In Reply to: Re: Re: Post the letters posted by capt Jerry on September 04, 2008 at 09:49:36:

With all this bashing I felt compelled to chime in with my $.02.

Thank you Capt. Jerry for some sound resoning. Fortunately, I don't blindly listen to other divers' opinions, even though I did appreciate their insight and hearing their perceived negative experience.

I haven't dove on the Raptor yet, but I am booked for a trip later this month to Anacapa. So far I have appreciated everything about the Raptor. I was looking for an open boat on the opening weekend of lobster season, and everything was looking pretty full around town. I called three different boats showing possible openings on their websites and left messages asking for a call back, yet to this day not one of them ever returned my call. I assumed they were full and just didn't want to bother calling me back. At last I called the Raptor and they actually picked up. They were friendly and informative. Their website was the easiest booking I have tried to date. I really liked the idea of leaving at 9am and returning at 2:30pm. Compared to the other boats out of Ventura, that gets me an hour more sleep in the morning, and back home in time for dinner with the family. For that luxury I don't care if the boat doesn't have comfy seating during the 45 minute trip.

I appreciated hearing the one experience that the Raptor didn't bring enough air tanks. I guess it's possible, and thus I will bring my HP100 for the first dive just in case.

As far as not having enough food, and having their group's wishes not met.....I take it with a grain of salt. We are only hearing one side of the story. Several times I was last out of the water and took my time cleaning up, only to discover that the food was mostly all eaten up. I understand that the boat has a schedule to keep that doesn't necessarily revolve around me. I've also had the misfortune of overhearing the crabby complaints from some grizzled old dive veterans.... "Oh god, we're diving this sh_ty spot?!? I thought we were going to that 'good' spot over there!" I always trust the boat Captains in these instances. They are more aware of the big picture than any of us divers. They have a schedule to keep, know the ocean conditions, and have a better handle on the local dive site conditions than I ever will have.

We need more dive boats in the area, not less. The ecosystem above the water is just as important as one below.