Turks and Caicos, Aggressor II

[k2harvey]

Has any one been on the Agressor II, Turks and Caicos trip? I am looking for a good live aboard. After a terrific live aborad trip in the Coral Sea with Peter Hughes, I am ready for another. Also your thoughts on the destination? I am interested in this trip because it offers an opportunity to snorkel with the humpbacks, as well as dive. I have already done some diving .....Red Sea, Coral Sea, W Australia, Palau, Fiji, Hawaii, Tasmania but haven't yet done any diving in the Carribean? Would you give up the whales to dive in the Caymens?

Thanks all advice appreciated!

 

[cyklon_300]

I was on this boat in June 2003...it had just been returned to service after a major refurb. I think we were the second group to have been out since leaving drydock. The boat was in immaculate condition, but we had SERIOUS issues with the food. Most of the passengers lodged complaints, so it wasn't just my particular tastes. Liveaboard food doesn't have to be gourmet, but it does need to be edible. Several of my meals were scraped into the waste bin after a single bite...

I was also slightly less than awestruck by the diving. While it was generally entertaining, I found the majority of sites to look very similar to each other..descend to sand flats at 55' and then over the wall. If you're a wall fanatic, you'll be thrilled.

Pelagics were few and far between. One nurse shark, a few reef sharks were the notable large specimens. High winds in the days immediately before our arrival were blamed for the average vis of 50-75'. I'd read numerous accounts of vis in excess of 100-150'...oh well, can't control the weather.

It wasn't a bad trip, just not one that I'd give a five-star rating...

 

[Tim Ingersoll]

Turks & Caicos diving seems to vary from time to time, year to year. I have been going at least annually for almost a decade and I have had weeks where I lost count of the eagle rays, saw reef sharks on every dive and played with dolphins and listened to whales and watched them breach. On other trips I have hardly seen anything of that nature. Most of the sites are in fact wall dives. If you hit it at the right time it will be fantastic. If you hit it at the wrong time it will still be above average.

 

[k2harvey]

thanks for the info.! Definitely sounds like a hit or miss destination.

I noticed I made a mistake in my last posting - my last great live aboard was with Mike Ball in the Coral Sea ................ not Peter Hughes.

 

[JRO]

You also may want to check out the Explorer as well. A little less expensive, great crew. I was there in April. I saw a few sharks, an Eagle Ray at least once a day...Queen Triggers everywhere and the lobster are fearless...and sometimes a bit aggressive. Most fish seemed larger than in other places, this may be due to the parks and reserves.

I compared notes with someone I met on the way down that was onboard the Aggressor (he got me a tour of the Agressor before we left port). After the trip we compared notes and the only thing he seemed to have that we dodn't, was a hot tub (which I have had available on the Nekton boats and have yet to use).

You may also want to see which boat is fuller. Always nice when a boat is a bit underbooked. In Turks, the Aggressor was packed and there were only 9 of us on a boat that holds 18 (I'm sure this situation reverses itself as well).

Good luck and enjoy!!!

Jeff