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King Neptune
Do you want to be treated like royalty on your next dive trip? Dive the King Neptune out of Avalon on Catalina Island! Avalon is California’s only island resort town and is a real delight with the flavor of a quaint Mediterranean seaside village with intimate hotels, fine restaurants and excellent shopping. And, of course, the diving at Catalina Island is excellent. For a relaxing diving weekend, you need to spend some time in Avalon.
The primary advantage of diving in a resort style is your travel time to the dive site is much less, leaving you more time to shop, dine and enjoy additional fun and relaxing amenities the “resort” has to offer (in this case Avalon).
Operating out of Avalon most dive sites are less than a 30-minute boat ride away for the King Neptune. And with the recent addition of new, faster and more fuel efficient engines, rides are even shorter and smoother than ever before.
With such short boat rides over calm waters hugging the island, you’d expect a smaller boat but the King Neptune is a full-sized dive charter boat. King Neptune is the largest dive charter boat operating out of Avalon. At 65 feet long and 22 feet wide there is plenty of room on the boat, even when full of divers.
Key to the comfort is efficient use of space. The bow area is extra large and is used for dive bag storage. The rear dive deck is medium-sized but adequate for divers moving off and back on the boat. There are two side gates but only one is usually used at a time. The large angled swimstep off the rear makes water exit easy.
Tanks and weights are included with each dive trip so you have one less thing to worry about in your trip to Avalon. Most of the weights are of the “soft” shot-pouch variety are sorted and color coded to easily assemble a belt or adapt into your integrated BC. Tanks supplied are either 80 or 67 aluminums. An on board compressor keeps them filled to 3,000 p.s.i., quickly filled between dives.
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Bob and Tina Kennedy, owners and operators of the King Neptune.
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The crew is very helpful in getting divers into and out of their gear. On my recent dive with their crew, I was test diving a new weight-integrated BC—something I am not used to. The crew of the King Neptune made it a breeze. More important, I saw all levels of divers, from new students to advanced divers on board receiving the same “royal” treatment.
Owners of the King Neptune are Bob Kennedy and his wife, Tina. The Kennedy family has owned and operated the King Neptune for over 15 years. Bob does most of the boat operation, but Tina can also captain the boat. Bob is one of the most enthusiastic dive boat captains I have ever met. His nearly constant smile indicates he loves giving divers the maximum amount of fun possible diving Catalina Island.
The boat is equipped with a large salon to get out of the cool breezes or to relax for lunch. A pair of large tables are available to set up camera gear. Lunch is make-your-own deli sandwiches with homemade tuna salad and, my favorite, Tina’s own homemade pasta salad.
The Kennedy’s also own the Catalina Scuba Luv dive shop in town. At the shop, you can fulfill all your diving needs, including rentals, classes, gear and more. They will even arrange complete money saving island packages for you that include transportation to the island, hotel and dive boat trips.
For more information on the King Neptune or Catalina Scuba Luv dive shop, call 310-510-2350 or visit their website at http://www.scubaluv.com.
Dale Sheckler is Editor and Publisher of California Diving News, Producer of the annual SCUBA Show expo (each June in Long Beach, CA), and co-author of the book A Diver's Guide to Southern California's Best Beach Dives, 3rd Edition.
Return to Cover Page/Contents for August 2002 issue