The Positive:
1) Departs from Miami, no need to get a plane to the Bahamas
2) Allows you to bring all your dive gear including tank (I live in Florida)
3) Gave me a parking pass to stay near the dock while we were in the liveaboard without charge
4) Relaxed: you can dive until you run out of air, no dive time
5) We saw Caribbean reef sharks and large loggerhead turtles.
6) The crewmembers were friendly
Areas for improvement:
1) We were told the boat departs @ 3 PM Saturday, it departed @ 7 PM after dinner. Apparently, management missed a deadline to turn in paperwork to authority 3 days before we were supposed to depart and that messed up our departure on Saturday.
2) We were told it would be 4 dives per day in a total of 20 dives (the dive log in the wall of the boat says 20 dives). The first day (Sunday) and the last day we only dove 3 times (Thursday). Sunday they had difficulty to dock in front of the Sapona wreck at 10 AM. The ocean was calm, the diver master that day and crew simply could not tie the boat down. We dove 3 more times that day with calm water and no current whatsoever anywhere. We were docked on Monday because of bad weather, the winds picked up to 25 knots and we could not dive (we missed four dives that day, no one's fault). The following day (Tuesday) we returned to the Sapona and did our first dive there. The ocean was dead calm again. Wednesday and Thursday we dove very easy dives with no current anywhere. The weather for diving was nice.
On Thursday, with no current, sunny day, and almost no wind; we returned to Miami at 3 PM in the afternoon. I asked why not do another dive, the four passengers who were taking a plane the following morning did not care. Four people who were not flying the following day wanted to dive and remaining divers did not care. For everyone crossing from Bimini to Miami at 6 PM would be even worse because we would rather eat with the boat in calm waters. We were not asked our preferences, including the passengers taking the plane the following morning.
The year before with the old owner we dove 20 times, we did not miss a dive. This time there was a day of strong winds. But Monday and Thursday there was no excuse to miss dives.
3) The surface time and lunch/dinner were not well spaced out. Several times, we ate and dove a few minutes latter (10 to 15 minutes) with a full stomach. Some friends did not dive because they did not enjoy diving with a full stomach.
4) We repeated several dive sights, I can understand repeating a dive sight in a night dive. But this was not the case. The passengers did not ask to repeat the sights and we did it anyway. We dove Lurk Head Reef 3 times (one night dive here) and Bull Run 2 times (no night dive here). Plus, some dive sights were 1000 ft from each other, nothing new from one to the other. This happened with the ocean surface calm and no current as excuse to repeat dives.
5) No dive sights below 60 ft, no need to even offer us nitrox for the dives, one family of three spent $ 300 on nitrox, they complained to me afterwards. The previous year, the owner allowed us to dive deeper areas, if the current was strong, a diver that did not feel comfortable could return or not dive. This time with many people with several years of diving experience (a tech diver included), they did not ask us if we wanted to try a deeper dive. Some very plain dive sights, similar to the shore dive in Lauderdale by the Sea (Broward County) or a regular drift dive in Palm or Broward Counties (Florida). Nothing great.
6) No sailing this time around, only diving. The previous years, we sailed, some of us were looking forward to it. One bad day of wind, and we did not even try the days when the weather was nice.
7) Like I said above, we returned Thursday afternoon in a beautiful sunny day, when there was no current, and little if any wind, and were back in the dock at 11 PM. Crossing from Bimini to Miami (rough waters) with a full stomach during the day (it takes them 6 to 7 hours). We could have done two dives at 4 PM and 6 PM, have dinner at 7:00 PM in calm water and be back in Miami at 2 AM or 3 AM. Then, wait for immigration and customs until 8 AM the following morning to depart the boat. No one could leave the boat at night; arriving at 11 PM or 3 AM would not matter for people flying or the people who wanted to dive. Extra two dives in a day of calm waters after missing a day of diving Tuesday would have gone a long way with people diving with Juliet for the first time and I who give this a try for a second time.
I am not writing this to put the new owner down and be negative. I would like this company to stay in business, I like to dive and they are convenient. However, there were several divers saying that they may not return or they may wait a bit longer to wait for the things to improve again for them to take another chance. read more