Grenada, SVG trip report 5/29-6/6

[chinacat46]

Wind Dancer 5/30-6/6 Grenada and SVG(St. Vincent and the Grenadines)

I flew American from Denver to Grenada via Miami on friday 5/29 and spent the night in a hotel on Grenada. Geting there was fairly painless coming home is another story all together. At 5pm on Saturday 5/30 myself and a number of the other divers were picked up at True Blue Bay Resort and transfered to the Wind Dancer. The boat accomadates 18 divers and this week there was 15 of us on the trip. A few of the guests were coming in on the evening flight one of which was my roommate George. Since I was there first I claimed the bottom bunk. The rooms on the Wind Dancer aren't very big but then again the only time I spent in the room was either sleeping or changing clothes to eat or dive. There was a nice lounge and a huge sundeck to relax at other times.

During the safety and dive briefing they said they fill their tanks to 3700psi and the dives were 45 mins. I rolled my eyes at this. They said by the time the tanks cool off you should have 3300-3400 psi and if you ever have a tank with less then 3000psi to let them know and they would top off. Well luckily the dives lasted alot longer then 45 mins but they did over fill the tanks. They were using Luxfer AL80's and if they wanted to overfill who was I to complain after all it was their tanks. Out of 23 dives I did 10 over an hour with one at 77 mins and my shortest dive was 54 mins. So much for there 45 min dives. I don't think I ever came up with less then 700 psi.My tanks consistenly read over 3300psi and only once did I have one with less then that. All the diving is done from tenders.

They only offered two night dives which was a bit of disappointment but we did cover a lot of ground over the week. Most of the diving was done in SVG with dives in different parts of Grenada on the way to SVG and the way back. Sunday we did 3 dives at the Isle De Ronde area(Grenada), Monday 5 dives around Bequia(SVG), Tuesday 5 dives around Walilabou Bay(SVG), Wednesday 4 dives Walilabou Bay/Young Island(SVG), Thursday 4 dives Carriacou/Isle De Ronde(Grenada), Friday 2 dives off Grenada. The first morning dive on Friday they gave you the option to dive the Bianca C which is a huge cruise liner which sunk off of Grenada. It's a fairly deep dive and you only get to spend 14 mins on the wreck itself. Out of 15 of us 9 opted(me included) to dive anohter site. We dove Purple Rain and the other tender with 6 divers on it went off to dive the Bianca C. The viz was real bad around Grenada and the currents that morning were pretty strong. They never found the wreck so I made the right choice diving the other site. If any of you have ever seen "Pirates of the Caribbean" the opening scenes were filmed in Walilabou Bay and lots of the set is still intact. The arch the skeletons were hanging from is a natural arch and is quite stunning to see. I may have to rent the movie again just so I can put all the scenes together with the bay.

The water temp was a consistent 81 except for one dive where we hit a thermocline and it dropped a bit below that. The viz was not good around Grenada but got better up near SVG. They said there was runoff from the Amazon and the currents were carrying it up which caused the bad viz. This is mostly macro diving so it wasn't a major issue but it did stop you from looking out into the blue and seeing that occasional eagle ray swim by. The reefs were in excellent condition but the fish life left a bit to be desired. Seems this area is heavily fished and the schools of fish seemed depeleted to me. I prefer the Pacific over the Caribbean but if you like the Caribbean you would probably enjoy this area. I had a good time but to be truthful with you it doesn't compare to most of the Pacific. Besides the usual caribbean reef fish I did see a few things I think are worth mentioning. I did see 4-5 nudibranchs/sea slugs only one of which I'd ever seen before(lettuce sea slug) also one flatworm that was new to me. There were also numerous seahores(longsnout, lined and even 2 dwarfs - a first for me), pipefish, batfish, 2 black brotulas, a few fingerprint cyphoma(tons of flamingo tongues) and a few flying gunards. I'm happy to say I didn't see any lionfish here. Lots of types of lobsters and crabs as well. I saw more arrow crabs, pederson cleaning shrimps, spotted morays, and juvenile spotted drums then I would ever care to see. I love juvenile drums but there were so many I stopped taking pictures of them after the 2nd day.

As some of you know I've done a lot of liveaboards and this was number 25 for me. I did have a first though something I've never done on the previous 24. I know most of you won't believe this but I didn't pee in my wetsuit the whole trip(23 dives). I was running for the bathroom a few times when the tender pulled up to the Wind Dancer but I really didn't soil the wetsuit once. As far as liveaboards go this one had great food. Most of the times the food is good but this probably ranks in the top 3 of all the liveaboards I've done for food. My waist line paid for it but you know what they say "A waist is a terrible thing to mind" The crew was excellent as well and one of the dive guides was still onboard from when I dove this boat back in Tobago in 2005. Overall it was a good trip but the diving didn't excite me that much but if you like the Caribbean and you don't care if you see big stuff I would recommend this trip. We did see a number of nurse sharks, southern sting rays and one reef shark but this isn't the place to go to see big stuff. I like macro so I was happy with that but the macro here can't compare to the pacific.

The trip home is worth mentioning since it took over twice as long as it should have. Everyone was leaving on the 8:30am American Airlines flight to Miami. We got to the airport at 6:40am to find a huge line. Turns out the flight got in late the previous night and the crew had put in 8.5 hours and had a manadatory layover of 17 hours so our flight was rescheduled to leave at 7:15pm. It was a bummer seeing the plane on the tarmac but knowing you weren't geting on it till the evening. Any way we got in line to get rebooked and get vouchers. AA put everybody up at Grenada Grand Beach Resort and besides rooms they gave us food vouchers for breakfast, lunch and dinner(all buffets). I was scheduled to get to Denver at 8pm Saturday but since we weren't leaving Grenada till 7:15pm that wasn't gonna happen. AA rebooked me on a 6:30am flight from MIA to DFW. From there I was on a 10:15am flight to Denver. The flight from Grenada didn't leave till about 8:45pm due to some problems with the plane. This ticked me off since the plane just sat on the tarmac all day. They could have found the problem and fixed it during the day but didn't do the preflight till everyone had gotten to the airport. Any way they had booked a room for me at the airport Holiday Inn in Miami and gave me another $15 in food vouchers. After clearing customs and getting to the hotel. It was almost 2am and I had a 6:30am flight. I put in a wake up call for 4:30am. UGH! I got to DFW a bit early but it didn't matter since my flight from DFW to DEN was 50 mins late leaving. Way to go AA. Any way I got to Denver at around noon on Sunday instead of 8pm Saturday night a bit exhausted but at least I was in Denver. I had contacted my ride via email and got picked up and whisked home. Thought I was all done with it but then two days later I get an email from AA apologizing and saying they had added an additional 15,000 miles to my frequent flier account. Would have prefered a free flight but I wasn't expecting anything.

I took lots of pics and will try and post a few once I get thru them all. I'm about 1/3 of the way thru on my first pass. Then on the 2nd pass I'll grab a few and start posting. Probably be a few days from now so check back.

[JCAT]

A very excellent trip report The second you said Miami, I knew what the story would be.

I've never done a live-aboard, it sounds interesting, not sure I could do it though.

We'll wait on the pics..

EDIT: Wife wants to include Grenada on our next cruise, but now I'm wondering.

[chinacat46]

Thanks Jcat. Try a liveaboard it's an easy way to do a lot of dives.

I forgot to mention we also saw a nice school of about 30 squid. Nothing I hadn't seen before but it isn't something I see on every dive.

[azdiver]

Nice report... brief and to the point. Think I will let you post our trip report when we get back from Lembeh!

I don't think that I have ever done a full day of diving without peeing in my wetsuit on at least 1 dive.

Am looking forward to seeing some of your pics....

[chinacat46]

Originally Posted by azdiver

Nice report... brief and to the point. Think I will let you post our trip report when we get back from Lembeh!

I don't think that I have ever done a full day of diving without peeing in my wetsuit on at least 1 dive.

Am looking forward to seeing some of your pics....

Like I said it was the first time in 25 liveaboards I didn't pee in the wetsuit. Thats my story and I'm sticking to it.

I've already done 2 trip reports on Lembeh and they are both on this board.

[gee]

Thanks for sharing that report on your 25th liveaboard Chinacat. I enjoyed reading about your experiences and impressions. I too prefer Pacific to Caribbean waters but, I'll put the Wind Dancer on my watchlist for next year and hope for a better return experience! Do the tenders have ladders or do you flop back on like a penguin?

[chinacat46]

Originally Posted by gee

Thanks for sharing that report on your 25th liveaboard Chinacat. I enjoyed reading about your experiences and impressions. I too prefer Pacific to Caribbean waters but, I'll put the Wind Dancer on my watchlist for next year and hope for a better return experience! Do the tenders have ladders or do you flop back on like a penguin?

They have ladders and there is even an awning to protect you from the sun. They are quite roomy compared to some of the ones I've been on.

[Travelnsj]

So this does not stack up to Lembeh?....LOL....well confirms if I am going to the Caribbean again I'll do Cozy...closest to me.

And I cannot believe you have peed in you wet suit...gross!

[Damselfish]

The Pacific is great, but the Caribbean's closer for many of us. As Caribbean diving goes, I greatly enjoyed the Wind Dancer. There's a lot of variety in the sites on that itinerary and you get to see some critters in that area that you don't see much of elsewhere. (I'd actually dove in St Vincent and Bequia several times before and greatly enjoyed it. A liveaboard in that area was something I'd been wanting to do for a long time.)

The viz was lousy the couple dives we did in Grenada too. Had been lots of rain, but I sort of wonder if it's ever very good?

[chinacat46]

As far as Caribbean diving goes this area was good and I did see a few things I'd never seen before. The black brotulas, dwarf seahorses, fingerprint cyphoma, a few nudis, a flatworm and a flaming red lobster come to mind. I enjoyed myself but I enjoy the pacific so much more. But as you said the Caribbean is alot closer for many and it is fun. It was also the first time I ever found a short nosed batfish and it was a baby one.

Has anybody been to Grenada when the viz was good?