Dive Review of
Wind Dancer in
Trinidad and Tobago/Tobago

Palau, Fiji, Australia, PNG, Truk, Bonaire, Honduras, Belize, US & BVI,
Brazil . . . 

Dive Conditions

Follow the leader.  

Rinse tank on Wave Dancer, none on tenders.  Crew is careful.  Divemaster
CNN very knowledgeable.  No computer on ship for downloading (but room to
use your own.) There is E-6 processing but nearly everyone was digital!  

Overall Rating

Wind Dancer is a pleasant ship – a lot more so if you have Cabin 1, with
queen bed, instead of a lower-deck cabin with a double lower bunk and a
head-bumping upper.  There is a nice dive platform with big exit ladders,
but you won’t get to dive from it.  (Pity – we had a great time on it 8
years ago.)  All the diving is from two tenders, and regrettably, they’re
ordinary day-diving six- packs with uncomfortable seats, insecure tank
racks, low freeboard and portable exit ladders put over the gunnel when
someone wants to board.  (Divers remembering the commodious jet-driven
tenders of Sun Dancers in Palau will weep.)  Since the rides to & from
the dive sites are 10-15 minutes each, you spend 2-2.5 wet, bumpy and
uncomfortable hours a day on the tenders.  Some divers complained that the
dives were too close together (much of the surface intervals goes in the
tenders) and that the number of dives should be reduced!  Happily, when it
was pointed out that doing every dive is not mandatory, that idea died.  We
dove nitrox 32%.  Fills nearly always >2950 psi, topped off on request. 
 We rented a (backup) computer because of a threatened malfunction; there
are no nitrox-capable computers for rent!  Dives are shallow enough and
surface intervals long enough that neither air nor nitrox should put you in
deco.  

There are some rough seas between the Caribbean and Atlantic, so pack your
best seasickness remedy.  Anchorages were pretty calm.

Every dive is led, but the guides allow for photographers and other slow
people.  If you like diving on your own (with or without buddy), forget it.
 The diving, as Peter says, is like the Caribbean used to be.  Great
topography, corals, and small reef fish, and the biggest angelfish (French,
queen, grey) and turtles we’ve ever seen.  NO groupers or other potentially
table-size fish – they’ve all been eaten. We did 22 dives of an available
approximately 24, average dive time 53 min.  Most were 50-80 ft max, a few
in the 95 ft range.

The Peter Hughes secret, which isn’t secret, is the crew and Wind Dancer is
no exception.    Captain Eddie dealt with mechanical problems and the
Whiners From Hell with equanimity.  First mate Brian did diving, plumbing,
photo, whatever, always cheerful. The local divemasters know the sites well
and try to please everyone.  And chef Yanis, familiar to PHD veterans,
keeps the Belizean home cooking coming.

Ray Sloper, Transfer Agent extraordinaire, makes transfers to and from
airport as painless as possible, and will take you to the Hilton - good
place - to wait or arrange an interesting tour of the island on the last
day.  He makes you feel that you have a knowledgeable friend, and that’s
especially important on Tobago.  BWIA must have the worst on-time record of
any airline since the Iron Curtain came down, but they don’t seem to have
the miserable baggage attitude that TACA, ALM & c. have.  Getting from
Trinidad to and from Tobago seems pretty disorganized but worked o.k.

 

Questions?
Send an email to the author of this report

What others have to say about Undercurrent
And get immediate access to ALL 29 dive reviews of Trinidad and Tobago
and all other dive destinations immediately!