Dive Review of Peter Hughes Wind Dancer in
Grenada

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Peter Hughes Wind Dancer, Nov, 2008, by Eric Ault, IL, U.S.A ( Reviewer 5 reports). Report 4658.
No photos available at this time
Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Accommodations		Food
Service and Attitude		Environmental Sensitivity
Dive Operation		Shore Diving	N/A
Snorkeling	N/A
Overall Rating
Value for $$
Beginners
Advanced
Comments	Six members of our dive club, The Scubaneers, Glen Ellyn, IL decided to spend a week on the Wind Dancer as we had not previously visited that part of the Caribbean. At the time we booked our trip there was no direct air service to Grenada so we had to connect at San Juan, PR both ways. American has since added a daily direct flight from Miami but it was too late for us to re-book. We had to arrive Thursday night for our Saturday sailing as when we booked there were no flights to Grenada on Fridays. Similarly, there was no flight to San Juan on Saturday so we had to spend an extra night on Grenada. We elected to stay at True Blue Bay Resort where the Wind Dancer picks up its passengers. The resort was comfortable, has a couple of nice pools and the food and drink at the restaurant were adequate. We did enjoy barbeque night on Friday. Service was a little slow but not too bad by “Island Time” standards. The staff was friendly and helpful. There is a dive operator on site but we did not partake of their services. A couple of us enjoyed a half-day tour of Grenada, the “Spice Island,” being one of the world’s major suppliers of nutmeg and mace. The Wind Dancer is one of the older boats in the Hughes fleet but everything was in working condition the week we were on board. Most cabins are at the waterline with a bunk on top and a larger bed below. The sink is in the cabin with a separate ensuite shower and toilet. Real flush toilets, not marine heads. There is a large salon with sofas, dining room tables and a bar. Up top is a large sun deck with plenty or space in the shade for the SPF 45 crowd. The dive deck is spacious especially with a less than full load of divers and the camera table was adequate. Many of the crew including First Mate “CNN” are islanders and have been with the boat for quite some time. CNN is an accomplished musician and one evening he played the steel drums for us. We also enjoyed Capt. Simon, Hostess/Purser Andrina (two Brits) and divemaster Jeff (Canada). Chef Ryan kept us well fed. Peter Hughes Fleet consulting chef Walter Tanner was on board working with Ryan the week we were there. Our group can be pretty boisterous and the crew was good natured about putting up with us. All diving is from one of two tenders, actual small boats, not inflatables. Most dives last about 50 minutes though divemasters did give us more time once they realized we knew what we were doing and weren’t air hogs. Dive briefings were accompanied by a rough diagram of the site and were thorough. Dives were guided but you did not have to stay with the divemaster if you didn’t want to. We found it easier just to do so. Almost all safety stops were done drifting in the blue so it helps if you are comfortable maintaining proper depth without the aid of a line or hang bar. Each diver is issued a safety sausage and a reel. Divemasters would deploy the sausage during the safety stop so that the tender could find the group more easily. Divers separated from the group were advised to do likewise while doing their own safety stops. For the most part diving was pretty easy though we did have a couple of dives with current. On one dive the current seemed to switch direction frequently and at one point divers only a few yards apart were subject either to updrafts or downdrafts. Washing machine diving. We did not see a lot of large fish, mostly the usual tropicals. We did see a few turtles. Several sites had an abundance of reef butterfly fish which I had never seen before in all my Caribbean dives. Because there were quite a few smooth trunkfish we spent some time searching for juveniles. We were rewarded with several sightings of these tiny fish looking for all the world like light-spotted black marbles. At one site several divers saw a black brotula which is pretty rare I guess. The presence of these fish in this area has been mentioned recently in article in one of the major dive magazines. We particularly enjoyed the night dive on a shallow wreck festooned with orange cup corals, arrow crabs, decorator crabs and slipper lobsters. On Friday we dove the wreck of the Bianca C which burned and sank off Grenada a number of years ago. It reminded me of Lake Michigan wreck diving, but at least no one was freezing their rear off this time. The wreck has deteriorated quite a bit and other than some jacks swarming around the foremast there really wasn’t a whole lot to see. All in all, we had an enjoyable week.
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	501-1000 dives
Where else diving	Galapagos, Hawaii, Turks, Dominica, Belize, Cozumel, Bahamas, Los Roques, Utila, Bonaire, Little Cayman, Cayman Brac, Saba, Statia, St. Kitts
Closest Airport		Getting There
Dive Conditions
Weather	sunny, rainy	Seas	surge, currents
Water Temp	80-80°F / 27-27°C	Wetsuit Thickness	3
Water Visibility	40-75 Ft/ 12-23 M
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	yes
Enforced diving restrictions	Nitrox limits, dive time usually 50 minutes
Liveaboard?	yes	Nitrox Available?	N/A
What I Saw
Sharks	None	Mantas	None
Dolphins	None	Whale Sharks	None
Turtles	> 2	Whales	None
Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):
Corals		Tropical Fish
Small Critters		Large Fish	N/A
Large Pelagics	N/A
Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Subject Matter		Boat Facilities
Overall rating for UWP's		Shore Facilities	N/A
UW Photo Comments	Roomy camera table. Charging was done in the salon with facilities somewhat crowded.

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Dive Review of Peter Hughes Wind Dancer in Grenada

Peter Hughes Wind Dancer, Nov, 2008,

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

Overall Rating

Reporter and Travel

Dive Conditions

Dive Policy

What I Saw

Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):

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

Dive Review of Peter Hughes Wind Dancer in
Grenada