Caribbean Explorer II - 6-13 december

[Malene]

Here is the report of my holidays on the Caribbean Explorer II. Please forgive any mistake, as English is not my first language.

This was my first trip in the Caribbean and my second live-aboard experience. I was a bit disappointed by several things but nevertheless I enjoyed it a lot and might even do it again !
The Caribbean Explorer II is a comfortable ship. It is not as luxurious as the pictures made me believe, but is perfectly fine. Crew was very friendly.

We were only 8 customers so of course there was plenty of space for us to get ready. Each one of us has a space with our names to put our equipment. There are hangers for the wetsuits in the middle of the boat which avoid them to be either exposed to the sun or to sprays. There are big bins/buckets to rinse your equipment (a separate one for cameras). The tanks are refilled as soon as we are back on the boat. Mine was always 200-220 bars full.
To get in the water, there is a 4 feet jump from the side of the boat. To get back to the boat, there is a pair of ladders then some stairs with a ramp.
There were 4 dives plus one night dive everyday, except on the last day (only 2 dives in the morning).

This itinerary was starting in St Maarten. A taxi driver was waiting for me a the aiport to get me to the marina in about 30 minutes. We were welcomed by Dave, the captain, and Rachel, one of the two dive guides, who showed us around the ship.
I had a cabin for myself. Airconditioning was a bit too cold, but I reduced it by putting a bag in front of the grid.After dinner, we left for Saba, the first island on the itinerary and the first dive sites.
Throughout the week, weather was not perfect: lots of showers and some time squalls. In the water there was often quite a bit of surge, but it was much calmer once you were down.

Briefings were OK, but I felt that a pre-dive check should have been done. One night dive has been done although there was a lot of current which made the dive not enjoyable at all. Generally speaking, I found that security could have been better. I thought the dive guides would be more attentive, especially since in our group of 7, there were only two experience divers. Of the other 5, I was the one with the more dives (120) but dive only during my holidays, the other 3 had much less (less than 30 for at least 2). For example, I was surprised that the dive guide would not wait for us at the surface. On several instances, we had some troubles finding her because the ship was moving (attached to mooring lines, it was swinging quite a bit).

There was even once when it turned the dive into a bad situation. See next post.

 

[Malene]

There was even once when it turned the dive into a bad situation
Here is what happened: dive guide jumps in, 6 divers jump in, guide/ranger jumps in. Sea was ab it rough. Result: When I get down, there is only the diver that just jumped before me and then the 2 last divers (I was 4th to dive). As we cannot see the dive guide, I look up at the boat to check where the mooring line should be, and surprise no boat ! Visibility is not bad and we are not deep, so it is strange. I bang on my tank, with no success. We wait a bit. More than the ÅÏormal one minute. Then the other 2 divers (who jumped first) come out of the blue, quickly followed by the ranger who was with us on that day (this was on Statia, and all dives have to be escorted by a ranger of the reserve). He signalled us to stay together and to follow him. We slowly ascent and when we did our safety stop, saw our dive guide at the surface with her safety sausage. It finally dawned on me that something went wrong. On surface, we looked for the boat no boat there are still a lot of waves and we are a bit shaken and it is difficult to see far Boat should be here anytime now, informs us Lee (the ranger) but seems a bit surprised when we finally see the boat, quite a distance away! Maybe the sausage is not that visible One of the other divers has also a sort of little flag that he gets out Lee, our hero of the day, keeps us calm, even if the situation is uncomfortable. Finally, the boat changes position and goes towards us. Yippee ! Boat gets near and we, at last, are able to come aboard. The whole episode has lasted about 30 minutes. By talking to the first divers and to Lee, we got an idea of what happened but there was no de-briefing from anyone of the crew as I think should have been done. Apparently, the mooring line where the ship was attached broke while we were trying to find the "point of rendez-vous (the bottom of the mooring line). I don't understand how we got separated and how we got so far away from the boat. I guess that if we had all go down together, we would not have lost each other! I must admit none of us complained of this to the dive guides or the captain. For my part, I think we were a bit shocked and felt that it was up to them to talk to us Well enough of that episode!

Next post will be about the dives (finally....)

 

[Malene]

As I said in my first post, I was a bit a disappointed, but regarding the quality of the dives, I KNEW I would be, since I have been spoiled so far, having dived in the Red Sea, Thailand, Philippines and Indonesia.

My first impression was that it was much less colours and life than the above destinations, but then, once I accepted that, I enjoyed most of the dives.

We started with Saba. Unfortunately we could not the dives around the Pinnacles because of the weather.

Dive 1 - Custom House
My first dive after 6 months and the pleasure to go into the blue and discover a new environment. I am a bit surprised because there are less fish and corals than I was expecting. But on the other hand, a lot of the fish are new to me ! I feel like when I first started diving and did not any of the fish besides the clown-fish. There is also a lot of different kind of sponges.

Dive 2 - Ladder labyrinth
Better dive with more fish. There are a lot of surgeon fish, squirrel fish and I meet with the beautiful angel fish family that does not exist in the Red Sea or South-East Asia.

Dive 3 - Torren's point
Another very pleasant dive around boulders. I discover a very cute fish, the juvenile Yellow Tail Damsel : a bright nice blue with lighter blue spots. It will be my favourite this week We also see a turtle.

4 - Dave's Drop Off
A pretty dive with a nice landscape and plenty to see.

5 - Tedran Wall
That would have been a beautiful wall dive if it had not been the 3rd dive of the day. As the interesting part was at 30 meters and below, it should have been the first dive of the day. Wall was impressive with apparently a lot of life to look at.

6 and 7 - Tent Wall (done twice)
Interesting enough to be done twice. Among the usual suspects, several file fish and funny secretary blennies. And a big turtle.

8 - Tent Wall (another part)
Definitely a very good site. A mix of sand and boulders to swim around. Garden Eels, more Secretary Blennies, my first Spotted Drum. Also some beautiful black coral.

Duringthe night between Tuesday and Wednesday, we crossed to Statia. There was a bit too much rolling and pitching for my taste I did not sleep well and was a bit sea-sick so I skipped the first dive of the day.
For all dives in Statia, we were in a nature reserve and had to be accompanied by a ranger.

9 - The Ledges
That's probably the dive I liked the less. Bottom was a bit dull with lots of algae. Still I must admit that we did see an interesting fish on the sand: a Flying Gurnard which is a strange kind of creature, like a fish who would wonder if he should not become a land animal...

10 - The Hump
That the "disaster" one described in my previous post. It was supposed to be better than the previous one, but this is probably a trick to make us come back ;-)

11 - Wreck city
I don't usually do wreck dives because I am always disappointed by them. However, Lee, the ranger, convinced me to try it. And I actually really liked it. There was quite a lot to see and to poke around. Among others, I saw an Octopus trying (unsuccessfully) to hide, several funny boxfish, a turtle and the local star, a big barracuda that was not shy at all and would get really close to us.

Amongst the rules of the Explorer fleet, is that as soon as you have an alcoholic drink you stop diving for the day. I thought it was an excellent precaution until this Wednesday ;-) Before dinner, I had some rum, not thinking I would do the night dive. When I found out that only one of us was going diving and therefore would have two guides for him, I really regretted my drink! They had plenty to show him and were almost competing to be the one who would find more stuff
So in total, I did only two dives in Statia and wished I had done the 5 that were planned and rather buddied with the local guide (Lee) who knew the sites better and would have spotted more fish and creatures.

Next we went to St Kitts.
Visibility was bad (probably because of the rain), so with a good visibility, these dives would have been amongst my favourites.

12 - Paradise Reef
Because of the hurricane Omar, there was a bit of silt and garbage at the bottom but it did not bother me so much as the dive was interesting both for the landscape and the fish. It was boulders on sand. We saw several morays, a big sting ray, a stone fish, in addition to the usual suspects.

13 - Anchors Aweight
There are supposed to be lots of anchors on this site, but I saw only one, the one which was unmissable. The site is mostly made of small ledges where there were lots of squirrel fish and several spotted drums fish. There were also several small barracudas and as I was doing my safety stop a large group of Big Eyed Jack.

14 - River Taw wreck
As I liked the previous wreck, I decided to try this one as well, and I liked it even better! Again it was full of life and plenty of nooks to look into. Swimming around were the usual suspects (parrot fish, squirrel fish, surgeon fish, angel fish, damsels, etc and a couple of trumpet fish. I said goodbye to all of them as it was my last dive of these holidays.

Tomorrow was Friday and my flight was scheduled early on Saturday morning, so I found it a bit risky to dive less than 24 hours before taking the plane.

In summary, this was not the Red Sea or Indonesia, but this was still very good diving and I would probably return to the Caribbean, certainly on a live-aboard. As I am travelling solo, it is a great way to meet people. The other customers were really nice and I am glad I met them. On the other hand, as I was here on my own and since every body else had a buddy, I dove with the dive guides. This normally should be better but in this case, I felt that both of them were going too fast. I like to go slow, take my time to poke around and observe. If I had dived in these conditions, I am sure I would have much more appreciated the dives and found them more interesting.

But overall, everything was well organized on this live-aboard and the crew was very friendly. I had a great time and was happy of this "American experience"? These islands are beautiful and the land excursions were also interesting. I cannot compare this cruise with others in the Caribbean but I would recommend it to anyone with enough experience to dive without a guide.

Malene

 

[Charles21093]

Thanks for the trip report. I have been eagerly anticipating its posting. I leave Saturday morning for the CE II with 15 friends. We will be starting in St. Kitts and so will have a reverse itinerary, but it was nice to have access to your recent first-hand experience.

I will definitely benefit from reading your rum story. It is good to know that they stick to their rules. Oh, and I might run out and get a bigger sausage in case the boat goes missing on us.

Thanks again,
Bill

 

[Malene]

I will definitely benefit from reading your rum story. It is good to know that they stick to their rules. Oh, and I might run out and get a bigger sausage in case the boat goes missing on us.
Bill

:blinking:

Hello Bill,

Let us know what you thought of this cruise in general and the dive guides in particular. It would be nice to have your point of view as well.

Happy New Year

 

[CLEAR BLUE]

Great trip report! You should try Bonaire sometime. Even if you are alone - since the island is all about diving - it's easy to find buddies. Do you have any pictures?
Have a safe and happy New Year.