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Dive Review of Juliet Sailing and Diving in
Puerto Rico/Mona Island, Monita, Desecheo.

Juliet Sailing and Diving: "High adventure at this destination.", Dec, 2022,

by Mary Adams, FL, US (Sr. Contributor Sr. Contributor 27 reports with 9 Helpful votes). Report 12309.

No photos available at this time

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

Accommodations 4 stars Food 5 stars
Service and Attitude 3 stars Environmental Sensitivity N/A
Dive Operation 3 stars Shore Diving N/A
Snorkeling N/A
Value for $$ 4 stars
Beginners 1 stars
Advanced 4 stars
Comments There are several Undercurrent reviews of Juliet in Bimini. This review is for the autumn 2022 Mona Island, PR, cruise. The good: Food was fantastic! Juliet is a beautiful sailing vessel. She sails from Miami to Bimini during the summer and sails USVI in the winter, with a week or 2 at Mona Island, PR, during fall and spring repositioning. Juliet has a single hull and is tippier than the double-hull liveaboards I have experienced. The dive deck is steeply arched, so moving around the deck feels treacherous. There were a couple of falls with not-serious injuries. The cabins were typical for a scuba liveaboard. There is one en-suite cabin and 8 cabins with a shared toilet & shower. Charging is allowed in cabins. Juliet has 2 escape hatches from the lower deck, besides the main stairway to the galley. Your gear station includes a wooden box for mask, boots & fins, and accessories. There are no camera tables. There is one big trash can of fresh water for cameras. There is a spray garden hose for fresh-water rinse on deck, nicely warm. There are no wetsuit hangers; wetsuits are draped over the rail and held on with clamps. There is one shaded picnic table on the deck.
Juliet does 4 dives a day - 2 morning, one late afternoon, and one night dive. All gas is 30% nitrox. Briefings are announced about 15-30 minutes before giant stride. Mona Island profiles are strictly controlled. After about 30 minutes, the DM asks for your air, and if you have 1200 psi or less, you must ascend with the first group. If you have more than 1200 psi, you can ascend with the second group. Juliet’s ladder is terrifying. There is a tag line, but it is too short for more than about 5 divers, and it is in contact with Juliet’s huge heaving hull. You remove your fins and put them on your wrists to climb the ladder. The ladder is more of a staircase with short risers, making it easier to climb than most boat ladders. At the top of the staircase, a crew member holds your tank, walks you to your seat, and secures your tank. During this Mona Island week, there were only 4 crew members, including Captain Liza, Chef Genoa, and DMs Lindsey and Catherine. The boat was understaffed, and the crew was overworked, but I did not hear of any consequences.
Mona Island seems to have only a few dive sites which we repeated. The wind was steady from the north all week, so we dived John’s Playground on Monita; Cul de Sac, Aquarium, and Southern Pride on Mona; and Candyland on Desecheo more than once, which was fine with me.
I did REEF fish-ID surveys on about 15 of the 20 dives. My impression of fish populations is that some fish that should have been present in big schools, especially snappers and grunts, were missing entirely. I saw small numbers of parrotfishes, jacks, and groupers. The hard corals were long dead, and their skeletons were covered with seaweed. I saw a few remaining green corals with white-band coral disease. Soft corals and gorgonians were present; I don’t know how healthy they were. Visibility ranged from less-than-50 feet to more-than-100 feet.
Websites Juliet Sailing and Diving   

Reporter and Travel

Dive Experience 501-1000 dives
Where else diving Cuba, Bonaire, Cozumel, Florida Keys, Clearwater FL, Bimini, Saba-St. Eustatius, Roatan, Kona, North Carolina, Flower Garden Banks, Caymans, Palau, Chuuk, Jupiter Florida, Belize, Costa Rica, Turks and Caicos, Revillagigedo, St. Lucia, Solomon Islands, Fiji,
Closest Airport Mayaguez. Getting There Miami to San Juan, drive to Mayaguez. Very easy for us.

Dive Conditions

Weather sunny, windy Seas choppy, surge, no currents
Water Temp 79-81°F / 26-27°C Wetsuit Thickness 3
Water Visibility 25-100 Ft/ 8-30 M

Dive Policy

Dive own profile no
Enforced diving restrictions Stay with group, ascend with 1200 psi.
Liveaboard? yes Nitrox Available? yes

What I Saw

Sharks 1 or 2 Mantas None
Dolphins 1 or 2 Whale Sharks None
Turtles 1 or 2 Whales None
Corals 3 stars Tropical Fish 1 stars
Small Critters 2 stars Large Fish 1 stars
Large Pelagics 1 stars

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

Subject Matter 2 stars Boat Facilities 2 stars
Overall rating for UWP's 2 stars Shore Facilities N/A
UW Photo Comments There is one big fresh water camera bucket, no camera table, no compressed air, no cloths. The big-rig photographers managed. I photograph for fish-ID only, so I carry a GoPro without tray or lights.
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Note: The information here was reported by the author above, but has NOT been reviewed nor edited by Undercurrent prior to posting on our website. Please report any major problems by writing to us and referencing the report number above.

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