June 2012    Download the Entire Issue (PDF)

Vol. 27, No. 6   What's this?

Bonaire, Maui, Phuket…

Francis Coppola’s five-star resort, a clueless Cozumel divemaster

from the June, 2012 issue of Undercurrent  

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Introducing the Carib Dancer. Well now, there's a new Dancer in the Bahamas, but better give it some time before you climb aboard. We've forever been warning about taking maiden voyages -- or trips in the first three months of any new launch -- and subscriber Michael Joest, living in Germany, enjoyed his voyage but says it had its bugs. "No transfer was provided, so I had to take a cab to the marina, walk through customs and security check, then down to the boat. Carib Dancer had most of the amenities of the Turks & Caicos Aggressor, but had less storage in the cabin. It was a maiden cruise, so all kinds of problems appeared out of nowhere. The AC didn´t work well the first few days, so I slept on deck. There sometimes was a strange smell coming from the heads, but they managed to get rid of that with bleach. The nitrox compressor didn´t work. Nobody wanted to look at my log book, c-card or DAN insurance, which I found a bit strange. All the guys working on the boat seemed to slowly be getting used to their jobs. The kitchen and food were three stars. The boat was fully booked, mostly U.S. citizens and three Germans. It went to the Exumas and the famous Blue Hole. They let me run on a rather long leash, so diving was enjoyable. Visibility in the shallows was sometimes poor, but stunning on the walls. Like in the Turks, most dives went along a reef wall. Lots of swim-throughs, crevices, tunnels, canyons and boulders for cruising around. We had sharks, rays and turtles, but not many. On the edge of the wall were beautiful coral, sponge, gorgonia and fan gardens with better fish population than at the Turks and Caicos. Once we did a wreck, the Austin Smith. Dive operators from Nassau have started shark feeding here, so some reef sharks were cruising around, hoping to grab some snacks."

Stephen Kouri (Lacey, WA), who was on the next cruise, writes, "There were several boat issues unrelated to the crew. No nitrox, leaks causing wet carpets and AC issues (some cabins were hot, while others were meat lockers). The crew worked diligently to overcome these issues that should have been dealt with in dry dock, but were playing catch-up for the entire cruise." ( www.dancerfleet.com )...