Turks & Caicos Explorer II Trip Report

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jkotovsky

Registered
Messages
22
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0
Location
St. Louis, Missouri
# of dives
200 - 499
My wife and I were on the Turks & Caicos Explorer II from 11/27/10 through 12/4/10. This was our first liveaboard experience, but it will probably be our last one. I thought that the boat was nicely designed and functionally laid out. We stayed in State Room #2. The cabin was large enough for storage with a desk, beds were comfortable to sleep in, and the ensuite bathroom was adequate. The service from the crew while on board was good in serving meals and servicing our room. The highlight of the trip was the chef Stan. His meals were wonderful.
The diving started out very good, but by the end of the week, I thought the diving was mediocre at best because of the poor visibility, In addition, the in water service of the divemasters left a lot to be desired. The crew was hindered halfway through the trip by a divemaster becoming bent and having to leave the boat because of needing to be treated by a decompression chamber. We lost one dive because of transporting the divemaster to port and no substitute divemaster replaced the person. So there were between 2 and 3 dives everyday that no divemaster was in the water with a group of 21 divers. I count a total of 6 dives without a divemaster in the water.

Two things bother me about this. First, we were already down one divemaster from a full crew. From my research, the Turks & Caicos Explorer II normally staff 3 divemasters in their crew of 7. Our boat was full with 21 divers and has been booked for approximately one year. Yet, they scheduled one divemaster for vacation during our week and the following week they only had 7 divers booked. It does not make sense that they understaffed the boat from the very beginning with a staff of 6, not 7. The second thing was that they had no back-up plan if there was a problem and they lost a divemaster. The Captain indicated that there was no one available to replace the bent divemaster so it was his decision to not have the only remaining divemaster in the water for all the dives. Captain Ken indicated that it was because he was concerned about the divemaster’s safety. What about safety of the 21 divers on their boat? Thus, we only had a crew of 5, not 7 for the rest of the week.

On the flight home I met a lady on our plane that was on the Turks & Caicos Aggressor for the week. She indicated they had a full crew of 7 with 5 divemasters. She was shocked when I indicated that we had 6 dives with no one in the water with us. She was very pleased with the service she received on the Aggressor ship and indicated that she paid a discounted fare of $1,800 for the week. We paid $2,430 per person for our suite.

The visibility clearly declined over the course of our week of diving from Northwest Point to West Caicos with the worse visibility as French Cay. We were also disappointed in the lack of abundance of sealife that was probably influenced by the poor visibility. But, based upon what we were told before the trip, then repeatedly by the Captain and divemasters during the trip, we do not feel that the trip lived up to the expectations that were set. I was very excited in the beginning seeing numerous reef sharks, nurse sharks, and other sealife with decent visibility on the first few dives. The Captain and divemasters repeatedly said, “You have not seen anything yet, it keeps getting better and better”. It is interesting that we only made 3 dives on the 2 “signature dive sites” of French Cay (Double D and G Spot) because the conditions were so bad and lack of things to see and did 5 dives on non-marquee site (Rock ‘n Roll). As I reviewed my pictures for the week, it is interesting that each day and dive as the week progressed I took fewer pictures because of the poor visibility and the reduction in number of things to see and take pictures of.

I also was disappointed in the attitude of the Captain, not only for his lack of concern about losing a divemaster, but on his attitude towards other things. I enjoy a Captain being a good story teller, but Captain Ken needs to show better judgment about telling stories about his excessive drinking and diving on his own time, especially when the rule on the Explorer fleet is once you drink alcohol, no more diving that day. In another conversation that I had with Captain Ken, he stated that people have died on his ships while on dive trips. He did not indicate the number or the specific circumstances, just that people had died. I asked him about this and he said that is was not his problem that he was not responsible, the people through equipment failure, panic, or getting lost resulted in their death. He did not indicate any remorse or responsibility that these deaths took place on his watch, that the people who died were the ones responsible. Captain Ken’s lack of sensitivity or concern disturbs me. I indicated to him that my values respect human life and that all of us should be concerned whenever another human being loses their life. Captain Ken made no comment regarding my statement.

The printed expectations about tipping indicate that a 10-15% gratuity is expected for the services rendered by the staff. Most of the meals, except for breakfast are served buffet style. At breakfast, the purser asks what you want from the predetermined cook to order menu, and then brings it to your place setting where you have brought your silverware. I was never once asked for a refill of a drink I was having. It was all self-service. In diving, we set-up our dive gear on our tanks one time and then the captain or staff refilled our tanks in place. They did not do anything to service our dive gear. When it came time to dive, they took our cameras and gave them to us after we entered the water. Occasionally, they helped us put on our BCD. At the end of a dive, they took our camera, and put them in the camera tank. They also held onto our fins until we came out of the water and then gave them to us. Between our dives, they filled our tanks and did a consistent job on nitrox blend and pressure.

Other comments:
· There are no hair dryers in room. In this day and age of airline baggage weight restrictions, hair dryers in rooms would help.
· There are no wireless internet connections on the boat once you leave the dock.
· There is no recycling onboard to protect the environment. I think most divers would appreciate this.
· The dock location is inconvenient to restaurants, shopping, etc. They provide transportation on Friday for dinner, but it was a 15 minute drive. Also, their dock was only accessible at high tide.
· The swinging of the boat 180 degrees on the mooring line takes some time to get used and made the boat often difficult to find, especially at night and with the poor visibility.

In closing, there were things my wife and I liked about our first experience on an Explorer ship, but the negatives relating to the understaffed boat, no back-up plan, concern for our safety, and attitude of the Captain clearly over weigh them and we cannot recommend the Turks & Caicos Explorer II. We do not believe that we got what we paid for or expected.
 
It is certainly interesting how people can have different takes on things. We were DELIGHTED during our Red Sea trip, at being allowed to dive without a guide . . .

It is always disappointing to have the visibility poor on a dive trip, but it is certainly not anything within the control of the crew; nor is the amount of sea life that shows up. I think crew have to be careful to maintain the guests' enthusiasm without overselling, though.

I guess I don't expect nearly as much as you guys did. Our liveaboard experience had buffet meals which were tasty, and I was astonished at what the poor guy who worked in the little tiny galley could produce for us. The crew filled our tanks with the right mixes every time, and helped us when we needed it (which was seldom) and mostly stayed out of our way. We could dive with or without a guide, and mostly dove without -- that way, each buddy pair or team could move at the speed they wanted, and stop and take whatever photographs they wished. We were thrilled with our experience, and it has made me want more.
 
This was our first liveaboard experience, but it will probably be our last one.
It seems a bit premature to write off live-aboards entirely because this one had the issues you described. Another in a different setting might be far more to your liking. Kind of like restaurants; imagine if the first you ever went into was unsatisfactory, and you never ate out again!

He did not indicate any remorse or responsibility that these deaths took place on his watch, that the people who died were the ones responsible. Captain Ken’s lack of sensitivity or concern disturbs me.
Some people just plain aren't 'touchy-feely,' and if, upon extended consideration & reflection, he honestly and accurately concluded that the deaths were not the product of nor contributed to by his negligence, then I guess it's no big surprise if he mentions them in a matter-of-fact way. We see quite a few death reports on this forum that were the diver's fault, or nobody's fault. If one captains enough trips & years, I would imagine it's possible to have a (hopefully very few if any) deaths.

Yeah, if the vessel (you're stuck on for a week) has a Captain talking it up about tying one on, that could bother some people. A lot. But others would relate to him as a 'fun' person. I don't drink alcohol and have a rather negative attitude toward it, so not something I'm real objective about.

It is certainly interesting how people can have different takes on things. We were DELIGHTED during our Red Sea trip, at being allowed to dive without a guide . . .
I've noticed that on this issue on the forum a number of times. My personal suspicion is that navigation is probably one of the most lacking skills in divers today (& I am no exception by any stretch!), compared to what some on the forum seem to expect ought to be the case. The Caribbean, which draws a lot of vacation divers, seems to factor that in; that a dive guide will be in the water leading the group around seems to be a given. But from what I understand charters in some areas, like off the coast of California, default to not offering a guide. I suspect they draw a different crowd.

Of course, even if a charter provides dive guides to lead the group, it's not necessarily the case that everyone present has to follow the guides. There's room for both approaches; you do your own thing, I follow the leader.

I suspect if a mainstream Caribbean (e.g.: Cozumel, Grand Cayman) highly tourist-drawing dive charter tried the 'anchor, cross your arms & tell'em they're supposed to know how to navigate themselves without a babysitter' approach, they would run into some problems. If nothing else, they'd spend a lot of time hunting missing divers!

Richard.
 
Sorry to hear you didn't enjoy your liveaboard experience. I'd say that the problems you list aren't automatically characteristic of a liveaboard but, based on your concern with the boat moving, liveaboards may not be your cup of tea.

- Viz: most of the "high voltage" places I've gone have lower viz because its the food and particulate in the water that attracts the fish, which attract the sharks, etc, etc which makes it the high voltage place. I also know that a bus could have driven by 20 feet away and we couldn't have seen it. I'd heard that T & C was pretty good, so your experience is a little surprising.

- Tip - I think its the work you don't notice that is the hard part for them. There is a heck of a lot of work to do and only you can decide whether that's included in the boat price or above and beyond. Note that they are paid not getting a % of the boat charter.

- Boat cost: you got what you could get when you booked. Can't compare discounted fares. That's just how it works.

- Captain: there are a lot of characters on these boats and being one doesn't necessarily reflect on thier competency, but he obviously didn't realize how his casual comments were affecting the opinion of a first time liveaboarder.

- guides: Wow the divemaster got bent. I prefer diving with guides since I think they help find the critters I came to see, but I also haven't ever felt rushed either, so I see both sides. I've seen both sides of the divemaster issue being on a boat where they got sick and just plain could not equalize. I realized how tough it would be to be a dive guide having to dive every single dive.

In Raja Ampat, the cellphone didn't work from the minute we left the dock until we got back 12 days later. It was great. :)
 
The crew was hindered halfway through the trip by a divemaster becoming bent and having to leave the boat because of needing to be treated by a decompression chamber

Who was the DM that got bent? Was Demi on your trip? I sincerely hope it was not Demi that got bent. He was on a Bahamas trip we took and he was so much fun!

I'm sorry to hear your trip did not go as well as you would have liked. I was on the T&C II a couple of years ago and thoroughly enjoyed everything about the trip. Granted the only crew member we had that is probably still on that boat was Stan and yes he is an awesome cook. We certainly did not havve Captain Ken so I cannot comment on him.

As far as vis it sounds like you had some uncommenly bad vis for that area. It was great when we were there and from what I understand most of the time it is very good.

I agree with others in that you should not totally forgo all liveaboards in the future. It's just like dive shops and other dive locations when you go to various places. Not all shops will make you happy with the way they have things set up and work and not all dive site loactions will be what you are looking for in a dive site, but we keep diving and find a new dive shop and/or diving location.
 
Sorry you didn't enjoy your trip, but I think a lot of your disappointment is a result of mismatched expectations. Sounds like you had more than your share of glitches and perceived glitches. Perhaps some of them wouldn't have bothered you as much if there hadn't been all the others. But stuff happens, and I don't see much of anything they could or should have done differently.

There are certainly valid reasons liveaboards might not be someone's cup of tea. But many if not most of the things you are criticizing are not specific to liveaboards - they could happen anyplace - so writing off all liveaboards on that basis makes little sense. And in fact, many of the things you are criticizing are not things many people would even consider a problem, or at least not ones the boat can control.

I agree it would have been good if they started with a full crew or at least more DMs. It seems somewhat common for other crew on liveaboards to be DMs and sometimes step in even if that's not their primary role, including sometimes the captain. Having one of 3 DMs away doesn't give much wiggle room for someone (or both!) to get sick or injured. Maybe they could have planned and made that work better, and maybe not - I don't know the reasons why it was the way it was. But, would you have been happier if they cancelled the whole trip, or rest of the trip? It would be nice to have backup DMs waiting on shore - familiar with the boat and routine and sites - ready to go whenever needed at a moments notice, not working someplace else they can't get away from. But the thing is, not having a divemaster in the water on some dives is actually not something many people on liveaboards would consider a problem or safety issue in most conditions. The fact that you met someone on the plane who was "shocked" at this doesn't mean it was shocking - it just means they're inexperienced or also have different expectations. (Safety-wise, it's often more important to have someone on watch on the dive deck than it is to have someone in the water.)
 
The wife and I had planned a trip on the Cayman Aggressor for about a year. Get there along with Hurricane Ike. Real crappy weather, most dives sucked, visibility was way down but that is the way it goes on any dive trip you plan. I love the freedom of being able to choose whether I dive with a divemaster or not. Don't need or expect hand holding. You have to be good at Navigation. I admit that boat swing thing freaked me out at first, you swim back and it's "I know I left a dive boat here someplace" I listen for the pumps and time my exit based on swing rate. Never been on an Explorer boat but I can tell you the Aggressor Fleet is outstanding.
I find it interesting that you talk about the Captain's lack of empathy for fellow human beings in the same post you complain about missing a dive because the Captain transported an injured crew member to shore for treatment and the crew not deserving a tip. Hmmmm
 
The divemaster that was bent was not Demi. Demi was the divemaster on vacation. I have read many very positive comments about Demi and we were disappointed to learn that he was not going to be on the ship when we arrived.
 
I find it interesting that you talk about the Captain's lack of empathy for fellow human beings in the same post you complain about missing a dive because the Captain transported an injured crew member to shore for treatment and the crew not deserving a tip. Hmmmm

On the contrary, all of the divers on the boat told the captain that safety was the priority and that we should go directly to land to get the divemaster to a decompression chamber. Rather than doing this, the captain had us do the morning and then we went to shore. I was only stating the fact that we lost one dive due to the incident.

The lost dive had nothing to do with my comment about tips, but my expectation for the other dives, based upon what was printed on Explorer's website, that a divemaster would be in the water for all dives.
 
"The crew was hindered halfway through the trip by a divemaster becoming bent and having to leave the boat because of needing to be treated by a decompression chamber. We lost one dive because of transporting the divemaster to port and no substitute divemaster replaced the person."

I was just commenting on what you had written. You are correct in that the Captain was wrong in doing the morning dive first. How did the Divemaster get bent? It seems that if guests were tagging along with him they should have suffered like circumstances.
 
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