Opinions on Explorer 2 - Turks & Caicos

[ECPaul]

I've been on a couple of liveaboard trips - both with Nekton (Belize and Bahamas intineraries), and I'm now considering a trip in December to dive TCI. Considering the Turks and Caicos Explorer 2 as a liveaboard option, and would love to hear from anyone whose been on that vessel before, or any other liveaboard in the TCI for that matter.

Thanks in advance (and glad to see SB up and running again!).

 

[tstormdiver]

I went on the Caribbean Explorer I back in May. to say the very least, I was very impressed. My traveling companion has been on the CEXII & she really liked it. She said it was the best live aboard she had ever been on. She said the CEXI was very good, but didn't come near what she thought the CEXII was. Explorer Ventures seems to run a very good company for giving divers the best.

 

[michaelc]

I've been on a couple of liveaboard trips - both with Nekton (Belize and Bahamas intineraries), and I'm now considering a trip in December to dive TCI. Considering the Turks and Caicos Explorer 2 as a liveaboard option, and would love to hear from anyone whose been on that vessel before, or any other liveaboard in the TCI for that matter.

Thanks in advance (and glad to see SB up and running again!).

I just got back yesterday from a week on the TCI explorer. it was an excellent trip.
The boat is exceptionally clean, no mold, no smells, just clean.

the crew was excellent and a lot of fun, only problem stan ( The cook ) could make you fat.
If you want a dive guide there is one avaliable, if you and your buddy want to do your own thing that fine also.
I had a bunk ( room ) in the bottom, this was just fine for me, but if you are going with a significant other I would suggest you pop a couple of extra bucks for a state room cabin if you can. I would also suggest you do the nitrox ( strongly ) or you will find you will need to limit your dive or there depth or both.

only negatives: the boat has a deep draft so it docks at the caicaos marina vs the turttle cove marina, this is a little more out of the way, but not a real issue. if you come in on Saturday there should be a van driven by van to pick you up. if you go early ( as I did ) you may need to get a taxi to take you there. this also adds to boat swing when the boat is moored at a dive site. not an issue but can be a bit alarming when you come up and the boats not where you expect it.

if you have any other questions that I can help you with let me know.
Michael C

 

[djanni]

I've been on a couple of liveaboard trips - both with Nekton (Belize and Bahamas intineraries), and I'm now considering a trip in December to dive TCI. Considering the Turks and Caicos Explorer 2 as a liveaboard option, and would love to hear from anyone whose been on that vessel before, or any other liveaboard in the TCI for that matter.

Thanks in advance (and glad to see SB up and running again!).

I came to the forum just now to post a similar question. We're considering the Turks and Caicos Explorer 2 trip -departure Jan 26th. That week is a charter trip with one of the local Dive Shops here in Birmingham.

I'll be following this thread.

Don

 

[djanni]

I just got back yesterday from a week on the TCI explorer. it was an excellent trip.
The boat is exceptionally clean, no mold, no smells, just clean.

the crew was excellent and a lot of fun, only problem stan ( The cook ) could make you fat.
If you want a dive guide there is one avaliable, if you and your buddy want to do your own thing that fine also.
I had a bunk ( room ) in the bottom, this was just fine for me, but if you are going with a significant other I would suggest you pop a couple of extra bucks for a state room cabin if you can. I would also suggest you do the nitrox ( strongly ) or you will find you will need to limit your dive or there depth or both.

only negatives: the boat has a deep draft so it docks at the caicaos marina vs the turttle cove marina, this is a little more out of the way, but not a real issue. if you come in on Saturday there should be a van driven by van to pick you up. if you go early ( as I did ) you may need to get a taxi to take you there. this also adds to boat swing when the boat is moored at a dive site. not an issue but can be a bit alarming when you come up and the boats not where you expect it.

if you have any other questions that I can help you with let me know.
Michael C

I'm more interested in the Diving than the boat. What did you think of the diving? Anywhere you can compare to?

 

[johnspierce]

We went on the T&C Explorer for a week last year. Excellent diving, excellent boat, you won't regret it. We just got back from the Bahamas Explorer - also an excellent trip. The TCI boat is newer and nicer, but both locations and crews were excellent. Do both!!!

JP

 

[michaelc]

I'm more interested in the Diving than the boat. What did you think of the diving? Anywhere you can compare to?

The diving was excellent. most of the dives were wall dives with the depth running 70 to 100+ there was lots of life, but less fish life then I expected. but more larger life, sharks, turtles, rays then I had seen in other places. every dive was good, little to no current. there were some on the boat that were conserned with current on some of the dives, but being from California I wondered what they were talking about. The best diving I found was on French Cay, the last dive I had a shark almost bump me and a squad of 5 eagle ray come within 30 feet, I came up saying again again, that was a very cool dive, and the last one we did. I have about 300 pictures from the week and this is after the initial toss of all the really crap pictures. I will be putting togeather a dive report soon, but I need to sort thru all the stuff I have first.

in short I would say it was all very eazy ( not requiring alot of dive skill ) wall dives.

I found the dives to be somewhat like Grand Cayman but in my opnion better than Grand Cayman, some of the more impressive items I found were.
The Sharks were on 2/3 of the dives, most being reef sharks, some nurse, I heard that some on another boat had seen HammerHeads, but I did not.

also on 3 or 4 dives I got to swim with turtles, that to me is allways cool.
another neat item is on several of the dives there are groupers that are about like puppy dogs. one I have shots of opened it mouth and out came two cleaner shrimp who ran around doing there cleaning job and then ran back into the groupers mouth.

The Black fan coral on g-spot ( French Cay ) I found very amazing and beautiful and I don't tend to say that about most fan coral.

On West Caciaos at elephant ear canyon I found the most amazing thing in the sand flats a shot nose bat fish, very rare to find, sort of prehistoric looking to say the least.
I will attach a few pictures, as I said still need to tweek and catalog.

one item you get in the winter months is the possibility of humpback whales, don't count on it, but it does occur.
over all I would say the diving was excellent, I would very strongly suggest you do nitrox, you will find on air you will need to be very very very conservative in your dive profile, because most of the walls start at around 50-60 feet and drop down, when your doing 5 dives a day, your nitrogen limit on air can be pegged real quickly.

I found my dives would run near an hour and more then half were over 90 feet.

and and a 2meg viedo clip

any questions just let me know.

 

[underwaterdan]

That toadfish video was amazing! Nice work!

 

[michaelc]

That toadfish video was amazing! Nice work!

it was very cool, makes you want to check out the sand a bit more at times.
I miss labled it, I had looked it up on the boat and then got confused, it's a short nose batfish, but it's still very cool.

 

[NTSilver]

ECPaul, the following is a post from our trip on the T&C Exp from last October. There are a few photos in my gallery. We are scheduled to go on the Caribbean Exp II in Oct to do the Saba, St Kitts, Statia trip.

'I was recently on the T&C Explorer II. This was our (my husband and I) first liveaboard experience. I was concerned about a lot of things, especially Peanut's concern about transfers from the airport and then the dingy ride to the boat.

Transfers. Explorer Ventures provides bag tags for your main piece of luggage to affix once you arrive to make you easily identifiable to the person picking you up (this is usually a gentleman by the name of Van and he transports you in a van). It is $6 per person. I did not think this was unreasonable. Since this was my first liveaboard experience I had no clue that this was not the norm. Explorer Ventures clearly states in their literature that the trip does NOT include transfers.

Dock / Dingy Ride. On this sailing, the boat was actually docked at Turtle Cove Marina so we did not have to take the dingy to the boat. The people arriving on the 8pm flight, however, did have to take the dingy as T&C Explorer II had to get out of Turtle Cove before the tide went out. The return docking was also at Turtle Cove.

Diving. My dive experience is Key West, Roatan, St Lucia, Aruba and Tahiti. Every dive location has provided unique aspects. I was afraid I might be bored diving five dives a day, so I decided to take an underwater photography class. Once I started taking photos, I couldn't wait to get back into the water. There was always something new and exciting for me to "try" to photograph, and I actually did improve as the week went on. We saw lots of sharks, turtles, sting rays, octopus, eels, grouper, and one eagle ray (which was a disappointment). There were lots of interesting caverns / cracks leading down to the walls which I especially enjoyed. My husband was a diver, no camera, and he thoroughly enjoyed each dive.

Crew. The crew was great with regards to both diving and ensuring that we were having a great time otherwise. We all chose to have them lead our dives. At the end of the week they advised that generally that is NOT the case that it's generally 100% non-guide led dives. We had a total of ten divers which included three instructors, a solo diver, and a gentleman getting his AOW.

The boat. The boat was in immaculate condition. The common areas were comfortable as well as our individual rooms. I was actually surprised - I thought it would be much smaller. The food was great and plentiful. The crew waited on us during meals. No one went hungry. Drinks were always available. One person had a few food allergies and the Chef accommodated her with alternatives.

My other concerns. I thought I would miss land -- I did not. In fact it was very peaceful out there with nothing but French Cay in sight. I thought I would be seasick -- I was not. I took 2 Bonines every morning and did not have any problems. Husband wore the patch and he had no problems either. I thought I would get bored of diving -- like I said above, I couldn't wait to get back in the water. We are already planning our next trip. I was also concerned about bad weather, but aside from a little wind a few days, it was great.

We have decided that liveaboards are the only way to dive (well, mostly it is me, husband was convinced long ago but it took awhile for me to come around!) Also, as I stated above, I thought I would miss land. Upon returning to Turtle Cove, I didn't want to get off the boat. I would have gone for a second week in a heartbeat.

On Friday, most of us joined the crew at Aqua (Turtle Cove) -- very good food and beverages.

We were on the afternoon flight the next morning and the crew accommodated us until 1000am.

All in all a GREAT first liveaboard experience and I would highly recommend to anyone who is considering this trip."