Nekton Pilot Trip Apr 24, 1999

Author: Dave Hall

Just returned from the Cal Say Banks in Bahamas. Great trip, great boat, great food, great crew, very comfortable, very stable. This was a first class dive boat. For those that want the details - see see below.

Short version - a great boat with outstanding crew and diving - Truly a first class diving experience.

Details to follow: Note: this was my first live aboard dive trip. Picked up at Ft Lauderdale Airport by Nekton shuttle van. Bags taken to room on board, all guests met in solon are for boat briefing and snacks and meet the crew. 30 divers, 2 snorkelers, 11 crew. Several repeat divers from previous trips. Boat was roomy and clean. Each room had either 2 single beds or double bed, fresh water shower, toilet, sink, and a wardrobe like storage area. Rooms were cleaned each day. Air conditioning worked fine. Rooms stayed dry and clean all week since no dive gear was taken to the room. Plenty of hooks in shower area to hang up wet swim suit. Large windows in each room. No food was allowed in room, but drinks were ok. This was to prevent any critter problems. Large dive deck that raised and lowered. You could jump off sides about 4 ft above water or go down center steps to water level. Two Christmas tree type ladders for reboarding, you could do it fins on or off. Cameras were handled carefully by dive masters on entry and return. Two large camera rinse buckets right at the steps. Two mask rinse buckets with spray defog located near steps but away from camera tanks. Never saw anyone put anything other than cameras in the camera tanks. Help getting to and from tank rack / seat always available if needed. Gear stayed on the tank all week. Tank was refilled as soon as you returned so it was ready for next dive. Most people used the 95 Ft steel tanks. A couple of divers used the 73 Ft steel tanks. Soft weights with velcro lined weight belts were provided, very comfortable. Storage area under bench for fins, weight belt, lights, etc. A hot shower was available right at the dive deck with a large cooler full of pink towels. Unlimited towels at all time, frequently hot from the dryer. A sign out board was at the dive deck with time on boat, off boat, and max depth. Of course any empty tank rack would also indicate someone was off the boat. A crew bubble watcher patrolled the top deck at all times when divers were in water. Radios were used to communicate with the dive deck crew, bubble watcher, and boat captain. Two skiffs were available to rescue divers that drifted too far from the boat. Some ripping currents developed on some sites and the skiff had to tow divers to the boat. The safety sausage really seems like a great idea when you surface ( as I did once) and the boat looks about 1 inch high. These things also work well at night. The crew was very safety conscious without being overbearing about it. They preferred that you signal for a ride rather than exhaust yourself trying to swim against a current back to a distant boat. The first level above the dive deck had two camera tables, another camera rinse tank, and a rinse tank for wetsuits. A head was available at this deck level as well as a cooler for beverages brought on board by divers. The next level up was the sun deck with tables, chairs, chaise lounges, hot tub, and a sheltered area. The sheltered area contained additional plastic bins for computers, hats, tee shirts, and hangers for wetsuits. There was a web rope area to hang up swimsuits, hats, small items. Most dive briefings were under the shelter on the sun deck. Briefings included chalk board sketches with depths, sketch of reef area, buoy pin location, and compass directions. The only smoking area was at the stern of the sun deck, no smoking inside the living areas. Most people removed wet suits after each dive and rinsed them in the detergent filled rinse tank. Usually the water was clean and sudsy, so there was no "stink" on the drying deck. The pink towels stayed outside the living areas, no pink towels or wet suits allowed inside the boat living areas. Plenty of blue and green towels were provided for use inside. This kept the inside of the boat clean, dry, and smelling good. Boat stopped in morning and diving deck was open until 11:45. Then we had lunch while boat moved to new site. Diving typically was from 1:30 to 5:45. Then dinner and a night dive. A slide show was held each night either before or after the night dive. Five dives a day were possible, and a few people got in a 6th dive a few times. Diving varied with walls, blue holes, drift dives, and patch reefs. There was a lot of variety, some sites deep and some shallow. The shark dive did not work out because a shark managed to cut the chumsickle rope and steal the chumsickle. We did see a few sharks, and found nurse sharks on several dives in the coral. Diving was with a buddy or triple, stay above 130ft, no decompression diving, back to boat with 500 psi, and use common sense. Everyone was issued a safety sausage on day one, a tool used more often than anticipated. Note that the boat always ties up to prepared buoys, no anchors are used in reef areas. Food was outstanding. Served buffet style in the salon, it was delicious and plentiful. Warm cookies and snacks were available between dives. The salon always had several pitchers of fruit juices, water, tea, and a no sugar no caffeine fruit concoction affectionately known as the "Pink Stuff". Dinners were prime rib, tacos, shrimp, orange roughy, jerk chicken, bar b q ribs, with frequent soups and salads. Breakfast and Lunches were also great. If anyone had special diet requirements, alternative meals were prepared for them. The desserts were fabulous. Pam, the chef, had worked previously as a bakery chef and it showed. The salon also had large windows. There was always plenty of food. The crew only ate after all the guests had been served. Customs was a breeze. The captain took the forms and passports to shore and cleared everyone while we stayed with the boat. Similar on return to USA. The crew was outstanding all week. Typically 2 were working in the galley, 2 to 3 on dive deck, a bubble watcher, captain at the helm, 1 in skiff, 1 cleaning rooms and common areas, 1 working as ship's engineer, continually making sure things worked properly (which they did), and some sleeping from night crew duties. They made every effort to make us comfortable and to have a great time. Crewing a dive boat is not a light duty job, everyone of the crew always seemed to be doing some task or another all day long. The guests on this trip were a great lot. Very friendly and easy to get along with. The skill level was very high; there were a lot of dive masters and instructors on board. Very talented photographers also. Made it an easy group to dive with.

Dive Sites: The boat pontoons were 78 ft long, if you could see the end of the pontoon from the hang bar, then visibility was at least 80 ft. Tuna alley - off Cat Cay - Lobsters, Atlantic spade fish swimming in formation, light currents, lots of canyons between coral heads, moray ell, spider crab, jaw fish in sand area, lots of small tropicals. vis was 50 - 70 ft. Coral was in pretty good shape. Night dive at tuna alley was exciting - nurse sharks, lots of lobsters out for mating season, large puffer, 4 octopus out in open. Everything seemed normal on bottom that night, but a 2 knot current was ripping above 30 ft. We made it to the hang bar by luck, it was at 7 ft instead of 15 ft due to the current. Two skiffs had to bring in 6 divers that night. Thankfully everyone had the safety sausage and there were no problems. No one was in danger, but it was a good lesson in being prepared. Last Chance Reef - off Orange Cay black spotted nudibranch at the pin (per Jon, we could not find it) Large groupers, lots of tunicates, 3 ft long parrot fish, souther sting rays, hermit crab, soft and hard corals in great shape, hogfish, french angels, low current, vis 70-80 ft. Playground - shallow site, 24 ft deep, large barracuda, stingrays, lobsters, huge parrot fish, saw black band disease on brain coral, some fungus on fans, coral very bright due to shallow depth, lots of small tropical, vis 50 ft; night dive on this site produced a large loggerhead, approx 4 ft long, lots of lobsters out in open, moray ell, 3 clinging crabs clustered together, stingrays, Big Hole - a blue hole at Cal Say Banks, approx 1/4 mile diameter- said to be 1000 ft deep, coral at rim, went to 110 ft to get deep profile for next site. Vis not good inside hole, no current to wash away debris. Saw black tip reef sharks, small to medium size, several swam fairly close. This area used for shark feeds occasionally. Vis poor in the hole, only 60 -70 ft at top rim. Sistine Chapel - smaller blue hole, 125 ft diameter, lots of coral at 30 -50 ft depth near top rim. Went to100ft to look at stalactites hanging below an overhang. Kind of an hour glass shape at top, with overhang beginning at 90 ft. Murky inside the blue hole, no current, white stalactites were interesting , not much else down there to see, top of rim was teeming with life. Lobsters everywhere (this site was nicknamed "bug hole") sleeping nurse sharks, juvenile drum, adult drum, lots of flower type soft corals, stone crabs feeding, lots of small tropicals. Night dive - more lobsters, crabs, small red shrimp that jumped like a grasshopper when approached too closely, no current, Dawn dive at Sistine chapel- 5:30 am dive for those that wanted to go, about 50% went, interesting to see reef wake up to sunlight Silversides - This site has a tunnel swim thru at 110 ft that is filled with silversides, small shiny fish. Had a circular ring of coral. Vis 70 ft Damas Reef was canceled due to murky conditions so we returned to Sistine chapel. Drift Dive - Cal Say Banks- nice wall with current running parallel to wall. This was an organized dive master lead dive. DM had float ball with yellow rope. Two groups were formed. Group and DM jumped into water together and group tried to stay close to DM and rope. Worked out well. Great visibility and group stayed together. Large grouper, sharks, barracuda, moray ells, about a 1 knot current, dive lasted approx 30 min and group went to safety stop and surface with DM. Captain drove the boat from the stern sun deck where he could see everyone. He backed the boat close to the group, cut the props, and 4 divers then swam quickly to the ladders. When the divers were on board and clear, the captain again backed the boat close to the remaining group, and 4 more swam aboard. No one had to swim very far to reach the boat, and no one had to approach a boat with turning props. It worked very smoothly. This was repeated for the 2nd group. Each group did 2 drift dives. A skiff was in the water just in case someone drifted away from the DM, but it was not a problem. Vis 100 ft, depth was 100 to 130 ft. DM went to 130 ft, group was to stay level or above DM. Water Cay - Cal Say Banks - shallow site with small island and small airplane wreck. Airplane was full of critters, lobster, spotted ell, puffers, juvenile puffer and trunk fish, Arrow crabs, file fish, huge parrot fish and barracuda posing for pictures, snail shell in open hole, some people went onto the island, it had a swim thru and beach. Victory Reef - The Hammer - named for occasional hammerhead sharks, none there today, scattered patch reef, baby moray, spotted ells, hogfish, shattered conch shells from turtle feeding last night, lots of small critters, reef urchin tucked up in sponge, vis 80 -100 ft Bimini - Spotted Sands - Stone fish out in open, played with it, it hopped along bottom on pectoral fins, several spotted ells, flounders, hermit crabs, sand filefish, vis 70 - 40 ft- (storm came up and blocked the sun) night dive here - ells, parrot fish, rays, crabs, lots of critters everywhere - Some divers missed the last few dives due to air flight times. No diving within last 24 hours of flight time. This information was available, but some missed it. I logged 22 dives on this trip including 4 night and one dawn dive - several others accomplished 25, and I think 2 divers logged 27 dives. Truly a dream trip. When I go on a live aboard again, I will try to go aboard the NP on a different itinerary. One of the dive masters said that the Souther Bahamas itinerary was even better with more walls.

Safe diving Dave