Trip Report: Nekton Pilot, Belize

After a red-eye flight to connect with the morning flight from Houston to
Belize, we were exhausted upon arrival in Belize City. The second leg of
the trip was a misery for me. After suffering through a nasty flu a week
before, I was left with a lingering sinus congestion. I didn't have any
problems with the red-eye, but I got vertigo so bad on take-off on the leg
to Belize that I ended up filling two barf bags and never felt "right" until
the next morning.

Our bags all made it, though, and the Nekton representative sent to meet our
flight turned out to be Brad, our DM when we dove Fajardo, PR last year. As
we had a half day to kill before the Pilot would let us aboard, we had
booked a day room at the Princess Hotel through the Nekton office. The
hotel didn't have our reservation, but they did have a room for us at only
$4 more than the Nekton quoted rate. Had that not been the case, I would
have been a bit angry since we really needed a nap. So after forcing down a
shrimp cocktail and grilled grouper along with a Belikin Premium over the
nauseous protest of my weakened stomach, we crashed on the bouncy mattresses
of our day room.

The Nekton's pretrip briefing had warned us to eat dinner before boarding,
specifically recommending the hotel's BBQ buffet at a special Nekton rate of
only $10 a person. Though we weren't too hungry after our pre-nap lunch, we
decided to check it out to ward off later hunger pangs that couldn't be
sated. For some reason, however, the hotel had closed the buffet for
dinner. Another
strike against Nekton's pretrip planning. That left the seaside open-air
Calypso restaurant where we had lunch, but we weren't in the mood for the
same, rather limited menu, and opted to go without.

Our luggage had already been transferred to the boat by the Nekton people,
to be waiting in our room when we arrived at the boat. The van arrived at
the appointed time to take us and our carryons and another eight divers that
were also at the Princess over to the port. On-route we made a stop at a
supermarket for a liquor and soda run, as the Pilot doesn't provide any
booze or carbonated beverages. This works out great for carbonation-free
non-drinkers and is probably a better deal for most drinkers as well. The
boat provided a large ice chest kept well-stocked with ice for guests to use
during the week and it worked out just fine, though I found that I probably
bought more booze (and Janna definitely bought more sodas) than we'd need
during the trip "just in case". On the last night I had to drink all the
rest of the booze and we ended up donating the leftover sodas to the crew.

The Pilot did provide plenty of non-carbonated choices, including pineapple
juice, lime juice, grape juice, two different fruit punches, Crystal Light,
and a barely honey-sweetened freshly made iced tea that packed a wallop of
caffeine for tired divers. Plus they usually had fresh pots of decaf and
caf and an assortment of tea bags for the Canuck tea drinkers aboard. The
hot water tap was broken, so tea drinkers had to heat their water with the
coffee machine. I heard a few grumbles about that, but Canucks tend to be a
polite bunch and didn't grumble too loudly. The fruit punch was a great
mixer for the One Barrel rum and the decaf made for a great
nightcap with the Sangsters rum cream that we bought at the market along
with some drinkable Chilean wine and not enough Belikin
Premiums.

As the guests arrived, we were shown our cabins, then assembled for a boat
briefing. The cabins were very large by liveaboard standards and we lucked
out by getting a corner room, with big windows on two of the walls. The
room showed the boat's age (12 years) by being a bit worn cosmetically, but
the
bathroom offered a shower with decent water pressure and usually-hot water
and a "head" with a real toilet seat and an easy push button flusher. No
sewage problems developed during the week. The sink was outside the
bathroom, with a shelf and a couple little drawers for toiletries. Under
the bed was plenty of space for storing our bags, and there were cubbyholes
and a small clothes rack for our clothing and other stuff. The bed itself
was a remarkably comfortable queen-sized mattress with two decent pillows
for each of us. Best of all, the A/C system easily kept the room
comfortable without blowing cold air directly on us as some often do,
eliminating the nasal congestion I've suffered on previous land and boat
trips in the tropics.

The salon was very spacious, with lots of booth seating by the bigscreen TV,
plus enough booth and chair seating at the tables to enable 32 passengers to
dine. Fortunately we only had 19 on our trip. Both repeated guests and the
crew agreed that a full boat could make the trip much less comfortable, but
the boat handled 19 with ease. Our fellow guests included two Canadian
couples, lots of sutherners (N. and S. Carolinas, Atlanta, Tennessee), a
couple from Detroit, a couple from Delaware, and a father and son from
Vegas. No one was too incompetent, no one too obnoxious, and the only drunk
aboard was me, so the trip ran quite smoothly and by the end of the trip
most everyone was quite sociable. We even had a Catholic priest aboard who
used the F word twice while talking to me (not directed at me,
of course). Besides the priest, naturally some of the other sutherners were
of the religious bent, mentioning previous missionary trips and wearing
missionary T-shirts, but they didn't bother me and I didn't bother them. In
any case, God blessed us with clear weather, avoiding any rain until the
last night when we were safely in port and trying to dry our gear on the sun
deck, but Satan cursed us with winds strong enough to keep us stuck on the
west side of Lighthouse Atoll, not able to make it out to Half Moon Caye for
the promised shore excursion to look at red (footed) boobies.

Meals were all buffet style. Breakfasts were the usual continental fare of
yogurt, fruit (including some excellent papaya), and breads, plus a hot
cereal (watery oatmeal or cream of wheat) and a hot entree or two: scrambled
eggs and bacon, sausage and scrambled eggs topped with cheese, bacon bit
laden hashbrowns topped with eggs, pancakes and sausage, waffles and bacon.
I tend to avoid breakfast meats and pancakes and waffles and prefer to have
eggs every day when aboard since I rarely eat them at home, but I managed to
fill myself with the watery oatmeal and lots of fruit and yogurt on the
eggless days. Still, I prefer the breakfasts made to order that other
liveaboards offer.

Between dives, we were served excellent cookies straight from the oven.
Lunches always included very tasty soup, usually incorporating something
leftover from the night before, with lunch entrees including cheeseburgers
and hotdogs and chili, tacos (ground beef and chicken), chicken & pork stew,
grilled chicken salads,
penne with sausage marinara, and sub sandwiches. Savory snacks served at
4 p.m. including mini fried bean burritos, nachos, and conch fritters. And
dinners were grouper fillets and rice, shrimp and pasta with marinara or
alfredo sauce, a traditional turkey dinner with sweet and mashed potatoes,
chicken fajitas, BBQ chicken and ribs with potatoes au gratin and coleslaw,
pork roast, and prime rib and baked potatoes. The food was usually of good
quality and always
of excellent flavor.

The pontoons that the odd-shaped Nekton rides upon definitely seem to
stabilize the boat, though it's hard to judge just how much without
something to compare it to. When there were mild swells at Turneffe, one
could definitely feel the boat moving a bit, and it rocked moderately
during the crossings at night. Reportedly plenty of people, both passengers
and crew, got seasick a couple weeks before our trip. Still, I'd guess that
it was a bit
easier to climb up the Nekton ladder at the end of the dive than on the
Aggressor or the Dancer that were moored nearby for most of the trip.

With the exception of the last day of diving, a couple anticlimactic sites
at Turneffe Atoll, all our diving took place on the southwest wall of
Lighthouse Atoll, off Long Caye. Therefore, while the diving was pretty,
the sites didn't seem to vary much: a steep wall up to a crest around 30-50
feet where the coral and fish life would tend to be the best, with scattered
coral heads on top of the reef as shallow as 15' or so where the boat was
moored. The coral and sponges were very healthy and the fish life adequate,
but it would have been nice to dive a different area for a change of
terrain.

Summary of fishies: hordes of creole wrasse
tumbling over the crest of the wall, plenty of queen angels and a few french
and greys, scattered pairs of four-eye and banded butterflies, video shy
oceanic triggers, squirrel fish galore, jawfish in the sand. A couple
scorpionfish, a few
porcupinefish and balloonfish, and lots of juvie wrasses and angles in the
shallows plus the usual assortment of stoplight parrots, fairy and blackcap
basslets, and several shades of damselfish and surgeonfish and tangs.
I only spotted one spotted eagle ray, but lots of spotted morays
(including a cute juvie on a night dive), and a huge green feller reclining
in a large nook of the wall. We managed to see several adult and one baby
hawksbill, plus the biggest turtle I've ever seen: a prehistoric looking
loggerhead that was at least seven feet from head to toe. Janna saw a nurse
shark at night, but I missed it. Quite a few lobster about, including a
few spanish langostas on the night dives. Tarpon would start hanging around
in large numbers by mid afternoon, and under the boat we were constantly
treated to dense schools of chubs and horseeye jacks and snappers and often
a great barracuda lurking about.

The water started out real clear, 80+, but the wind picked up and the viz
dropped as the week progressed down to a low of 30-50 feet. Water temps
were 79-80. Swells were mild until we got to Turneffe and current was light
on the surface, practically nil at depth. Only five of us dove nitrox,
for which they charged a pricey $200 for the week. Fills were constantly at
32.5% +/- 0.5%. The tanks were steel 95s, which they'd sometimes pump up as
high as 2,800, which allowed for nice long dives even when we spent
significant time at 90-100+ feet.

Camera facilities were a bit sparse: two
camera tables, but their space was limited by some junk strewn about. No
charging station, but we were told to use one of the salon or cabin
outlets - that's fine, even though I've been told on other boats not to
charge in the cabin in case a fire should start, but the room attendant
would cover up my chargers and batteries with the comforter when she made
the beds during the morning dives and they got a bit warm. There was only
one camera "bucket" so it wasn't fair to fellow photogs to soak one's
housing for too long. There were nice computer facilities for digital pic
transfers, however, plus several TVs and monitors for viewing pics and
video. I
finally got enough experience with my new video setup to be able to make
some decent footage - all Memorial Day Dive with Greg participants can now
count on getting a DVD of the experience as I've decided to bring my camera
to Florida.

Crew was very friendly, much more sociable than I've encountered on other
liveaboards, and they put together a hilarious DVD with all sorts of antics.
Plus they ran nightly educational powerpoint presentations on various
subjects:
corals, tunicates, turtles, fish ID. The dive deck was structured so the
nitrox tanks were on one side of the boat, giving us five almost unlimited
room to gear up in comfort. Unfortunately the wetsuits were hung up on the
sun deck. They dried nicely up there and it was easy enough to suit up and
walk downstairs, but a pain in the butt having to walk up two flights of
stairs after a dive to hang up a wetsuit, then walk back down two flights
for a wetsuit-free deck showering. Entries were done via a long stride off
the side gates or a short step off the platform that was lowered almost to
sea level and made climbing back aboard and retrieving and handing back up
one's camera quite easy.

We managed to squeeze in 26 dives, including 4 at
night, visiting Silver Caves, Tres Cocos, Aquarium, Long Caye Ridge, Long
Caye Wall, Painted Wall, Que Brada, and Cathedral, plus the "wreck" of the
Sayonara and Coral Gardens on Turneffe Atoll. And Janna finally took her
advanced course. I thought the five required "adventure" dives and the
several pages of reading about each subject to be quite a joke - after 150
dives she didn't learn much from the course, but she at least has the card
now and can progress on to something more meaningful like rescue.

Overall we definitely enjoyed the trip, though I did find the diving getting
kind of monotonous after we were basically diving the same site over and
over. I enjoyed the dive-on-your-own aspect and the facilities
were more than adequate and gave us nothing major to complain about. Still,
I'd be leery of potentially encountering a full boat. The week after
our trip they were scheduled to have 31 aboard. It's going to give me a bit
of pause if I consider doing the Cayman itinerary, now that the Nekton
Rorqual is running there. It's priced at only $50 less than the Aggressor,
but ends up costing $50 more when nitrox is factored in. I'll wait for the
reports.