If the plan was to dive inshore wrecks, the expectations would have been lower. But the plan was to go to the Vermillion or Heeb and shoot some big fish out deep. - instead shot a couple of sheepshead shallow (some remnants of a civil war wreck). Crap temperature, crap vis, but the water was nice and flat- still trying to figure out how we got 'baited and switched'. :pissed:

Did they tell you the switch before or after you left the dock?

Edit to add: either way it sucks. What was their reasoning? It was a pretty calm day. I also thought it was an overnight trip.

Maybe your big overnight trip didn't have sufficient people to go & they dropped everyone on an inshore trip to the elusive Sherman?

Surely you would have realized you were doing so, though. No?

Cameron is usually good about that stuff.

But, it's only been a short while ago where you came all the way to florida and your trip to the middlegrounds sucked, too. Didn't it?

No, the trip was booked in advance and paid for, this wasn't a make-up charter.

Yes, it was supposed to be an overnighter, and we slept on the boat- in the dock. We left early the next day with the divemaster saying we would get to the Vermilion or the Heeb, but the captain taking us to the Governor.

re: Comparison to MG trip. I was disappointed I didn't get more fish. But, we certainly went to the middlegrounds. And Ben had the passengers in mind the whole time. In this trip, we were supposed to go offshore for an overnight trip, and that's not what happened. If we'd have known, we would have gone home on Sunday. As it was, only half of us bothered jumping in- we brought home a lot of full tanks.

The person you mention wasn't on the boat, and from what I hear, he's a good guy and would have made everything right if he was.

Everyone was unhappy, from the crew to the owner of the shop who chartered the boat. He plans on pursuing some kind of resolution. I've intentionally not listed the names of the shop or anything else until that happens.

Looking forward to overnight spearing trip - priceless

Preping gun in anticipation of copious amounts of blood letting - priceless

Getting weekend hall pass from pregnant wife to fill cooler with grouper filets - priceless

Driving 6 hours rountrip - priceless

Lugging 14 tanks and countless pounds of gear to boat soon to be heading "offshore" - priceless

Shooting 1 sheepshead in 70 fsw out of utter frustration on aforementioned trip - 285 bucks

Only thing this trip was missing was a grade 5 gunnel hunching tourney featuring Teh Wicked, Jamarcus, and a handfull of newly minted c-card holding cones.

Toecheese,

I'll answer your PM publicly.

I wasn't bagging you - frankly, from the wording of your original post, it could be inferred that you were supposed to go to some great locations, but there were fish similar to inshore junk.

The governor is 20+ miles offshore, and I've personally shot a bunch of grouper on it.

Needless to say, if you paid for a trip that was an overnighter to the hebe/vermillion/livebottom/ledges and got the governor, I'd be super pissed as well.

If it were Coastal Scuba, call and talk to Cameron. I've always known him to be a fair and level headed person. If not weather and/or boat problem related, it may have been some major human error and he'll probably make it right.

It is fair to say, though, that there may be more to the story than you tell. It's like this - you go as a group, you all get excited loading all your gear for an overnight trip...then you leave the dock and go to something 22 miles out only to find out you were on a 2 drop, 3 hour trip rather than an over nighter. Is that how it happened? No notice that something else was wrong? If not, that would be weird. I'm not calling you a liar, it just sounds like this is "1 side" of a story with more sides.

So, to avoid that, help us to fill in the blanks & I'll help you hate them just for the fun of it!

:)

Ok, I read your later post - for the record, though, I told you way back when that doing the Vermillion/Hebe as an overnighter wasn't necessary. I would want a lot of my money back if I paid $285 for a night's sleep at the dock and a trip to the governor.

What we signed up for:

It's Back!!!!! Our overnight liveaboard. This is a great way to kickoff the 2008 North Carolina Dive Season.

Our vessel is the 90 foot Pride of The Carolina's. We depart out of Little River, South Carolina. Divers will have the opportunity to make up to seven dives over the weekend, including a night dive on Saturday. Divers are responsible for their own profiles. Dive sites will include the Vermillion, Ledges, and BP25. The dive sites are excellent for Spearfishing.

We recommend divers use Nitrox for this trip.

Cost: 265 per diver. Divers are responsible for providing or renting tanks. Includes unlimited bottom fishing. All fishing equipment and bait is icnluded.

If I had planned on 7 dives and only got 2 for all that money.... I would be pissed too.

We got 5- 3 on BP25, 2 on inshore wreck. The whole idea was to hit the Vermilion, not just get 10 divers hitting the same site to spear.

Don't waste your money anymore...save it up for the real deal with Capt. Tom and Spearit! Sorry to hear of your misadventure...sometimes life really sucks!...going out Friday to the Baja California...hope to post a better report of our trip. Hang in there.

See, I told you to be the first in the water to shoot the bigger fish. :D

Dude, sorry to hear that the trip didn't go as planned. If I am not mistaken and Gum can clarify, out of George town, BP 25 is about 38 miles while the Vermil is about 29 miles.

BP is about 27 miles NE of the Vermil.

I did pick up the phone and call Cameron. He said that the captain called the overnighter due to the fact that the weather was calling for 25-35k wind overnight, possible high waves and thunderstorms. The call was for safety.

He also said that because they had the fuel burn back in, that they were considering calling the second trip out due to the fact that there were only 8-10 divers instead of 16 like they were hoping for. Their concern was disappointing the divers.

Instead of calling it all together, they ran out to the Gov instead of the Vermil. It sounds like the extra fuel burn in with only 8 divers on the boat is what kept them from going out further the second day. I think that if they had a full boat, they probably would have gone further.


I didn't make the call to "correct" anyone, just wanted to know what the mindset was behind the schedule change. IME, most of the time it is due to weather this time of year and for what we have had lately, it was worth asking about.

Did anyone shoot grouper on the Gov?

I hate that mother nature threw a wrench in your plans.

going out Friday to the Baja California...hope to post a better report of our trip.


NICE!!!! :D

But, it's only been a short while ago where you came all the way to florida and your trip to the middlegrounds sucked, too. Didn't it?


Caring,Understanding,Nurturing,Tolerant diver

Love the sig line :rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl:

See, I told you to be the first in the water to shoot the bigger fish. :D

I hate that mother nature threw a wrench in your plans.

Well, I didn't post the part where I say "I'm a greedy pig and missed bringing back a big grouper". I did as you recommended and hauled butt into the BP25, subway cars. Saw a fat grouper and shot him dead. Left him there, ready to shoot the next one. Two minutes later, he swims off and someone else shoots him dead...er. You'd think I'd learn by now.

As far as Cameron's version- the boat was paid for in advance, and Sunday had beautiful weather.

Their concern was disappointing the divers. So they took us to a murky wreck? And the trip was 10 divers *max*, I'm not sure where this '16' came from, maybe it was one of his regular dive boats he's talking about? (16 people + crew sleeping on the headboat would have been ugly).

From what you're saying, Cameron was happy with the outcome? I guess I've been spoiled by charters in the past where everything comes together.

Caring,Understanding,Nurturing,Tolerant diver

Love the sig line :rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl:

What's wrong with my signature line?

You know me. All those things describe me...don't they?

:biggrinangelA:

Frederick, Sorry to communicate with Craig through your rant thread, but he wrote me first...carry on!

Other than the grouper that got away, did anyone else shoot any good fish on the BP 25?

I was on the water on Sat. and dove all around the vermillion. At about 3:00 the wind kicked up and the swells that were running 5' at 10 secs, turned into 5' at 5 secs. It was a terrible ride home. I doubt you guys would have been happy on the boat sleeping in that weather.

I think the boat total was 4 flounder, 3 grouper, 2 sheepshead and a couple of black sea bass (hook and line) over two days.

The good news is that I found out that sheepshead are delicious fish. Usually I only bother with grouper/snapper, but I'll be glad to bring home some sheepshead anytime.

Sheeps are good eating but they are hell on a knife.

I would have thought you would have seen more fish on the gov. It has produced some good grouper in the past, but I think it has been hit pretty hard by the charter boats lately.

BP 25 has always been a dead place the few times I have dove it.

Next time you are coming down to the area send me a PM, sometimes there is some extra room on the boat.

Sheeps are good eating but they are hell on a knife.


I have a buddy who has a place on San Antonio bay and he has a recipe called "Reds on the half shell". Basically he cuts the sides off of a big redfish and leaves the scales on. He spices it up with his special stuff and cooks it scales down on the grill.

Then you just eat the meat out of the "half shell" and leave the skin and scales on the plate. It is delicious.

I have been meaning to try that with sheepshead.

Sorry to hear about you guys gettin' screwed. Think maybe the price of fuel had anything to do with the "captain's" decision???? Any capt. worth his salt always has a few alternate secret spots in his arsenal no matter what the conditions.

Did you guys end up getting any money back? Was the boat in good condition and just had a loser captain, or was it a total rip-off? Would you try them again if they refunded some of your $$ satisfactorily for this trip?

Well, the shop up here who set it up gave us a store credit. I felt bad for them because they got screwed too- they wanted to go diving as badly as we did.

In all honesty, the guys who crewed the boat were fantastic- very friendly, helpful- it was almost like a carribean dive trip- they carried all our tanks, switched out tanks, great pre-trip briefing, etc. They too were hating that the captain didn't want to take us to where we were supposed to dive. The captain we had is the one who runs the headboat, and I think he simply didn't give a @!#$! about going diving- out and back is all he cared about. We could see him in the bar next to the dock that night. Like I mentioned, if we'd have known what Sunday was to bring, we'd have gone home.

As far as if I would go out with them- not with the guy who ran the boat. He was abusive to his crew (over the intercom, no less), and didn't care about the trip for the passengers. He tried to anchor once and didn't have a windlass- I had to let them borrow my lift bag to get the anchor up. That doesn't instill a lot of confidence.

As far as I know, the shop down there hasn't returned the calls of the shop who set up the trip. Craig and others have apparently talked to the owner down there and got a different story than what we experienced, so take it for what you will.

Sounds eerily familiar to a trip a friend went on not long ago. He said the captain would stop the boat completely every time he had to make a trip to the head. This would take about 10 min. each time several times a day. He said besides contaminating the head so no one else could get in it until it aired out, this guy's frequent stops cost them nearly 45 minutes a day in lost travel time. Evidently he had no auto pilot or wouldn't let anyone steer while he did it........and had some digestive issues!!!!!