Instant Reader Report
on Bathy's / Hibiscus in
Tahiti and French Polynesia / Moorea on
2002/05
by
Bob Woods , CA, USA
Report Number 020826233643410

 Most of Caribbean, Fiji, Tonga, Maldives, Indonesia (N. Sulawesi), eastern
Pacific (Panama, Costa Rica) 

Dive Conditions

Stay with DM  

[None]  

Overall Rating

We dove with Bathy’s Club at the Intercontinental Beachcomber, which is
where we were supposed to stay before a forced schedule change.  They
picked us up daily by van (by car, after the van broke) from the resort we
ended up staying at and brought us and our gear to the shop, but
surprisingly they had no storage for our gear—we had to schlep it back and
forth every day.  Then we had to lug it from the shop (about 100 M) to the
boat and set it up.  It would have been nice to have a cart or something,
but when we asked we were told there was none available; actually there
was one, but it was for the exclusive use of the crew and for hauling
tanks—but not for the customers.  We also found the boat to be crowded, 12
or more divers on a double-outboard that more commonly accommodates no more
than 6.  After the dive the crew pointed out to us where we were to rinse
our gear after we had unrigged it and hauled it to the rinse tank (no help
from them), and then we packed it up for the ride back to the hotel.  Other
comments include no snacks (or even water!) on the dive boat, although the
rides to the dive sites were very short—5 to 10 minutes or so.  Back roll
in, fairly easy exit on a detachable ladder.  They were flexible about how
you got out—i.e. whether you want to take off your fins, BC, etc. in the
water or not.

The dive routine seemed to be if customers were available the morning dive
was a shark feeding dive, although it seemed more mackerel got fed than
sharks.  But there generally were a bunch of 3-5 foot blacktips and a
couple of good sized lemons, and what the hell, we got wet.  On the bottom
there was nice healthy hard coral; for reasons I don’t fully understand
there seems to be no soft coral in French Polynesia.  We saw the usual
supply of butterflyfish, groupers, and so on, but nothing unusual.  OK
diving, but not worth a trip.
 

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