Well, its been a few weeks, but I'm back from 2 weeks of diving on the Brac.
This was visit #4, and it was a lot of fun seeing all the 'Berts and the rest of the staff once again...almost like another family reunion.
For those that have asked about the meal plans & other options, we've done both the MAP and the full blown inclusive. We've since settled on buying the FAP for our trips .
What we've found is that with the MAP, you would get breakfast generally no later than 8:30am to catch the 9am dive boat, but then it was ten hours until dinner at 6:30pm, which was simply too long for us. Nothing like having a happy-hour drink with low blood sugar. If you buy a few full-priced lunches, the weekly price of the FAP is competitive and IMO worth it, even if you don't use it every day.
For booze, because we're light drinkers, after we accounted the expenses of 1 or 2 drinks per person per day, its usually cheaper to skip the Inclusive package and pay-as-we-go for drinks on the FAP, but do determine which way is more cost effective for you.
The 1992 drink prices were: beer=$3.25, pina colada=$4.75, soda=$1.25 Add much more $'s for top shelf liquors, etc. For the two of us at just 2/day, that's $16 per day ($118/week) accounted for. Since the Inclusive often costs ~$25/pp-day more, this is a place that a light drinking couple can save ~$200 in a week.
All meals are buffet and be careful: you can gain weight even though you're diving. I got 4 extra lbs to work of my 150lb frame this winter. A few years later, I gained roughly ten pounds during a two week stay. I think I'm still trying to work that weight off!
There are several room types available. We stayed in the timeshares (very nice) and the deluxe rooms near the pool (good). The timeshares have since gotten pretty ragged, but Steveo is working on them - got a new recently that said that the new furniture is finally on its way (finally!).
Previously, we've been in the Luxury and the 'mere' Superior rooms (now called 'Standards'). Divi Tiara's manager, Alan Mallory, has started a renovation of the Superior rooms... they needed them bad... other than some similar evidence of need-of-repair around the pool area, most of the older rooms in the resort are in pretty good shape... a lot depends on how picky you are. There's some people who prefer the Superiors over the Deluxe because they're bigger & have a less bizzare bathroom layout (ground floor deluxe bathrooms have a garden in them, and instead of a tub/shower enclosure, they have a jacuzzi with a separate shower stall).
One really nice thing about owning a timeshare is the 20% discount on prepaid meal plan and prepaid diving. They used to have a similar discount for their stockholders. Now that Divi is out of chapter 11, you can buy their stock again, it had been only at like 3/8ths, so you'll easily make back your cost of buying the stock on your first use.
Oops, I forgot it above...other places to eat. There's about three restaurants on the Brac now that you could go to dinner at. The best is La Esperanza's (also known as "Bussies"). If you want to hit a grocery store, there's one over at Tibbet's Square. You'll pass by Tibbet's on your bus ride from the airport to the hotel. It's an easy bike ride over; probably 1.5 miles from Divi. They have the cheapest soda I've found on the island... $.50 CI for a cold 12 oz can.
Island news:
Obviously, no resort wants any accidents advertised, so if you're going down, don't say a word...if you give me a list of the non-Caymanian DM's still there, I know the names involved & can infer what's going on, while leaving the individual nameless. I've thought at length about mentioning this to the net at all, but the conclusion that I keep coming back to is that this bad event really indicates good news...the staff at Divi is really looking out for the divers and they're not above firing a staffmember if he isn't up to their safety standards....similarly, we are all assured that all of their diveboats carry Oxygen and that the resort has a
emergency response plan that works. My non-diving wife saw the land based scramble and we later had dinner with 2 of the 3 major players of the rescue, based upon our knowledge, about the only way their plan could be improved would involve unrealistic expectations, like making every DM a Medical Doctor and getting a helicopter for faster evacuations.
This was Andrew, who Donna, Jeff (a marine biologist who was doing reef surveys for the Government) and Dr. lloyd Pendergrass collectively rescued. I happened to be on the other diveboat that day, on a Little Cayman Trip which Lloyd didn't want to go on, and Lloyd's prescence really was the only reason why Andrew survived the lung squeeze he got while falling off the wall to ~132fsw (noticed, chased and finally caught by Donna, it should be added) after suffering his shallow water blackout. We had dinner with Donna and Lloyd that night and the rest joined us while eating a chocolate cake that Debby made to celebrate Lloyd's birthday. This coffee session turned out to be the rescuer's "decompression" discussion as it was their first real time back together to discuss who saw what, in what order things happened in and to figure outwhat really happened. The divesite that it occurred at was "Rock Monster", if I recall correctly. I'm not sure if Andrew ever really recovered fully from his near-fatal accident - I don't think so.
Unfortunately, the bad news is that it seems that some people simply don't learn from the mistakes of others:
- a few years later, another Ex-Pat Divi Instructor tried to dive on air to 400fsw while on a private dive and his visiting friend who was with him never came back, sothere's a cement memorial marker now on the Tiara Tunnels divesite where this foolhardy dive happened (see my 1996 report).
- and in 1998, another Ex-Pat Divi staff member had a shallow water blackout while freediving while on duty, but this time iton a shallow reef site on the Brac's north side and he was found unconcious on the bottom, eyes wide open, by two customers and returned to the boat. He seems to be doing okay.
One final thing...after 4 visits, I've *finally* been on my first "BLUFF RUN". This is a circumnavigation of the Brac, and you see the 140' cliff from the water side. I skipped going over to Little Cayman to 'do the bluff.' It was worth it, not only for the views but for the diving...we went to one spot that even one of the 'BERTS had never been to before! ....(this site is now known as 'Bert Brothers Boulders' and just recently got a mooring).
Hugh {I'll be BRAC next year} Huntzinger