Can't Recommend Dive Fair Helen in St. Lucia

[PescadoAmarillo]

We just returned from a cruise on the Serenade of the Seas (loved it!), and while in St. Lucia we booked 2 tank dives with Dive Fair Helen based on some of the wonderful things we read about them on this board. Frankly, we were less than pleased.

 

First, we were told to meet the Dive Fair Helen boat at 8:45 am in a separate harbor from where the ship's tender came in, which we were told would be easily accessible by the water taxi for $1. Unfortunately, the water taxi didn't begin running until 9 am. So intent we were (my husband and I, as well as 3 others from the ship who had scheduled with Dive Fair Helen to snorkel) to be prompt that we ended up paying a guy in a boat to take us over to the Dive Fair Helen boat for $2 per person. Not a big deal, and we were at the DFH boat on time.

 

Once there, it was apparant that chaos reigned supreme. We were first told to get on the boat and that we would be leaving in about 20 minutes. Then it became obvious that there were WAY too many people (a mix of divers and snorkelers) on the boat, and some people were unloaded on to a second boat. At almost 10 am, we still hadn't left, and one couple from the ship simply asked for their credit card receipt back and walked away from the debacle. There was no water on the boats, and people began leaving to buy water. My dive computer (attached to a tank) was registering an air temp of 91 degrees in the sun, and there wasn't nearly enough shade to accomodate all the people still left on the boats. At almost 10:30 am, water was loaded on, and we finally left. At no time was there any reason given for why were were late; in fact, the divemasters mostly talked amongst themselves and didn't seem to find it important to keep us content at all.

 

On our first dive, it became immediately apparant that my husband's rental regulator (from DFH) was leaking big time. We called our divemaster over and he looked at it (we were in the water at this time) and motioned to us to continue our dive. At that point, we kind of figured we were on our own, so we carefully watched his air. He was at 700 psi when I was still at 2100...it was a significant leak. We motioned to our divemaster that we were surfacing, and found ourselves right against the sheer rock wall along the coast in the largest waves I've encountered in almost 60 dives. The boat was quite a ways away, but we were finally able to signal it, and were shocked to find that the divemaster from another group who was already on the boat did nothing to help us get up the ladder. If it hadn't been for other divers, we would not have made it successfully. After we collected all the other divers, I asked if we would be eating lunch first or doing our second dive first. Again, there was no answer...no one seemed to be in charge. As it turned out, we ate lunch first.

 

My husband attached his rental gear to a second tank, and this time it was obvious from the sound that air was again leaking. We told our divemaster, who fussed with it and then connected it to a different tank. It still leaked, and he changed the O ring in the tank. It continued to leak (I could hear it), and the divemaster insisted it was not leaking. In desparation I looked to a fellow diver who said that he could hear it too, and brought out his own tool kit to try to fix it (thank you!), but, unfortunately it was still leaking. So, once again, we started on a dive with a leaking reg. This time I was at 1600 when my husband was at 700; again, we had a short dive. When we motioned to the divemaster that we were starting to ascend, he indicated that I should stay down since I had air left. I really couldn't believe that...I would never abandon a buddy on an ascent.

 

We left so late in the morning that what should have been a 4-5 hour excursion took the entire time we were in port, and left us no time to look around even the port terminal when we returned.

 

While the corals on the wall, and the wreck were both terrific dives, I have never been so uncomfortable with a dive operation. At no time did I feel safe and confident that someone (anyone?) was in command and was looking out for us. In retrospect, we should have joined our shipmates in walking out of the situation, but we had never been to St. Lucia before and were desparate to see the reef. It was obvious that there was no extra equipment on board to replace defective equipment, but what was most troubling was that our divemaster knowingly told us to dive with defective equipment and also ignored basic dive procedures in indicating that my husband should surface without me.

 

I would discourage anyone from booking with Dive Fair Helen.

[WISara]

Wow!! Sounds like you guys really got a bum deal.

 

We had almost the exact opposite situation happen to us in December! We were lucky and didn't have to tender (Saw the princess boat doing that) so we just walked right over to the landing where the boat picked us up. They had one of the DMs meet us and let us know where to wait for the boat (we could see it from across the little mini harbor/bay). We didn't really have any waves to speak of so that was never an issue. The boat was completely stocked when it arrived and no one that i saw had issues with the equipment. The crew was all super friendly (even took a bunch of pix of me and the BF as we were driving over to the first dive site) and the food was great.

 

We did have a lot of people on the boat - but it seemed to be enough room for everyone -- it sounds like they really packed you guys in there on your trip!

 

I really hope that yours was a fluke occurence as the dive shop was excellent when we went there and are planning on returning for a longer stay to dive with them!! I'll have to keep my eyes open now to make sure they haven't had a change in management or something and that this will be the standard state of affairs for the place!!

 

So sorry you had a bad experience -- we were new divers when we went and this was the best stop on the whole cruise for us, it is really a shame that the poor service cost you a chance to enjoy it for yourselves!!!

[bruce-r]

Sorry you had such an uncomfortable and potentially unsafe experience. Your experience only goes to reinforce my belief that people are better of bringing their own dive gear when they travel.