Worst boat dive trip ever in 33 years of diving. In summary, poor equipment, poor maintenance of the boat and facilities, poor communication and poor attention to the divers.
Before arriving I asked if they had wet suits with the equipment rental and was told they did. But they had a ragged and ripped collection and none that fit me well. I took one but went without and it was not too cold. Seven divers on the boat, it is full. Three guys have been coming there on vacation for five years so it works for them. There was a young couple on their first boat dive for the lady, me and my wife. On the way out the boat engine died. The divemaster's assistant captain, the only crew, went below and in a few minutes got it running but it died again and he kept it limping along until we got to a spot we could dive the wall; not the planned location, but supposed to be good. The three guys take off by themselves. Divemaster (DM) puts the young lady in the water first. I had told them that my BC fill valve was leaking air into the BC. They examined it and told me it was OK. When I was putting it on I finally convinced them that I had an equipment problem because it was blown up tight as a drum and they changed the BC. So I am last in, followed by the DM. The young lady is panicking on the surface in the three-foot seas, and the guy is getting seasick. I had asked for more weight than they gave me. DM orders us down immediately, no time for buoyancy check. Depth is 45 feet but the down line is only 15 feet. Both my wife and I are under weighted. She starts kicking down head first to get depth but starts going off too far with no line to follow. I am struggling to get down too. Visibility is not good. Everybody is separated. DM catches up with my wife, grabs her arm hard and swims away; no clear communication. We all surface and the DM starts yelling at my wife; never even asked if she was OK. Young lady goes back on the boat and we kick back to the boat against the current, get a little more weight and try again. By this time we are all tired and upset. I am still under weighted, expending a lot of energy staying down and breathing rapidly. The dive is aborted, which was probably best at that point.
Meanwhile help has come to fix the engine, which had a clogged fuel filter and air in the fuel lines. The hatch in the middle of the deck is open and they are working on it. They get it fixed and the young couple escapes in the rescue boat. We went to another shallower spot and with all the equipment problems fixed, and had a nice dive. But DM takes us to the safety stop with 1000 pounds of air after 40 minutes (he said) at max depth of 60'. I am back on the boat with 900 pounds and my wife has 1200. After the aborted first dive we really could have used more bottom time. And the three guys who did the deep dive are still down there hanging out.
Back at the dock (which you drive to from the shop) there are no bathrooms (none on the boat either) and we go back to the shop to use the bathroom and shower. The shower head there hardly works either and the toilet is disgusting. There is no soap or paper towels at the sink. Nobody there even asks how it went. The people there are only interested in selling T-shirts. It's not a real well-stocked dive shop.
I'm leaving things out so this does not become too long. But I must say that just down the street is another dive shop, well stocked, clean bathroom, much nicer boat (with a head) and we will try them next time. read more
