Just mulling over the unpleasant task I have in choosing between the Turks & Caicos Aggressor out of Providenciales and the Aqua Cat which runs the Exumas out of Nassau.
I've done a few other Liveaboards, the Windancer out of Belize City in '98, the Caribbean Explorer II out of St Martin and the SS Thorfinn moored in Truk Lagoon, so it won't be a new experience. And I've been diving in Grand Turk (once) and Nassau (numerous times) and off Andros (twice), so I'm familiar with the areas.
Both boats look to be comfortable, modern and well-appointed. The Aggressor boat is 130' long with a 22' beam and just refitted in 2003 while the Aqua Cat is 110' long with a 35' beam, it's a catamaran (naturally) and it was built in 2001. I've read some references to "rough crossings" onboard the Cat, though not in every review.
My impression is that the diving is a tad better in T&C (could my impression be wrong?), but the range of activities is greater on board the Aqua Cat which offers sea kayaking excursions and other land-and-sea activities such as bird watching (not that interested in that), iguana viewing (better, but I'm more of a people watcher), island exploration and beach combing.
I like trips to new places and excursions to the far corners, so I suppose the Cat is more in keeping with that notion as it seems to range wide in a "pristeen" area of the Bahamas, while the Aggressor seems to keep within a much smaller area.
I love wall diving and the Aggressor seems to offer scads of that sort, but the Bahamas is also home to some great walls, though my reading is that the diving there is a mix of walls, blue holes and other interesting UW topography as well as a staged shark dive (which interests me not at all) as well as sharks "in the wild" on many of the other dives which does interest me. While the Aqua Cat may offer a wider range of experiences, my guess is that the diving is not as universally dramatic as the steep walls in T&C, again, I may be wrong.
A pleasant dilemma. I'm going to decide in the next 24 hours, not much time to gather opinions, but I thought I'd give it a shot, so any quick suggestions or reviews of these boats would be appreciated! I leave the first week of August 2006 and I'll keep reading any opinions offered until . . . and maybe make the "loser" a future destination. ;-)
Thanks!
JoeL
I've done a few other Liveaboards, the Windancer out of Belize City in '98, the Caribbean Explorer II out of St Martin and the SS Thorfinn moored in Truk Lagoon, so it won't be a new experience. And I've been diving in Grand Turk (once) and Nassau (numerous times) and off Andros (twice), so I'm familiar with the areas.
Both boats look to be comfortable, modern and well-appointed. The Aggressor boat is 130' long with a 22' beam and just refitted in 2003 while the Aqua Cat is 110' long with a 35' beam, it's a catamaran (naturally) and it was built in 2001. I've read some references to "rough crossings" onboard the Cat, though not in every review.
My impression is that the diving is a tad better in T&C (could my impression be wrong?), but the range of activities is greater on board the Aqua Cat which offers sea kayaking excursions and other land-and-sea activities such as bird watching (not that interested in that), iguana viewing (better, but I'm more of a people watcher), island exploration and beach combing.
I like trips to new places and excursions to the far corners, so I suppose the Cat is more in keeping with that notion as it seems to range wide in a "pristeen" area of the Bahamas, while the Aggressor seems to keep within a much smaller area.
I love wall diving and the Aggressor seems to offer scads of that sort, but the Bahamas is also home to some great walls, though my reading is that the diving there is a mix of walls, blue holes and other interesting UW topography as well as a staged shark dive (which interests me not at all) as well as sharks "in the wild" on many of the other dives which does interest me. While the Aqua Cat may offer a wider range of experiences, my guess is that the diving is not as universally dramatic as the steep walls in T&C, again, I may be wrong.
A pleasant dilemma. I'm going to decide in the next 24 hours, not much time to gather opinions, but I thought I'd give it a shot, so any quick suggestions or reviews of these boats would be appreciated! I leave the first week of August 2006 and I'll keep reading any opinions offered until . . . and maybe make the "loser" a future destination. ;-)
Thanks!
JoeL
