Bryan
Palo Alto,#2UPDATE EX-employee responds
Tue, February 24, 2009
Well, 7 years after the negative experience that Mark reported with Blackbeard's Cruises, I came across this report/article which he wrote so long ago. I was an employee of Blackbeard's Cruises at the time and I personally knew the employees he mentioned, so I thought I would provide my own perspective. First and foremost, I sympathize with Mark's plight. As employees doing the same scuba trips week in and week out it was sometimes hard for us to remember that our customers were only there for a "once in a year" or perhaps "once in great while" experience. This being your precious time for a much needed vacation, an event you probably anticipated for months, it is not unreasonable that expectations were very high. Now I don't know exactly what happened on the boat Mark was on, but in general it would have been great if all crew members could fully appreciate these facts and try hard to make each week special even when it feels like just another week. It sounds like Mark had real issues with Captain Yolanda. I'll admit she was a real tough case. Once you got on her bad side you were in a world of pain, most likely forever as patching things up was not her strong suit. Her personality could be really tough to deal with and a lot of crew members, myself included, felt like she was impossible to deal with. That said, she was also tireless and put a lot of effort into many trips, and her crew seemed to make the most money in tips at the end of each week, so they must have been doing a few things right. But if you ruffled her feathers, probably without even meaning to or realizing it right away, she would become, irreversibly, a downright _________. You should understand that Captain Yolanda held a full captain's license which is important to note because the Coast Guard requires that a vessel like the Sea Explorer operating 24 hours a day have TWO crew members with such licenses--the captain and the first mate. While it was easy to find employees who wanted to work on a diving live-aboard boat, finding capable employees with captain's licenses was another matter. Blackbeard's Cruises needed 6 such crew members each and every week (3 ships x 2 = 6 captain's licenses required). The point is that captains were in short supply, at least for the wages that were being offered, and so quite a bit of negative feedback could be tolerated by the company management for crew in these positions. Furthermore, it was hard for the management to know if the complaints they were receiving were genuine or the result of people who might complain under virtually any circumstances. The default action was to give the captain or first mate the benefit of the doubt, if for no other reason then because these positions were very hard to replace. Other positions were easily expendable and thus negative feedback given about a dive instructor, engineer, cook or deckhand could have much tougher consequences. Now don't get me wrong, I have no intention of burning my bridges with Blackbeard's Cruises and I am hoping that anybody reading this does not think I have reflected negatively on the company in any way. Overall, I think they did a good job for their niche. So let's state that niche: Blackbeard's Cruise, at least in 2002, was offering a no frills, economy class scuba live-aboard package. The crew were not paid highly and that probably contributed to a real diversity in the quality of employees. Also, turnover of the crew was high--anyone there for more than a year or two was a veteran. The boats were older, heavy, and had undersized masts which meant they would never really sail well unless the wind was blowing hard. The sails were mainly decoration and helped to provide a fantasy image of cruising the crystal clear waters of the Bahamas under the power of the wind. It sounds romantic, but is not very practical for the nonstop diving and activity schedule that was maintained. Most days included three dives plus a night dive, interspersed with port calls, beach bonfires, island exploration and such. To get in that kind of an agenda, sailing was largely out of the question. Even if there was enough wind to move a heavy boat with an undersized mast and sails (like the Sea Explorer), it would eat up a ton of time each day and result in fewer dives. Think about it: how could you pull up to a mooring at a dive site and secure the boat to that mooring under sail power? You couldn't. You would have to drop the sails first and then use the motor. Furthermore, the chef can't do anything in the galley under sail power because the boat is heeled to one side, so too much sailing might delay meal preparation. It all boils down to the fact that you have one week, 20+ passengers, and an expectation to pack in a lot of action. That requires a system that can run efficiently and productively. Mark, maybe you would be better off next time getting some friends together and chartering a "bare sailboat" that might come with just a captain. You could then have total control over your agenda and could maybe trade less dives for more sailing and fishing, and you could opt for a real sailboat with true sailing capabilities. I would also like to address the frustration you expressed with the divemaster staying on the boat and not getting in the water with you. Believe it or not, the best place for the divemaster is on the boat acting as a lifeguard. Most diving accidents happen at the surface or become serious once the diver reaches the surface. Furthermore, with 20+ divers hitting each dive site and scattering both in space and time, a divemaster in the water could hope to keep his/her eyes on a few divers at most. That does nothing for the rest of the divers. Ultimately, a diver in distress can at least make it to the surface, and if you are following your training then your buddy is next to you the whole time to offer assistance as needed. Once on the surface the dive instructor on the boat can spot your flailing arms and come to the rescue with the dinghy, provide first aid and oxygen, and call for the backup of the rest of the crew. I personally made dozens of such rescues, sometimes of divers who were so far away from the boat that I had to use binoculars to affirm that the speck I was seeing was a diver who had no idea how to navigate underwater or deal with an ocean current. To sum up this paragraph, if you want to dive with a divemaster, you will have to find an operation with a larger staff that provides guided dives and likely this will be a substantially more expensive live aboard experience. And never get in the water without someone stationed on the boat as a lifeguard--that is the person who will most likely save your life. One last topic to cover with you Mark. You talked about your disappoint with the lack of spearfishing. Well I myself was a lobster terrorizer, and I tried hard to nail juicy lobsters for a treat. But it was hard to do, even though I knew the good spots. You see, Blackbeards Cruises visited the same geographic area week after week, year after year. I only had much success at bagging lobsters when we visited spots we didn't normally frequent. Blackbeard's Cruises tried hard to maintain the health of the areas it visited, but the impact was inevitable. And we weren't the only company that roamed the area. There just weren't enough lobsters to supply our 3 boats totalling 60 or so divers each week, week after week. As a final note I will say that I am personally disappointed that my fellow crew members were rude to you and one even acted inappropriately to your wife. You deserved to have the best week possible, so you have my apology for what it's worth. On the other hand it is hard to pull off a perfect week--most of the time our customers came away satisfied, but there was always some weeks when things just went south for whatever reason. For us crew we just had to get to the next week, but for you it might take quite a bit longer to have another chance, so I hope that your next scuba adventure is remarkable. Going forward, remember to be flexible, complain only when justified, and expect things to not always be perfect when you are shopping for an economy class adventure.
Fletcher
Pitcairn Island,#3UPDATE EX-employee responds
Wed, October 16, 2002
Captain Goode took us on a trip to pick up some breadfruit in the islands. For a time everything was idyllic, then the Captain became prone to fits of rage culminating in an incident with some (allegedly) stolen cocoanuts. After calling the fair Captain on her numerous threats and boasts she attempted to cow me with various dangerous sounding adventures, like walking the plank or "kissing the gunner's daughter". She even threatened to "run me through" with her cutlass! The image of her staring at me with her one good eye (she wore an eyepatch) and the sound of Blackjack (her parrot) shrieking "Avast!" at me from her shoulder still gives me nightmares.