Rangiroa, BVI, Guanaja, Bermuda, Maui and More

Our readers submit stories about unique diving experiences that you ought to know about. Here are some diving destination tips you ought to consider, as well as some liveaboards you might want to avoid.

Great Land-Based Diving at Resorts

Undeveloped Guanaja is just a short hop from Roatan, Honduras, where the old Caribbean reigns. Gregory S. Bruce (Washougal, WA), who has more than 1000 dives, was there in February and was delighted with G&G's Clearwater Paradise Resort. "It is definitely a bit of a step back in time, and I love that. Food is healthy and plentiful. Most vegetables are grown in their garden. The rooms are nice, with huge balconies and spectacular Caribbean views. The reefs are quite stunning and healthy. Beautiful steep/vertical, as well as sloping walls. Lots of overhangs, caverns, and swim-thrus. Lots of juvenile fish, many nurse sharks out and about, angel fish, and small parrotfish. Macro subjects like nudibranchs, flamingo tongues, and fire worms. At the Pinnacle, I dropped to 100 feet and slowly wound my way up to 30 feet. Stunning and full of fish. The Jado Trader wreck, covered nicely with coral and sponges, sits in about 110 feet of water. Diving in Guanaja differs in so many ways from much of the rest of the Caribbean. Their website very well represents the experience. One of the best values in the Caribbean." www.clearwaterparadise.com

French Polynesia and Tahiti are an eight-hour flight from Los Angeles, and Rangiroa, with incredible diving, is a short hop away. Gail King (Daytona Beach), who has logged more than 1000 dives, went out with Top Dive in February and said, "Wish we'd started going here years ago. Diving at Rangiroa is all about big stuff and a large variety of tropical fish (an occasional turtle and large morays) along the reef. Friendly dolphin interactions seemed to be why most divers were drawn to Rangiroa. Dolphin interactions occurred on 5 out of our 21 dives, and we saw dolphins on most dives. At Tiputa Pass, the current takes you through the pass, so there is a variety with every dive, which might include reef, black tip, hammerhead, tiger sharks, eagle and manta rays, and large schools of fish. We stayed at Maitai Rangiroa, which was on the lagoon with a restaurant/bar/pool and individual Polynesian-style bungalows at water's edge. Top Dive provided shuttle service." www.topdive.com www.rangiroa.hotelmaitai.com

Semi-tropical Bermuda is rarely on a diver's go-to list, but Roger Cooper (Alexandria, VA) says, "It checked a number of my boxes: a 2-hour 12-minute flight from Newark, able to do a two-tank dive and be back in time for lunch with my non-diving spouse; nice weather on a lovely island; and a PADI 5-star dive operation, Dive Bermuda, a 10-minute cab from our hotel, the Rosewood. All four dives were on a long coral fringing reef lined with over a dozen fantastic wrecks. Visibility was outstanding. My deepest dive hit 57 feet, a big change from the hundreds of wreck dives I have done in New Jersey and Nova Scotia. The healthy hard and soft coral looked like coral I had seen in the Caribbean many decades ago and soft coral I had seen in Fiji onboard the NAI'A in 2008. But there was one major disappointment: very little fish life. The water in early May was 70°F." www.rosewoodhotels.com/en/bermuda

Maui has a lot of dive operators and a lot of inexperienced tourist divers. So many Undercurrent subscribers were disappointed when Mike Severn's dive operation - a favorite of experienced divers - was sold a couple of years ago. Wayne Joseph (San Mateo, CA), who spent decades diving with Severns and Pauline, was among them. He gave the new owners of what is now called Island Style Diving a chance and is delighted he did. "They are relaxed and friendly and provide safe and enjoyable dives. Christina's experience in marine biology really shows. She finds all kinds of critters, some so small I couldn't believe she saw them. We saw sharks, eels, lobsters, etc., and large and tiny nudibranchs: Blue dragon nudibranchs 2" wide and 8-10" long; tiny Pikachu nudibranchs and other white ones smaller than a grain of rice." One downside for vacationers: they depart from the Kihei boat ramp at 6:30 a.m. to avoid the wind and whitecaps that invariably come up late morning. But getting up early is worth it to join an operation catering to experienced divers. www.diveislandstyle.com

Watch What You Eat

One never wants to get sick on a dive trip; however, food poisoning happens in third-world countries. An upset stomach, diarrhea, and vomiting are not always from bad food, but when a score of people have those symptoms, as they did in March at Atlantis Dive Resort in Puerto Galera, Philippines, it's not good. Brent Woods (Deep River, ON) reports "I was part of a group of 29. There were two other small groups. About two-thirds of the guests got sick on our fifth day there with the classic symptoms of E-coli poisoning - several required medical treatment. EMTs were on site for at least two days. All of my group only ate at the resort.

The only expression of concern from the resort manager was the hope that the resort would not get a lot of 'one-star reviews.' There has been no other acknowledgment, apology, or offer of compensation." Some traveling divers plan ahead by getting an antibiotics prescription from their doctor, so have a chat with yours before your next trip. www.atlantishotel.com

A Liveaboard for Easy Diving

For easy liveaboard diving close to home (three hours nonstop to Tortola from Miami), the BVI Aggressor offers excellent Caribbean diving, says Kenneth Gilbert (Minneapolis), who has made well over 500 dives. In June, he says the boat was in "excellent condition, staff was professional, friendly, and provided excellent service! Dives are from two uncomfortable tenders. The RMS Rhone, which sunk in 1867, is a must-dive. The bow is a wonderful swim-thru, and the wreck teemed with colorful fish, including barracudas and angel fish. I dived several sites down to 50 feet depth with parrotfish, grunts, blue tangs, spotted butterflies, damselfish, pufferfish, blue chromis, fairy basslets, sergeant majors, tarpon, Anegada lobsters, reef sharks, octopus, seahorses, and bright red, orange, blue, and green healthy gorgonians. Incredible diving and a fun time." www.aggressor.com

Liveaboards and Smokers:

We're unaware of any liveaboards prohibiting smoking. Most manage it by requiring smokers to stay in the assigned smoking area, but some don't, and for a few divers, drifting smoke is enough to ruin a trip. Paul Salembier (Ottawa, ON) was aboard the Carpe Novo in March in the Maldives and reports: "The boat has two smokers' tables just outside the stern doors on the main deck. Most crew members and 6-8 divers smoked, some chain smokers. The smoke from these tables would flow into the boat, down the stairs, and into our room, where it was frequently disgusting. The crew would be up by 5 a.m. every day, and their first order of business seemed to be to have a smoke. We woke up each day to a room smelling of cigarette smoke. Same thing in the evenings. We asked for the doors to be closed, but as soon as they were, someone would open them. The half-hearted compromise was to close one of the two double doors, which did little to reduce the smoke. We put a towel across the bottom of the door, but this was largely ineffective. While I enjoyed two previous excursions on the Carpe Vita sister ship, I didn't enjoy this trip." www.carpediemmaldives.com/carpe-novo

Aboard the Mermaid in Indonesia in April, Gary and Robin Schiendelman found that while "smoking was supposed to be confined to the sun deck on the bow, but because smokers were often trying to avoid the sun, they moved to the sides, which meant the smoke drifted into the open doors of the dining room and continued down the cabin hallway. There were times the smokers were on the party deck . . . . It's an awesome itinerary, and the Mermaid is one of the cheaper boats out there, but there are way better boats." www.mermaid-liveaboards.com

If you're a diver affected by smoke, you'll find in third-world countries that many crew members smoke. Perhaps your best bet is to stick to the Caribbean, where most passengers are American nonsmokers, the crew less likely to be smokers and more likely to sympathize with nonsmokers.

Liveaboard Safety Policies

When readers report safety issues with liveaboards, we will pass them on. With so many serious liveaboard problems popping up in the past few years, someone has to call them to account.

Richard Hart (Wylie, TX) was aboard the MY Sea Dragon in the Red Sea in May and says "With the recent fires and/or sinking of liveaboards, particularly in the Red Sea, I was surprised that there was no mention of smoke detectors, fire escape routes, evacuation procedures or how the life rafts worked. When I mentioned this both verbally and in writing on the 'How did we do' questionnaire at the end, all I got was a shrug." www.ameliesafari.com

More than just Diving

Over the years, I've noticed that most divers are so focused on daily diving that they don't take any days to engage in other activities and get to know the country they're visiting. They miss out on a lot.

If you want great diving but also want to journey out of your dive resort for a broader experience, Susan Mochan (Bethesda, MD) says Fiji's Oneta Resort, which she visited in March, is just the place. "A gem of a place with probably the healthiest hard corals I've seen anywhere. Anthias, fusiliers, leopard sharks, a few mantas, amazing acres and acres of hard corals, some the size of a bus. Other things to do: kayak, including to a nearby waterfall; great snorkeling as some of the reefs are very shallow; hike on the ridge overlooking the resort; visit a local village; take a sunset cruise to see birds coming home to roost; get a massage. They have a 'lovo,' a traditional cookout, on Saturdays and kava with music (guys on guitars, ukulele). Beautiful grounds." Many Fijian resorts have similar activities for guests; learn more in our reader reports. www.onetaresort.com

Thailand is another country where a traveling diver should spend extra days visiting Bangkok or to the less populated areas. For diving, you'll find many low-end liveaboard boats to avoid (similar to the Philippines), but the Phinisi, part of the Master Liveaboard Fleet, is top-notch, says David Insley (Jacksonville, FL). In March, he had "10 days of incredible diving. It holds 18 divers in seven comfortable cabins, each with an escape hatch to the open deck above. The first four days were in southern Thailand with amazing hard and soft corals plus many reef and macro specimens. The southern formations tended to be limestone-based . . . . The second leg took us north to the Similan and Surin Islands, where there were some fantastic boulders to see underwater. The visibility was much improved, 80-100 feet consistently. At the famous Richelieu Rock pinnacles, the amount and variety of marine life were amazing. Glass minnows were chased around the pinnacles by abundant trevally. If you like scorpion fish, you have found heaven. The mostly Thai crew was extremely caring and safe. Food was abundant (fed five times daily) to fuel the diving, and wine or cold cervezas for evening relaxation when the day's diving was done." https://thejunk.com

And that's it for this month. Please let us know about your diving trips by submitting a reader report at www.undercurrent.org/SubRR.

- Ken Smith