I'm doing my 1st liveaboard this fall on the Turks and Caicos Explorer. Any experience with them ?
Most of the negatives I read about Nekton have to do with the quantity of divers, crowded dive decks and lack of nitrox.
Maybe I should try them all out, Aggressor, Peter Hughes, Nekton and Explorer.[/QUOTE
Absolutely correct. Expand your base of knowledge and share it as it develops. The TC Explorer is the oinly show in town - a great reason top go aboard her! The price structure is pretty much so the same as the Nekton, but their in room bathromm situation is a serious issue in my book.
It is the single best way to dive the T&C- some of the best dives are seldom visited by the land based ops. This is your chance to enjoy all that TC has to offer. Go for it.
All I can reflect on is what others have said about the Nekton and what I know about it. The first time you're on the dive deck, they stagger your arrival by room number. You rig your gear and retreat up to the briefing deck. On the first dive, it can get a bit elbow to elbow.
There are two factors for this. Everyone is all keyed up :11: , and has the need to be on the dive deck when the 'starting bell rings'. On this first dive prep- there's a lot of fussing
around. On subsequent dives, people trickle in and they're more attuned to their gear. I would say it's really no worse and probably a bit better than any other world class live aboard. My main complaint is they put you and your room mate dive buddy next to each other in the same seating bay. I would split them across from each other. Your 90's are bungied down, always rigged, and you sit on the deep stainless seat with large compartment for gear storage below your feet.
The big positive is that there is no stepping down to the dive deck/platform. You can do an entry off of either side, too high for some, but it's only 5' high- not a big deal. Or, you can amble down the 8' wide stainless steps that are 12" deep and maybe a 6" step, five of them (?) with center and side guard rails- then you're level with the water.
On your way up, there's a 10' stainless weighted hang bar and second stage hanging at 15fsw- a great place to zone out and watch the critters. There are two "christmas tree" ladders of substantial characcter for easy climbing to the dive deck staeps as mentioned before. There are always tag lines, john lines, and a pick up skiff in the water- along with a 'bubble watcher' on the top deck- a crewman who watches for lost guests.
As I said- I fall off of either of the sides of the aft dive deck, most buddies learn to follow me- it's quicker and easier. The dive deck is the width of the boat and maybe 15' long. It is raised for travel, then lowered for diving. You will learn about the "stairway to no-where".
Nitrox? I seem to have a cert card for that, but have never needed to access it on my Nekton profiles, and I get wet 5x a day. They seemed to have sufficient NitrOx for any who were aboard whenever I was there. I have read some internet stories in regards to issues, but if they held any currency, they seemed to be isolated in occurances. Call Nekton and flat out ask them what their system is. I know they have NitrOx dedicated tanks (obviously) and there is, by deffinition of the environment, only a limited number of them available on a cruise. One would suppose that they would take reservations for them if you wanted them. It never hurts to ask.
Each live aboard has its own specific flavor. :11ztongue Some are sweet, some are sour. Maybe you like yours "salty"?
Have fun- and post your opinions upon return!
