A FEW COMMENTS FROM SOME OF THE PARTICIPANTS | PHOTOS FURTHER DOWN

– Hi John
I just wanted to take a minute and tell you how much I enjoyed diving with you and Joe.  What a great bunch of divers.  I tell everyone the more you learn about diving, the more you learn you don't know much about diving.  I’m looking forward to next year.

– Dear Heidi:
I want to thank you for all your effort and work to make our Pirate's Cove Week a success.  Ron and I enjoyed meeting you and Joe.  We especially enjoyed meeting Sir Robert Marx, Leigh Bishop, Kevin Gurr, Evan, etc....   What a great group of folks!  We learned so much... and the more we learn the more we don't know...
I have also decided that I must save my money for a re-breather.  I fell in love with it when I tried it in the pool.

– Joe, you, John, and the Cove ran a good balance of diving for both the techies and us semi-techies.  It was a marvel of efficiency considering the mountain of gear and "gadgets".  The trip was a solid 10 for everyone!

– I can't emphasize it enough: you and John have the most professional and efficient tech and rec diving venue I've ever dove with in over forty years of diving, world-wide, bar none.  A very, very pleasant surprise; Joe and Heidi certainly picked the right spot for their first, and I hope first of many, many future wreck weeks.  I/we shall return, especially if we can truly search for some ancient wrecks.  I'd be more than willing to ride the shark line every day even if we didn't find anything.  The search is the true adventure.  I remember the reaction of Mel Fisher's divers when they finally hit the Atocha paydirt: at first elation and then depression because the search had ended.

Read what’s being reported in the California Wreck Divers’ newsletter about the event:

Frank's Dominican Republic Wreck Diving Report

 If you want to experience first class tech and wreck diving, the Pirate’s Cove Dive Center on the southeast coast, 30 miles east of Santo Domingo, is the place to go in the sunny, warm Caribbean.  Bill, Laura, and myself spent a week diving with these top professionals on wrecks from 40 to 180 fsw; sea water that was consistently 82 degrees Fahrenheit, top to bottom.

The Center has two boats: the GALLEON HUNTER and the WRECK RAIDER, plus three inflatable ribs to ferry divers and gear from the beach to the offshore boats.

The facility is fully equipped with everything from basic tanks, regs, and BC's to Nitrox, trimix, heliox, and rebreathers, so all divers are welcome, from newbie certs to high tech advanced.  Check out the Center’s website:  http://www.piratescovedivecenter.com

The week was sponsored by Wreck Diving Magazine, a quarterly journal, and John Chatterton.  The pros attending included Sir Robert Marx of Port Royal, Jamaica fame, and John, the Deep Sea Detective who was our honored guest at our last banquet.

A special treat was visiting the old Santo Domingo museum and laboratory where artifacts from the famous Concepcion wreck of Silver Shoals are treated, restored, and displayed.  It was exciting to actual touch and hold silver coins, pistols, muskets, and Ming Dynasty chinaware.  It was also exciting to tour Christopher Columbus' house; a mansion of many rooms and priceless artifacts.

This was the first of the magazine’s Wreck Weeks and it was an outstanding success.  Joe Porter, its editor and publisher, plans to have more of these one week expeditions.  The next one in September will be to the Olympus Dive Center in Morehead City, North Carolina, diving the WW II casualties that Laura, Tony, and I dove last year.  It’s fully booked, but Joe is planning another one next year and a return trip to Pirate’s Cove.

I urge you to subscribe to the magazine, www.wreckdivingmag.com.  It's only 24 bucks a year, and you’ll be able to track all these adventures and maybe book one.  These are once-in-a-divetime opportunities.