Trip Report Cayman Aggressor 5: February 23 - March 2, 2019

[Damselfish]

Interesting. I personally do not understand the rationale for going on a liveaboard somewhere you can easily reach by day boat.

Some of us just like liveaboards. Don't understand the rationale of messing with day boats when I can be on a liveaboard.

 

[KathyV]

The attraction of the Cayman Aggressor for us was also the chance to dive some of the best sites around all 3 islands on one trip, and to do a lot of diving, 4 to 5 dives per day. We had only dived GC before that trip. Plus we chanced upon a great sale and so the cost was very attractive. Still it was a risk because if the weather was bad we would have been stuck on a boat offshore of GC in uncomfortable conditions - and in that case I would rather be sitting and drinking in some cozy dry spot on land!

But another attraction of the Aggressor is that some dives that may be considered "special dives at an extra cost" are included in the itinerary without any extra charges, spots like Stingray City, Kittiwake, Tibbitts Wreck, Bloody Bay Wall, etc.

But I got very seasick during the crossing from GC to LC so that's another factor to consider, but it passed within a day. And a LOB may be a great choice for a single diver that's willing to share a stateroom - he/she can find themselves paying some big upcharges (as a single diver) at some dive resorts.

I am very glad that we did the CA trip but I'm not eager to do it again - mostly because of the seasickness thing, and we're older now and no longer so willing to "dive, dive, dive!" Plus there is always the risk that you may not be able to make the crossing. But it was a great trip, it was our 3rd trip to GC but that was the vacation when we first started to fall in love with the Caymans.

 

[Doctorfish]

Fair statements. I was just trying to get a rise out of people.

 

[KathyV]

...I'm interested as to how many have been on the Cayman Aggressor multiple trips.

Our earliest LOB experiences were in the Bahamas which consist of many islands, regions, and reefs - so we did several trips to that area, but mostly different sections of the Bahamas. We did do 2 LOB trips around Bimini and Freeport but that was because of the weather; we were planning to dive a different area during the second trip but the Captain felt that the conditions would be best around Grand Bahama and Bimini.

And that's another point. We often talk about how you might not be able to make the crossing to the sister islands on the Aggressor if the weather isn't the best in Cayman, but there is also a flip side to that situation. A LOB often has more options during poor weather than land-based diving because they may be able to head to the better areas. For example, they weren't doing any local diving around Cabo due to weather when we left that area on an LOB, but the Captain was able to travel up the Sea of Cortez to much calmer areas. It was still a little rough but not bad and we had decent vis. On the other hand, we were once stuck on a boat in a bad storm in the Bahamas, and it is not the most comfortable place to be when you cannot escape the weather.

Most LOBs that we've done have been once only for the specific location. It gives us a chance to check things out, do a lot of diving, and see if we want to come back later for a land-based trip. One exception has been the Turks and Caicos out of Provo. We've done 2 LOB trips in that area, primarily because the best reefs IMO are a good distance from Provo and we didn't care to spend most of the day in boats just to do 2 (maybe 3) dives. We could do 4-5 dives per day on the best sites from LOBs.

Kona, HI and St. Croix were 2 LOB trips that stayed pretty close to shore, but we traveled farther than is usual for the day boats on both of those trips.

There's another advantage to LOBs in that not only can you dive some of the most popular sites but you can visit those sites early or late in the day and have it all to yourselves, without a crowd of other boats and divers around. Some examples of this include Stingray City and the Kittiwake in GC, the night dive with Mantas off Kona, the Thistlegorm Wreck in Egypt, and most surprisingly the Fredricksted Pier on St. Croix - an easy shore dive!

We spent one day docked at the pier in Fredricksted and we did several shallow dives from dawn to darkest night - and it was great! The pier is huge and it can be a bit challenging to drag your stuff from the shore and around the pier to dive different areas - and make your way back underwater to a ladder to exit - but from a LOB tied to the pier - it was a breeze.

In Egypt, we were the only dive boat on the site when we did the first dive (and most of the second dive) on the Thistlegorm. We started encountering other groups of divers on the wreck toward the end of the second dive. When we came up from the second dive we were astounded by the number of dive boats that had suddenly appeared in the area!

The opportunities to dive multiple locations from a LOB doesn't necessarily limit you to a single country either. We took the Caribbean Explorer out of St. Marteen (half France and half Netherlands), sailed to St. Kitts (British) and then over to Saba (Netherlands). We also sailed quite near to Statia (Netherlands) and Nevis (British). We spent some time on land during that trip so we managed to visit 3 different countries. The tiny (and scary!) little airport on Saba is described as an "international airport" because it accepts Otter flights from the neighboring islands.

It would not be a hardship to repeat any of the LOBs that we have already experienced or to try out some new locations. And LOBs can give you different options, like we've only done one LOB trip to the Northern Red Sea from Sharm el Sheik, but that's a big area and the Southern Red Sea is also still an unknown.

There are things that I like about land-based dive trips, and things I like about liveaboard trips, and so I enjoy them both! You don't have to pick one model and stick with it, you can experience different options.