PAGE 2: Scuba Diving and Carlisle Beach
We headed back onto the boat.
Kendra and Shawna made it to the surface and Brayden popped up from the side. I was glad I was seeing a smile on her face. Shawna looked happy too. I honestly can't believe Shawna wasn't freaking out. I mean she did freak out over a small harmless sea urchin the other day at the beach.
So here is a Carlisle Bay Marine Park map. There are 6 shipwrecks located there. We went to 4 of them plus the barge.
We went to Bajan Queen, Eillon, Cornwallis, Berwind and the Barge. According to our instructor, we went down 40' but it says the Eillon is in 55 feet of water so I don't know. She wouldn't give an "exact" amount. She said we dove for 30 minutes. According to my pictures, it was more like 45 minutes. The water was 82 degrees and said visibility was 50 feet.
I "think" this was maybe our 7th dive we've done and I'm feeling more and more comfortable with it and I can't wait to go again!!!!
Now when we pulled up in the boat, the instructors go "Oh my! Yuck" and we looked at the beach and it was covered in seaweed. So weird how much came in while we were out there.
Back at the dive shop, we waited for quite some time for our instructor to finish what she was doing (the other people that dove had left already) and I was waiting to have my book filled out. They actually paged her several times. She didn't fill it out but gave me the info to do it myself and she stamped it.
I wanted to mention the lady at the counter is very rude. After checking in she handed us our books to fill out. We've done this enough times to know what all goes on it and so on. Then on the page beside it was the "test" you have to fill out and sign. Well, I filled out my book and did the test and she started yelling at me "You have to read the book. Did you read the book?" I told her I've done this test enough times and know the answers that I don't need to read a book to know the answers. She had a fit and told me to go outside and read the book and THEN take the test. She sent everyone out with books and said: "go read". At this point, the entire group was agitated about her attitude. I came back in and gave her my book and she said: "are you sure you are ready for the test?" ....Um, lady I've already filled it out but the last 2 questions, what do you think?
Then Sakari came in looking for me and she started to do her test. Well, Sakari has a reading disability and I knew it would take her a while to do without help. So, I read her the questions and the lady started screaming at me "THIS IS A TEST! YOU CAN NOT HELP HER! SHE HAS TO PASS THIS ON HER OWN!" Oh my god! At this point I was sick of her attitude and I said "She has a hard time reading and I'm not telling her the answers and I'm not doing anything but reading it to her and if you have a problem with this then I'm done with this place and we won't dive at all!!!!" She finally backed down. There were some other issues when we first got there so that lady was already on my bad side to begin with.
Now I have to say that this is the first place that has ever had us take the test before doing the class. Normally they do the class and go over everything, then you take the test, then you go to the water for skills. Just plain weird.
I'm also including a picture of the Hilton where we did our skills in the pool
After that, we headed to the beach for a while.
We were all a little hungry after the dive and walked down to a little place for some food.
The kids had found a coconut and were determined to break into it and eat it...and they succeeded.
The food hit the spot and then we walked back to the dive shop to gather our things and head back to the ship.
We walked into the dive shop to let them know we were ready to go back and they looked at us like we were crazy. They say "you can go across the street to catch a taxi". Wait what? We were told you provided the transportation. They said no, we'd have to go on our own. But that's not what we were told in the email. Then the story changed to "we looked for you and couldn't find you". Um no, we were sitting right in front of the dive shop where we were before the dive too! They knew this!!
We pretty much argued back and forth and she made a call to someone and said she'd get an "override" and then got off the phone and said, "No, he said he would not pay for it because our driver is already gone".
Now wait a minute, we told them in the email over and over that our ship leaves late and we had planned on staying before and after the dive to enjoy the beach. They were more than aware of this. We were told we could get a ride back from them and was INCLUDED in the price as long as we booked ahead of time, which we did. I told her I had it all in email. They told me to PROVE IT. So I did!!!!!!!!! They said if I could show them the convo about staying at the beach after and the convo that promised us a ride back then she would "override" it and pay for a taxi. I showed her...then she refused. Now THAT pissed me off because I took the time to go over every email I had between them (which is a lot) and prove that this occurred only for her to go back on her word. Yea, we were all a little pissed. But ....they called us a taxi. How nice of them! Ugh
So the taxi arrived and took us back to port where we would later discover that Kendra was completely ripped off by the first taxi driver by about $20. At $7.50 pp, she should have paid $37.50 plus tip. He ended up charging them $58 I think she said...or maybe it was $68.00 and Billy also gave him a tip. We thought maybe it was Barbados $$ and they just paid that US $$ or something. Either way she was pissed at this point.
It only cost us $40 to take all 11 of us back to port.