Reef Divers/The Club, Jul, 2007,by craig grube, va, us (![]() |
|||
No photos available at this time | |||
Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best): |
|||
Accommodations | ![]() |
Food | ![]() |
Service and Attitude | ![]() |
Environmental Sensitivity | N/A |
Dive Operation | ![]() |
Shore Diving | ![]() |
Snorkeling | N/A | ||
Overall Rating |
|||
Value for $$ | N/A | ||
Beginners | ![]() |
||
Advanced | ![]() |
||
Comments |
We dove 6 days/17 dives all on Bloody Bay wall or Jackson’s wall. Reef Divers is an excellent operation with several large Newton boats that are safety equipped, have a camera table, fresh water rinse hose, cooler with snacks, water, and towels for each diver. You leave most of your gear on the boat and the DM’s suit you up for the dive and take your tank off when you are done and change them over. The DM’s give excellent briefings complete with hand drawn maps of each dive site along with a proposed dive plan if you want to follow it. You can dive with your buddie or follow the DM. The walls, reefs and sand patches combined with their map and briefing make navigation very easy. The DM’s also are very good at finding critters if that is your interest. They also have an excellent sense of humor and are very pleasant. You show up at the civilized hour of about 8:00 AM and the boat rides are a relaxing 25 minutes; the 2-tank dive returns to the dock about 12:30 for lunch. The shear walls are breathtaking and the fish life is pretty abundant. We saw sharks every day, including reef, nurse, lemon and one hammerhead. Stingrays are common, turtles and lobsters abundant. The fish have little fear so you can spend time observing the many types of angel fish, grouper, parrot fish, spotted filefish, barracuda, and many others. I never thought I would care much about sponges, but there are an amazing variety of types, colors, shapes and sizes. There are also lots of sea fans. There is some, but not much, hard coral. Much is covered with algae. Reef Divers does a nice job of moving you around to a variety of sites and will solicit input from the divers. The morning dive usually had about 15 divers and the afternoon dive about 8. They give you computers so you can dive at your rate and pace so you can maximize your dive time if that is your desire. I would go back in a hearbeat. Stayed at The Club condos. They are extremely nice and the area is very quiet. We ate breakfast and lunch in and dined in and out (The Hungry Iguana was very good). The grocery store on the island has enough variety to make eating in pretty reasonable. Selection and pricing is not like home, but reasonable considering you are on a pretty remote island. This is not a party island, it is for diving and relaxing. |
||
Reporter and Travel |
|||
Dive Experience | 101-250 dives | ||
Where else diving | Florida Keys, Turks&Caicos, Hawaii, Jamaica | ||
Closest Airport | Getting There | ||
Dive Conditions |
|||
Weather | sunny, windy | Seas | calm |
Water Temp | 83-86°F / 28-30°C | Wetsuit Thickness | 0 |
Water Visibility | 60-80 Ft/ 18-24 M | ||
Dive Policy |
|||
Dive own profile | yes | ||
Enforced diving restrictions | first dive 110 ft max for 50 minutes, 2nd dive 60 ft max for 60 minutes. | ||
Liveaboard? | no | Nitrox Available? | N/A |
What I Saw |
|||
Sharks | Lots | Mantas | None |
Dolphins | None | Whale Sharks | None |
Turtles | > 2 | Whales | None |
Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best): |
|||
Corals | ![]() |
Tropical Fish | ![]() |
Small Critters | ![]() |
Large Fish | ![]() |
Large Pelagics | ![]() |
||
Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best): |
|||
Subject Matter | ![]() |
Boat Facilities | ![]() |
Overall rating for UWP's | ![]() |
Shore Facilities | ![]() |
UW Photo Comments | Fresh rinse hose on boat and camera only table. Dedicated rinse tank at dock. |
| Home | Online Members Area | My Account |
Login
|
Join
|
| Travel Index |
Dive Resort & Liveaboard Reviews
|
Featured Reports
|
Recent
Issues
|
Back Issues
|
|
Dive Gear
Index
|
Health/Safety Index
|
Environment & Misc.
Index
|
Seasonal Planner
|
Blogs
|
Free Articles
|
Book Picks
|
News
|
|
Special Offers
|
RSS
|
FAQ
|
About Us
|
Contact Us
|
Links
|