Turks and Caicos - Liveaboard Comparisons

"Reef Fish" <Large_Nassau_Grouper@Yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:1123263488.391194.99990@g14g2000cwa.googlegro ups.com...

>> Hmm, Mexico, Bahamas, Barbados, St Lucia, St Kitts, Antigua, Cuba and
>> Aruba. It's a few places.
>
> Mostly crummy places, such as Mexico (where?), Barbados, St. Kitts,
> Antigua, Aruba. Been there. Done that (ALL). And the
> Bahamas are not even part of the Caribbean. Been there a couple
> hundred dives.

How many dives did you say you have off Cuba? I must have missed that part.

Greg Mossman wrote:
> "Reef Fish" <Large_Nassau_Grouper@Yahoo.com> wrote in message
> news:1123263488.391194.99990@g14g2000cwa.googlegro ups.com...
>
> >> Hmm, Mexico, Bahamas, Barbados, St Lucia, St Kitts, Antigua, Cuba and
> >> Aruba. It's a few places.
> >
> > Mostly crummy places, such as Mexico (where?), Barbados, St. Kitts,
> > Antigua, Aruba. Been there. Done that (ALL). And the
> > Bahamas are not even part of the Caribbean. Been there a couple
> > hundred dives.
>
> How many dives did you say you have off Cuba? I must have missed that part.

For a lawyer, I thought you read better than that.

Notice in MY list of "Done that (ALL)", there is the conspicuous
(to any careful reader) absence of St. Lucia and Cuba.

-- Bob.

"Reef Fish" <Large_Nassau_Grouper@Yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:1123472014.833624.110760@g44g2000cwa.googlegr oups.com...

>> How many dives did you say you have off Cuba? I must have missed that
>> part.
>
> For a lawyer, I thought you read better than that.

I thought so too. That's why I was confused by the word "ALL".

> Notice in MY list of "Done that (ALL)", there is the conspicuous
> (to any careful reader) absence of St. Lucia and Cuba.

I noticed that about St. Lucia too, but then I haven't been there either.
No A/C.

On Fri, 05 Aug 2005 11:20:24 -0600, Ross Garrett wrote:

>> The atolls you're allowed to dive in are the ones with the resorts in
>> them.
>
> There are what 200 or so inhabited island in the Maldives? That leaves,
> depending on whether your count is pre or post-tsunami, a minimum of 1,000
> inhabitable island/atolls and 5,000+/- coral atolls remaining, and they

No. The 1200 island figure quoted includes many which are tiny. Not
inhabitable by any standards. Some of them are just a couple of bushes and
a sandbank.

And it's obvious you don't know what an atoll is. There probably aren't
5000 atolls in the world. There are 26 in the Maldives. Those that have no
resorts in them are out of bounds to tourists, even liveaboards. There are
a couple of atolls which only have one or two resorts, so there will be
unexplored sites in some of them, but most of the land based operations do
all day safaris. Even in a slow dhoni, it's possible to go from one side
of most of the atolls to another or even to another atoll. Meedhupparu
dive school, which is in Raa, visits sites in Baa and Lhaviyani.

> are not even close to all being set-offs. That is a lot of available
> diving that day boats cannot reach as well a a lot of diving outside the
> atolls as well as along the channels. Gourgeous diving really. My best
> dives were not in the atolls, they were in the channels where the currents
> ran quite strong at times. Really wonderful pelagic and schooling action
> in the channels and passes.

The channels are in the atolls. They're the entrances. There's no diving
outside other than on the outer atoll walls. Everywhere else, the sea bed
is at several thousand feet.

Jason

--
See http://www.scuba-addict.co.uk/ for Caribbean trip reports
including Aruba, Cuba, Grand Bahama, Barbados, St Lucia and Mexico

"Jason" <jason.news.nospam@ntlworld.com> wrote in message
newsan.2005.08.08.18.56.01.211198@ntlworld.com.. .
> On Fri, 05 Aug 2005 11:20:24 -0600, Ross Garrett wrote:
>
>>> The atolls you're allowed to dive in are the ones with the resorts in
>>> them.
>>
>> There are what 200 or so inhabited island in the Maldives? That leaves,
>> depending on whether your count is pre or post-tsunami, a minimum of
>> 1,000
>> inhabitable island/atolls and 5,000+/- coral atolls remaining, and they
>
> No.

Jason, you say the island chain of the Maldives is not atoll based except in
the case of the 26 that have coral surrounding a lagoon (the proverbial
Atolu), you say no liveaboards dive the waters near uninhabited islands
because you have never been on one that did (indeed you don't sound like you
have been on one at all), you say all the sea bed beyond the classic atolls
is thousands of feet deep, you say that outside of the already inhabited
islands non other are habitable (clump of sand and bushes), you say the only
channels and passes are at the entrances to the classic atolls, etc. etc.

Bottom line is that you are either a liar or distressingly incorrect and I
don't have the time to discuss this with a person guilty of either.

You have a very good day (or in this case evening) and enjoy your next
diving adventure.

On Mon, 08 Aug 2005 13:51:50 -0600, Ross Garrett wrote:

> Jason, you say the island chain of the Maldives is not atoll based except
> in the case of the 26 that have coral surrounding a lagoon (the proverbial

Never said anything of the sort.

> Atolu), you say no liveaboards dive the waters near uninhabited islands
> because you have never been on one that did (indeed you don't sound like

Again, never said this.

> atolls is thousands of feet deep, you say that outside of the already
> inhabited islands non other are habitable (clump of sand and bushes), you

Didn't say that either.

> Bottom line is that you are either a liar or distressingly incorrect and I
> don't have the time to discuss this with a person guilty of either.

The bottom line seems to be that you have reading and comprehension
difficulties as well as not having a clue what an atoll is.

There are 26 atolls in the Maldives. There is more than one island in most
of the atolls. Ari Atoll for example has well over 100, probably
more than 200.

Jason

--
http://www.scuba-addict.co.uk/ for Australian trip reports including
New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria and Western Australia