Cobalt Coast Resort/Dive Tech Grand Cayman trip report

"Dan Bracuk" <NOTbracuk@pathcom.com> wrote in message
news:nqcai0dg3afl83esihiq6uajs359eabp3a@4ax.com...
> "Chris Guynn" <chris.guynn@sbcglobal.N.O.S.P.A.M.net> pounded away at
> his keyboard resulting in:
> :ummm... maybe... I'm not experienced enough to say yet. I need to work
on
> :fixing that.
>
> I'm not experienced enough to know if I consider Jamaica a paradise.
> That's because I've never been there.
>
> What's your reason?

I've not got enough experience outside of Jamaica to be able to properly
judge it's paradiceness (paradicity?).

>
> Dan Bracuk
> If at first you don't succeed, you run the risk of failure.
> The Best of rec.scuba http://www.pathcom.com/~bracuk/RecScuba/
>
>
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Greg Mossman wrote:


> At least the classroom (a meeting room at the PPR) was very air-conditioned.
> And we got free water and chocolate candies.

Free water! Now there's a perk. Were the chocolates the same ones they put on your
pillow? It's a nice touch, but I've had much better stuff in a wrapper that says
Hershey or Nestle.


> Nope. We used Neco Marine and it was actually more of a bus.

One of the conveniences of the PPR/Sam's pairing is just walking down to the dock in
the morning and getting a boat ride over to the shop. We sometimes rode a van back at
the end of the day, but it wasn't inconvenient.


We did visit
> Sam's, the one day it was raining the hardest I've ever seen it rain in my
> life (and I lived in Seattle over 5 years). The bus driver tried to fit the
> bus under the overhead and almost made it as we ran out in the drenching
> storm.

We didn't have any stormy weather, but we did have some very impressive rain a couple
of days. Fortunately, torrential rain doesn't really bother me much when I'm wearing
a polartec diveskin.


But we dove with Neco and the day before we got to go out of the
> lagoon to Blue Corner, watched a couple of Sam's boats make it through the
> cut without flipping. Our Neco guides were too cautious, however, so we
> stayed inside.

I think I'd be content with that strategy. It would suck to go to Palau and not dive
Blue Corner, especially on a first trip, but I could have done Big Dropoff every day
and been pretty happy. During bad weather it's probably rougher, but I'd have been
glad to go back to Ulong Channel again. Blue Corner was a great spot, of course, but
I wouldn't list any of the dives there as a singular highlight of the trip. The 20
seconds of being overflown by at least 20 Devil Rays was a special moment, though.


Had the Sam's boats actually dumped their boats, I would be
> filled with a little less remorse,

Without having been there I can't say how I'd really feel, but I'm usually willing to
trust the boat driver. OTOH, there were two boatingmishaps that we know of
immediately before and during our trip. Both involved boats being driven right into
one of the Rock Islands. Now, I'll concede that there *are* an awful lot of Rock
Islands. I mean they're all over the place. Still, they're pretty easy to see, mostly
stay right where they are, and virtually never suddenly jump sideways or pop up out
of the water. I'm a bit puzzled how two people managed to just drive right into the
in a short preriod of time. Only one of them was a dive boat, BTW. At least the guy
who was by himself had the excuse that while he was distracted there wasn't another
set of eyes to watch the islands. How a boat can have 6 or 8 divers in addition to
the driver and nobody see's it coming is a bit of a mystery.



> Nope. We stayed in the lagoon for the first three typhoon-ruined days,

Your timing obviously sucked. You'll certainly want to plan your next trip a bit
differently. I highly recommewnd a trip to Devilfish City, but that's because we had
a very good dive there. Our first dive was a bit ho-hum, and if the second had been a
repeat, I'd probably be saying not to waste your time. As a reef dive there are much
better choices, but for us it was a much better place for mantas than our dive at
German Channel. We saw 4 at German Channel, but only for a short time, and mostly
from 20 to 30 feet away. On our second dive at devilfish City we saw 4 mantas and 1
devil ray, and 3 of the mantas were only a couple of yards away. The first and
biggest (about 12 feet acros) put one wing about 2 feet over my head when it moved
off. During our SI a fishing boat came over and told us about all of the mantas that
were feeding about a mile away, so the boat relocated and almost everybody got to see
mantas 3 at a time, doing loops, etc. Devilfish City turned out to be the manta
experience that we didn't get while we were in Yap. I guess that on a trip with 5
diving days I'd stick to the certainty of the usual spots, but with a few more days
available I'd gamble on another tip to Devilfish City.


<snip account of long list of activities>

Sounds like a very busy time.


> Next time, which I'm hoping will be in 2006, I'll be a bit more relaxed and
> hopefully typhoon-free. I might not get to eat with the prez again, though,
> and it will certainly eat a bigger chunk out of my pocketbook.

Yeah, but it will be filled with the fun stuff that you decide to do, and perhaps
you'll have more time. Your travel will be about 6 hours shorter each way than mine,
but it's still a long enough trip that it makes a lot of sense to stay as long as
possible. I gather that the wholesale cost of our airfare was about $1800, so even
with a 3 week trip, almost $100/day of our vacation budget was spent just on getting
there.



--
Steve

The above can be construed as personal opinion in the absence of a reasonable
belief that it was intended as a statement of fact.

If you want a reply to reach me, remove the SPAMTRAP from the address.

"Steve" <SPAMTRAPglawackus@hvc.rr.com> wrote in message
news:sxrVc.98965$4h7.14650861@twister.nyc.rr.com.. .

> Free water! Now there's a perk. Were the chocolates the same ones they put
on your
> pillow? It's a nice touch, but I've had much better stuff in a wrapper
that says
> Hershey or Nestle.

They put chocolates on the pillow? No wonder my roommate was always in a
hurry to get back to the room before me.

> One of the conveniences of the PPR/Sam's pairing is just walking down to
the dock in
> the morning and getting a boat ride over to the shop. We sometimes rode a
van back at
> the end of the day, but it wasn't inconvenient.

We were supposed to be picked up by boat as well, but the weather wasn't
cooperating the first three days. This was during Typhoon Hagibis, after
all. On the fourth day, they said boat and we waited at the dock until
someone found out that the bus was waiting for us in the parking lot. Go
figure.

> We didn't have any stormy weather, but we did have some very impressive
rain a couple
> of days. Fortunately, torrential rain doesn't really bother me much when
I'm wearing
> a polartec diveskin.

Yeah, well the day we went to Sam's was our land-touring day. My polartec
was hanging on the line on the patio, drying out in the pouring rain.
Actually, when the sun finally did start shining, it dried up everything
real quick and I made sure to get my stuff back inside before the next
torrent.

When we were flying in, the plane had to circle for 10 minutes because it
was raining too hard to land. By the time we had touched down and were
heading down the stairs, the tarmac was bone dry, like a hot summer day
without the sun.

> I think I'd be content with that strategy. It would suck to go to Palau
and not dive
> Blue Corner, especially on a first trip, but I could have done Big Dropoff
every day
> and been pretty happy. During bad weather it's probably rougher, but I'd
have been
> glad to go back to Ulong Channel again. Blue Corner was a great spot, of
course, but
> I wouldn't list any of the dives there as a singular highlight of the
trip. The 20
> seconds of being overflown by at least 20 Devil Rays was a special moment,
though.

I still got my money's worth. Next time I'll be on a liveaboard, there
won't be a typhoon, and I'll get in plenty of dives.

> Without having been there I can't say how I'd really feel, but I'm usually
willing to
> trust the boat driver. OTOH, there were two boatingmishaps that we know of
> immediately before and during our trip. Both involved boats being driven
right into
> one of the Rock Islands. Now, I'll concede that there *are* an awful lot
of Rock
> Islands. I mean they're all over the place. Still, they're pretty easy to
see, mostly
> stay right where they are, and virtually never suddenly jump sideways or
pop up out
> of the water. I'm a bit puzzled how two people managed to just drive right
into the
> in a short preriod of time. Only one of them was a dive boat, BTW. At
least the guy
> who was by himself had the excuse that while he was distracted there
wasn't another
> set of eyes to watch the islands. How a boat can have 6 or 8 divers in
addition to
> the driver and nobody see's it coming is a bit of a mystery.

On the last day, the drivers showed off a bit, weaving us at high speed
through the rock islands, crisscrossing each other's path, and narrowly
missing each other as we went through a tunnel. They'd obviously
choreographed the show and we all cheered the entire way. So we did trust
our boat driver's skill, but admittedly grumbled a bit when we sat right
inside the cut to judge the conditions and then turned back as the two Sam's
boats kept going through. Of course we all secretly hoped that the Sam's
boats would capsize thereby justifying our driver's judgment. Instead, we
all ended up lunching at the same spot and we had to listen to our
Australian friends from the PPR gloat about their dive.

> Your timing obviously sucked. You'll certainly want to plan your next trip
a bit

My timing was May. The peak month for typhoons is November, exactly halfway
around the calendar. Obviously it was divine punishment. Next time it will
be a week on the Aggressor and then a couple days after at the PPR to regain
our sea legs. Mileage upgrade on Continental. All I need is the time. I
would love to go back to Yap again too, if only for half a week. Perhaps
that's in the cards.

> Sounds like a very busy time.

Yeah. It really was a "working trip", though I can't say it was all hard
work. I'd really love to start a dive travel business if I thought I could
make enough money at it.

"Chris Guynn" <chris.guynn@sbcglobal.N.O.S.P.A.M.net> pounded away at
his keyboard resulting in:
:I've not got enough experience outside of Jamaica to be able to properly
:judge it's paradiceness (paradicity?).

How does it compare to Texas?

Dan Bracuk
If at first you don't succeed, you run the risk of failure.
The Best of rec.scuba http://www.pathcom.com/~bracuk/RecScuba/


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"Dan Bracuk" <NOTbracuk@pathcom.com> wrote in message
news:0dtci05529qag2ia4d1bhmv0bu68i5losf@4ax.com...
> "Chris Guynn" <chris.guynn@sbcglobal.N.O.S.P.A.M.net> pounded away at
> his keyboard resulting in:
> :I've not got enough experience outside of Jamaica to be able to properly
> :judge it's paradiceness (paradicity?).
>
> How does it compare to Texas?

which part (of Texas)?

>
> Dan Bracuk
> If at first you don't succeed, you run the risk of failure.
> The Best of rec.scuba http://www.pathcom.com/~bracuk/RecScuba/
>
>
> -----= Posted via Newsfeeds.Com, Uncensored Usenet News =-----
> http://www.newsfeeds.com - The #1 Newsgroup Service in the World!
> -----== Over 100,000 Newsgroups - 19 Different Servers! =-----
>

"Chris Guynn" <chris.guynn@sbcglobal.N.O.S.P.A.M.net> pounded away at
his keyboard resulting in:
:which part (of Texas)?

The nicest part.

Dan Bracuk
If at first you don't succeed, you run the risk of failure.
The Best of rec.scuba http://www.pathcom.com/~bracuk/RecScuba/


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"Dan Bracuk" <NOTbracuk@pathcom.com> wrote in message
news:ecqki01gqv1jqolfl1u2q3rfl37rvv6cpj@4ax.com...
> "Chris Guynn" <chris.guynn@sbcglobal.N.O.S.P.A.M.net> pounded away at
> his keyboard resulting in:
> :which part (of Texas)?
>
> The nicest part.

The airport?

"Greg Mossman" <mossman@qnet.com> wrote in message
news:412a7407$0$106$6c56adcd@news.qnet.com...
> "Dan Bracuk" <NOTbracuk@pathcom.com> wrote in message
> news:ecqki01gqv1jqolfl1u2q3rfl37rvv6cpj@4ax.com...
> > "Chris Guynn" <chris.guynn@sbcglobal.N.O.S.P.A.M.net> pounded away at
> > his keyboard resulting in:
> > :which part (of Texas)?
> >
> > The nicest part.
>
> The airport?

The airport in Jamaica (MBJ) is nowhere near as nice as the airport in
Midland. I can't comment on the airport in Kingston as I've never been
there.

http://www.zared.com/Arts/Television...s_in_Paradise/