ptn72
Registered
This is the review of my liveaboard with Explorer Ventures Turks and Caicos Explorer II from July 20 to July 27 of 2013. Before this trip, I read a lot of liveboard reviews to make my decision so I wanted to thank people who took time to write their reviews.
My wife and I only had 27 dives prior to this trip so I thought Caribbean liveboard would be a good fit with our level of experience. It came down to Bahamas and Turks and Caicos. Some reviews expressed concerns about the reef condition of Bahamas so I chose Turks and Caicos. The final decision was picking Explorer Ventures due to good review and recent issues with Aggressor. This is our first liveaboard so we dont have anything to compare against.
My wife and I arrived on Friday. We rented a car from Grace Bay car rental. They allowed us to pick up the car at the airport and leave it at the Caicos Marina where T & C Explorer II docked. This is really convenient as we use the rental car to explorer the island without relying on taxi. We stayed at Turtle Cove Inn. The room was $99 + taxes. The room was basic but clean. There was a small pool in property but we didnt use it as the beach was more appealing. By the way, there are many taxes in Turks and Caicos Islands (TCI) and they are high so remember to add them to your budget.
Explorer Ventures called us at our hotel and let us know that we could board at 3:30pm. We were there a bit early around 1pm. We met one of the divemasters, Simon, and he informed us that they were still cleaning up the boat but we could hang out on the fly bridge. It was a covered area and there was a fridge with sodas and beers there. We were very grateful as it was very hot and sunny and the dock doesnt have any covered area. Other divers began to arrive and we hung out at the flybridge until the boat was deemed to be ready by the crew. Once the boat was ready, we came down to the dive deck, put our shoes/sandals in a basket and we wouldnt see them again until we were back at the dock after our trip. After unpacking our luggage, they took way and store empty suitcases until the end of the trip. Everyone picked their spot and setup BCD, regulator. There is area underneath the bench to store fins and mask. There is a small box to store other stuff like mask defog, light beacon
The crew: Captain JF, Purser Maria, Divemasters Simon and Casey, Chef Stan, Mechanic Mark. They were amazing. Everyone worked hard to make sure everyone was having a good time. JF hung out with the guests during the late night chats and went diving with some of us. Maria, Simon, and Casey were the last ones to eat but were the first one to finish so they could do the dishes. Maria was a ball of energy. She cleaned up tables after each meal, poured warm water in our wetsuits after night dive. Simon and Casey took turn leading dives. When they dont, they helped guests identifying fishes. Mark kept everything running smoothly. I saw everyone, except for Stan, at the dive deck to help getting divers in and out of water and handle camera equipment. Stan was always busy making snacks or meals that were served after each dive. We were impressed with the many amazing dishes that Stan managed to cook up in such a small kitchen. Each meal included a main course, salad, fruits and dessert. Soup was part of the lunches yummy! All meals were nutritious and filling. We were totally spoiled by the crew for the whole week and felt really sad when it was time to leave.
The boat: The crew did a great job keeping it clean. Flybridge is the highest level with wrap around benches and a fridge. The area is covered so its a great area to take a nap or read a book in between the dives. They also have a sun deck on the second level for those who want to work on their tan. The boat is very tall which causes it to swing in figure 8 at mooring line. This feature made it very fun to hang on the rope while doing our safety stop and at the same time it can be frustrating trying to chase after the rope. The inside of the boat was very spacious and we never felt crowded. We had cabin 5 which was next to the galley. We are heavy sleepers so we didnt hear anything from galley. The room is not big but we spent most of our time having fun outside of the room so its size didnt bother. Our room has a queen bed with the nightstand with 3 small drawers at the head and a shelf at the foot of the bed. Mattress was firm and I liked firm mattress so that was great. There are two outlets: one at the shelf and one at the head (toward middle) of the bed. We used the shelf as the place to charge our devices. We brought our own cord extension so there were plenty of outlets to plug in. We needed this as we brought two cameras, an ebook, electronic toothbrush and rechargeable batteries. There are two large drawers underneath the bed. There is enough room to store our stuff. Our bathroom is small but adequate. Water pressure is good and hot water was plenty. The crew made our bed and emptied bathroom trash can every morning. They also left mint chocolate in our bed every night.
There were three types of towels. Cabin towels (bath towel/hand towel/wash cloth) were for us to use in our cabin. We used these for 3 days then the crew gave us a fresh set for the rest of our voyage. We used colorful towels to dry ourselves after each dive. Each diver had one to use throughout the day and the crew would collect them after our 4th dive of the day to wash them. If you do night dive, a warm towel will be waiting for you. Camera towels are marked CAMERA on them and placed at camera table at dive deck. We use them to dry our camera equipment.
Safety: JF, our captain, gave us a very detail safety briefing. He went over what needed to be done and what will happen in certain cases of emergency. He also went over where you could and couldnt go on the boat. There were two RIBs in the water during dives to rescue divers in case of emergency.
Food: chef Stan was awesome. He cooked a variety of dishes for each meal. There were always soup and salad at dinner which we loved. He also made tasty snacks and fruits for between dives. The fridges were well stocked with sodas and beers. There were also plenty of wines and hard liquors. But one important note is that guest cannot dive after drinking. Cookie jar in the main salon was always full.
Diving: we dove with nitrox and it was $150 extra for each of us. The mix was mid 33% all week long. At the end of the dive deck, there was a large camera table with air hose and camera towels. Across from that was a large rinse tank for cameras. At each side of dive deck, there was a rinse tank for our wetsuits and booties. Next to it was a smaller bucket to rinse our masks. We only had to setup our BCDs once as our tanks were refilled on the spot.
Our dive schedule was like this: continental breakfast is served for early risers, followed by hot breakfast (cook to order) dive snack dive - lunch dive snack dive diner night dive. Rinse and repeat for the next day. Simon or Casey, depends on who would lead the dive, gave a detail dive briefing with drawing on a white board before each dive. You can dive on your own or go with divemaster. Since everyone dove with nitrox, the rules were 110 ft max depth, coming back with 500 psi, max bottom is 60 minutes. We would gear up in the dive deck, fins on one hand, walked a few step to the dive platform, put on our fins and took and big strike into water. After that the crew would hand us our cameras and the fun began. When we came back, wed let the crew know our max depth and remaining psi. Night dive required each diver to have a beacon light, dive light/camera light, and a backup light between diver and his dive buddy. I was not aware of the backup light so I rented one for $15. If you plan on doing night dive, make sure to bring extra light if you dont want to rent. For night dive, there were 2 strobes hanging at the end of tag lines to help find our way back.
We dove 2 days at Northwest Point, 2 days at West Caicos, and 1.5 days at French Cay. The diving was getting better as the week went on. All our dives were wall dives except for night dive which we stayed near the boat. We saw sharks in about 2/3 of our day dives, one shark at a time as we never saw 2 together. Other lucky divers saw more often. We saw nurse shark on one of our night dives. The reef was really healthy. Visibility was between 60-70ft, water temperature was 83F all week long. We saw lionfishes at every dive. There werent a large number of fishes at Northwest Point. French Cay was definitely the highlight of the trip. It was out in the open so the water was really choppy. Besides sharks, other highlights were eagle rays, octopus and lobster out in the open, little squids, flounders, turtles, juvenile spotted drum fish My wife and I dove a total of 27 dives on this trip for each of us. Not all the guess participated in 5 dives a day; in fact, most of them skipped the night dives.
Accessories: Base on reviews that Ive read prior to the trip, I decided to bring along lycra socks. They were really helpful to protect our feet and more importantly they made it easy to slide in and out of our wetsuits. We recommend bring two pairs of socks as it does get smelly so its better to switch the socks after each day. We also took advice from reviews and brought three swimsuits for each of us. It was helpful to have a dry swimsuit each day. Remember to bring laundry soap to hand wash swimsuits and socks. Another good item to bring is the mask defog. The boat provided solution for mask defog but it didnt work very well for us and luckily we had brought the Sea Gold mask defog. For women with long bang in front, my wife recommends buying a headband. She didnt have it this time and it made it harder to ensure that no strand of hair is stuck in the mask, which would cause water leakage under water. Several other women had the headband and they totally recommend it. Also base on my research before the trip, I bought a hooded vest to prevent my wife from getting cold from the multiple dives as she used to get really cold during our previous dives in Hawaii and Belize. It turned out that the hooded vest was not needed. First of all, unlike the other dives, the boat is not speeding to another location after the dive and the temperature was around 80F. The boat might be moving but it wasnt at a very high speed and the boat had a spacious indoor area to hang out even if its windy. Another accessory that I wish we had brought is a tool to alert other diving when we spot something cool.
Boatmates: there were two families, one big group of friends, a pair of diving friends, a single diver and us. It helped a lot that all groups reached out and mingle so we didnt feel so isolated and left out. We are grateful that the bigger groups were thoughtful and friendly enough toward the rest of the guests that came by themselves or in pairs. Meal time and the time in be between dives could have been really awkward if the big groups dont mingle with everyone. After our night dives, we hung out with some other guests in the lounge area getting to know each other and participated in heated discussion about life issues. In short, we had a great time hanging out with everyone in between dives, during dinner conversations and during the late night. It was fun to meet different types of people from different paths of life and ages. We were all so different but had one thing in common our love for scuba diving. When we returned to the dock at the end of the week, Explorer Ventures arranged and paid for the taxi to take us to and from the restaurant but we were responsible for paying for dinner. We had the option of leaving a bit early around 4pm to do some shopping before dinner or leave at 6pm to go straight to the restaurant. Be warned that everything is very expensive on this island. Our group went to Caicos Bistro together and the food was great. We took this opportunity to take a group picture.
Things that we like
Things that we wish
Conclusion: we enjoyed Turks and Caicos Explorer II experience tremendously. We would do it again in a heartbeat. The operation was well run. We really appreciate all the hard work that the crew had put in to make us feel like kings and queens for a whole week. Diving was good. My wife was worried that she would be bored with so many diving in the same areas. But it turned out wonderful as its like hunting, without the killing. We never know what well encounter in each dive. And each time it was fun trying to be the first one to spot a turtle, octopus, shark or whatever that is not swimming around in abundance. We saw many things up close that we hadnt seen before.
My wife and I only had 27 dives prior to this trip so I thought Caribbean liveboard would be a good fit with our level of experience. It came down to Bahamas and Turks and Caicos. Some reviews expressed concerns about the reef condition of Bahamas so I chose Turks and Caicos. The final decision was picking Explorer Ventures due to good review and recent issues with Aggressor. This is our first liveaboard so we dont have anything to compare against.
My wife and I arrived on Friday. We rented a car from Grace Bay car rental. They allowed us to pick up the car at the airport and leave it at the Caicos Marina where T & C Explorer II docked. This is really convenient as we use the rental car to explorer the island without relying on taxi. We stayed at Turtle Cove Inn. The room was $99 + taxes. The room was basic but clean. There was a small pool in property but we didnt use it as the beach was more appealing. By the way, there are many taxes in Turks and Caicos Islands (TCI) and they are high so remember to add them to your budget.
Explorer Ventures called us at our hotel and let us know that we could board at 3:30pm. We were there a bit early around 1pm. We met one of the divemasters, Simon, and he informed us that they were still cleaning up the boat but we could hang out on the fly bridge. It was a covered area and there was a fridge with sodas and beers there. We were very grateful as it was very hot and sunny and the dock doesnt have any covered area. Other divers began to arrive and we hung out at the flybridge until the boat was deemed to be ready by the crew. Once the boat was ready, we came down to the dive deck, put our shoes/sandals in a basket and we wouldnt see them again until we were back at the dock after our trip. After unpacking our luggage, they took way and store empty suitcases until the end of the trip. Everyone picked their spot and setup BCD, regulator. There is area underneath the bench to store fins and mask. There is a small box to store other stuff like mask defog, light beacon
The crew: Captain JF, Purser Maria, Divemasters Simon and Casey, Chef Stan, Mechanic Mark. They were amazing. Everyone worked hard to make sure everyone was having a good time. JF hung out with the guests during the late night chats and went diving with some of us. Maria, Simon, and Casey were the last ones to eat but were the first one to finish so they could do the dishes. Maria was a ball of energy. She cleaned up tables after each meal, poured warm water in our wetsuits after night dive. Simon and Casey took turn leading dives. When they dont, they helped guests identifying fishes. Mark kept everything running smoothly. I saw everyone, except for Stan, at the dive deck to help getting divers in and out of water and handle camera equipment. Stan was always busy making snacks or meals that were served after each dive. We were impressed with the many amazing dishes that Stan managed to cook up in such a small kitchen. Each meal included a main course, salad, fruits and dessert. Soup was part of the lunches yummy! All meals were nutritious and filling. We were totally spoiled by the crew for the whole week and felt really sad when it was time to leave.
The boat: The crew did a great job keeping it clean. Flybridge is the highest level with wrap around benches and a fridge. The area is covered so its a great area to take a nap or read a book in between the dives. They also have a sun deck on the second level for those who want to work on their tan. The boat is very tall which causes it to swing in figure 8 at mooring line. This feature made it very fun to hang on the rope while doing our safety stop and at the same time it can be frustrating trying to chase after the rope. The inside of the boat was very spacious and we never felt crowded. We had cabin 5 which was next to the galley. We are heavy sleepers so we didnt hear anything from galley. The room is not big but we spent most of our time having fun outside of the room so its size didnt bother. Our room has a queen bed with the nightstand with 3 small drawers at the head and a shelf at the foot of the bed. Mattress was firm and I liked firm mattress so that was great. There are two outlets: one at the shelf and one at the head (toward middle) of the bed. We used the shelf as the place to charge our devices. We brought our own cord extension so there were plenty of outlets to plug in. We needed this as we brought two cameras, an ebook, electronic toothbrush and rechargeable batteries. There are two large drawers underneath the bed. There is enough room to store our stuff. Our bathroom is small but adequate. Water pressure is good and hot water was plenty. The crew made our bed and emptied bathroom trash can every morning. They also left mint chocolate in our bed every night.
There were three types of towels. Cabin towels (bath towel/hand towel/wash cloth) were for us to use in our cabin. We used these for 3 days then the crew gave us a fresh set for the rest of our voyage. We used colorful towels to dry ourselves after each dive. Each diver had one to use throughout the day and the crew would collect them after our 4th dive of the day to wash them. If you do night dive, a warm towel will be waiting for you. Camera towels are marked CAMERA on them and placed at camera table at dive deck. We use them to dry our camera equipment.
Safety: JF, our captain, gave us a very detail safety briefing. He went over what needed to be done and what will happen in certain cases of emergency. He also went over where you could and couldnt go on the boat. There were two RIBs in the water during dives to rescue divers in case of emergency.
Food: chef Stan was awesome. He cooked a variety of dishes for each meal. There were always soup and salad at dinner which we loved. He also made tasty snacks and fruits for between dives. The fridges were well stocked with sodas and beers. There were also plenty of wines and hard liquors. But one important note is that guest cannot dive after drinking. Cookie jar in the main salon was always full.
Diving: we dove with nitrox and it was $150 extra for each of us. The mix was mid 33% all week long. At the end of the dive deck, there was a large camera table with air hose and camera towels. Across from that was a large rinse tank for cameras. At each side of dive deck, there was a rinse tank for our wetsuits and booties. Next to it was a smaller bucket to rinse our masks. We only had to setup our BCDs once as our tanks were refilled on the spot.
Our dive schedule was like this: continental breakfast is served for early risers, followed by hot breakfast (cook to order) dive snack dive - lunch dive snack dive diner night dive. Rinse and repeat for the next day. Simon or Casey, depends on who would lead the dive, gave a detail dive briefing with drawing on a white board before each dive. You can dive on your own or go with divemaster. Since everyone dove with nitrox, the rules were 110 ft max depth, coming back with 500 psi, max bottom is 60 minutes. We would gear up in the dive deck, fins on one hand, walked a few step to the dive platform, put on our fins and took and big strike into water. After that the crew would hand us our cameras and the fun began. When we came back, wed let the crew know our max depth and remaining psi. Night dive required each diver to have a beacon light, dive light/camera light, and a backup light between diver and his dive buddy. I was not aware of the backup light so I rented one for $15. If you plan on doing night dive, make sure to bring extra light if you dont want to rent. For night dive, there were 2 strobes hanging at the end of tag lines to help find our way back.
We dove 2 days at Northwest Point, 2 days at West Caicos, and 1.5 days at French Cay. The diving was getting better as the week went on. All our dives were wall dives except for night dive which we stayed near the boat. We saw sharks in about 2/3 of our day dives, one shark at a time as we never saw 2 together. Other lucky divers saw more often. We saw nurse shark on one of our night dives. The reef was really healthy. Visibility was between 60-70ft, water temperature was 83F all week long. We saw lionfishes at every dive. There werent a large number of fishes at Northwest Point. French Cay was definitely the highlight of the trip. It was out in the open so the water was really choppy. Besides sharks, other highlights were eagle rays, octopus and lobster out in the open, little squids, flounders, turtles, juvenile spotted drum fish My wife and I dove a total of 27 dives on this trip for each of us. Not all the guess participated in 5 dives a day; in fact, most of them skipped the night dives.
Accessories: Base on reviews that Ive read prior to the trip, I decided to bring along lycra socks. They were really helpful to protect our feet and more importantly they made it easy to slide in and out of our wetsuits. We recommend bring two pairs of socks as it does get smelly so its better to switch the socks after each day. We also took advice from reviews and brought three swimsuits for each of us. It was helpful to have a dry swimsuit each day. Remember to bring laundry soap to hand wash swimsuits and socks. Another good item to bring is the mask defog. The boat provided solution for mask defog but it didnt work very well for us and luckily we had brought the Sea Gold mask defog. For women with long bang in front, my wife recommends buying a headband. She didnt have it this time and it made it harder to ensure that no strand of hair is stuck in the mask, which would cause water leakage under water. Several other women had the headband and they totally recommend it. Also base on my research before the trip, I bought a hooded vest to prevent my wife from getting cold from the multiple dives as she used to get really cold during our previous dives in Hawaii and Belize. It turned out that the hooded vest was not needed. First of all, unlike the other dives, the boat is not speeding to another location after the dive and the temperature was around 80F. The boat might be moving but it wasnt at a very high speed and the boat had a spacious indoor area to hang out even if its windy. Another accessory that I wish we had brought is a tool to alert other diving when we spot something cool.
Boatmates: there were two families, one big group of friends, a pair of diving friends, a single diver and us. It helped a lot that all groups reached out and mingle so we didnt feel so isolated and left out. We are grateful that the bigger groups were thoughtful and friendly enough toward the rest of the guests that came by themselves or in pairs. Meal time and the time in be between dives could have been really awkward if the big groups dont mingle with everyone. After our night dives, we hung out with some other guests in the lounge area getting to know each other and participated in heated discussion about life issues. In short, we had a great time hanging out with everyone in between dives, during dinner conversations and during the late night. It was fun to meet different types of people from different paths of life and ages. We were all so different but had one thing in common our love for scuba diving. When we returned to the dock at the end of the week, Explorer Ventures arranged and paid for the taxi to take us to and from the restaurant but we were responsible for paying for dinner. We had the option of leaving a bit early around 4pm to do some shopping before dinner or leave at 6pm to go straight to the restaurant. Be warned that everything is very expensive on this island. Our group went to Caicos Bistro together and the food was great. We took this opportunity to take a group picture.
Things that we like
- Warm blanket and hot chocolate after night dive
- Warm water in wetsuit after night dive
- We only had to setup our dive gear once
- Ease of diving
- Seeing sharks up close
- Pampered by the crew
- Hangout with friendly boatmates
Things that we wish
- More seafood on menu
- One day at Northwest Point and 2.5 days at French Cay because French Cay was so much better
- Had an appointed time to take a group picture on the boat as it was very hectic at the last dinner, we actually missed three people in our group picture
Conclusion: we enjoyed Turks and Caicos Explorer II experience tremendously. We would do it again in a heartbeat. The operation was well run. We really appreciate all the hard work that the crew had put in to make us feel like kings and queens for a whole week. Diving was good. My wife was worried that she would be bored with so many diving in the same areas. But it turned out wonderful as its like hunting, without the killing. We never know what well encounter in each dive. And each time it was fun trying to be the first one to spot a turtle, octopus, shark or whatever that is not swimming around in abundance. We saw many things up close that we hadnt seen before.
