Grenada Singles Week

Well, today after the dives, we got treated to an amazing 1/4 moon.

Well I saw the full moon during the safety stop on wednesday's first afternoon dive!!

I'm not naming any names!
(and no, these weren't pulled down for this shot.)

Please!!!

Just say NO to crack!!!

Edited by Mermaid Lady, 17 June 2007 - 10:39 PM.

Well, I just tried to post the video of "MOOSE GONE WILD", but I guess it's too big. (It needs to be to contain a Moose!)

I'll post these videos to my personal website and put some links to them here. (unless Der Commish (aka WW) gives me space to post them here.)

As for some of the videos, they include...

Mark and me doing synchronized flips off the one dive boat
My “Moose Moon” of the “other” boat
DM Paul and me doing the synchronized handstand/dives from the top of the other boat
Video of the “killer lobster” that chased me during the night beach dive
I’m sure my pole dance on the boat, while wearing fins, will get up there at some point as well

Now, if this list of videos doesn’t make you want to attend the next SD trip, NOTHING will!

BTW, for those that want it, here are the lyrics to the song I was singing out the bus coming back from Fish Fry Friday…

I like traffic lights
I like traffic lights
I like traffic lights, that is what I said
I like traffic lights
I like traffic lights
I like traffic lights, but not when they are red
He likes traffic lights
He likes traffic lights
He likes traffic lights, that is what he said
He likes traffic lights
He likes traffic lights
He likes traffic lights, but not when they are red
I like traffic lights
I like traffic lights
I like traffic lights, that is what I’ve seen
I like traffic lights
I like traffic lights
I like traffic lights, but only when they are green
He likes traffic lights
He likes traffic lights
He likes traffic lights, that is what he’s seen
He likes traffic lights
He likes traffic lights
He likes traffic lights, but only when they are green
I like traffic lights
I like traffic lights
I like traffic lights, although my name is not Vamber…
You get the idea!

Well, I just tried to post the video of "MOOSE GONE WILD", but I guess it's too big. (It needs to be to contain a Moose!)

I'll post these videos to my personal website and put some links to them here. (unless Der Commish (aka WW) gives me space to post them here.)

As for some of the videos, they include...

Mark and me doing synchronized flips off the one dive boat
My “Moose Moon” of the “other” boat
DM Paul and me doing the synchronized handstand/dives from the top of the other boat
Video of the “killer lobster” that chased me during the night beach dive
I’m sure my pole dance on the boat, while wearing fins, will get up there at some point as well

Now, if this list of videos doesn’t make you want to attend the next SD trip, NOTHING will!

BTW, for those that want it, here are the lyrics to the song I was singing out the bus coming back from Fish Fry Friday…

I like traffic lights
I like traffic lights
I like traffic lights, that is what I said
I like traffic lights
I like traffic lights
I like traffic lights, but not when they are red
He likes traffic lights
He likes traffic lights
He likes traffic lights, that is what he said
He likes traffic lights
He likes traffic lights
He likes traffic lights, but not when they are red
I like traffic lights
I like traffic lights
I like traffic lights, that is what I’ve seen
I like traffic lights
I like traffic lights
I like traffic lights, but only when they are green
He likes traffic lights
He likes traffic lights
He likes traffic lights, that is what he’s seen
He likes traffic lights
He likes traffic lights
He likes traffic lights, but only when they are green
I like traffic lights
I like traffic lights
I like traffic lights, although my name is not Vamber…
You get the idea!

I think we all appreciate traffic lights a little bit more after experiencing what life would be like without them! I did not see a single traffic light or stop sign the entire trip. Just getting from location A to B was an adventure in itself. Fortunately our driver, Keith, was very skilled at negotiating those roundabouts, and intersections.

scratch the thread and replace with post

Working on it.....

First, I wanted to thank Kamala, Kim and Sandy (Did I miss anyone?) for organizing / running a great trip. "Herding kittens" is a great analogy and they did a stellar job. Also, thanks to everyone who attended the Grenada Singles week. It was a blast!

I had a flight delay out of Boston and got into Bangor a few hours late. As a result I was in bed by 3AM this morning and had to get up at 6:30 for work. So only three solid hours of sack time...

Trip Highlights included:

- Phenomenal management / staff at Aquanauts - Grenada.
- Multiple Green and Spotted moray sightings.
- Manta sighting on a night dive!
- Great beach BBQ and dinner out in St. Georges.
- Aero crabs. Tiny little critters, but incredible and varied colours.
- Hard and soft corals galore.
- Three dives on the Bianca C
- Many more wrecks (Shakem, Veronica, Buccaneer, 1/4 and 3/4).
- Reefs galore (Windmill shallows, Black Forest, Purple Rain, Shark Reef + more.)
- Completed the SDI Solo Diver course.
- Excellent company après dive with some very funny and interesting people..., plus Moose.

I got in 25 dives in 8 days and had the privilege to buddy up with a lot of you fine folks. I learned a LOT from everyone concerning gear, technique and procedures. I will be making some gear changes to simplify my current set-up. There are some truly talented divers out there who make excellent role models in the Diving Art. I am very happy with the quality of the trip and plan on signing up for the next one soon.

I didn't touch a keyboard all last week so I am just catching up on the threads. If you took any trip pictures please feel free to send them to me. If you need my email, just PM me and I will be happy to send you whatever ones I took. I am after a few shots of the giant green morays as I only spotted the huge ones when I did not have my camera (Of course). If you already gave me your email, but do not hear from me by Friday then drop me a line please.

Kamala - On Sunday morning the scheduled hotel transport did not show up and we had to call a taxi to get to the airport. The cost was $25 US dollars for the six of us which I paid for. I understood the transfers were included(?). I sent in my rebate form for the trip refund for $25 and also a credit card form for the Grenadines trip for $55 + 3%. Can you take the money for the rebate, taxi and canceled Grenadines trip ($106.65 total) and donate it to the Grenada Orphanage please. It is truly a worthy cause and I have no problems supporting it. I was not sure if I could include my "Tacky Tourist" prize as well. If I can, please include it in the total above. The kids need it a lot more than I do...

I will be doing some research into getting some camping gear for the orphanage through my various outdoor clubs and will try to get back to you when I have any news. Please keep me in the loop for shipping and import info as I suspect it will not take long to gather materials for them.

Safe diving...

Great trip & depression has set in as I am home in Texas on a rainy day now.

WW put together a great trip & everything ran smoothly. What a great "special short bus" group we had!

Moose, my eyes are still blind from seeing the "Dark Side Of The Moose"!


Tom

Thank you Tom...but in some respects I had the easy part...plan, venture out and advertise...however Fingrabber, ScubaPunk, ScubaShafer, DiveZac and Platypus man and others both on the trip and behind the scenes had a much tougher task...they filled in all the gaps and like glue made this trip seamless whether teaching, DM'ing, organizing Happy Hours or just doing whatever needed to be done so the trip would run smoothly...they are the unsung heros!

To execute a trip of this magnitude given it was the first time for everyone...takes a huge leap of faith to see a vision and then strive for it. I could not have pulled this off if it weren't for the countless hours that our volunteers gave us but especially Kim aka Fingrabber gave to help us let the resort know what you all wanted, were signed up for and ultimately paid for. And she was spot on getting all the single rooms worked out, rooming arrangements done and diving set up.

Please give her an extra special for all she did and your

I don't know what I was expecting about this trip, but I was not expecting it to be so beautiful. From the bottom of the ocean to the top of the waterfalls, Grenada is gorgeous. If Kamala offers this trip next year, and you have an opportunity to see this place, take it! You won't be disappointed. I'm not very good at trip reports, so I don't really know where to start, but here goes:

True Blue Bay - Like the rest of Grenada, True Blue is a beautiful resort set around the bay. The views from the Dodgy Dock resturant were great. Have many pics of this. The food was very good and the wait staff were very friendly and accommodating. The resort was very hilly, like the rest of Grenada, and so there was a lot of walking up hills and steps, which I didn't mind at all, I need the exercise, and two swimming pools. Kudos to Jerry who had the guts to pick up a fully dressed up Wreck Wench and dump her in the infinity pool! (Too bad she was holding your camera at the time!) The entire resort staff were great. I've never been to a resort or hotel where the entire staff at the front desk knew my name by the end of the second day, and always acted like they were pleased to see you (even if they were faking it, it was nice!). I was in the Bay View rooms, and as the name implies, the view of the bay was incredible. The rooms were very nice, and had kitchens in them. Once again the SD staff set me up with two great roommates, Katatrina, and Caroline Divine. Thanks ladies, hope to see you on another trip soon.

SD People - First off, I would like to thank the world's most awesome dive buddy, Capt. Morgan, for being a great buddy above and below the water. I met Capt in Roatan last year, but this was the first time we had a chance to dive together. This is my fourth SD trip, and so I am starting to see some members on trips that I have been on trips with before. I already knew about half the people on this trip, and it was so great to see them again. But what is equally cool, is that I now know about 15 more people that are just as great! We are an extremely eclectic group, to say the least, but somehow we fit together like pieces of a puzzle. I have never been so depressed about ending a vacation in my entire life, it was so sad saying goodbye to everyone. I wish you all lived in Houston! We've made some great memories, and will most definitely make many more.

Aquanauts - I can't say enough about this dive op. They satisfied one of my most important requirements, which is, they let us have nice long dives. They were very professional, and safety conscious, and best of all, Fun! Paul, Charlene, and Kenny were on the "Reef" boat (which also dived the wrecks), and they were all equally wonderful. Kenny was a great help on the boat with equipment, and Charlene and Paul were great at finding stuff underwater to show us. For the first time, I saw a seahorse, and there were several of them! They kept the atmosphere light and relaxing, we were not rushed at all. They made me feel like their entire week was dedicated to making us happy, and they joined us on their off time for dinners and a happy hour. From what I heard from the members on the wreck boat, they were also very happy with their dive staff.

The Diving - I thought the diving was great. The vis was pretty good most of the time. I am embarrassed to say that I am completely inadequate at sea life identification, so I'll leave it to others to tell you what we actually saw. What I do know is that I saw lots of eels, some sea horses, a very few angels, one frog fish, tons of squid, and some naked ladies!

Day Trips - Although diving is my number one priority, Grenada has much more to offer. The SD staff had some suggested tours outlined for those who wanted to see the sights, and many of us did. My first outing was a tour to the Rum Distillery, with about 8 of my closest friends! Our guide took us through the very interesting process of making rum, from smashing the sugar cane with the ancient water wheel, and the fermenting process, all of which seemed to be very umm, how shall I say... disgusting! I'm sure this process would never fly with the FDA. The end result is a very potentially deadly concoction that is not allowed on airplanes because of it's explosive properties. So we all had a shot at the end of the tour, and some of us bought a fifth of the less toxic blend, which is just legal enough for air flight.

The spice market is a good place to get a real feel for the local culture. In a big square in the middle of town the local venders gather to sell fresh fruit and vegetables, and of course spices. It is a good place to go to pick up some souvenirs, and the venders are more than willing to negotiate the prices. The vendors are a bit aggressive, so you just sort of get what you want, and leave.

One of the highlights of my trip was the trip to the Seven Sisters waterfalls with Debbie, Mark and Kelly. Keith our driver let us out at the bottom of the trail and pointed in the direction we should hike, so off we went. We were soon joined by Super Butterfly, who became our guide. SB was a very good guide, sharing information with us about the plant life on the way, and always on the lookout for the elusive Mona Monkey, which sadly to say, we never did see. The falls were absolutely beautiful, and worth every step to get up there to see them. On another trip a group of us visited the Concord Falls, which were very nice, and you could drive all the way to them so no hiking required, but the Seven Sisters were much nicer and worth the effort.

Fish Friday takes place every week in the town of Gouve (not sure about the spelling), where local venders set up booths down a couple of streets and sell fish prepared in a thousand different ways. You just stroll down the streets until you see something that looks good. I found one booth that was selling tuna cabobs. It was the only booth where I saw fish that was not fried, and they were outstanding! This is where we met Sue, the Peace Corps volunteer who told me about Father Mallaghan's Home for boys. Father Mallaghan's Home for boys is where we took the school supplies.

Father Mallaghan's needs a thread all it's own, so I'll save that for later.

There is so much more to tell about this trip, hopefully the pics will fill in the gaps. Congratulations Stan for winning the Tacky Tourist contest. There were some great runner ups, TravelGal, Orcaman, Capt Morgan, etc.

Thank you Orcaman for being our videographer. I can't wait to see it. I will get my pics to you ASAP. I can't tell you how grateful I am that you provide this service, so that I can just enjoy my trip without trying to capture every thing on my own camera.

Thank you WreckWench and Fingrabber, for all your hard work. You have outdone yourself, this trip was a great adventure!

P.S. I already miss you all so much.

Edited by ScubaPunk, 18 June 2007 - 10:39 AM.

Kamala - On Sunday morning the scheduled hotel transport did not show up and we had to call a taxi to get to the airport. The cost was $25 US dollars for the six of us which I paid for. I understood the transfers were included(?). I sent in my rebate form for the trip refund for $25 and also a credit card form for the Grenadines trip for $55 + 3%. Can you take the money for the rebate, taxi and canceled Grenadines trip ($106.65 total) and donate it to the Grenada Orphanage please. It is truly a worthy cause and I have no problems supporting it. I was not sure if I could include my "Tacky Tourist" prize as well. If I can, please include it in the total above. The kids need it a lot more than I do...

I will be doing some research into getting some camping gear for the orphanage through my various outdoor clubs and will try to get back to you when I have any news. Please keep me in the loop for shipping and import info as I suspect it will not take long to gather materials for them.

Safe diving...

I'll check into this. Who all was affected? I know you said 6 but please send me a list of names if you will.

As for donating to your rebate, Grenendines money and taxi far to the Boy's Home...I'd love too!

As Sandy said earlier...it will need a thread of its own to do it justice! kamala

p.s. WHAT A GREAT REPORT SANDY!!! You did AWESOME!!!

Well, I just tried to post the video of "MOOSE GONE WILD", but I guess it's too big. (It needs to be to contain a Moose!)

I'll post these videos to my personal website and put some links to them here. (unless Der Commish (aka WW) gives me space to post them here.)

Moose send them to Tolly and ask him to resize them so they will fit on the site. We'll be happy to post links to them once they are resized and published. Please send each one individually and label each so that Tolly knows which is which! and

I'll check into this. Who all was affected? I know you said 6 but please send me a list of names if you will.

Mark, Stan, Sandy, Pierre, Pam and myself. It was $25 US for the trip to the airport and I covered that.

Edited by shadragon, 18 June 2007 - 10:23 AM.

Kamala - On Sunday morning the scheduled hotel transport did not show up and we had to call a taxi to get to the airport. The cost was $25 US dollars for the six of us which I paid for. I understood the transfers were included(?). I sent in my rebate form for the trip refund for $25 and also a credit card form for the Grenadines trip for $55 + 3%. Can you take the money for the rebate, taxi and canceled Grenadines trip ($106.65 total) and donate it to the Grenada Orphanage please. It is truly a worthy cause and I have no problems supporting it. I was not sure if I could include my "Tacky Tourist" prize as well. If I can, please include it in the total above. The kids need it a lot more than I do...

I will be doing some research into getting some camping gear for the orphanage through my various outdoor clubs and will try to get back to you when I have any news. Please keep me in the loop for shipping and import info as I suspect it will not take long to gather materials for them.

Safe diving...

I'll check into this. Who all was affected? I know you said 6 but please send me a list of names if you will.

As for donating to your rebate, Grenendines money and taxi far to the Boy's Home...I'd love too!

As Sandy said earlier...it will need a thread of its own to do it justice! kamala

p.s. WHAT A GREAT REPORT SANDY!!! You did AWESOME!!!

The 6 people who were in the taxi were, Simon, Sandy, Pam, Mark, Pierre, and Stan. I believe the $25.00 covered all of us, which Simon took care of.

Great report, Sandy! You hit most of the stuff I was going to say.

Props to Platypus for being a great dive buddy, and letting me use a backup computer when mine died so I still got to see the Bianca C!

I ate more fish last week than I've eaten in a year!

On a personal note, I'd like to apologize to everyone for monopolyzing every conversation I was involved with. I tend to go on and on about every little thing, so forgive me please.

The rum factory was fun but GROSS! There could be all sorts of things in those open cement tanks, I guess the 75% alcolhol must kill everything!

I was the weak sister with regards to diving, only 11. But they were all outstanding, from the 81 degree water temp to the crew on the reef boat to all the people diving with us. Plus Moose was on the Wreck boat, so that was a dodged bullet. He was always looking at me kinda funny like.

Fish Friday was really cool, it only cost 3EC to go to the bathrrom, and they gave you a free beer to boot! Thanks, Zach!

Kamala was not fully dressed when she took her unintended dip in the pool. In my defense, it was a pre-emptive strike, and I went in with her too. Won't know about the damage to the camera until I get them developed.

Kamala and her compatriots did an excellent job with the trip, this was my second one and I plan on doing more.

Hope to see some of you all on a future trip!

Trip Update:

We have set up a photo gallery for ALL of your great pictures! Simply click on the link below or go to Gallery, then click on 2007 trips and then click on "Grenada Queen of the Spice Islands".

To post click on Image and you can add your pictures!

To see the gallery or load pictures click here!

I had a wonderful time in Grenada, and many thanks to Kamala (and others) for organizing this trip!!!





For anybody that has never used the “Rent A Buddy” program, I strongly recommend it, especially if you are new to diving like me. It was great having an experienced person there to hold my hand, and there were several times where they really did hold my hand when I got nervous and was very close to panicking.



Both Zach and Kamala were extremely patient with me before, during and after every dive. Even at their level of expertise, they still remembered and understood what someone like me was going thru. There is just so much to remember, and they were always reviewing with me what I did right and wrong on each dive. They never presented their feedback in a negative way, and they always found something positive to say, even when I felt like I didn’t do anything right.



I also appreciated the way everybody else supported and encouraged me!



Before this trip I had only 4 dives under my belt, and afterwards I am now up to 19. As a result of my positive experience in Grenada, I am now motivated to keep adding to that number. Plus I went from 17 minutes on my first dive, to 56 minutes on my last one and I even had air to spare!!!



Again, it was great meeting everybody, and I look forward to seeing y’all on another trip soon!!!



Beth AKA Beth

Props to Platypus for being a great dive buddy, and letting me use a backup computer when mine died so I still got to see the Bianca C!

Right back at you, Jerry! It's not often that I have a buddy who also takes the time to spot stuff for me to film.


Now I suppose that everyone is going to want a backup computer like mine, considering how many asked about it and how it worked.

PlatypusMan
....Sparky is still over in that corner in a fetal position..