Managing expectations is a big part of customer service.
Communication is the key. That’s where the train wreck started.
Monday evening found us at the Rusty Anchor with 24 passengers, gearing up for a
modified Keys Crawl/Coral Spawn cruise. This was not the original itinerary, but
the one that the charterer requested. The research had been done for the
original attempt at a keys crawl in May, so with a great deal of trepidation we
headed north instead of west from Stock Island.
Tuesday morning found us moored above the Spiegel Grove in flat seas, nice
visibility and a mild current. Tied bow and stern, we were happily set and ready
to offer 2 dives. After a short briefing we threw everyone in who wanted to
dive—seems there were quite a few folks on board who didn’t like to dive wrecks.
Hmmm. Then the upper keys buoy maintenance team came out to fuss at us for tying
to their moorings. We had already cleared using the moorings with the Upper Keys
Superintendent (their boss), so we passed this information on. They went away.
Divers found the goliath in the pilothouse and the ubiquitous barracuda.
Tuesday afternoon found us inspecting every mooring in the upper keys. Seems
that despite all assurances, there aren’t any reef moorings that have any
significant ground tackle or anchors. Being coral spawn, we really needed to
find a healthy coral reef. So we called friends in Key Largo and were given
numbers to a beautiful little reef called Racetrack. After finding enough of a
sand patch to set the anchor in, we spent the evening diving in 20 ft of water
between Molasses and French reefs. There were turtles, nurse sharks, loads of
snappers and grunts, and a huge school of blue parrotfish. Not much spawning
activity, though. At least the coral variety.
Wednesday morning we hauled anchor and headed for the Duane. The Duane is a
retired USCG Cutter intentionally sunk in 1987 as an artificial reef. She’s
known for having strong currents, and Wednesday morning was no exception. We
tied to the stern, jumped in a current line, and as divers were entering the
water we were once again greeted by the upper keys buoy boys. Seems they really
have nothing better to do than chase us around the upper keys. The Duane holds
an incredible amount of life, including large bait balls and goliath grouper. We
only offered one dive here, as we were starting to swing and the day operators
were all arriving for their morning dives.
We headed south again, in the quest for a coral reef night dive location. The
lower keys have plenty of moorings that easily hold us, so the northern-most of
the lower keys dive sites was our destination. Just offshore Marathon is a
little reef called Coffin’s Patch. The weather was still stellar, but the
reefs—well, perhaps not quite what we’re used to. Coffin’s Patch has lots of
gorgonians and grunts, but not much hard coral. Time to make a decision.
As with any mixed itinerary, the differing goals make it hard to keep everyone
happy. Back to managing expectations and communication—it was time to gather
everyone in the salon and explain the background behind the charter change and
the available options for the remainder of the trip. Being a private charter, we
were not in charge of the destination change or preparing the customers for the
trip. Many aboard didn’t know about the change in itinerary until they were on
board, and didn’t want to “rock the boat” by saying anything. As in many cases,
each individual thought they were the only one that didn’t know. One by one,
they were approaching different crew members with questions. There was lots of
drama.
Short version of a really long story, the vote was to return to Stock Island for
fuel, make a night dive off Key West as soon as the fueling was done, and head
for the Dry Tortugas for the remainder of the trip. Everyone pitched in to cover
the fuel expense, the fuel truck met us at the dock long after regular delivery
hours, and we made it to Western Sambo in time for a spectacular night dive.
This was the big night for spawn, it seems, with many different species of star
corals and brain corals participating in the frenzy. We had a couple of young
eels swimming in the deck lights (Jeff says many toothed conger), and dozens of
lobster out and about. After many jokes about needing cigarettes, the customers
settled in for an evening of cocktails while the crew got the Spree underway for
the Dry Tortugas.
Thursday morning found us in calm seas at 8 Fathom Rock. Current was a bit
zippy, but visibility was stellar and with much celebration we launched divers
for a spectacular morning dive with the usual suspects—black grouper, ceros,
jacks, and tons of grunts, hamlets and wrasses. Then the dolphins made an
appearance. A small pod of bottlenose dolphins circled the boat for topside
entertainment, then went and investigated our divemasters down on the reef. Jeff
got some amazing shots he’s posted to his site
http://www.130down.com/drytortugas/index.html.
We were off to Seaclusive Sanctuary for the afternoon. The current died, the
seas were flat, and the divers were treated to 3 fabulous dives on one of our
favorite sites. There were loggerhead and green turtles, spawning surgeonfish,
grouper large and small, and a second night of spawning for the star and brain
corals. The brittle stars were out snacking on the spawn, and our cook Chris and
naturalist Carliane found an octopus out hunting—and catching!
Dante’s Inferno was our choice for Friday morning. The current was howling, but
with Dante’s 35 ft of relief the dive on the lee side of the reef was amazing. A
small green turtle was surfing the current above the reef, as were half a dozen
scrawled file fish. Divers found lots of blue and queen angels, snappers and
grunts, grouper and the usual little guys—hamlets and wrasses. For the
afternoon, we moved to Great Every Time. The current died down and the divers
were treated to one of our larger dive sites. Some of the divers actually dived
the site we were moored on. Then there were those that seriously went for
distance. Thankfully the seas were calm and they all found their way home.
Between the coral heads there were hundreds of yellow headed jawfish, hogfish
and snapper. Two giant porcupine fish amazed many, and several barracuda hung
out under the boat. Melanie got to watch a green turtle having her shell cleaned
by blue tangs. For the night dive the basket stars put on a display, octopus
were out and about, plus dozens of channel clinging crabs, spotted and spiny
lobsters, and various shrimps.
For our wreck divers, we promised to spend Saturday diving the Vandenberg, so in
the wee hours of the morning we got underway for Key West. Saturday morning
found us in building seas with storm clouds on the horizon. It was the leading
edge of our first tropical disturbance of the season. Not to be deterred, we
tied up to our favorite mooring on the stern, splashed a current line and opened
the pool. The wreck is starting to attract quite a bit of life—clouds of
juvenile snappers and grunts, small cero, school of juvenile yellow jacks, and a
few young tropicals have appeared. Vis was estimated at 80ft, with howling
current and building seas. Building is relative, since it was a whopping 2 ft
with whitecaps. During our divers’ surface interval, we were watching the other
operators moored off our bow on the other various moorings. That’s always kind
of entertaining, and this morning was no exception. Two divers surfaced on the
mooring between us and the boat immediately in front of us. I radioed the
Captain to let him know we didn’t have anyone in the water and he was free to
maneuver around us, or to have the divers drift to us and we’d pick them up.
That’s when we found out they didn’t belong to him either—they belonged 2 boats
up. After watching an amazing swimming rescue performed by one operator of
another operators lost, out-of-air divers, we decided it was just time to come
home. So as soon as the divers and divemasters were all safely aboard their
respective boats, we headed back to the dock. A torrential downpour helped clean
the dive gear and boat, and the customers had an afternoon to explore Key West.
This one is definitely one for the record books. Let’s just leave it at that. |