The Avalon is a beautiful boat, but it is not set up for divers. There is no shower on the dive deck and limited space to hang wetsuits. The was a two tiered camera table and a camera rinse tank. None of the group respected the rules surrounding those camera facilities. People threw in masks, etc, into the camera tank. They threw anything and everything on the camera table. By the end of the first day, I took my camera off there and took it to my room to keep it safe. Finally I convinced one of the DMs to put aside a small container of fresh water for my camera for when I got off the boat. Food was decent, except that it was almost all fish, chicken and meat and a potato dish. There were hardly any green vegetables. Fruit was served with every meal.
The diving: It was all about the sharks: silky and gray reef. Yes they feed them and they come around a LOT. Temp was 81F. I wore a full lavacore with a lavocore hooded vest and covered all that with a 1.5 mm. I was very cold, but that is another topic for another forum... Had it not been for the sharks, I would have been extremely disappointed for this reason: the lionfish were huge and numerous on every dive. There were very few fish, other than grouper and snapper, and algae was forming all over the reef. They are fishing the lionfish, but only halfheartedly.
This trip took me three days down and three days back and I can think of lots of places I can go for that amount of time and money invested. The reefs represented by Anderson Cooper were not an honest representation of the area; there must have been a lot of footage and a lot of editing. There are several other negative things I could say about the operation, but to be fair, I think they are doing the best with what they have and the people they are working with. They allow smoking in the common areas and don't seem to enforce any rules about no drinking and diving. The group on the boat with me were smokers and heavy drinkers and frequently hit the bar before diving. The crew looked the other way.
The Tortuga is a floating hotel which is a bit more downscale from the Avalon and is less expensive. Diving from the Tortuga and the Avalon is from smaller boats where you gear up on the boat and back roll off.
I'm glad I was able to get so up close and personal with the sharks, but I wouldn't make a second trip. Feel free to ask me any questions. And no they didn't stamp my passport.
I will follow up with some pics later.
Edited by TCdamsel, 18 December 2012 - 06:16 AM.
