Aggressor II to Galapagos - DO NOT GO ON IT.

[mocrumbo]

I still cannot believe this happened. It was one thing after another... I will make a list:

1. Terrible DMs (we later learned they weren't even DMs) that hit on all of the female passengers; who demonstrated unsafe diving practices with NO buoyancy control whatsoever
2. Molesting the wildlife (in particular, the giant tortoises at the sanctuary)
3. Hitting a whale shark with the zodiac prop
4. A wet bed all week; and I could go on and on...

I wrote a long letter to Wayne Hasson, the president, asking how he planned to compensate me. He said I could have a certain amount of money refunded but then I would not be able to tell anybody about the trip.

So I said screw it, keep your damn money and I will tell as many people as I can.

DO NOT GO ON THIS FLEET. IT WAS HORRIBLE and to make matters worse, Wayne was insulting to me on the phone. He actually tried to say that it was OK that the prop hit the whale shark, because they have such thick skin. He also of course tried to deny that it happened, never mind that we had at least 4 eye-witnesses to the event.

The diving was great- it was just everything that unfortunately came along with it.

I will answer any and all questions.

 

[ronscuba]

Who were the DM's and the rest of the crew ? I was on Agressor II in August and had a great time and a very good crew.

 

[mocrumbo]

Solon and Ramiro were the tour guides (NOT divemasters, per Wayne). One of the divers specifically requested an escort and she was abandoned. Other divers were abandoned on a subsequent dive at the "washing machine."

The cook and the waiters were nice, but I did not pay all of that money and travel that far for the food!

 

[merxlin]

I'd appreciate any more details you can give. I'm on this boat in August with a group (our LDS has the whole boat) and all the divers are meeting tomorrow. I'll bring this up with the show owner..pm me if you don't want to post details.

 

[ronscuba]

Solon was on our boat. Nice guy, I didn't hear any complaints about him other than people were disappointed with his video.

Can you give some more specifics ?

 

[mocrumbo]

Here is the exact letter I sent to Wayne.
I was on the Aggressor 2 in the Galapagos last week (June 11-17, or thereabouts). I am an active diver (DM; originally certified in 1993) and am well traveled, but this was my first real live-aboard experience. I did not really know what to expect, but based on what I read on your website, it seemed like this was going to be the trip of a lifetime.



Unfortunately that was not the case. There were many areas of concern that I feel overwhelmingly compelled to tell you about; several of them have to do with the safety and the welfare of the divers and the Galapagos wildlife.



The entire experience was not bad. I must say that the captain (Hector), the waiter (Winter), the chef (José), and all of the deckhands were outstanding. They went out of their way to accommodate us. They worked so hard and were genuine in their efforts.



To give you an idea of the divers who were on this trip:

4 from the U.S. ( California )

2 from Singapore

1 from Greece

1 from Scotland

1 from London , England

and 3 German Swiss.



Needless to say, we literally came from all over the world to make this epic journey. After 2 or 3 days together, we began to converse and share our experiences with one another regarding this trip. I can assure you that I am not alone in my sentiments.



The first problem has to do with our room (# 7, upper level, starboard side). There was a significant leak (you could actually hear the water sloshing next to the closet), making the floor very wet. We could not put anything on the floor because we learned on the first night, it would get soaked. We told the crew and the problem was not fully resolved, but there was not another room for us to go to. Additionally, our sheets and the mattress were damp for the entire week. The only way to sleep on a somewhat dry bed was to use both comforters from the cubby above.



On at least 2 occasions, a crew member entered our room without knocking. One time I was in the bathroom, another time I was about to get undressed.



Some other equipment issues on the boat were the satellite and the hot tub. There was not any email communication available, which was a bit stressful because I had my dog in a boarding kennel and a pet sitter staying at my house with my cats. Thankfully there weren’t any emergencies, but it would have been comforting to have been able to contact both of them. On our first day, we learned about the hot tub during the general boat briefing, however it did not work the entire time. The cover remained off, and the water was luke-warm. Due to the damp mattress (and its overall inadequacy), I work up every day with a stiff neck and/ or a sore lower back. The hot tub would have really helped.



Now I need to tell you about the divemasters (DMs) Solon and Ramiro. All of us loved the diving- it was spectacular- but it would have been so much better with different divemasters.



I will start with Solon. His dive briefings were rote, mundane, and completely unenthusiastic. On the very first day (after he just had 2 weeks off), he looked overtly burned out and tired. There were two occasions when one of the less experienced divers specifically requested a DM escort (Solon), and both times he abandoned her under the water.



Next is Ramiro. He only has a few months with the company, and was apparently under the tutelage of Solon. Ramiro made passes at two of the female divers. The first one was able to effectively stop his behavior immediately. The second one tried to politely decline, yet he repeatedly hit on her for three days in a row. This is so appalling- so completely unprofessional and downright disgusting. This is clearly a case of sexual harassment: his behavior was unwanted and unwelcome, yet he persisted for three days. She finally confided in some of the other divers on the boat, and Solon was made aware of the situation. She said that she felt extremely uncomfortable and unsafe around Ramiro.



On our last dive, Ramiro demonstrated some extremely poor judgment by having us swim against a very strong current at a depth of 100 feet. He was ringing his bell, frantically waving for us to “go this way” then “go that way” and it felt disorganized and dangerous. I cannot help but wonder if this had anything to do with us speaking to Solon about him.



Toward the end of our trip, we did a land excursion with Ramiro leading the way. He barely speaks English, and nobody was able to understand him. Additionally, the directions (by Solon) for our last day were rushed and terribly confusing. None of the divers understood where we were supposed to go.



Before splitting up, we went to the land turtle sanctuary, which was magnificent. There are signs in several locations (in English and Spanish) that ask visitors to not bother the turtles. When we were at the male section, several of us were taking pictures of 2 or 3 huge turtles. Ramiro decided to be helpful and wave his hands and make sounds in front of the turtles’ faces, trying to get them to pick up their heads for the cameras. I actually lost it when he had the audacity to walk on the platform and actually knock on the shell of one of the turtles. “Hola! Mi amigo!” I have pictures and a video of him doing this..



Both Solon and Ramiro would benefit from a peak performance buoyancy class. On many occasions, I watched both of them literally standing on the reef. Solon even uses a reef hook, to anchor himself to the reef while waiting for a whale shark. Both of them also do a lot of “see-sawing” with their depth. They do a lot of bouncing up and down, which we know is unsafe. Also, on the one day that we did see a whale shark at depth, we were perhaps 50-60 feet down, and they frantically began ringing their bells. I watched them and several other divers ascend very quickly to get closer to the whale shark, which was right at the surface. I clearly recall watching them and thinking, “Wow, that is a great way to get bent.”



There are two issues with the dinghy boats. One is the exit procedure. Even if all of us do a back-roll at the same time, it seems that someone can still get hurt. Solon told us about a diver that was injured recently, who required stitches and he had to go to the hospital. One of our divers was injured when a tank hit her right in the face. She got a black eye, and she was lucky it was just that. It could have been so much worse. I believe that this procedure needs to be reviewed and revised. The next dinghy issue involves a whale shark. The whale shark was right at the surface, and the dinghy prop hit its dorsal fin. The prop stopped moving; but picked up again just in time to hit the whale shark’s tail. I hope to God that this animal was not injured; all of us could not stop thinking about him/ her. Solon was clearly upset that several of the divers had witnessed it. There are many big animals at the surface, including dolphins, sea lions, and divers. The dinghy drivers need to be exquisitely cautious.



I am looking forward to your reply. Please feel free to call me if you find it necessary. I have grave concerns about the safety of your operation and the welfare of the precious wildlife of the Galapagos. Something must be done about this.

 

[mjh]

Sounds like some valid issues. The whale shark issue is major. Thanks for the info.

 

[ScubaInChicago]

If everything stated is true, I would be more than upset....Do you mind if I ask what kind of a refund you were offered as a percentage of your liveaboard charter?

 

[Mossman]

Very interesting report. Definitely an example of how dive operations in general can vary from year to year or even trip to trip.

You don't have a baseline with which to compare your trip since you said it was your first liveaboard. Yet you report plenty of valid concerns, none of which were apparent to me when I did the GA II in June 2004. To date, that trip ranks as one of my best if not THE best liveaboard experience I've ever had, and my measuring tool includes not only another Galapagos liveaboard to compare to (Sky Dancer) but a host of others: Palau, T&C, Tahiti, and Okeanos Aggressors, Nekton Pilot, Truk Odyssey, Kararu Voyager, and the Anggun, plus plenty of SoCal-based weekend+ trips on smaller boats. On my trip, the dive staff (Richard and ?) was extremely professional, Winter (still there, I see) was an amazing one-man act, and I can't remember a single flaw when I'm normally very picky.

I've suffered some of your issues before, a wet floor on the Tahiti Aggressor that was never really fixed, a wet bed one night and an exploding head another on the Sky Dancer, broken hot tub on the Nekton Pilot (not that the ones that "work" really get very hot anyway in my experience and when they do, often no one uses them), and so many problems with the Okeanos that I was tempted to write a letter just like yours.

On the other hand, even on the lousy boats, I've made lasting friends, seen some incredible sights underwater, and come to an appreciation of how hard it can be to keep these boats running perfectly in exotic locales week after week. I've met some extremely competent dive staff and some that shouldn't have been allowed to follow a group let alone lead one (the "DM" with only 95 dives under his belt on the Anggun that insisted we follow him below our MOD and was obviously frustrated we stayed around 130' - I asked him what was the big deal? A lobster! $^#&%@ So I had a talk with the head DM about instructing him on the principles of nitrox diving and we led our own dives for the rest of the trip).

Even the whale shark incident is explicable. They're not that easy to spot from the surface until they're right under you. And the captain is likely correct: a few-inches of prop to a 40-foot animal is like a paper cut to you. While it would be great to avoid the whale sharks entirely, the dinghy driver has one primarily responsibility: getting the divers back on the boat alive, without running them over.

Finally, while I kind of agree with you that the simultaneous backroll entries can be a bit wild and potentially dangerous, that's the way it's done by a lot of boats in those kind of conditions. You don't have the luxury of time waiting for everyone to "clear" one at a time when there are strong currents and limited viz.

No, your liveaboard experience wasn't the perfection advertised by the brochure copy, but you did manage to survive on a floating hotel, making some great dives in a very remote and inhospitable region of the planet. Hopefully your letter will draw some attention to the GA II's maintenance standards and dive staff training and any problems you experienced will likely be rectified by the time anyone reading this will be traveling there. I believe the Aggressor Fleet owners could expend a lot more effort into quality control to maintain the standard of excellence reached by some of their crafts across the entire franchised fleet and with consistency.

 

[ronscuba]

Sorry to hear your trip did not live up to your expectations. Hopefully, the negatives did not overpower the positives of diving in the Galapagos.

I like to research things before a trip. It gets me excited and also gives me an idea of what to expect.

I've done 4 liveaboard trips in various parts of the world and have seen almost all of your complaints before. IMHO, some are excusable, some not.

I am going to offer my point of view, not to argue, but just my 2 cents as another diver who has been on a few, but not a ton of liveaboards.

On my trip, Hector, Winter and Jose were also outstanding. We were amazed at how fast Winter changed his clothes from tuxedo to regular clothes. We joked it must have been a male stripper's tuxedo with velcro.

The leaky floor is indeed unfortunate. It happens time to time on liveaboards. Fortunately the leak was on the floor and did not drip onto your bed. Was the dampness due to the leak or the humidity ? Probably tough to tell. Dampness on a boat is common, but I'm sure the wet floor didn't help.

Crew member entering room without knocking is inexcusable. I've had a maid enter the room while I was in the bathroom. Tough to say if I didn't hear the knock or they never knocked.

Email on a liveaboard would be great, but I have not heard of a boat that had it reliable while out to sea. Satellite phone for emergency is standard, but not email.

Luke warm hot tub. My experience too on all liveaboards. Land hot tubs typically have 100 deg water. Have not been on a liveaboard that could make it that hot.

DM escort. DM should never abandon a diver. Did the diver have a buddy in addition to the DM ? DM typically tries to keep everyone together, guide the dive and show everyone exciting stuff. Some liveaboards have an extra DM or guide on the boat for situations like yours, but many don't.

Crew hitting on the guests is inexcusable. I've seen it happen everywhere, but on a small boat it's worse.

When the DM rings his bell if means he sees something really worthwhile like a whaleshark. The 1st few times this happened on my trip everyone had no idea what the DM was pointing at and just stood still. After having the whaleshark pass us by twice, we all learned to listen for the bell and follow the DM. We saw13 whaleshark up close on our trip because we followed the DM.

Language barriers are difficult. Did all the guests speak english ? Can be tough for crew to communicate the same thing to different guests in different languages.

We are all taught to not touch the wildlife. However, I doubt knocking on a turtle shell does harm. At least his motives were to please the guests.

Galapagos does not have much reef. Mostly rock. How did you maintain position against the current ? Most people hold onto rocks with their hands. Did Solon anchor himself on reef or rock ? When the DM rings his bell, you can follow or stay. Your decision. Proper ascent/descent is the diver's responsibility.

Backroll entries are typically done this way on all boats. Sorry for the person who got injured. This probably happened because someone did not roll when they were supposed to.

Prop hitting the whaleshark is very unfortunate, but I'm sure not intentional and hopefully not due to lack of caution.

I'm glad you liked the diving. For me Galapagos was the ultimate. Hopefully the negatives did not ruin the trip for you and at a minimum, you now have a liveaboard experience under your belt. If you do another liveaboard, you will see some of your complaints again.