Aggessor or Sea Hunter in Cocos?

[divecedral]

Does anyone have an updated opinion on whether to use the Aggressor or Sea Hunter for a trip to Cocos? The last post recommended the Sea Hunter, but I've heard the Aggressor has been renovated. I've had positive experiences with Aggressor, but on a recent trip a heavy Aggressor customer suggested using Sea Hunter. Apparently, the boat is a little more comfortable, has better camera facilities and is less crowded.

 

[NTSilver]

We just returned from Cocos this past week and have been three times in the past year. We always use the undersea hunter boats versus Aggressor. I don't know if you have ever dove from a rubber inflatable in rough seas or not, but that is how the Aggressor gets to its dive sites at Cocos. The past trip we saw them with 10 divers in one rubber inflatable. The USH/SH have hard bottom covered dingies where your dive gear is stored for the week. During this last trip, two of the Aggressor guests has broken away from the rest of the group and were rescued by the USH dingie. The Aggressor inflatable was a mile away. My neighbor is also a huge Aggressor fan and he will never go back to Cocos on the Aggressor. He and his dive buddy were left in the water for 45 minutes on one of his trips before they were rescued.

 

[BlueFrog]

I've been to Cocos many times and would only consider the Hunter boats. I've been very impressed with all aspects of their operation especially the dive program. I've never been diving with the Agressor but did tour their boat last time I was in Costa Rica. It was nice but I didn't care for their dive operation as a whole. Also, they force you to dive off of inflatables instead of rigid tenders and they pack a lot of people on each one. The Hunter's well designed pangas have great ladders and are completely covered so for me, it made it easier to dive in rough conditions.

I don't know if this matters to you but as a tech diver, I and my group dive rebreathers and frequently will make deep deco dives at sites like Alcyon. Hunter boats provide us with 100% O2 and everything else we need for safety. Even if I didn't dive like that, the fact that the Hunter staff supports high end technical diving means, to me, that they are very serious about our sport and seperates them from the usual live-aboard.

Feel free to contact me if you have other questions, love talking about Cocos.

 

[cetacean]

The points the other posters make (re: diving from a zodiac, tech diving support) are good ones, but to me the thing that makes this not even a question is the experience I had back in January.

I've been to Cocos twice now (both times w/the Undersea Hunter folks). In January we pulled anchor twice to get into search patterns for missing divers from the Aggressor (the good news was that in both cases they were found within 45-75 minutes (one group drifting on the surface, another in one the many bays surrounding Cocos).

Anyone can get separated from the group at Cocos (this is advanced diving - strong currents, chop, and open ocean all play a part here). The difference is that the Undersea Hunter folks always make you dive w/EPIRBS (personal transponders). Before your first dive you're instructed on how to use these, when to turn them on, etc. In short, you get separated on the surface from the panga and no one sees you, you turn it on... it sends out the emergency signal that every boat within x miles (and the ranger station on the island) will pick up. Triangulate the signal, and they can figure out where you are.

At one point I heard the Aggressor was using a similar system, however when we were there in January they weren't, and it showed.

For this reason alone, this isn't even a choice for me. Go with the safer option (this isn't a theoretical, we experienced the implications of not having these twice in 5 days)...

On a less serious note - the panga drivers (like Pepe) on the Sea Hunter/Undersea Hunter boats are literally the best drivers/topside dive staff I've seen anywhere in the world. These guys make diving in difficult situations safe & fun. Go with the best dive staff and the safest dive ops...

 

[Eau_Girl]

I'm doing my first trip to Cocos later this year. I'm on Sea Hunter.

I've been on other Aggressor boats and have a great time and thought the dive ops were well run. However, any time I've spoken to people with experience in Cocos the recommendation is either Sea Hunter or Undersea Hunter without hesitation. Their reputation for the quality of the dive ops has spread to divers in many corners of the world. A couple of the people I've spoken to have been on these trips 5-6 times each. NTSilver also gave me some great advice and answered specific questions i had via PMs. Thanks!

Reinforcing the comments of other posters -- the pangas over zodiacs plus the personal transponders are real pluses that these people have pointed out. I've also been told the Sea Hunter specifically is a very solid boat which makes the 36 hours crossing more bearable!

 

[ChrisM]

I've done 4 or 5 aggressor boats, including Galapagos and Cocos. I would only use Aggressor in Galapagos. I would not use Aggressor in Cocos. We never had a major safety issue per se, but they issued one EPIRB per buddy group, and the pangas were not running very well (and fully packed.

One was running so slowly that we couldn't effectively outrun the following sea on a trip out to Alcyone (yeah, with 10 people + gear and cameras). The water was rising from ur ankles, to our shins, to our knees..... Right when we got there we were told to get out of the panga and don our gear in the water. A little stressful, but nothing we haven't done before. I was just hoping hte panga would be there on ascent........