Dive Review of
Wind Dancer in
Trinidad and Tobago/Tobago

USA (FL,IL,NC,TX,MO,CA,Alaska),
Canada(BC,Nanavut),Greenland,Carribbean(Bahamas,Turks&Caicos,Curacau,Bo
naire,Belize,Mexico)Pacific(Socorro,CocosIsland ,Galapagos,Tahiti,Truk
Lagoon,Palau,Yap,Sipadan,Bali,N.Sulawesi,Phuket,Burma,PNG) Australia,
Antartica, Mediterranean (Costa Brava, S. France, Corsica, Sardina, Italy),
Red Sea

Dive Conditions

The diving was treated as drift diving even though there was little
current. Divers were herded down the reef as a group and not allowed to do
their own dives. Very unsatisfactory!  

Camera table on dive deck was adequate with air pressure supplied and rinse
buckets. But, dive policies were not photo-friendly in that rushing divers
down the reef was not conducive to photographic activity.  

Overall Rating

     My husband and I scheduled diving together for the first week and I
remained on the boat for a second week of diving. Week one was OK to a
degree, but problems were becoming apparent. Our primary interest was video
and still photography. Yet, the arrangement was for "drift"
diving whereby we were expected to keep up with the group. Perhaps at times
there is enough current to warrant drift diving, but during the two weeks I
was there, there was not enough current to affect diving. Yet the other
divers swam higher over the reef and sped down the reef not allowing any
time for photography. 
     During the first week my husband and I managed to do our own dives
most of the time, but during the second week, I faced a problem because
even though I am a certified solo diver with my own redundant air supply
and signed applicable waivers, I was told to drag a safety sausage
throughout the dive. That would have been dangerous since it would have
become entangled on the coral and would have interfered with my camera
equipment. 
     I had great difficulty trying to chase after the group. Furthermore,
frequently my air was not pumped to working pressure causing delay and
argument about what was acceptable. Lynn, the dive director, seemed to
delight in finding fault and fabricating policies such as stating that it
is a Peter Hughes policy not to shampoo hair on the dive deck. (Other Peter
Hughes boats even provide the shampoo on the dive deck!) There was a
general attitude on the boat to prevent problems by restriction rather than
by solutions. The answer was not how to do something safely, the answer was
to not do it at all. 
     In general, these factors were frustrating and/or unpleasant:
•Bad weather, rain, poor light
•Terrible visibility on many dives, runoff from river
•Exhaustion from almost constant hard swimming to keep up
•Rapid use of air supply due to swimming complicated by the challenge of
getting a full fill to 3000 psi
•Dive sites inconsistent in terms of quality ranging from nice structure
with plenty of coral and variety to devastated coral patches overturned
from the hurricane, piles of junk and old tires and worn down, sediment
covered coral rubble. 
•Warnings about strong currents as the reason for group drift diving yet
they never materialized.  
•Often the group “drifted” up over the reef in what current existed so that
they were carried along and were kicking as well, while I, down closer to
the reef to take the photos of fish and other features, was out of any
current and thus really left behind.
     The last straw was a severe admonishment from Lynn over a couple of
empty shells I picked up off of the sand. She claimed that collecting
shells violated the law of Tobago, export of shells was prohibited, and
having shells was punishable by fine. Furthermore, she announced that the
Peter Hughes policy forbade picking up anything from the sea.  In fact,
there is no such Tobago law at all and the written Peter Hughes
preservation of nature clause restricts the taking of "any live
animal, shellfish, fish, coral..." There is nothing about seashells.
If you like dive director aggression and dictatorship, the Wind Dancer is
the liveaboard for you.
  

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