Date: August 21, 1999 - - August 28, 1999Over a year has passed since we made this trip. As I flip through photos and little notes jotted down in my log book, I'm reminded of how intriguing this adventure turned out to be. Being our first live aboard, we weren't sure what to expect. Our dive group had spent considerable time searching the internet looking for our next vacation. We found positive several dive reports which led us to our decision and we were not disappointed.
Boarding the Nekton... Our cruise began with a short ride from the airport to the Nekton Pilot. Transportation by van was provided as part of the vacation package. We arrived from our uneventful American Airlines flight ( the way I prefer to travel - no problems ) too early to board the ship. Boarding usually isn't until after 5pm because the crew is in the process of cleaning and restocking the ship. Our luggage was taken on board while we were allowed time to go shopping and find an afternoon snack. A small hotel restaurant. near the dock sufficed as a suitable retreat from the heat and humidity. The food and service wasn't any thing to write home about and neither was the price. We wondered why the waitress kept bringing new glasses every time we asked for a tea refill. When the bill came, we soon realized why. Unlike restaurants in Texas, they charged full price for every glass. Fifteen dollars for tea seems a bit steep especially since the glasses where barely 8 ounces and were over half full of ice.
Another group of divers from St Louis also choose the same establishment to pass the time. This group had been on the Nekton Pilot on a prior occasion. The ages of the divers from St Louis varied from the 30's to the 70's. One family of three divers included the daughter, mother and grandfather. There was also an elderly couple who had won a lottery. This group knew how to have a good time. They opted for the alcohol over the tea. Smart move in this case.
Shortly after 5pm we boarded the ship and began to find our rooms. There was a bit of confusion because the passengers included 4 men, all with the name Paul. After a bit of sorting out the details, I met my cabin mate Paul Huggins (and later dive buddy) for the trip. Paul could pass for a young Robert Deniro. After we were settled, everyone met in the lounge area for the trip briefing. The captain and crew introduced themselves and then proceeded to discuss the trip itinerary and the rules to be observed on the boat. For a newbie, this seemed like a lot do's and don't's. In retrospect, it wasn't any big deal. The basic rules were easy to follow. If you drink alcohol, then you are through diving for the day. Be on time for the dive briefings. Keep the pink towels outside and the green towels inside. Log yourself in and out when diving. Be in and out of the water on time. Dive with a buddy. Don't go below the recreational diver limit. Don't get into decompression diving. No wetsuits allowed inside of the interior of the boat. And so on...
After a quick lesson in safety practices including the traditional life vest drill, everyone was shuttled to town for our last meal on shore. The divers in our van decided to try the Quarterdeck restaurant for dinner. The cuisine consisted of seafood including one of my favorites, seafood jambalaya. We were impressed with the quality of food and would recommend giving the restaurant a try if you are in the area. Our meal even included a small bit of entertainment (though not intentionally provided by the restaurant). As we consumed our meals and took in the local scenery, we happened to notice ( which is was hard not too ) one of the female patrons heading for the restroom. Dressed in a tight and short, bright pink dress, big hair and more makeup than should be allowed by law, she looked like she should have been working on any a street corner in down town Los Angelos. Her hair brunette, but it should have been blonde. She walks up to the door and collides with it when it did not opened. She steps back, puts her right hand on her hip and cocks the hip off to one side and stares at the door. After a minute, she walks off . Later she returns and with the male companion and he simply pushes the door open. She stares in disbelief like there was some magic to opening the door. Funny thing is, there was no knob or lock on the door. Several other females walked right in without a problem. She had failed to use enough force to open the door. She must have been accustomed to having the door open for her. Good thing she had looks, because she definitely was missing brains. Unfortunately, looks don't last forever.
On our way back to the ship, everyone heads to the liquor stores to stock up. Nekton Cruises does not provided any alcohol and if you don't take it with you, then you won't have any. It's less expensive in Ft Lauderdale than on the islands. There are a couple shore excursions during the trip in which you can pickup additional supplies for a premium of course. As soon as everyone was back aboard the Nekton Pilot, we set sail for the Bahamas.
The Daily Routine... Except for the a couple instances, the daily routine aboard the Nekton Pilot is just that, a routine. Although the ship calls home Ft Lauderdale, it runs on Central Standard time. Each morning we arose to breakfast followed by the first dive briefing at 8am. One thing which should never happen on the Nekton Pilot is hunger. There is always more than enough food to eat. In addition, pictures of juice, lemonade and tea are available all day long in addition to morning and afternoon snacks. Fresh baked cookies popped out of the oven every morning just after 10pm and by the third day, there was a crowd waiting to scarf them down as soon as they hit the bar. The afternoon snack usually consisted of crackers and cheese or some kind of fruit. This is the only place I know where you can dive all day long and still gain weight. Of course, my favorite past time on the boat occurred just after dinner. I would finish my dinner and then head to the top deck and watch the sunset each day.
After a couple morning dives, you were requested
to be out of the water by 11:45am for lunch.
And after several afternoon dives, dinner
was served after 6pm. The night dives always
ended by 8:45pm. The ship relocated twice
a day. Usually the relocation takes place
at night or during lunch. So, it's important
to be out of the water on time. A complete
menu from the trip is provided below. 
The first morning... The routine the first day and last days varies slightly from the rest of the days. After our morning briefing, the Nekton Pilot docked in the Old Bahamas Harbor and one of the crew members took our passport to immigration. Af ter a short stay, we were off to our first dive location. There were usually three briefings a day. In the morning and after lunch, the briefings were held on the top deck. The third briefing, after dinner, is presented in the lounge. The lounge is also used by the crew to present slide shoes on marine biology including some information presentation on fish, coral and other marine life identification. In addition, two VCR's and TV's are available in the lounge for nightly viewings.
Diving from the Nekton... going first class... The first day of diving, everyone takes their scuba gear to the dive deck (upper views). The gear remains on the dive deck (stern view) until the last day of diving. The scuba tanks are refilled with out removing the BCD's. All the other gear can be stored underneath the seats on the dive deck. After the briefing, divers are allowed to go to the dive deck to suit up. The Nekton Pilot holds 30 divers plus a crew of 10. Usually, staggering based off of even/odd room numbers is used to keep all 30 divers from being on the deck all at once. Attached to the dive deck are two skiffs and when the Nekton anchors to a mooring, one of the skiffs is lowered in the water for recue and recovery. In case of a strong current, divers who stray from the boat are instructed to signal the boat with a saftey sausage and the skiff will shuttle the divers back to the boat. Each diver is provided a safety sausage by the crew of the Nekton Pilot. The second skiff is used to as a shuttle for shore excursions.
Prior to suiting up, divers must signout on the white board on the dive deck. After donning gear, divers have the choice of walking down the platform ladder or performing a giant-stride off the side of the boat. There is both a hang bar and an extra scuba tank connected to the dive deck. Divers are requested to execute a 3 minute safety stop prior to exiting the water. Boarding the boat is a simple as exiting. The Christmas tree shaped ladder allows divers to simply walk back on to the ship with minimal assistance from the crew. Next to the ladder are two blue barrels filled with fresh water specifically for rinsing saltwater from cameras. While divers are in the water, there are at least two crewmembers working the dive deck and a couple more on the top deck watching for diver in distress. As soon as divers remove their gear, they can take a quick fresh water shower. Since the Nekton Pilot produces it's own fresh water, the supply is almost unlimited, unlike some of the other live- aboards who only allow 30 second showers per diver per day. The crew also provides fresh warm towels (kept in an igloo cooler) to dry off after the shower.
From the dive deck, divers can take the stairs to the next level. Unfortunately these stairs are known as the "stairs to no-where". The dive deck is attached to cable which allows the deck to be lowered or raised depending on the depth of the boat. When then dive deck is lowered these stairs lead to the next level. But when the deck is raised, these stairs lead absolutely no-where. Out of habit, divers will try taking the stairs to the next level when the deck is raised. It should also be noted, when the deck is lowered, the cables used to raise the deck are right next to the stairs. People also make the mistake of grabbing these cables while walking down the stairs. The end result is a greasy hand and for those who didn't notice the grease, a nice smug of grease on the face too.
On the middle deck there are two tables for the photographers to work on camera. Four coolers hold juices and water to help replenish divers after each diver. A white plastic box filled with anti-bacterial soap ( which is changed daily ) allows divers the ability to rinse out wetsuits after each dive. Wetsuits are then hung on racks on the top deck to dry. The pink outside towels are dried on this deck and the emergency rafts can be found here also.
A little about the Nekton Pilot and Crew... Most of the information about the Nekton Pilot can be found on the Nekton Cruises web page , so I'll try not to repeat it here. My room (#5) consisted of twin beds, a sink and a restroom with a full shower and toilet. The rooms were kept clean and the beds made daily. The A/C kept the room on the cool side during the day and cold during the night. The only draw back to the A/C is the humidity. The ceiling, being made of metal, condensated during the night and some rooms would actually have little rain drops falling from the ceiling during the night. There is some storage under the bed but space is limited.
The Nekton Pilot is kept in pretty good shape considering the amount of use and the exposure to the elements. As soon as one set of passengers depart, they begin preparations for the next set to arrive. The Pilot does show some wear. It could have used a new coat of paint and some of the carpet needed to be replaced.
The Crew works extremely hard and extremely long. Everyone of the crew takes turns at the different jobs on the ship. One day, they may be working on laundry and house keeping and the next they may be working in the kitchen and another day they may be on the dive deck. The hours fluctuate from day to day. They may be up in the middle of the night for a few hours and then again early in the morning. At this rate, I doubt vary many of the crew members last more than a couple years in this profession. For those of you who watch South Park, here's a picture of one of the crew members who resembles one of the characters from South Park.
Highlights from the diving.... Nineteen dives in six days left us with some fond memories of our trip and a few photos in the process. Most amazing was the variety of marine life. There were 400-500lb turtles (Loggerhead and Hawksbill), 100lb tarpon, multiple Nurse Sharks and Caribbean Sharks, Spotted and Green Moray Eels, Scorpion Fish, Lobsters, Jack Fish, Stingrays and more Barracudas than could be counted. The wreck dives (Sugar Wreck and Hesperus) were some on my favorite. "Wreckage" dive would be more of an accurate term. Most of the remains of the ship were scattered. Very little was left of the original sailing vessels which still resemble the original ship. The piles of rubble draw marine life from all around. Unfortunately, one of our dives was interrupted by a lightning strike near the back of the boat while diving on the Sugar Wreck. I had been busy watching a small turtle, nurse shark and large stingrays hover around the wreckage when the dive master signaled us to return to the ship. At the Hesperus, we again ran into more turtles and lots of rays and barracudas. Hundreds of barracuda hovered like silver torpedoes in the water just waiting to be ignited into action. The Cuda's ranged in size from just a couple feet to five feet long. Stingrays as large a three to four feet gracefully glided over the sandy bottom and coasted to graceful landing in the sand. The rays where extremely friendly and allowed the diver to pet them on their stomachs.
The Hesperus is surrounded by sand and then by turtle grass. At night the turtles come to rest underneath the wreckage. Tagging along with the turtles are the Remoras (Shark suckers). Unfortunately the turtles would be covered with several Remoras per turtle and sometimes the Remoras tried to attach to the divers. The scene at night must resemble an episode from Close Encounters, with thirty divers all with flashlights, cameras and strobes lighting up the water. It's hard to imagine the turtles getting any rest. Being the adventurous type, my dive buddy and I decided to venture out into the turtle grass to see what else we could find. To my surprise we managed to find something more than we were looking to find. A shark came out of the dark and head straight for me. Now, I'm not sure who scared whom, or how big the shark really was (it looked 5 feet long and 100lbs) but I found myself bobbing on the surface within a couple seconds. Lucky for me, the max depth was only 20 feet. After a few minutes, I managed to calm my breathing and get myself back on the bottom. Needless to say we head back to the ship. Once aboard, one of the crew told us they had a shark splash the surface next to some divers during their last visit to the site.
We also visited Shark Junction the day before and were surrounded with several Caribbean Sharks. Had I been to the Hesperus prior to the dive at Shark Junction, I might has passed on this dive. None the less, the experience of swimming with 5 foot long sharks is quite a rush. The sharks would glide within arms length and would come from all directions and then disappear into the misty blue. One of the sharks could be seen with evidence of a recent battle with a fisherman. The hook still hanging in its mouth, it cruised by looking for its next meal.
The Strip was one of the most impressive sites we dove. This is only a narrow 150 foot strip of coral formation but the amount to marine life per square foot was amazing. Without moving from my location, I could see a Nurse Shark, two lobsters and a Spotted Eel. In addition, there were also Scorpion fish, Octopi, and crabs. Divers should beware of the Sergeant Majors at this site. Although they are only a few inches long, they are aggressive and will nibble on your ears and neck.
Rocky Mountain High gets the vote for the best coral formations out of all of the sites. Scoto's was also very nice but a strong current basically cut the dive short. The hang tank was almost flopping on top of the water when we got back to the boat.
Our last day of diving ended prematurely. Hurricane Dennis had been approaching for days and was moving as fast as the Nekton's top speed. None of the divers were even aware of the approaching storm and it wasn't until the morning briefing before we were told of it impending arrival. Needless to say, the seas swells increased drastically over the next few hours and several of the passengers aboard the Nekton began to look a little green. We arrived in Ft Lauderdale just before dark. The ship was unable to dock in the normal location because we were there a day early and another ship was docked in the port. We docked across the harbor at a commercial dock. Due to immigration laws we could not leave the ship. Passengers are not allowed to disembark from a commercial dock. The next morning after we had cleared Customs, the Nekton had to leave the dock and float in the center of the harbor while the passengers where shuttled to the other side of the harbor. Seems like a lot of trouble for just a couple hundred yards of real estate.
Overall, this was an extremely good cruise and worth the cost. I'll definitely be diving with the Nekton Pilot again. Maybe next time it will be in Belize.
