In Reply to: Magician Dive Boat posted by Darren on May 25, 2007 at 07:37:09:

The Magician is a great boat to dive from. Captain Jerry and his crew take great care of guests.

Cons:
The boat is clean and kept that way. If you’re into a mess, this boat is NOT for you.

The food is good stuff. The interval snacks are not hot snacks. The coffee urn, though very large, has a tendency to run out at the end of the day if the boat is full. Jenny makes these unbelievable hamburgers and then takes the DOWN a notch by putting avocado slices on the. The fresh granola is not broken into smaller clusters – some of the chunks are almost the size of small cookies. Clearly, somebody is NOT paying attention!

The swim platform of the back gives you no chance to practice long ladder climbs in full gear. Tom or the DM of the day actually stands on the platform and will pull your fins off for you making the experience much too much like valet diving. Man, swim on to the platform at the end of the dive, get your fins taken off, hop up a few steps of the ladder. Where’s the rugged diver experience in that?

The gas fills are usually smack on 3000 PSI, giving me nothing to carp about as far as the fill service aboard. Nitrox is incredibly expensive as an extra…just over $20 EXTRA for a three tank dive day. (Oh…wait a minute…the LDS charges $10/fill.)

Parking in the lot at Ports-O-Call is free and there’s lots of it in the early morning. However, Jerry simply REFUSES to put on a valet parking attendant. What the heck is up with that?

The dive sites Jerry picks always seem to be infested with slimy, ugly sea slugs…YUUKKK! Fish everywhere!

There are only two heads on board. If three people have to go at the same time, one has to wait. Only one of the heads has a shower and that one never seems to run out of hot water. (Clearly a waste of energy.)

Jerry bends over backwards to accommodate divers special needs. That means that those “yellow boxes of death” are allowed on board. He also allows divers who need specialty items such as hoists, etc. Where’s the RAL dive experience in that? Why can’t we just have twenty guys on board in Hogarthian DIR rig and matching gear ready to dive on a serious mission.

The camera rinse tank only seems to have room for 8 to 10 cameras. Clearly marked. No one ever seems to rinse their masks in it. I have to dump in my OWN mask defog to properly clean my camera!

Tom – crew member – is always smiling and quite happy to talk to you. What’s he hiding behind that smile and why isn’t he off doing his job? Clearly too much time on his hands and not a gruff enough sea salt for a real boat experience.

The Wednesday trips are only $95 and the boats never seem to have many people aboard. Clearly, at that discount, Jerry is cutting some huge corners somewhere. (I just can’t figure out where…YET!) Last Wednesday, there were only eight passengers aboard (one was a non-diver). It just gets too lonely without bumping into three times as many divers while trying to get your gear on.

Pros:
There simply are NONE!

BTW; I was trying out a new filter last Wednesday. It’s clearly defective or Jerry did something to my camera because all I got was junk. Laura, however, took some magnificent pictures.

Here’s a link to a set of hers from this latest “miserable” trip aboard the Magician.

http://s120.photobucket.com/albums/o192/ianw2/Laura-5-23-07/?action=view¤t=1179977874.pbw

Three dives. Ship Rock, Arrow Cove, Eagle Reef. Vis 23’ to 50’. Sunny, warm, light breeze, little or no current.

Sorry, Jerry, I have to tell it like it is.

Ian

BTW - the preceding was entirely tongue-in-cheek!!!

• Fill pressure DebKarimoto 17:38:05 05/25/07 (0)
• Fill pressure Diver Z 13:21:06 05/25/07 (1)
  • Re: Fill pressure scjoe 15:21:31 05/25/07 (0)