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Dive Review of Fathom Five Divers and Ocean Quest in
Hawaii/Kauai

Fathom Five Divers and Ocean Quest, Jun, 2010,

by Andy kenley, FL, US (Sr. Contributor Sr. Contributor 21 reports with 2 Helpful votes). Report 5595 has 1 Helpful vote.

No photos available at this time

Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Accommodations N/A Food N/A
Service and Attitude 3 stars Environmental Sensitivity 3 stars
Dive Operation 3 stars Shore Diving N/A
Snorkeling N/A
Value for $$ 3 stars
Beginners 2 stars
Advanced 3 stars
Comments I sensed there would be problems with these guys.Boat seems more suited to the crab fishery than dive operation.Divemaster,Andrew,was OK. Capt.gave a windy safety briefing.Pompously gave us permission to board his vessel.During the dive briefing,the DM said we might have to do a drift dive(owing to the winds.2-4'seas)if conditions were unsuitable for anchorage.OK,that's fine.Conditions were deemed unsuitable,so the drift dive briefing commenced.Unremarkable,except for the lack of some sort of surface marker attached to one of the divers.We were assured that the skipper had "ESP" for bubbles.We went for our little dive,which was ok,the bottom favors a rock quarry,but,the scattered corals were as pretty as patches of flowers. We drifted along on the vagaries of the confused currents,when we surfaced...no boat.Here was an opportunity to live intensely.Beautiful day,sunny,blue seas.The waves were bigger than at the time of our descent.After about 20 minutes,someone spied the boat,speeding away from us towards the harbor.
There were 6 of us,including the DM.Everyone had a safety sausage,we dropped our weights,I clipped my wife to me with a dog leash.We had a small mirror,we aimed it at the shore 3-4 miles away.Everyone was calm,we suggested,that perhaps it might be prudent to try and work ourselves toward shore(hoping for a convenient current).After an hour and 10 minute surface interval,Capt.Gasbag showed up.No recriminations,we suggested that a surface buoy might be in order for drift dives.They seemed astounded by the idea.They told us to go to the shop for a full refund.We were polite.Then relations deteriorated,they proposed to only charge us 1/2 price.After some intense conversation,they decided to refund us our money.The lesson I took from this affair was if you have reservations about an operation you should voice them loudly and not worry about upsetting the applecart.
Websites Fathom Five Divers and Ocean Quest   

Reporter and Travel

Dive Experience Over 1000 dives
Where else diving All over Fl., Caribbean Sea, Fiji, PNG, GBR, Coral Sea, Micronesia, Palau, Kauai, Nihue, Kona Coast.
Closest Airport Getting There

Dive Conditions

Weather windy Seas currents
Water Temp 76-°F / 24-°C Wetsuit Thickness
Water Visibility 60-80 Ft/ 18-24 M

Dive Policy

Dive own profile yes
Enforced diving restrictions If you wanted to go deeper than 100", you needed to bring a shovel.
Liveaboard? no Nitrox Available? yes

What I Saw

Sharks 1 or 2 Mantas None
Dolphins None Whale Sharks None
Turtles 1 or 2 Whales None
Corals 4 stars Tropical Fish 3 stars
Small Critters N/A Large Fish N/A
Large Pelagics N/A

Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Subject Matter N/A Boat Facilities N/A
Overall rating for UWP's N/A Shore Facilities N/A
UW Photo Comments None Visible,I am sure they would have been respectful of equipment.
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Note: The information here was reported by the author above, but has NOT been reviewed nor edited by Undercurrent prior to posting on our website. Please report any major problems by writing to us and referencing the report number above.

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