Trip report

[DANNYO]

Wednesday I did a two tank dive with Red Sail......Oh no not 21 divers on the boat...YES THERE WAS.It was a dive on the Antilla first and not only was there 21 divers at that site but two other boats..so all the groups got mixed up divers were swimming with the wrong buddies what a mess.Of course I was one of them.When I surfaced I was at the wrong boat,so I'm looking around and I see the boat about 100 yards away,I'm like Mark Spitz trying to win a metal now.trying to get back to the boat,They were waiting for me like nothing was wrong.The second dive was much better we did Pendanalas with was a really nice dive NO OTHER BOATS.Oh I forgot to tell you that Red Sail had another boat that same morning with only 6 divers on it .I asked if I could change and they said its there policy not to change.
Went for dinner at Tomato Charlie's,very good pizza and salads.Anyone on a budget should put this on your list three big salads and a large pizza,three drinks.....$60 with out tip.They do not add a service charge in.more to come

[Andrea J.]

re: that seems like a LOT of divers. how did red sail do in handling that amount of people?

Originally Posted by DANNYO

Wednesday I did a two tank dive with Red Sail......Oh no not 21 divers on the boat...YES THERE WAS.It was a dive on the Antilla first and not only was there 21 divers at that site but two other boats..so all the groups got mixed up divers were swimming with the wrong buddies what a mess.Of course I was one of them.When I surfaced I was at the wrong boat,so I'm looking around and I see the boat about 100 yards away,I'm like Mark Spitz trying to win a metal now.trying to get back to the boat,They were waiting for me like nothing was wrong.The second dive was much better we did Pendanalas with was a really nice dive NO OTHER BOATS.Oh I forgot to tell you that Red Sail had another boat that same morning with only 6 divers on it .I asked if I could change and they said its there policy not to change.
Went for dinner at Tomato Charlie's,very good pizza and salads.Anyone on a budget should put this on your list three big salads and a large pizza,three drinks.....$60 with out tip.They do not add a service charge in.more to come

[DANNYO]

Originally Posted by Andrea J.

re: that seems like a LOT of divers. how did red sail do in handling that amount of people?

It just seemed that they were glad every one made it back to the boat IMO there were to many divers on the divesite itself.There were three dive boats and a snorkel boat.It was not to organized.There was only two dive masters on the boat,

[Andrea J.]

my friend murray ran into a similar situation, maybe 10 yrs ago.
he was diving with a dive company........i cannot remember the name.
there were a few dive boats and a snorkel boat at the site.
when murray finished his dive, he was bobbing around looking for his boat, climbed onboard ........and realized it was not his boat!
his boat was driving away and he was not on it!

[DANNYO]

Originally Posted by Andrea J.

my friend murray ran into a similar situation, maybe 10 yrs ago.
he was diving with a dive company........i cannot remember the name.
there were a few dive boats and a snorkel boat at the site.
when murray finished his dive, he was bobbing around looking for his boat, climbed onboard ........and realized it was not his boat!
his boat was driving away and he was not on it!

Thats what I felt like,I went to the the wrong boat,and when I realized it was the wrong boat,felt kind of lost at sea until I saw my boat.I think this is the last year of Red Sail.

[Chadd]

Originally Posted by DANNYO

On Monday I did my first two tank dives with Red Sail,crew was very good and keep us all safe.We did a drift dive first that ended at the Jane Sea and the second dive was a reef dive .Visibility wasn't as good but for someone from Jersey that dives in 3-5 ft vis 25-50 feet is great.Went to Giannis last night and the food and service was top notch.This restaurant for anyone coming to Aruba for the first time IMO is a must.More to come.

Jane sea is a cool site, there were some large barracuda there when I was there over the summer. I think we did Barcadera reef as our second when I did that last year, though I prefer harbor reef. Did you guys get the flying fish escort on the way out and back? Evette, Sara, Anthony or Anime as your divemaster?

Was there a cruise ship in town when you had so many people on the Antilla dive? I don't think I've ever had more than 6-8 on any dive I've done with them. It can be a zoo when you have the snorkelers, divers and the glass bottom boat all tooling around at the same time. There is usually an orange frogfish on one of the masts, it hangs out on the tube sponges.

[DANNYO]

Thursday was a relaxing day by the pool and ocean.We take a walk every morning to the Phoenix which by the way ia very nice,what a difference a year makes.For dinner last night every one wanted to watch the Yankee-Angel game so we went to Busters Garage.This place is alto of fun,plenty of local people and altot of Yankee fans.Oh well we all know the outcome of the game,so about Busters...Not a big menu but enough appetizers to keep anyone happy.They have very good sandwiches and burgers.They have more TV's than Champions and the service was very good.Would go back again to watch the Yankees in the World Series.

[Andrea J.]

first thing i have een doing the last few days immediately after waking up is checking out dannyo's trip report from the day b4.

thanks dan for making getting out of bed a little easier.

[DANNYO]

Friday I did my last dive(maybe not) of the week.I dove the sonesta plane wreck,which is a two plane wreck,One sank the other didn't,Great dive,it was a 10am dive that left on time and we were back by 12 noon.ONLY 4 DIVERS...NICE.than most of the day by the pool and ocean.I haven't mentioned anything about rain....NOT A DROP...went for a light dinner with friends at Tomato Charlie's.good pizza and salads.BACK TO AVIS..........Will tell more later,your going to love this.......
Went back to Avis with the mini van.....IT HAD ROACHES......and they exchanged it for a much nicer minivan...I had to drive back to the airport to return it,not a big deal.ROACHES.....NASTY....On with our vacation

[arubadebbi]

Dannyo - where is Buster's? love sports pubs and we will be there Nov 14 - Dec 4th hoping to catch a few baseball games and football as well