Nekton Rorqual

 

August 24-31-2002

Around the beginning of April, Sherrie, Kiran and I decided a trip to the Bahamas was in order. Sherrie and I had already been on the Nekton Pilot the previous New Years’ and we wanted to do the Rorqual because we had such a great time on the Pilot. As the trip approached, unfortunately Kiran’s grandmother passed away, and he needed to fly to India for the funeral. Kiran had just started a new job and was not able to obtain more vacation time to do the trip with us. So, Sherrie and I began a frantic hunt for someone to take his place. Not just anybody would do. We wanted somebody as crazy as we are! Several of our friends wanted to take the trip, including our dive fanatic friend, Dale, who was just coming home from his Insanity Tour of Micronesia. He wanted to go so bad, but since he would be returning from his month long trip three days before we were to leave, he thought his boss might not see the humor in another week’s worth of vacation! I then thought about my childhood friend, Dana, who I had not seen in 19 years. She tried to get me certified with her in 1990, but I didn’t. My loss! Fortunately, Dana was able to get time off and she made plans to join us for the trip! Problem solved.

Sherrie came up with an incredible idea. We were both sad because of the circumstances that prevented Kiran from being able to go with us. So, Sherrie printed off Kiran’s photo and did a transfer of it to a shirt. We then took the shirt on the trip with us, and took photos of "Kiran" all over the place! We’re going to put together a photo album of "Kiran Goes to the Bahamas" and present it to him, just so he’ll know we missed him!

Dana arrived in Ft. Lauderdale shortly before we did, and she was waiting for us in the baggage area with a huge smile on her face! It’s funny, but even after 19 years of not seeing each other, it was like we’d never been apart! After gathering our luggage, we called Nekton to pick us up, and the staff said for us to watch for the van. They were there within 15 minutes. The driver of the van was not expecting us, apparently, so Sherrie ran out into the street to give the big OK signal so the driver would know we are divers! Luckily they didn’t run over her, thinking she was a total idiot, and they picked us up! Once we were inside the van, we met others who were going to dive either the Rorqual or the Pilot. A very nice man, Sy, boarded the van, and we immediately adopted him as our honorary father for the week. He was such a lively man, in his mid 70's. He was a snorkeler only, and was a recent widower, and wanted to get out and enjoy life. We admired his spunk! Our luggage was brought to the ship, while we were dropped of at Las Olas Riverfront, a nice little outside mall, where we had a very nice meal at Dan Marino’s.  We were then picked up at 7 pm by the Nekton van. After a quick stop at a beverage store and supermarket, we headed to port to board our home for the next week.

Accommodations:
The boat was nicely laid out. It is a boat built specifically for diving. When I arrived at my room, there was a lovely note welcoming me back to the Nekton!  I felt special already! The cabins were spacious (compared to other liveaboards) and they have huge windows. Each cabin has an individual control over the air conditioner, and I was very comfortable at all times in my room. I didn’t hear anybody complain about their rooms being too hot or too cool. Plenty of fresh water, both hot and cold, was available. Fresh towels were brought in daily, and mints were on our pillows at night. The cabins are spread over 2 decks. The sun deck is the top deck, and that’s where the wet suit drying area, hot tub, and pilot house is located The middle deck is where the kitchen is, and where meals are served. It has a comfortable, nice, air conditioned lounging room. It is also the area where we had our slide shows. The TV/VCR is also located here. There’s also a computer where many games of Solitaire were played. The dive deck is on the lowest level, and it can actually be raised when the boat is cruising, or lowered for easy diving entry and exit. I liked the setup that you can put on your wetsuit on the sundeck (where also the dive briefings were held) and then you walk down the stairs to the 2nd deck, pass the camera table to pick up your camera along the way, then down the stairs to the lower level, where you gear up and hop in. The dive deck itself, was efficient, and although we were all close together as we geared up, it was not a problem. One of my favorite things about the Nekton is that, weather and other conditions permitting, the dive deck is open all morning and all afternoon, so you can wait until some of the other divers get into the water before you gear up, thus leaving extra room for yourself and others. On other boats, they rush everybody in the water at the same time, causing mass chaos of gearing up, climbing over others, etc., to get into the water, thus creating a lineup of divers needing to exit the water at the same time as well. On the Nekton, when they say the pool is open, you can go at your leisure, dive your computers, and get as many dives as your profile will allow. After your dive, you can rinse off at the two showers located off the dive deck, grab a fresh clean towel, head upstairs to dry off and swap stories with other divers about what they saw at that site!
 

                 
The Diving:

Sunday:

We started off the week at a dive site called Indian Cay. 58 minutes; 52 feet. This was a nice dive to check our weights and get comfortable in the water. Most of us found out that with these steel 95 tanks, we could all shed a few pounds off our weight belts!

Next was Scoto. 56 minutes; 56 feet. - This was the dive that Sherrie and Dana saw the free swimming eel. I entered the water only to find out my tank had not been filled, therefore I surfaced, got a fill, then buddied up with Martha and Julia until Sherrie and Dana came into sight.

41 minutes; 56 feet - We went a different direction and saw lots of tropicals. Very relaxing, enjoyable dive.

Monday:

Mt. Olympus 37 minutes; 84 feet - saw green morays out swimming, the only shark seen on the trip and an eagle ray. At least we thought it was an eagle ray.  Prove otherwise!

42 minutes; 76 feet - Went a different direction on this and saw more of the same things we saw on the first dive, except the shark! Very relaxing dive.

Sugar Wreck was next . 56 minutes; 15 feet. This was a sugar cane vessel which sunk in the early 1900's. Huge barracudas (tin soldiers) and huge porcupine fish. We did our "Merry Christmas" photo at this site. This is the picture we’re going to use on this year’s Christmas cards!

58 minutes; 18 feet - a very nice shallow dive that provided us with an abundance of colored corals and fish everywhere.

(night dive) 36 minutes; 15 feet - On the night dive we saw a scorpion fish, crab, lobsters, octopus and barracudas. I started videoing the octopus, only to discover my red filter was on, and apparently the camcorder was pushed too far inside the housing, and I was unable to switch the red filter off. Note to self: When doing the final check of the camera before going underwater, make sure the red filter switch can be switched on or off. So, we’ll visualize the octopus in our dreams!

Tuesday:

Dolphin ordeal - We were taken to a site where either the dolphins come, or they don’t! We all sat in our snorkel gear and waited for our signal to get in the water. Several times the dolphins came...... and then they went! Several members of our group were able to see the dolphins, but apparently these dolphins weren’t from the Chamber of Commerce Welcome Wagon division.

Theo’s Wreck - 39 minutes; 95 feet. Lots of silversides (anchovies, etc.) This wreck was intentionally sunk, but miscalculated and sunk in 180 ft. of water. A hurricane came through and moved the freighter into shallower waters.

Shark Junction - 34 minutes; 53 feet. This dive site is known for the number of sharks that live here. Apparently nobody notified the sharks. Sherrie, Dana and I didn’t see ONE shark! When we got out, we saw a nearby boat was having a shark feed. No wonder. No respectable shark is going to hang around the likes of us when FOOD is being offered nearby!

Wednesday:

Rocky Mt. High - 63 minutes; 43 feet. Lots of tunicas of all different colors. The blue
tunicates looked like Texas Bluebonnets. Lots of white coral.

65 minutes; 46 feet - same as previous dive. Very enjoyable.

Hesperos - 39 minutes; 16 feet - was able to get some close shots of rays. Loggerhead turtles and lots of rays!

(Night Dive) 42 minutes; 16 feet - This is where the HUGE turtles sleep. I’m talking about turtles on steroids. Some of these turtles were as big as a Volkswagen. Remembering my "close encounter" on a night dive with a turtle in Saba, I have a great respect for these creatures, therefore I gladly gave them their space! Very little video was shot here! It was so eerie, because you’d turn to find a massive turtle was flying past you trying to get to his bed. You’d turn another way and find a ray whizzing by. Very cool and memorable dive.

Thursday:

Thumbnail - 39 minutes; 82 feet-

34 minutes; 86 feet-

The Strip - 34 minutes; 39 feet. This was my personal favorite of all the dives of the week. We saw more Scorpion fish than we could ever imagine. I took some excellent video of a Scorpion fish. Unfortunately that video is long gone.... boo hoo. Chalk up another lesson learned in Jill’s School of Underwater Videoing! Never show anybody any of your footage, rewind it to show it to someone else, and then forget and RE-RECORD over it! I’m kicking myself in a big way over this. Oh well, the two daytime dives here were great, nevertheless.

    

71 minutes; 42 feet - More of the above. Rays, eels, scorpion fish.

Night Dive: 42 minutes; 39 feet. Since we had such fantastic two dives at this site earlier in the day, we decided we couldn’t miss a night dive here. Sherrie found a rare red octopus. I was able to obtain a tiny bit of video footage on it, enough to verify the existence of it, anyway, but, of course, it was included it the video screw up, so it’s gone as well..... As well as some prime footage of a crab having its evening meal. I’m convinced we need to go back and do these dives again so I can get more footage to show! Thankfully, I was not aware of the video nightmare until I was editing the video and realized that I was missing quite a lot of stuff. It’s so much better to realize your errors once you’re home, because you can actually sit on the floor and cry and not have anybody around to stop you! Anyway, on this dive, Sherrie and I decided we’d been there long enough, and went up on what we thought was our boat’s mooring line. Guess what, it wasn’t the right line. We found ourselves quite a distance from the boat. We proudly took the "Tow of Shame" back home. At least we weren’t the only ones to use such a method of transportation. But, remembering that we didn’t get into diving to prove anything to anybody, we took our lumps from our fellow divers, who only jeered us in good fun, and called it a night!

Friday:

Tuna Alley - 42 minutes; 49 feet - very relaxing dive with lots of tropicals and colorful corals.

45 minutes; 51 feet- This was our finale. Saw Spotted Drums and various other tropicals.

The Food
I didn’t hear one complaint about the food, and with good reason. Ellen prepared tasty dishes and there was plenty of it. We had turkey, prime rib, barbecue, pasta, salads, Mexican food, and delicious deserts. Everything was served buffet style, and nobody went away hungry! We had fresh homemade delicious cookies after our first dive each morning. Yummy! We also had mid afternoon snacks, too! We all agreed that Ellen needed to come home with all of us! Keep in mind, this boat was designed specifically for diving, not dining. Considering that space is limited, I was amazed at the creativity that Ellen displayed to effectively use the space and storage available to come up with delicious meals. If you’re looking for fancy feasts and elegant presentations like the Princess Cruises, book there. It amazes me that some people (nobody on our boat, by the way) have the gall to say the food on dive boats wasn’t the greatest. I’d enjoy watching such people attempt to prepare 3 meals a day for 20+ people and see what kind of reviews they get! Hats off to Ellen for a job well done!

Crew
Awesome group! Cpt. Kevin was the 1st Mate on the Pilot in January ‘02, so it was good to see him again, only this time as the Captain! Cpt. Larry was very interesting to visit with and provided some interesting guided dives. Some of the other crew was new, but they were enthusiastic and eager to please. They just spoiled us! Kat was our hostess and she was very fun and friendly. D’John, Jeremiah, Randy, Jeff, Dusty and Courtney were our dive masters, and we couldn’t say enough good things about all of them. I’m sure being on a boat week after week becomes tiring, but they all got along great and made the trip so much fun for us. Chuck was the one who kept the whole thing under control. He gave a tour of the inner workings of the boat, and it is amazing of what all goes on underneath. I couldn’t begin to understand a fraction of what Chuck was telling us, but I enjoyed the tour nevertheless.

The Friends:
One of the things I enjoy most about liveaboard diving is that you become very good friends with people very fast! You get to meet people from all over the world, and all of you have the same interest in mind. It’s fun to share stories with people who have been where you want to go! Some of the people we met are people I hope to dive with again soon!

Julia & Martha - They live in Denver. Julia enjoys underwater photography. Both of these ladies were so much fun. They kept us laughing with their stories and experiences! There was never a dull moment around these two! Quite a bit of our diving was done with them. They are both good at spotting critters!

  

Vance & Brenda - They live in Houston. Vance does underwater video, and Brenda does some photography as well. They travel quite often, and we enjoyed visiting with them. Vance gave me some good ideas on new toys for my camera, etc.

 

The Singer Island Group - This group includes 2 married couples, who I am guessing are probably retired. I won’t even attempt to guess their ages, because none of these people appear to be anywhere near their age, as far as being in shape! You can tell this group stays active. I enjoyed watching these two couples dive together and enjoy each other’s company, even after many years of marriage! Another member of this group is Gail, a recent widow. This woman was a total hoot! She knows how to enjoy life. She lost her husband of 40+ years last year, and she’s got a great outlook on life. She was also the fashion plate of the boat. She was just a pleasure to be around, and a joy to visit with. She never ceased to amaze us with some of the things she said! All we can say is, "You Go Girl!" The last member of this group is a concert pianist and harpist. She was fun to dive with as well.

 

Sy - We’ve already addressed him, but words cannot express the fun we enjoyed with this gentleman. He was such a great person to have around. In fact, we decided to have a mock wedding between him and Gail. Both of these zany characters added some snap to the trip. They allowed the rest of us to be wild and crazy with them. We even added the boat’s 4 month old baby to the scenario as their "love child!"

There were two other couples on the boat, and we enjoyed diving with them as well. I really enjoyed spending time with Dana, and going down memory lane. We shared stories that we’d both thought were long forgotten! It was so neat that once we got together, the memories came rushing back. It was so much fun to re-live those years! Sherrie and I agreed that Dana needs to dive with us more often!

Entertainment
Most evenings there was a slide show after dinner (before the night dive) of varying quality. Fish, Corals, Turtles, Sharks and then the photo contest. On Thursday they had a skiff shuttle to go to Bimini, and we were able to spend a little time there to check out the small town and purchase souvenirs.
 

The Wetsuit Funeral
There comes a time in our diving lives, that one must say goodbye to a good friend.  In Dana's case, this was the final trip for her 12 year old wetsuit.  This poor thing was literally falling apart.  There were rips that continued to enlarge throughout the week.  She even tried wearing it inside out in an effort to extend it's life.  It was to no avail.  Reluctantly, we knew the time had come.  On the last day, just before we left the boat, we bid it farewell. 

 

Final Thoughts
We had a great time. Great diving, and great people. New friends were made, and hopefully we’ll run into some of these people again. Would I go back on this boat? Absolutely. It’s the calmest dive boat I’ve been on, and it’s a great value.