We left New Orleans at 6:30 inside the morning and soon after the layover in Houston we arrived on Roatan at 12:15 PM, very uneventful trip via Continental Airlines. We had been met for the airport from the representatives from Fantasy Island and soon after having the many luggage, they loaded us up on the bus and took us to the resort. We arrived and were told that prior to checkin we must go on out for the outdoor restaurant and have lunch. As soon as we were definitely completed with lunch, we checked in and went to our room (our luggage was already there waiting for us.) We filled out the paperwork for your jump shop, got our gear together and journeyed down to the retail outlet to turn within the paperwork and arrange to go out on the two:30 PM motorboat for the quick checkout jump. Though the young lady with the shop accepted our paperwork, she informed us the shop was “closed for diving.” No shore plunge (from the gazebo, no boats heading out.) So, no checkout dive that afternoon at all.
The next morning I get up at 07:00 and head towards restaurant for breakfast (ok, I do not commonly eat breakfast, but the hubs does, so for me it was the morning coffee fix.) We had to become at “orientation” at 08:00, so we hurried by way of the morning stuff, packed up the gear and headed more than on the shop.
The food at Fantasy Island is great, but not fantastic. It’s served buffet style and you possibly can have as a lot as you want, which suited the hubs no finish. I tried to stick towards the diet I am now on and was rather successful with that. There were fresh vegetables and also a salad bar, with assorted cold pasta salads for those who like that. There is usually a selection of chicken, fish and either pork or beef for every meal. Pizza and hot pastas were definitely also offered. Dessert consisted of ice cream (choice of between several and five flavours) and flans or cakes.
The resort only experienced 30 guests the week we ended up there. The recession and the political unrest for the mainland seem to be keeping folks from heading to Roatan. I was told through the resort manager that it had been really slow and that they attributed it for the politics far more than the recession/economy troubles. The men and women about the island are really hurting through the lack of tourist traffic. It seems this is effecting every one of the resorts, even CocoView suitable next door was only running two boats a day, rather than the 4 or a lot more that they typically run.
Plunge Retail outlet –
I have been via the orientation 4 times previous to, so I just listened to see if something experienced changed, in when the boats go out, the days from the evening dives, etc. It hadn’t. I asked Robert, the jump shop manager if I could have Miguel as our DM (since Darrien was off that week.) Miguel was now paired up with Rocky as his motorboat captain, instead of his old motorboat captain, Pedro (who’s really a sweet man.)
At Fantasy Island, you set up and take care of your own gear which I like, given that I am somewhat picky about the cleaning and drying of my gear. I won’t even let the hubs touch my equipment. The reg often went to the room, as opposed to the locker to hang dry (right after I had cleaned it, obviously.) I left the BCD, booties, fins, mask, etc within the locker to dry overnight in the conclusion of every single day’s diving. Dive boats go out at 9:00, 11:00 and 2:30 daily. They return for the retail outlet after the dive. H2o and fruit are provided about the vessel for soon after the plunge. The DM leads the plunge, dives are limited to 50 mins. It is possible to equipment off inside the drinking water along with the vessel captain will take your equipment and area it at your setup spot. All entrances for the water are giant stride, no back roll is available.
General stuff within the diving – the mineral water was complete of minor things on this trip – plankton city. which accounts for what we noticed on day time a couple of, I believe. Our motorboat, the Tiny Kim, had only 4 couples on it, two of which experienced made the trip down together from Texas. A single diver, Carolyn joined us on evening two. On all dives, except the final two I did, I dove a 63 and I never arrived up with much less than 1100. When I dove the 80, I was coming up with 1600 or more. Our dive package included free NITROX, but we didn’t use it in any way, considering that the diving was so quick and I was undertaking so nicely on air. With the restricted time within the dives, utilizing it to extend the bottom time was not essential. On our boat, only the hubs and myself did the afternoon dives, so we experienced guided tours of some of Miguel’s favorite websites.
The plunge shop was not running boats on Saturday’s (unless there was a guest who was staying two weeks) and, as we found out to our dismay, on Friday afternoons. Our package deal was sold with 18 motorboat dives and 1 evening plunge. We spoke with the rush shop manager about taking the Friday afternoon boat dive. He informed us he didn’t run boats on Friday afternoons as a result of security concerns for that divers and their departures on Saturday. I told him that our plane was to leave at 1:08 PM and that DAN and PADI both state 18 hours from exiting the drinking water to a lengthy plane flight. He told me that he has a rule of 24 to 30 hours, but he would enable us to accomplish a drop off leap on the gazebo following our second morning plunge, with only a 15 minute surface interval. This was not secure to me, thinking about the depths we did on morning dives, so we nixed that idea. Based on his rules and his shut down on Saturdays as well, there is no method to make the 18 dives sold inside package deal, unless you took the evening leap and counted that, which I did not intend to perform the evening plunge this trip. So, I had a talk while using the resort manager (who is a diver and frequently travels to Spain, his household) about what was sold to us in this package deal and what was being delivered. The issue was resolved and we took the Friday afternoon jump by fishing boat. We also left the dock at one:30 rather than a couple of:30 to be for the secure side and this would allow the motorboat captain and DM to go house early for the day. We ended up out on the water by two:35 PM and that gave us 22.5 hours before our flight to Houston.
Working day one, Sunday, September 27th:
Rush 1: Castle Canyon (aka Iron Shore) – degree 69, viz was as much as 75 ft for 47 moments. We spent a extended time at depth on this jump. All people journeyed deeper than I did, I kind of hung out above them. Noticed flamingo tongues, substantial schools of creole wrasse, brown chromis, lobster, significant crabs, indigo blue hamlets plus the occasion yellow and butter hamlets. I did not take my camera on this dive, just wanted to obtain used to getting inside the h2o once more and to relax for the leap.
Jump two: Valley of the Kings, depth 72, viz was about 75 ft for 54 min’s. Plenty of small stuff on this leap, Christmas Tree worms, feather duster worms. The usual schools of creole wrasse, bar jacks, horse eye jacks, margates, and Bermuda chub. The viz at the starting of this leap was only about 35 feet, but it cleared up a lot throughout the plunge. At the stop in the plunge, a modest remora was swimming around wanting to attach itself to every single divers fins…I took the camera on this plunge.
Jump three: Newman’s Wall plus the Prince Albert, depth was 64, viz was 50 for the starting from the dive and about 25 on the finish, 50 mins. We say significant crabs on the wall protion of the leap, a lot of hamlets Queen angelfish, and tons of sponges. The wreck has lots of growth on it and I uncovered the largest featherduster worm I have ever seen around the wreck. The viz was getting bad, so the hubs and Miguel made the decision it absolutely was not a great notion to penetrate the wreck. That was fine by me, since I was going to wait outside of it for them and just look at all of the things on the deck on the wreck.
Working day 2, Monday, September 28th:
Dive one – French Cay Bank, level was 84 feet, viz was 50 to 75 and time was 47 minutes. A great deal of cleaning shrimp within the nooks and crannies on this plunge. Yellow snapper were everywhere. The wall is covered in sponges of all sizes and shapes. Some of these sponges ended up substantial – 5 ft or a lot more. We stayed at 75 to 85 for about 20 min’s. Anyone on this leap went deeper than I did, I stayed above them and looked around for appropriate subject matter for photos.
Jump two – Mary’s Spot, level was 77, viz was 50 ft and time was 51 mins. We stayed at degree for nearly 25 no time at all ont his leap. Once more, everybody on this jump journeyed deeper than I did, I stayed above them and looked around for appropriate subject matter for photographs. The DM and the hubs went much deeper on this plunge than anyone else. Even though each of the other divers journeyed into the swim through, Carolyn and I ascended on the outside. I really don’t care for swim throughs, so I prevent them when I can. We manufactured the exit stage to the swim as a result of when the final diver (the hubs) exited. We were at about 50 ft at that stage. We noticed Nassau groupers, black groupers, quite a few angelfish, crabs, quite a few hamlets of different varieties, and large beds of lettuce coral for the swim back again towards vessel.
Right after this plunge, upon return towards dock, two with the divers developed “skin bends” – something I experienced by no means heard of previous to. The man, who experienced had previous heart issues was the sickest, unable to stand and extremely nauseous. His wife, a nurse, kept asking him if he was having heart troubles and not DCS. The woman diver, showed no signs of something becoming wrong until she journeyed back to her room and took a hot shower. She created bruising around the kidney place and said her skin hurt to touch, all around the abdominal locations. Each divers had been sent towards chamber within the island for treatment. Both journeyed again on Tuesday morning for any second “ride.” Each divers recovered sufficient to continue their vacation, but needless to say, diving for them was over. Their respective spouses decided to pair up and continue diving on Wednesday.
Leap 3 – Doc’s Rush, level 71, viz was 40 to 50 and time was 49 moments. We noticed two really significant crabs around the wall. Normal water was “dark€ on this leap and viz was obtaining worse since the dive went on. Really good overhangs for the wall, and barrel sponges ended up everywhere, as ended up the azure blue sponges (my favored.) I observed numerous sea urchins on this jump.
When we exited the normal water and experienced ‘geared off’ the vessel began to head again to the dock, but took a detour to the wall in front with the resort. Miguel started yelling “whale shark”. Pretty soon the other motorboat from FI (with each of the motorboat captains and DMs, the group of divers have been resting as they were definitely doing a evening plunge later) was there, too since the two boats from CocoView. There is indeed a whale shark feeding directly in front in the resort. He/she was swimming off on the left of our fishing boat and then swam directly on the vessel and journeyed below under it. I got a really good view of it as it went under our motorboat. It absolutely was a small one particular, about 12 ft prolonged, so fairly young, I would guess. Extremely cool to view it!
Morning several, Tuesday, September 29th:
Rush one 40 Foot Point, depth was 66, viz was about 70 feet, time was 52 mins.
We noticed a incredibly large Cuebra snapper on this rush. Plenty of things within the normal water producing backscatter inside the images I took. Quite great wall, black groupers (a great deal of them) off the wall about 15 ft, very large ones. There was lots of surge on this rush the moment we came back again up to 30 feet, which created taking photographs an exciting prospect.
Plunge a couple of – Mr Bud (tugboat) Degree 65, viz was about 50, and time wasಱ minutes. There isn’t much to check out within the Tug itself, however the wall subsequent to it was total of life. Once again, there was a great deal of surge when we came again approximately 30 ft. In the conclusion of the dive another tiny remora made the decision to attach to my BCD and I had a time convincing it to leave.
Leap 3 – Too Tall, Too Modest, Degree 62 feet, viz was 40 ft, and time was 47 mins. A lot of fallen coral, sponges, apparently due towards earthquake earlier this year. Discovered juvenile spotted drums, plus the scorpionfish was at the turning point about the wall as he has been about the last several times I did this specific dive. The destruction on the corals and sponges was enormous. This was constantly a person of my preferred dives on Roatan, and it can be dismaying to view the harm. Again, there is lots of surge when we arrived back approximately 30 feet.
Day time 4, Wednesday, September 30th:
Dive one – Pirate’s Point, level 83, viz was about 50, and time was 53 moments. Noticed 2 various Green Moray free of charge swimming about the wall. Uncovered anenomes and yellowheaded jawfish to take pictures of. A great deal of surge at about 20 feet today.
Plunge a couple of – Gold Chain Reef, degree 66, viz was about 45 and time was 54 minutes. Lots of anenomes on this rush. Huge fields of antler and lettuce corals almost as far as the eye could see, quite gorgeous.łnd half of this dive was at 25 ft or much less, making for a lengthy safety stop. Many schooling bemuda chub.
Dive several – Anka’s Position, degree 56, viz was about 40 and time was 51 no time at all. We took this leap to find out the harm carried out through the earthquake and it was enormous. The entire wall was sheared off in the mooring pin for at least 300 feet. The moment past that spot you possibly can see huge cracks in the wall that will most likely be lost if yet another earthquake happens. The surviving wall is still lovely – total of life and sponges. It really is sad to determine the small damselfish and others attempting to eke out a living from the devastated places. At about 60 ft on the surviving component of the wall I observed a modest trumpetfish hunting among pale mint and lilac coloured sponges.
Working day 5, Thursday, October 1st:
Jump one – Missing Link, level 72, viz was about 45 ft, time was 54 mins. Noticed the usual flamingo tongues, and finally uncovered some red seahorses. Last half of this jump was in drinking water of 35 ft or much less. A lot of surge on the leap on the shallower depths.
Rush two – The Chimneys, degree 66 feet, viz was about 40 feet, and time was 45 min’s. The thing with this leap is the swim via chimneys, which I did not do. The go straight up and have one or far more exits at suitable angles to the chimney. Another cost-free swimming green moray, and an adiut spotted drum that was very camera shy. Again, plenty of surge on the component with the rush that was 35 ft or much less.
Leap three – Window towards Valley, depth 67, viz was about 35 ft and 50 moments. Nice large crabs within the wall. Various thermoclines on this leap. Many “stuff” within the water. Tiny trunkfish which eluded me and my camera.
Day 6, Friday, October 2nd:
Jump 1 – John’s Spot, level 63, viz was about 50, time was 48 minutes. Discovered two additional red seahorses. Another free of charge swimming moray eel, plus a spotted eel tail was located, but we were unable to locate exactly where it’s head was. White spotted filefish pair was uncovered for the starting and conclusion of the plunge. We towed the CocoView motorboat on the FI region, where a single of their boats arrived to tow it back to their docks.
Leap a couple of – Newman’s Wall, depth 57, viz was about 50 ft, and time was 44 mins. Lovely wall, quite a few sponges and tiny fishes on it. Nothing really significant though. Did discover some significant trumpetfish and gorgeous multicoloured Christmas Tree worms.
Jump three, last dive on the trip, Minor French Cay Wall, depth 68, viz was about 50 ft, and time was 55 minutes. Discovered social feather duster worms, but with all the surge, was impossible to acquire a excellent shot of them. Throughout half this plunge was spent in the 60 foot mark.
