it was doing only about 15 knots - less than half the design speed of 35 knots.
On EVERY DIVE we had engine problems. Captain Lance kept making excuses. The poor fuel quality, the age of the engines, the remoteness of Truk thus having no one qualified to maintain or repair the engines were the usual stories. In short, it was the way things were and would continue to be, and we just had to accept it.
Not so; Captain Lance is directly responsible for SOLVING all these problems. The problems did not blindside or ambush him. He knew all these issues well in advance, even BEFORE he bought the engines. Yet he did nothing to provide a proper solution. No effective preventative maintenance. No planned engine replacements. Not even an engine analyser. This is professional, even criminal, negligence - plain and simple. As usual he claimed that he had told his crew to do this and that, therefore any problems were always someone else’s fault. However, the results very clearly exposed where he had neglected to act professionally.
On one dive, both engines finally failed completely.
We were fortunate to be able to tie up at a buoy, contain the situation and await rescue. Or so we thought.
It can be argued that engine failures are random events (even as ALL 4 of the dive boat engines were having problems on EVERY DIVE and a total engine failure was really only a matter of time). Let me be the first to say that it is not reasonable to expect everything on the Thorfinn to work flawlessly. However it is very reasonable to expect and even demand that the captain and crew have proper and safe responses to “random” incidents and accidents.
He demonstrated that he had NO process to check if things were fine, and NO responses if things were not. He basically just reacted (or not) to events as they occurred, if he was not busy being entertained by a female companion looking perhaps 1/3 his age.
The events that arose from the dual engine failure were shocking and completely unacceptable.
We were stranded for almost 3 hours. On this particular trip to the dive site we carried a 5 watt handheld marine VHF radio from the Thorfinn, in addition to the 25 watt marine VHF installed in the dive boat. I tried without success, repeatedly and conscientiously, to call the ship on VHF 10 (the agreed channel), 16 and 9 (I have a radio operator’s licence, amongst other things). Pan-pan calls produced no replies either.
There was just no response at all, whether on the radio or arising from the realisation that we should have returned to the ship by now. Nobody gave a damn. This was absolutely disgraceful.
When we got back, the excuses, as usual, came thick and fast. Captain Lance Higgs claimed that he was on the bridge 90% of the time that we were out diving. He claimed that he heard nothing. He claimed that his crew call back regularly (“all the time” was the words he used). The radios on the Thorfinn and the dive boat were later confirmed to be fully functional, so it was not a case of faulty radios.
This was caught on video; so this review is no longer about my word against his.
Whatever his claims are, and no doubt will be when he replies to this review, the shocking facts have been established - he has no dive operations SOP and no incident response capability.
This story had a happy ending only because we flagged down a passing dinghy carrying 2 Chuukese and 3 Mormon missionaries. We asked them to please go to the ship to tell them to send a rescue boat. Thank God for that.
Please see the video for yourself at xxx You can also Google YouTube Thorfinn Fake Apology to find it.
See for yourself the flagrant display of arrogance during his claimed “apology”.
See how he was then cornered and had his story exposed, and instead how he reacted with more stories about not having any accidents etc (see the TripAdvisor review from Marianne L dated 30 September 2015 about a DCS case from his boat and how he even tried to recover the cost of oxygen, crew time and chamber fees). There was also a case in September 2015 of 2 Italian divers who did not surface but were then found by the dive guide to be lost inside the engine room of the Fujikawa Maru. It was very nearly certain death for the duo.
Decide for yourself if his behaviour is that of someone who is sorry for honest mistakes.
Other problems experienced:
Weak central air-conditioning in the cabins. He made excuses for this very old problem on day one. Several reviews on TripAdvisor have mentioned this but yet he just refuses to fix the problem. The problem will continue to remain because he is just too cheap and lazy.
Choked water supply to my sink and shower. His excuse was that there was a blockage somewhere in my cold water supply line and that I just had to accept it. I had to use the saloon deck shower room to bathe because there was just too little cold water to mix with the hot water to not get scalded.
Patchy WiFi connection. The connection would drop out regularly. Every day he would surf the Internet from the bridge. To do this he had to unplug the network cable running to the saloon WiFi router. When he reconnected the cable he was too lazy or stupid to also reset the software connection managing the router in the saloon. So the WiFi in the saloon would drop out.
Bug and cockroach infestations - at least 1 cockroach would be seen in plain sight on the walls or the tables EVERY mealtime. As usual he claimed that he had told his crew repeatedly about not bringing cardboard items (the source of the infestation) from Truk when buying provisions - it was someone else’s fault again.
By the end of the second day it was very clear that Captain Lance Higgs was someone who always had an excuse to every problem on his ship, and was quick to blame his crew for every mistake. It was always someone else’s fault. No wonder his crew hate him.
Do not go diving on the SS Thorfinn. Diving on deep crumbling shipwrecks is already risky enough. Do not allow Captain Higgs to further stack the odds against you. Sure, he will argue that having 2 dead engines does not injure or kill anyone. But as a customer, would you accept such a poor service level?
Until he provides video evidence that he has re-engined both his dive boats with 2 brand new engines each, any responses to this review from him will just be cheap talk from a cheap captain. Even the workhorse dinghy he uses to carry supplies has a sickly 40HP outboard, which just will not work for medical evacuation. The ship’s medical supplies? They are more than 20 years old and full of expired medicines.
You are putting yourself at serious risk if you dive with the SS Thorfinn. Now that this review AND the video has been published and is therefore in the public domain, depending on how far the news propagates, if you have an accident, you could be denied insurance coverage because it can be argued that you accept the hazardous and risky conditions of his ship and thus waive your right to insurance cover.
Good luck.
The dive sites were fantastic, which were nothing to do with the Thorfinn.
The ship itself (cabin, cleanliness, facilities, food, service) ranged from unacceptable to good. In short, an inconsistent and random performance.
Most important and critical - safety - was a huge FAIL. The condition of the dive boats and the attitude & character of Captain Lance Higgs - were totally unacceptable, unprofessional and unsafe.
Throughout the whole trip, from the time we were ferried between Weno and the ship, and on EVERY dive, the engines of both dive boats were in very poor condition.
They have 2 identically configured dive boats. Each twin-engined dive boat is designed for 8 divers and 2 crew. When new it is designed to get up on plane and cruise at about 35 knots. However, when we were there, neither boat could plane once it had 3 or more divers on board. Only on 1 dive (with just 2 divers) was the dive boat actually planing. Even then, at full throttle it was doing only about 15 knots - less than half the design speed of 35 knots.
On EVERY DIVE we had engine problems. Captain Lance kept making excuses. The poor fuel quality, the age of the engines, the remoteness of Truk thus having no one qualified to maintain or repair the engines were the usual stories. In short, it was the way things were and would continue to be, and we just had to accept it.
Not so; Captain Lance is directly responsible for SOLVING all these problems. The problems did not blindside or ambush him. He knew all these issues well in advance, even BEFORE he bought the engines. Yet he did nothing to provide a proper solution. No effective preventative maintenance. No planned engine replacements. Not even an engine analyser. This is professional, even criminal, negligence - plain and simple. As usual he claimed that he had told his crew to do this and that, therefore any problems were always someone else’s fault. However, the results very clearly exposed where he had neglected to act professionally.
On one dive, both engines finally failed completely.
We were fortunate to be able to tie up at a buoy, contain the situation and await rescue. Or so we thought.
It can be argued that engine failures are random events (even as ALL 4 of the dive boat engines were having problems on EVERY DIVE and a total engine failure was really only a matter of time). Let me be the first to say that it is not reasonable to expect everything on the Thorfinn to work flawlessly. However it is very reasonable to expect and even demand that the captain and crew have proper and safe responses to “random” incidents and accidents.
He demonstrated that he had NO process to check if things were fine, and NO responses if things were not. He basically just reacted (or not) to events as they occurred, if he was not busy being entertained by a female companion looking perhaps 1/3 his age.
The events that arose from the dual engine failure were shocking and completely unacceptable.
We were stranded for almost 3 hours. On this particular trip to the dive site we carried a 5 watt handheld marine VHF radio from the Thorfinn, in addition to the 25 watt marine VHF installed in the dive boat. I tried without success, repeatedly and conscientiously, to call the ship on VHF 10 (the agreed channel), 16 and 9 (I have a radio operator’s licence, amongst other things). Pan-pan calls produced no replies either.
There was just no response at all, whether on the radio or arising from the realisation that we should have returned to the ship by now. Nobody gave a damn. This was absolutely disgraceful.
When we got back, the excuses, as usual, came thick and fast. Captain Lance Higgs claimed that he was on the bridge 90% of the time that we were out diving. He claimed that he heard nothing. He claimed that his crew call back regularly (“all the time” was the words he used). The radios on the Thorfinn and the dive boat were later confirmed to be fully functional, so it was not a case of faulty radios.
This was caught on video; so this review is no longer about my word against his.
Whatever his claims are, and no doubt will be when he replies to this review, the shocking facts have been established - he has no dive operations SOP and no incident response capability.
This story had a happy ending only because we flagged down a passing dinghy carrying 2 Chuukese and 3 Mormon missionaries. We asked them to please go to the ship to tell them to send a rescue boat. Thank God for that.
Please see the video for yourself at xxx You can also Google YouTube Thorfinn Fake Apology to find it.
See for yourself the flagrant display of arrogance during his claimed “apology”.
See how he was then cornered and had his story exposed, and instead how he reacted with more stories about not having any accidents etc (see the TripAdvisor review from Marianne L dated 30 September 2015 about a DCS case from his boat and how he even tried to recover the cost of oxygen, crew time and chamber fees). There was also a case in September 2015 of 2 Italian divers who did not surface but were then found by the dive guide to be lost inside the engine room of the Fujikawa Maru. It was very nearly certain death for the duo.
Decide for yourself if his behaviour is that of someone who is sorry for honest mistakes.
Other problems experienced:
Weak central air-conditioning in the cabins. He made excuses for this very old problem on day one. Several reviews on TripAdvisor have mentioned this but yet he just refuses to fix the problem. The problem will continue to remain because he is just too cheap and lazy.
Choked water supply to my sink and shower. His excuse was that there was a blockage somewhere in my cold water supply line and that I just had to accept it. I had to use the saloon deck shower room to bathe because there was just too little cold water to mix with the hot water to not get scalded.
Patchy WiFi connection. The connection would drop out regularly. Every day he would surf the Internet from the bridge. To do this he had to unplug the network cable running to the saloon WiFi router. When he reconnected the cable he was too lazy or stupid to also reset the software connection managing the router in the saloon. So the WiFi in the saloon would drop out.
Bug and cockroach infestations - at least 1 cockroach would be seen in plain sight on the walls or the tables EVERY mealtime. As usual he claimed that he had told his crew repeatedly about not bringing cardboard items (the source of the infestation) from Truk when buying provisions - it was someone else’s fault again.
By the end of the second day it was very clear that Captain Lance Higgs was someone who always had an excuse to every problem on his ship, and was quick to blame his crew for every mistake. It was always someone else’s fault. No wonder his crew hate him.
Do not go diving on the SS Thorfinn. Diving on deep crumbling shipwrecks is already risky enough. Do not allow Captain Higgs to further stack the odds against you. Sure, he will argue that having 2 dead engines does not injure or kill anyone. But as a customer, would you accept such a poor service level?
Until he provides video evidence that he has re-engined both his dive boats with 2 brand new engines each, any responses to this review from him will just be cheap talk from a cheap captain. Even the workhorse dinghy he uses to carry supplies has a sickly 40HP outboard, which just will not work for medical evacuation. The ship’s medical supplies? They are more than 20 years old and full of expired medicines.
You are putting yourself at serious risk if you dive with the SS Thorfinn. Now that this review AND the video has been published and is therefore in the public domain, depending on how far the news propagates, if you have an accident, you could be denied insurance coverage because it can be argued that you accept the hazardous and risky conditions of his ship and thus waive your right to insurance cover.
Good luck.
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