Scared Silly
Contributor
Just got off the Tiburon Explorer and will give it a big thumbs up. I am not going to into deep details as I am about to get on another boat for a week of land tours.
We and everyone we talked with said the Tiburon was far above other live aboard boats done in the past. Many superlatives, which they worked to earn. The crew is very attentive to the guests needs. Great three star meals each day. Not just for dinner but also lunch. Everything was very fresh. Easy boat to be on and get on and off for the dinghy rides.
The diving was good, only two dives were subpar. One with an unexpected mixing current at Landside on Wolf. The next two dives made up for it with multiple whale shark encounters. The other was too many people along the wall due to a second boat. Overall decent visibly and good hammerhead action. Plus whale sharks on about half of the dives in the north. We dove 7mm suits and felt they were the right thickness. No hood but a cap might have been nice on few dives. Garden gloves for currents and grabbing rocks.
Side note: if you dive like us with ONLY weight pockets. Consider a weight belt. When getting back on the dinghy one passes their weights, then rig, then fins, before going up the ladder. We are used to passing fins and then just going up the ladder.
The vis and conditions were such that I decided to leave my camera rig. There were only a few shots that I felt I missed like the marine iguanas. But then again I enjoyed the freedom.
Jennifer who coordinates things for Explorer Ventures was a great help. Dom at Dive Advice who we did our booking gets our kudos. I have not used a booking agent in years. Working with Dom has been great and I definitely use him again.
Finally I will say that right now the Galápagos are very quiet. It is nice. Not sure I could be here during the main seasons. We stayed on Santa Cruz and San Cristobal and did some land tours plus a day trip Espanola.
We and everyone we talked with said the Tiburon was far above other live aboard boats done in the past. Many superlatives, which they worked to earn. The crew is very attentive to the guests needs. Great three star meals each day. Not just for dinner but also lunch. Everything was very fresh. Easy boat to be on and get on and off for the dinghy rides.
The diving was good, only two dives were subpar. One with an unexpected mixing current at Landside on Wolf. The next two dives made up for it with multiple whale shark encounters. The other was too many people along the wall due to a second boat. Overall decent visibly and good hammerhead action. Plus whale sharks on about half of the dives in the north. We dove 7mm suits and felt they were the right thickness. No hood but a cap might have been nice on few dives. Garden gloves for currents and grabbing rocks.
Side note: if you dive like us with ONLY weight pockets. Consider a weight belt. When getting back on the dinghy one passes their weights, then rig, then fins, before going up the ladder. We are used to passing fins and then just going up the ladder.
The vis and conditions were such that I decided to leave my camera rig. There were only a few shots that I felt I missed like the marine iguanas. But then again I enjoyed the freedom.
Jennifer who coordinates things for Explorer Ventures was a great help. Dom at Dive Advice who we did our booking gets our kudos. I have not used a booking agent in years. Working with Dom has been great and I definitely use him again.
Finally I will say that right now the Galápagos are very quiet. It is nice. Not sure I could be here during the main seasons. We stayed on Santa Cruz and San Cristobal and did some land tours plus a day trip Espanola.
