Trip Report - Turks/Caicos Aggressor II

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cyklon_300

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Here is the trip report from our stay on the TCAII last week.

Travel Connections:
We had banked Frequent Flyer miles for this trip, but American Airlines couldn't find two FF seats on the DFW-MIA leg. However, if we were willing to pony up double the amount of FF miles, they somehow could make them available. Hmmm...oh well, using 60,000 miles beats spending $900...

We carried all dive gear (less shears and knives) in two carryons. Metal BPs, STAs, regs, etc. all went thru the xray scans with nary a comment. No mention of surcharges for dive gear from AA. All connections were on time and there were no problems. An Aggressor rep met us at the Provo airport and transported us to the boat just in time to be served last at dinner.

The Boat:
The boat is formerly the Cayman Aggressor III with $4.2M worth of recent upgrades. Basically, they kept the keel and replaced everything else. Everything inside and out was new and spotless.

Flat panel DVD players in each room along with a cedar closet (major moth problem), and a spacious shower/head. The A/C is frigid...we taped the supply vent in our room closed to avoid frostbite.

The boat has a huge sundeck, complete with hot tub and comfortable chaise lounges. There is also shaded seating, an ice machine, and soda/beer cooler farther forward. The dive deck is laid out nicely, the seating bench has a storage locker beneath the Al 80 cylinder assigned to each diver.

For those unfortunate souls that HAVE to have it, email accounts are available for a fee. There is also satellite phone service.

The Crew:
Capt. Ian is a very laid-back, likable Brit. Chris is a computer whiz and helped everyone download their digital images and presented each passenger with a CD of his photos from the week. Heather is the onboard videographer who absolutely did not understand my sense of humor. Lyndon is the engineer and was quiet, but affable. Lourdes took care of housekeeping and worked her a$$ off. Richard did duty in the kitchen.

The Food:
Altho I don't go on liveaboards for the culinary aspects, the food served on our trip was marginal at best. Breakfast and lunch were passable most days, but dinners were grim affairs. The young English man in charge of the kitchen was severely challenged by his job.

Another drawback to dining was the poor design of the salon which has a major bottleneck in the serving line traffic flow. The first 3 or 4 passengers got hot food, everyone else got tepid or cold eats.

Altho most of the 17 passengers grumbled about the food, no one starved to death. There were fruits, yogurts, and refrigerator cakes available around the clock. Free beer and wines were available once diving was finished.

The Diving:
All diving was done from the mother ship, a 16' zodiac was used for rescue duty (aka the Dinghy of Shame). Nitrox (EAN32) was available as well as nitrox instruction (TDI).

The standard dive involved a giant stride off the stern, dropping to 50-60' to sand/coral heads and then a short swim to the edge of a sheer wall. Once over the edge, another drop to a shelf at 140-180', past that, drops were to abyssal depths.

Marine life was a collection of standard reef fishes, a few larger groupers, reef sharks, rays, octopuses, and a couple of turtles. My favorite sighting was a free-swimming remora about 3' long that entertained people at the hang bar. Walls were densely covered with plate corals, tube sponges, barrel sponges, soft corals, sea fans, wire coral, etc etc.

Most photographers were shooting macro and seemed happy with the small critters they encountered. Vis was routinely 50-80'. Only one dive had any significant current.

The week had higher than normal winds...we managed to get 3 dives at French Cay but none at West Sand Spit before returning to the lee side of West Caicos.

Typically, five dives per day were offered. On two occassions the boat moored at a site for the last 3 dives of the day...several divers found this a little annoying and sat out the night dives as they had already seen the site twice.

Diving was completely unregulated...solo diving was permitted, no restrictions on gas reserves or max depth (nitrox divers had a MOD to observe tho). A typical profile was 100' for 50 min.

Odds and Ends:
For those that care about such stuff, my partner and I were diving BP/W, long hoses, spring straps...there were zero comments about our gear from pax or crew. Only two divers carried snorkels. Most common reg was ScubaPro and I counted 8 Suunto SK7 compasses. Exposure suits ranged from skins to 5mm suits with hood.

Several divers had computers with multiple alarms. The frequent and numerous beepings generated some negative comments from others onboard...but I don't recall the alarms ever being turned off.

All in all, a good week. I had hoped for a little more prolific marine life, but still managed to stay adequately entertained for the 23 dives I did. The walls were stunning and a joy to fly over the edge.
 
Those walls are what keep me coming back every year. There is always enough big marine life to keep it interesting. Too bad you couldn't have spent more time at French Cay. It usually beats the marine life at West Caicos. Thanks for the report. How does TCI compare to some of the other diving you have done?
 
I've dived would include Coz, Gulf of Mexico, Belize (Turneffe), Roatan/Cayos Cachinos (Bay Is.), and Los Roques (Venezuela). These sites have all offered leisurely and relaxing diving with plenty of photo ops to stay busy behind the camera. TCI easily ranks among the best of these. The dramatic images of the walls are hard to beat.

However, being a big animal fan, the sites that have really thrilled and inspired me were Galapagos, Socorros, and Cocos Is. These destinations were much more challenging logistically and financially, tho. Not really a fair comparison to the Caribbean...

Anyway, I'll be back in the lake this week for a proper reality check...
 
I have considered some of the places you mention as having better big marine life. . .but as indicated dollars and logistics push me back toward TCI every time.
 
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