点评:I have mixed feelings about how this trip went.
We went on the short trip around the waters of Papeete with the Royal Caribbean excursion as part of our honeymoon.
I write these notes below, not directly as negative review, but hopefully so things can be improved in future for everyone. Please take my notes constructively, they are meant in a friendly way.
Weather wasn’t great at the start, but that’s outside of everyone’s control. It’s wasn’t windy, just overcast and light rain.
The trip out was pleasant, we had fun.
The captain decided that the usual snorkel location was not safe, as the current was too high, and lots of swell, and took us elsewhere. This was a good decision, we always happy to be safe while on holiday. That expertise is what you are paying for. My wife had not snorkelled before, so she had the unfamiliar feeling of the snorkel adding onto things, so we happy to find a calmer place to swim so she could get her bearings and have fun.
However, where he took us was like a mooring area for boats. So sandy bottom, not much around. Not very close to coral. The water appeared calm and flat.
He told us not to go behind the boat, as it’s the boating lane. Understood. One of the American ladies was very vocal about being unsure that it was ok to swim there. She noted there was no other people nearby swimming. We didn’t think it was a problem as the captain had assured us it was ok. And water looked flat
I got in with fins/flippers. The water was probably around 5 meters deep.
However the current was still surprisingly strong. Immediately after getting in, I started to go under the boat and towards the back, in just the few seconds while trying to tighten my fins, as I released I was going to really need them to swim harder. I had to swim hard to stay in front of the boat. I was just trying to hold the rope while my wife got in the water. Then we swam upstream in search of something worth seeing. We were told that if they needed to, they would put a tender in to come and rescue anyone who drifted off in the current. Which made me feel a bit better.
We spent the whole time just trying to get a bit closer to the coral reef edge, which was not close at all given the conditions. Most of the group never got more than 15 meters from the boat.
Again, I get that the captain was doing his best to overcome the challenges of the weather for the day. I wish we had known that we would spend the whole time fighting the current, as I would have just stayed on the boat and relaxed.
Eventually, they used the small tender boat to ferry people closer to the coral, where is was “calmer” so they could look and then drift back to the boat.
However, when he picked us up, he dropped us in a clear section (a couple meters across) of chest deep water and told us to swim. He took us way further into the coral than everyone else, and we felt a bit uncomfortable, as the boat had just scraped the coral getting there. He told us it was fine, and we believed him because he is the expert.
We were unsure, but he then just left us there by ourselves, so we tried to give it a go because how else would we get back?
Within seconds, we had drifted to the edge of the spot he dropped us( back towards the boat). It became very shallow (2 ft between us and Coral) very quickly, and as it did, the water speed increased. We tried to navigate to get to the deeper water, or find a path through. Within a minute, the coral we were trying to snorkel through was shallow enough in some spots that we were having to try and swim around it so that we didn’t crash into it. There was no way to stop in the current. It had become unsafe to be in that place. We needed to just get up and out of the water and re-evaluate where we were and how to get out.
Surprisingly hard to stand up in shallow water, uneven ground while in fins, with lots of current.
But my wife was unable to slow down or stop and stand up, and was then swept into the coral that was less than 1 ft below the surface. It just missed her head, and fought her belly and leg. She has some bruises from hitting the rock but also a few scrapes on her leg from the coral. This could have been her head hitting the reef. (In hindsight, while proofreading my comments for the trip, I must note that if that had happened, I don’t have faith that we would have been able to get her to proper help quickly )
The only reason she wasn’t swept further was because she got stuck there, and I was able to help her stand up. We were both standing in knee-thigh deep water on coral, looking around, stunned at where we had been left. Looking back at where we were dropped, (now that we were higher up and could see more) there was no way we could have made it to the main boat without some very shallow sections, given the current being stronger on the coral.
The next person he brought out on the tender to the coral was dropped much closer to the catamaran than we were, and they would have had 2-3 meters between them and the coral.
I waved them down to pick us up and take us back. Fortunately the tender can go pretty shallow, with some more scraping on the coral. The snorkelling aspect was over for us. We showed the bleeding leg to the crew member and asked what to do, but didn’t get much of a response other than an “ouch face”.
Once we were back on the boat, we just sat for a few minutes and calmed down as it was a relief to be back on board, given the hard work from swimming. I then washed the cut on my wife’s leg and cleaned it with what I had in my backpack, which was drinking water and detol hand sanitiser (not a painless time for my wife).
Only after we did this, and others on the boat were watching did the crew offer gauze and proper antiseptic liquid.
I kind of expected some more empathy from the crew. We may be an inconvenience, but we are a paying inconvenience. They weren’t bad people, I just felt like we a second thought to them. Maybe I misinterpret, but isn’t how it’s perceived the whole point?
But I would like to recommend that perhaps in future tours, you note to people that there is first aid available on the boat. All we were told is that there was lifejackets and emergency boats. Please do not say “you did not ask”, as I tried to ask. Where I am from, I scuba dive, and cuts on rocks and coral are important. They can lead to terrible infections. I feel it should be noted in the boat to stay away from the coral. Obviously it’s common sense not to touch anything, as there is plenty dangerous things, eg cone snails, sting rays etc we already knew this. So we knew not to touch coral, but we wouldn’t have got in the water at all if we knew that we would be put in a place where it was almost impossible not get washed onto the coral.
If your first thought is to say “you chose to get out of the boat, you didn’t have to” then you are correct. But we were paying for the local expertise to help us decide what was and was not ok. That’s the whole point.
Shortly after we got back on the boat, the weather started to turn quite quickly so everyone started to get back on.
The crew prepared to leave.
I note that they pulled the ladder up and continued to prepare. A few minutes later they had to lower the ladder again, as one of the snorkelers was still in the water. I can’t say for sure that they were going to leave without him, but it felt like they did a headcount just before leaving and realised they had lost someone.
The weather then got really bad really fast, bags had to be stowed, everything was packed away and strapped down and they motored straight back for the marina. The wind and rain was really crazy. It was so strong and it changed so fast it was very cool to see. Visibility around us decreased, it was like a mist. Very cool. It’s lucky everyone got out when they did. We all got soaked but it was warm and we were already wet.
Anyway, the trip was still an adventure. It’s a shame the weather wasn’t great (and later turned quite awful), but weather is always a surprise. Nothing to do about that.
But unfortunately I have to say all I will remember of this trip once we leave here, is that we shouldn’t have gotten in the water, it would have been better if they decided to just cruise and not swim.
翻译:我对这次旅行的感受很复杂。
我们参加了皇家加勒比海的短途旅行,在帕皮提海域进行了一次短途旅行,这是我们蜜月旅行的一部分。
我写下这些笔记,并非直接作为负面评价,而是希望未来每个人都能有所改进。请以建设性的态度看待我的笔记,它们都是出于善意。
一开始天气不太好,但这并非人人都能掌控。没有风,只是阴天,下着小雨。
这次旅行很愉快,我们玩得很开心。
船长认为通常的浮潜地点不安全,因为水流太急,浪也很大,所以把我们带到了其他地方。这是一个明智的决定,我们总是乐于在假期里保持安全。这种专业的服务正是你花钱买来的。我妻子以前没浮潜过,所以她对浮潜的陌生感很不适应,所以我们很高兴能找到一个更平静的地方游泳,让她能适应环境,玩得开心。
然而,他带我们去的地方就像一个停泊船只的地方。海底全是沙,周围没什么东西。离珊瑚也不是很近。水面看起来很平静。
他告诉我们不要跟在船后,因为那是划船道。我明白了。一位美国女士直言不讳地说她不确定在那里游泳是否合适。她注意到附近没有其他人在游泳。我们觉得没问题,因为船长已经向我们保证过了。而且水面看起来很平静。
我戴着脚蹼下水了。水深大概5米左右。
然而,水流仍然出奇地急。上船后,我立刻开始往船底和船尾游去。就在我努力收紧脚蹼的几秒钟里,我松开了脚蹼,感觉真的需要用力游了。我必须拼命游才能保持在船头。我妻子下水的时候,我努力抓住绳子。然后我们逆流而上,寻找值得一看的东西。他们告诉我们,如果需要的话,他们会派出小艇来救援任何在水流中漂流的人。这让我感觉好了一些。
我们一直在努力靠近珊瑚礁边缘,但考虑到当时的情况,这根本算不上近。我们大多数人离船都不超过15米。
再次,我明白船长在尽力克服当天的天气挑战。真希望我们早知道我们会一直与水流搏斗,那样我就可以待在船上放松一下了。
最后,他们用小接驳船把大家送到离珊瑚更近的地方,那里比较“平静”,大家可以观察珊瑚,然后漂回船上。
然而,他接我们的时候,把我们放在一片清澈见底、齐胸深的水域(几米宽),然后让我们游过去。他带我们游得比其他人都深,我们感觉有点不舒服,因为船到那里的时候,刚好刮到了珊瑚。他说没事,我们相信了他,因为他是专家。
我们有点不确定,但他随后就把我们独自留在了那里,所以我们试着试一试,否则我们怎么回去呢?
几秒钟之内,我们就漂到了他放下我们的地方(朝着船的方向)。水很快变得很浅(我们和珊瑚之间只有2英尺),而且水流也越来越快。我们试着导航到更深的水域,或者找到一条路穿过。不到一分钟,我们试图浮潜的珊瑚在某些地方就变得很浅了,我们不得不试着绕着它游,以免撞上去。在水流中根本停不下来。待在那种地方已经不安全了。我们只能起身离开水面,重新评估我们所处的位置以及如何脱身。
穿着脚蹼,在浅水里站起来出乎意料地困难,地面又不平坦,而且水流很大。
但我的妻子没能减速或停下来站起来,然后被卷进了距离水面不到1英尺的珊瑚里。水流擦过她的头部,但击中了她的腹部和腿部。她撞到岩石留下了一些瘀伤,腿上也有一些被珊瑚擦伤的痕迹。这可能是她的头撞到珊瑚礁造成的。 (事后看来,在校对这次旅行的评论时,我必须指出,如果真的发生了那样的事,我并不相信我们能够迅速地帮她找到合适的救援。)
她没被冲得更远的唯一原因是她被困在那里,而我帮她站了起来。我们俩都站在齐膝深的珊瑚礁水里,环顾四周,震惊地发现自己被抛在了哪里。回头看看我们被抛下的地方(现在我们浮得更高,看得更清楚了),考虑到珊瑚礁的水流更急,如果不经过一些非常浅的水域,我们根本无法到达主艇。
他接下来用接驳艇带去珊瑚礁的人被抛到离双体船更近的地方,比我们离得更近。他们和珊瑚之间应该有2-3米的距离。
我挥手示意他们下来接我们回去。幸好小艇可以潜得比较浅,珊瑚会被刮到。浮潜的部分对我们来说已经结束了。我们把流血的腿给船员看,问该怎么办,但除了“哎哟”的表情外,没有得到太多的回应。
回到船上后,我们坐了几分钟,让自己平静下来,考虑到游泳的辛苦,回到船上真是松了一口气。然后,我清洗了妻子腿上的伤口,并用背包里的东西——饮用水和Detol洗手液——清洗了伤口(我妻子当时很痛苦)。
直到我们这样做了,船上其他人都在看着,船员才给我们提供了纱布和适当的消毒液。
我原本期待船员能多一些同情心。我们可能带来不便,但我们带来的不便也是值得的。他们不是坏人,我只是觉得我们得再三考虑他们。也许我理解错了,但大家的理解不就是关键吗?
但我建议,以后的旅行中,你们应该提醒大家船上有急救设施。我们只被告知有救生衣和应急船。请不要说“你没问”,因为我当时就想问。我来自哪里,我会潜水,岩石和珊瑚上的割伤很重要。它们会导致严重的感染。我觉得在船上应该注意远离珊瑚。显然,不要触摸任何东西都是常识,因为有很多危险的东西,比如芋螺、黄貂鱼等等,我们已经知道了。所以我们知道不要碰珊瑚,但如果我们知道我们会被放在一个几乎不可能不被冲到珊瑚上的地方,我们根本不会下水。
如果你第一反应是“你选择离开船,你不必这么做”,那你是对的。但我们花钱请了当地的专业人士来帮我们判断什么可以做,什么不可以做。这才是关键。
我们回到船上后不久,天气就开始迅速转变,所以大家都开始重新上船。
船员们准备出发。
我注意到他们拉起了梯子,继续准备。几分钟后,他们不得不再次放下梯子,因为其中一个浮潜者还在水里。我不能肯定他们会不顾他的安危就离开,但感觉就像他们在出发前清点了人数,然后意识到有人失踪了。
天气很快就变得非常糟糕,不得不把行李收起来,把所有东西都打包好绑好,然后他们直接开船回码头。风雨交加,非常猛烈。风雨变化如此之快,这景象真是太酷了。周围的能见度越来越低,像雾一样。非常凉爽。还好大家都及时出来了。我们都湿透了,但天气很暖和,我们本来就湿透了。
总之,这次旅行仍然是一次冒险。可惜天气不太好(后来变得很糟糕),但天气总是出乎意料。对此我无能为力。
但不幸的是,我不得不说,离开这里后,我对这次旅行唯一能记住的就是我们不应该下水,如果他们决定只是巡航而不是游泳就好了。