Just got back from 10 days in Puerto Rico. 6 days diving with Nekton at Mona Island. A good time was had by all. As usual diving with Nekton was wonderful. The food seemed a cut above their normal fair. The crew was as attentive and help as always.  Captain Nelson was a native of Puerto Rico and very anxious for us to fully appreciate the beauty and thrill of this area's diving.

We arrived a few days early .With a rented a car we did some sight seeing and drove the coastal roads from San Juan to Mayaguez the port we met the Nekton Rorqual at on Sat. A word about driving in Puerto Rico. I did some research on line about driving here and it sounded somewhere between bleak to psychotic. As it turns out I found it to be different but totally enjoyable. Of course that is coming from someone who commutes daily on the dirty Dan Ryan in Chicago. The roads are narrow and winding so oncoming cars tend to have to swerve a bit to fit especially on the many tight blind curves. But I never felt that sense of hostility I get while driving in the US. In fact there is a fun sort of rythm and courtesy to the traffic flow. The signage at times was a bit scetchy or overgrawn with the lush foliage. A good map really solved most of the naviagtional problems. Also most US cell phones seem to work so you could easily call for dirrections if you get totally lost. 

This itinerary is billed as adventure diving. I am not sure just what that means but this trip did seem a little more intense than my previous Nekton trip to Belize. Fortunately day one was a nice tame couple of dives on Desecheo Island about 12 miles west of Rincon Puerto Rico. All week the water temps were around 81 plus or minus 1 deg.. At this small island the bottom profile was from 40 feet over the reefs getting gradually deeper to a drop off around 80. This Island was used for target practice at some time in the past so we were warned about not messing with the ordinance we may find at this site. I personally did not see any but some other diver did report seeing some fairly large projectiles.

I did over 20 dives at more then 10 sites so I am going generalize a bit rather that go site by site. Basically at Mona and Monito the sites are dived into 2 kinds: sites with moorings and sites that you dive from a moving ship. 

Monday we went another 50 miles or so offshore to the next Island called Mona. This is basically a big rock several miles long. On the SW side Nekton has several moorings placed. The SW side is typically sheltered from the prevailing winds and swell of the North Atlantic. The SW side is on the Caribbean side and is very different from the NE side. On the protected side the diving is on wonderful spur and groove reefs with long deep crevasses. The 5 or so sites we moored at were not very similar even though they were within a mile of each other. Some had wall-like structure others were reefs and sand. Typically the tops of the reefs were around 40 feet dropping off quickly to over 80.  

For the remainder of the week we moved around to best utilize the excellent weather we were having. Everyday got nicer and nicer. Daytime temps in the mid to high 80’s and nights in the mid 70’s. I think we had 10 minutes of rain the whole week. Also the winds and swells kept getting smaller. Sin summary: perfect. 

 On the third day moved about 3 miles away to a smaller island called Monito. Here we did what Nekton calls “live boat” diving. It is like drift diving but you may or may not drift. Basically the pilot expertly backs this big ass boat less than 100 feet from the breaking waves on a shear cliff and you jump in. We broke up into 2 groups approximately half the guests in each group. The first group was suited up and ready to go. At the signal everyone entered the water quickly. I should mention this operation has some room to be a total mess. But I was fortunate enough to be diving with some of the best most experienced divers I have seen. Also this was the only time we were escorted by a dive master and other of the Nekton crew. After swimming or drifting for 40 minutes or so everyone it the group would do their safety stop and then surface and get picked up. That operation again required some fairly good boat handling; The Rorqual is not exactly a runabout. Over all it was extremely organized.

During this week we did 4 live boat dives. The most memorable was on the ocean facing side of Mona. Normally it is way too wavy on this side. But the weather was with us and Capt. Nelson was adventurous enough to motor around and take a peek. The swells were still there but small enough to be safe. Also he recognized that the divers on board were competent enough to stay out of trouble. I guess I should explain why you would want to go thru all this trouble for live boat diving. On the sites that are too deep along the sheer cliffs it is not practical to put in moorings for the ship. These sites offer what is the real unique appeal of Mona and Monito The cliffs rise 60 to 80 feet above the ocean and the sheer walls extend down to a rocky ledge around 100 to 120 feet down. There wall have been battered for eons and many HUGE rocks have cleaved off. You can sometimes see where they used to fit. other times they just form a maze of cracks and valley. Some of these rocks extend from the bottom to within 30 feet of the surface. Through out the dive you can look up and see the frothy white water of the surf smashing against the sheer cliffs above. The visibility here was typically over 100 feet. in many spots you were actually under the ledges and cliffs looking outward to see light. If you like structure this is structure. On these vertical surfaces there were numerous fissures and ledges for critters to hide. You did have to mind your computer on these dives, with no trouble at all you would tend to linger along the swim throughs and crevasses down deep.  I saw several turtles and sharks on these dives. I suspect not too many folks get a chance to dive the ocean side of Mona.

As for the general critter population. We saw quite a few turtles and rays. On the sheer cliff dives I saw several sharks. Some on the ledges others swimming along the bottom shelf. Generally speaking this must be the sponge capital of the world. Zillions of them. And you have to peek in every single one. You will never know what you will see hiding in there.  I never really notice sponges much. But here I am sure you could make a study of them. Of course that would cut into looking at all the other cool stuff. It seemed like a lot of trunk fish also. One of the divers I was with came up all excited and asked if I heard the whale song. I assumed he was teasing me. After drying off and lounging on deck the crew asked if I heard anything on my last dive. He said the whales passed by just a little ways to port. 

One of the things I like most about live aboard diving is the easy of night diving. I did 4 night dives this trip. While I still am amazed that they are not as scary as they should be I still enjoy them. But on this one dive I was just swimming along scanning the bottom about 10 feet below me in 40 feet of water. I was panning my light back and forth and all of a sudden all I saw was brownish green. A really big Hawksbill turtle slid about 10 inches below me. He sort of slowed down stared me it the face and as if to say “get that damn light outta my face” I obliged but sort of kept peeking at his carapace. He was a big boy.

On some of the moored dives current did sometimes add a little challenge to the diving. Usually it was stronger on the surface so you had to mind your navigation. Sometimes coming up on the mooring line was a wise approach.. The current really only was problematic on one dive though. Of course being an out of shape a slug from the Midwest in winter did not help. 

If you like a variety in diving rocks structures to long reefs to sandy chutes. This itinerary has it all.