A report from Tony Curtis
During the first week in June Petra and I spent seven nights in Jamaica and were married on June 8th. This was an all-inclusive resort including all watersports and most importantly - SCUBA diving! Drink was plentiful, but rum and local cocktails became a bit much by the end of the Holiday. Food was average but there was plenty of it (eating on Honeymoon - must be a new trend -MHS) Petra found some of the dishes were rather over-spiced, which limited Her choices. The resort itself was clean, and well laid out. The Dive excursions (two-tank dives) left every day from the Watersports Centre, at 9am, although this varied on occasion if the guides were late or any of the American guests had forgotten to book the trip. During our visit the SCUBA school was understaffed due to staff training off the island. This led to rather indifferent management...As Petra had just qualified before the trip, She found some of the dives we were taken on were a bit advanced. Despite the lack of logged deep dives or any other dive for that matter She was expected to join 27m dives as a matter of course. Very little time was given to Buddy Checks and divers were simply "bundled" off the boat together! On one dive the divers were strung out over 50m of the surface, which makes getting with your Buddy hard work! Entry in to the water was easy, recovery was not so good, striiping off belts and BCDs next to the engine, passing them up to the Skipper, and then watching the staff throw your gear across the deck. This cost me two mouthpieces as I had taken my own kit...
The dives themselves were generally good. The wrecks of a DC6 and Cessna were interesting. There was a great deal of fish life. Barracuda, Puffers, and Morays were seen on every dive. Night dives revealed a different scene altogether but the predominant presence was the Green Moray. One site in particular stimulated interest - a 17th Century anchor on the edge of a drop-off... The coral showed signs of environmental decay - being brown or black in some areas.
Towards the end of the week the managers returned and suddenly things got better. A certain level of butt-kicking was detected...
I completed 12 day dives and 1 night dive, (which was the only dive NOT in the all-inclusive package $45). Most of the dives were interesting and the sites were varied. Petra went out on one of the novice diver afternoon boats, and found them to be better managed. (Sounds like familiarity breeding contempt on the "experienced diver" boat - always dangerous - MHS)
During my final dive, while doing the 5m3min stop, a 5ft long turtle ambled by... this was perhaps the crowning moment of the week.
Other watersports were available so we tried them... Sailing a Hobie-Cat, windsurfing, water-skiing ( high speed drowning for me) . While windsirfing one day, I was recovered from the next resort by the rescue boat and an Instructor was left to show how it was done and bring the board back... only He got rescued too as the wind was bad (it's always very satisfying to see that it wasn't all your fault!)
The Hotel offered a variety of excursions every day... Quad bikes were available and we took off into the hills, where Petra took a photo of me next to a plant with medicinal properties... green, pointed leaves, illegal in England... The Dunn Rivers Falls excursions included a 2 hour climb around the falls, with much stumbling and stiing down suddenly.. Petra is a bit of a mountain goat and had no problems..
Local markets had all the usual crafts and tee-shirts... A bit too enthusiastic to sell to you.
Our Wedding was perfect, under palm trees, on the beach. The ceremony and catering were all fine and the day went well.
All in all, at £800 each, the trip was good value.. There is a great range of activities on offer within the resort. However, there is an age limitation (18+). We plan to return to the Island to a resort where children are welcome too.
Congratulations to Tony & Petra from the members of the SDC
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First time underwater with a camera...
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