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Just got back from North Carolina where we dove the wrecks off of Morehead City from the dive boat Pelican. If you plan on diving there, this is the boat to take. No hassles on profiles or checking your gauges when you get on the boat. Warm water (80F) and over 100 feet of vis. The hassles came when we tried to get our tanks filled. The Olympus dive center would not fill doubles with nitrox unless both tanks had a nitrox wrap, although one visual sticker would do for both tanks. Nitrox wraps could be on the tank boots for all they care as long as you have them. (A nitrox fill is $12.00 per tank for premix 30%). My duals were marked with a IANTD sticker that read: "Caution, breathing gas other than air". Since I use my doubles for mix and nitrox this seemed the proper wording for them. But not for these inbreeds. So totally pissed off, we went to Discovery diving for a top off of air so that the nitrox in our doubles would be diluted, but still have a mix. We came back when they told us to and they were draining our tanks. Olympus called them and notified them that our tanks had nitrox and since they were not certified blenders they could not add air on top of our nitrox. One set of duals had absolutelty no stickers or indication that they contained nitrox. They also took the liberty of removing my sticker that read "Caution, Breathing gas other than air" from my duals. In the filling process, they also managed to close the isolator valve to fill each tank separately with air and never re-opened it. (Still trying to figure out the reasoning behind that!) The diving is great, but if you plan a trip, beware that the dive shop operators (ALL 3 OF THEM THAT WE WERE AWARE OF) are working together to make you comply with <bold><italic><underline>THEIR </underline></italic></bold>set of rules, regardless of standards. By the way, thinking about staying at Discovery's fine accommodations? Think again, our group killed 6 extra-large cockroaches and we found the skeletal remains of two more in a 24 hour period. Mike McKay -- Send mail for the `techdiver' mailing list to `techdiver@aquanaut.com'. Send list subscription requests to `techdiver-request@aquanaut.com'.
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