Instant Reader Report
on Aqua Cat / [same] in
Bahamas / Exuma on
2003/05
by
Gerald Canning , Nevada, United States
Report Number 030527171852298

 Caribbean, Cozumel, Florida Keys and Northern California 

Dive Conditions

Get back on board with air in the tank.  

There was a dedicated table for cameras with a dry air hose set up for
drying cameral equipment before putting it back on the camera table. 
Divemasters would hand you your camera in the water, and take it back and
put it in a dedicated rinse tank as you exited the water.  There was a dry
charging area with a lot of outlets -- with about ten cameras aboard, there
never was a problem getting an 110v outlet.  

Overall Rating

This was a first class dive boat -- in the words of the many divers who had
taken other liveaboard trips on the Agressor and Hughes fleets -- it was
the nicest boat they had ever seen.  The rooms were spaceous, either two
twin beds or a king sized bed, bathroom and shower, large closets and a
mini-refrigerator.  The dive deck was well laid out with plenty of room. 
32-33% Nitrox was available for an added package price of $100 for the
whole week (26-27 dives are possible in a week).  Tanks were available as
100, 80, 63 or 50 cu feet -- your choice, and you could dive until you
exhaused your tank!!  There were fresh water shower stalls on the dive
deck -- 4 or 5 showers a day were common, with 3 fresh water makers,
running out was not a problem.  The main deck was well laid out.  The
lounge area was big enough to accomodate the dining area as well as a
separate seating area with couches, TV, DVD and VSH equipment.

Chief Jim was awesome.  We can hardly wait for his cookbook to be
published.

The Captain and crew were hard working, friendly and truly working to make
this a great dive experience.  I had difficulty with my regulator, and they
went out of their way to loan me bits and pieces to that I could make it
through the week.

All diving was done from the Aqua Cat -- even though we had a shore boat
which could carry about 25 and a safety craft in the water at all times. 
Its an impressive site to do a drift dive from a 105' cat, at night and
have the captain nimble enough to pick us up with no additional effort on
our part.  Obviously, he had a well trained dive team.  Safety was key
--during the dives  there always was a divemaster on the front of the
boat, two on the rear deck and one in the water.

We had some great wall dives, a teriffic shark feeding dive and some
shallow dives.  We saw Southern Rays, Yellow Rays, Spotted Eagle rays,
Caribbean Reef Sharks, Silky sharks, large lobster and all of the usual
reef fish.

The only problem with the whole week is the relative scarcity of fish.  We
all saw at least one of everything you would expect to see -- but we didn't
see the big quantities of fish I expect to see -- particularly since we
were diving in a marine park.

While I can not praise the boat and the crew enough, it wasn't in their
power to find us large groupings of fish.  I'm glad I went and I greatly
enjoyed the trip -- but I doubt that I will go back. 

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