Cocos Island (Aggressor)

[leadweight]

My only real complaint about the facilities on the Aggressor was that the mattresses were too thin.

Ther rest of it, even if listed as a negative in the first post, is just a statement of facts. Many of these things are like the weather. It is just how things are, and it might not be for everyone.

 

[mjh]

I think three of the major factors we are looking at are:

1. Boat stability. Without a doubt we will have patches and understand the ride to and from can be rough so the more stable the platform the better. Wondering if there is much differance between Aggressor, the Sea Hunter and Undersea Hunter?

2. I do dive w/a housed camera & some large strobes (as I am sure many do) and wondering how much room is on the skiffs w/each vendor?

3. I understand most of the profiles are deeper and am wondering how lenient the DMs are with allowing you to try to get away from the “pack”?

Any input would be welcome.

 

[leadweight]

mjh:

1. Only having been on the Aggressor, I can't compare the boats. I got by with a few Bonine pills. It is a long ride and just moving around on the boat takes a lot of effort.

2. There was room on the skiff for all cameras, and about 75% of the divers (but not me) had them. Agressor gets a lot of underwater photographers and tries hard to keep them happy.

3. The DM's want you to stay in a group. That does not mean on top of each other, wandering off is not appreciated.

 

[cyklon_300]

of the dice for sea conditions...

The Aggressor ride in April 01 was on glass-smooth water, both coming and going. You could have waterskiied it... I am the King of Puking on liveaboards and I never felt even a twinge of nausea on this trip. I doubt if there's an ounce of difference between boats in terms of whether you'll get sick or not...the ocean and your personal predispostion to motion-sickness will determine that.

Everyone onboard was a photographer of some caliber...we were all accomodated and our camera gear was handled properly by the crew.

This is advanced diving by any definition, so the DMs were watchful of the group, but I never got the feeling that we were being 'herded'...However, heading out 180 degrees from the main group is probably not a great dive plan.

The sheer abundance of large animals doesn't require that you wander off to find things...sharks and rays were in the hundreds on many dives. We saw so many white-tip sharks that people stopped commenting on them after the second day.

 

[Taxgeek]

Hi all, new here. I don't know if this is ok to refer to another board, but I found lots of useful trip reports from Cocos (all 3 boats) over at Diver 2 Diver.

I don't know how to make a link, hope this works.

http://dive.scubadiving.com/talk/list.php?1

People seemed to like the Sea Hunter and Undersea Hunter the best as far as comfort, although all the people reporting on the Okeanos seemed to have a fabulous time too.

I signed up on the April 13, 2006 trip on the Sea Hunter, hurray! ;-)
Working on upgrading the video rig between now and then and getting nitrox certified!

Cheers,
Taxgeek

 

[mjh]

leadweight, (anyone who dove w/Aggressor)
I almost hate to ask since we just plunked the money down for the Undersea Hunter. Butttt how many night dives did you do? I was told by the Aggressor office 3 night dives over the course of the week was about standard. Undersea Hunter said as long as two people want to night dive they go. This was the deciding factor for us.

FYI if you are planning this trip for 06 you better get on it! For both Aggressor and Undersea Hunter the 1st openings were in September of 06.