Avoid this Company
I try not to have too many expectations in life – it’s too easy to be dissapointed if reality doesn’t quite match what you had hoped for. Often, by having expectations of how a particular thing should be, you become blind to what the experience does present, and that could be unfortunate if the experiences are valuable. But sometimes things are just plain crappy – and my dive/sail charter with Tallarook Dive Company out of Airlie Beach was not a good experience.
There were about 30 passengers, and 6 or 7 crew. The first thing the crew asked was if there were any Irish girls – and there were 3 of them around 18 or 19. More on this later. After getting assigned out bunks, we were brought up on deck for our briefing – which was mostly a commercial about how great a company they were and especially about how great the food was going to be. The prime reason I booked this trip was that it was a dive/sail combo out to the Whitsunday Islands. As it turned out, we didn’t unfurl the sails one time. At meal times, there was never enough food to go around. The dive equipment was not in the best shape. I was fortunate enough to get nearly-new stinger suit (to protect agains jellyfish), but most everyone else had holes in theirs.
The crew blasted music out of the sound system both on deck and in the dining cabin. Most of the time, that was great, but later in the eveing, most of the passenegers just wanted to chill and talk. We were able to turn down the speakers in the cabin, but almost immediately, the cook rushed in and tunred in up even louder and made some rude-ass remark. I turned it back down as soon as he left.
The Irish lasses were targeted by the crew and on the first night, 2 of the girls hooked up with the deckhands. Those of us who woke up early were treated to a sex-on-the deck show. Charming.
Tags: australia, dive, Travel
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