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North America Dive Operators |
Key West, Florida - "Playmate" |
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Dive Operator Snapshot |
Dive Operation Overview
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A wonderful adventure for advanced open water divers!
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The Boat: The Playmate is a 60' long live aboard dive vessel with its own air compressor system
which can also deliver up to 40% Nitrox. Four cabins and 2 showers are below
deck in an air conditioned area. The Playmate is set up dive
charters from 6-11 people. Individuals or couples can contact
them to be worked into a group. Divers can expect up to six
dives per day and 3 dives on the last day of either a 3 day or 4 day
charter.
I like the camaraderie aboard this size charter. We had eight divers and the boat had a crew of three, a captain, a mate, and a cook. The crew was excellent and I would have to give them a 4.75 star rating. The captain was a good natured soul who did his best to make the adventure as enjoyable as possible. The mate was efficient and served the divers well. The cook kept us in grub and treats the entire trip. The Food: Divers must have fuel to dive and hunt game. We started every day with a solid breakfast which varied from day to day including eggs, bacon, sausage, pancakes, omelets, and quiche. We really ate well every meal and they kept fruit and such available throughout the day. The best way to describe the food is that it was great tasting "man food." The Diving: We left Key West and began diving our way towards the Dry Tortugas. Our best hunting was off the Marquessas where we had the greatest variety of sea life including lobsters, snappers, and hogfish. My dive buddy and bugged and shot our fill bringing home two very large coolers stuffed with "bugz" and fish. The hunting off of the Tortugas bank was not as good. Lobster and game were somewhat scarce. Most of the dives were in middle depths of 40-80'.
Photo from their website. Observations: The Playmate, crew, and
diving was excellent. I prefer diving these smaller
live-a-boards as the atmosphere is more collegiate and personal.
With a diver to crew ratio of about 2.5:1 you get all the help and
attention you want. |
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Bottom Line: The Playmate and the diving
off the Marquessas and Dry Tortugas is highly recommended.
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http://www.spearfishingcharters.com/index.html
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Your Dive Professional Who Wrote This Review |
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As
a dive instructor and owner of a dive shop in Orlando, Florida you
might think that I get all the diving I could possibly want.
The reality is that I love to dive and when I take a few days off I
often try to do some spearfishing and "bugging" for lobsters.
We had a chance to dive with the Playmate and decided to make the
drive to Key West and dive with the Playmate.