Trip Report: Turks and Caicos Explorer I, 18 Dec 2004 - 25 Dec 2004

Trip Report: Turks and Caicos Explorer I, 18 Dec 2004 - 25 Dec 2004

Just got back from the second to last T&C Explorer I trip before it
gets re-christened and moved. The TCEx2 comes online in Feb 2005 after
retrofit in Mobile, AL. It was used in a private charter service in the
Bahamas before Clay/Explorer Ventures bought it.

Over all the diving was good and up to 27 dives can be done during a 7
day trip. Visibility was good 50-80ft and water temp around 80F. The
weather was good too, mostly in the low 80s/high 70s with two
windy/cloudy days. Dives were all wall dives with very little current
at depth. Because of weather/tides we did the normal route backwards:

French Cay
Southwest Key
West Caicos
Northwest Providenciales

The daily schedule usually went like this:

7-8am Breakfast
8am 1st Dive
11am 2nd dive
12:30 lunch
1:30 3rd Dive
snack
4:30 4th Dive
6:30 Dinner
8pm Night Dive

Boat moves usually occurred during lunch and after the night dive and
each location was dived 1-2 times. Most people skipped a few dives
during the course of the week. There was a good game of chicken being
played on board- A rubber chicken would be clipped onto an unsuspecting
diver during a dive. He/she would try to offload it to another diver
w/o being caught.

Notable sealife: turtles seen by someone just about every dive, eagle
rays once or twice a day, spotted and green morays, medium sized
groupers, and a whale. I saw the whale maybe 20-30 feet away while
coming up to do my safety stop. Wow!

Coral life on the wall was good with sponges, some seaweed, and amounts
of dead coral. Coral on top of the wall was not in very good shape,
stay on the edge or below.

The Boat: Turks and Caicos Explorer
Nice sized boat with enough room. Bottom 'floor' rooms have 2
beds/bunks and can fit 6'4" but moving around cannot be done by two
people at the same time. The sundeck is also nice but only has 7
reclining beach chairs + dozen stool/table spots. In swells it is
obviously easiest if you have a room in the hold. The food is good,
everything is buffet style and tasty. Even doing all the dives you can
gain weight on this boat! While not diving there are plenty of drinks,
snacks, and movies. Lots of just released to DVD movies to keep you
from getting bored late at night. The boat usually docks in Turtle Cove
which is a 10 minute / 5$ taxi ride. However because of tides the boat
was not able to dock in Turtle cove and was tied up at Caicos Marina
and ShipYard, 15 minutes and $5 USD. The boat leaves the dock Sunday
morning with diving that morning, and the last dives are Friday morning
with the boat docking at around 11am Friday.

The divers on this particular trip I'd rate beginner-intermediate, this
surprised me as on other live-aboard trips I've been on everyone was
intermediate-expert. It could be due to random chance, the location, or
price of the trip (explorer ventures is cheaper than peter hughes and
aggressor). The boat was full, 18 scuba passenger + 5 crew.

Crew:
Ian, Capt. Brit w/ a good sense of humor.
Stan, Cook. Belonger who can be hard to understand but a good, fun guy.
Likes to play dominos.
Nicole, DM. German still learning english. Tentacles sounds a lot
like...
Graham, DM. American who knows his stuff.
Julie, DM/attendant. Bubbly Canadian who gets along w/ everyone.

The island of Provo- there isn't much there. A few trinket shops are a
$5 taxi ride and restaurants are not cheap. Note that Provo taxis are
not sedans but rather vans that can hold up to a dozen people. Speed
limit is 40mph but the island is only 20miles long. There is a paved
road running most of the length of the island but there are a lot of
dirt roads. Expect $20-30 for a pizza. Turtle Cove has some nice
restaurants and hotels which you can experience friday night.

The trip overall: Good. It is a good value trip and I would recommend
this trip to others.

-lance smith

<outside@ziggyworks.com> wrote in message
news:1104543644.507983.307460@c13g2000cwb.googlegr oups.com...
> Trip Report: Turks and Caicos Explorer I, 18 Dec 2004 - 25 Dec 2004
>
> Just got back from the second to last T&C Explorer I trip before it
> gets re-christened and moved. The TCEx2 comes online in Feb 2005 after
> retrofit in Mobile, AL. It was used in a private charter service in the
> Bahamas before Clay/Explorer Ventures bought it.
>
> Over all the diving was good and up to 27 dives can be done during a 7
> day trip. Visibility was good 50-80ft and water temp around 80F. The
> weather was good too, mostly in the low 80s/high 70s with two
> windy/cloudy days. Dives were all wall dives with very little current
> at depth. Because of weather/tides we did the normal route backwards:
>
> French Cay
> Southwest Key
> West Caicos
> Northwest Providenciales
>
> The daily schedule usually went like this:
>
> 7-8am Breakfast
> 8am 1st Dive
> 11am 2nd dive
> 12:30 lunch
> 1:30 3rd Dive
> snack
> 4:30 4th Dive
> 6:30 Dinner
> 8pm Night Dive
>
> Boat moves usually occurred during lunch and after the night dive and
> each location was dived 1-2 times. Most people skipped a few dives
> during the course of the week. There was a good game of chicken being
> played on board- A rubber chicken would be clipped onto an unsuspecting
> diver during a dive. He/she would try to offload it to another diver
> w/o being caught.
>
> Notable sealife: turtles seen by someone just about every dive, eagle
> rays once or twice a day, spotted and green morays, medium sized
> groupers, and a whale. I saw the whale maybe 20-30 feet away while
> coming up to do my safety stop. Wow!
>
> Coral life on the wall was good with sponges, some seaweed, and amounts
> of dead coral. Coral on top of the wall was not in very good shape,
> stay on the edge or below.
>
> The Boat: Turks and Caicos Explorer
> Nice sized boat with enough room. Bottom 'floor' rooms have 2
> beds/bunks and can fit 6'4" but moving around cannot be done by two
> people at the same time. The sundeck is also nice but only has 7
> reclining beach chairs + dozen stool/table spots. In swells it is
> obviously easiest if you have a room in the hold. The food is good,
> everything is buffet style and tasty. Even doing all the dives you can
> gain weight on this boat! While not diving there are plenty of drinks,
> snacks, and movies. Lots of just released to DVD movies to keep you
> from getting bored late at night. The boat usually docks in Turtle Cove
> which is a 10 minute / 5$ taxi ride. However because of tides the boat
> was not able to dock in Turtle cove and was tied up at Caicos Marina
> and ShipYard, 15 minutes and $5 USD. The boat leaves the dock Sunday
> morning with diving that morning, and the last dives are Friday morning
> with the boat docking at around 11am Friday.
>
> The divers on this particular trip I'd rate beginner-intermediate, this
> surprised me as on other live-aboard trips I've been on everyone was
> intermediate-expert. It could be due to random chance, the location, or
> price of the trip (explorer ventures is cheaper than peter hughes and
> aggressor). The boat was full, 18 scuba passenger + 5 crew.
>
> Crew:
> Ian, Capt. Brit w/ a good sense of humor.
> Stan, Cook. Belonger who can be hard to understand but a good, fun guy.
> Likes to play dominos.
> Nicole, DM. German still learning english. Tentacles sounds a lot
> like...
> Graham, DM. American who knows his stuff.
> Julie, DM/attendant. Bubbly Canadian who gets along w/ everyone.
>
> The island of Provo- there isn't much there. A few trinket shops are a
> $5 taxi ride and restaurants are not cheap. Note that Provo taxis are
> not sedans but rather vans that can hold up to a dozen people. Speed
> limit is 40mph but the island is only 20miles long. There is a paved
> road running most of the length of the island but there are a lot of
> dirt roads. Expect $20-30 for a pizza. Turtle Cove has some nice
> restaurants and hotels which you can experience friday night.
>
> The trip overall: Good. It is a good value trip and I would recommend
> this trip to others.
>
> -lance smith
>

How was the ride around Northwest Point? Last time I was there, it was
rough, lost one engine for most of the trip coming back. Many people were
green including myself.

Stanley used to work on the Sea Dancer. Excellent cook.

outside@ziggyworks.com pounded away at his keyboard resulting in:
:The Boat: Turks and Caicos Explorer
:Nice sized boat with enough room. Bottom 'floor' rooms have 2
:beds/bunks and can fit 6'4" but moving around cannot be done by two
eople at the same time.

Shared or private heads?

Dan Bracuk
Is it my imagination, or do Buffalo Wings taste like chicken?
The Best of rec.scuba http://www.pathcom.com/~bracuk/RecScuba/

The bottom deck rooms have 2 bathrooms/shower to share, there were
rarely any sharing 'issues'. The rooms on the top deck have private
facilities.

-lance smith

My first trip to T&C was on the Sea Dancer. It was rough on the way out. In
fact, we were stuck in port for the first day. Coming back was smooth as
silk. My second trip which was on the T&C Explorer I, the passage was rough
both ways. In fact, we missed some diving Friday morning due to anticipated
weather problems. As it was, we lost an engine for part of the journey (loss
of prime due to fuel filter contamination) but we made it.

I think that Stanley's cooking was better when he was on the Sea Dancer.
More variety.

If a good deal came along, I would not hesitate to go there again.

<outside@ziggyworks.com> wrote in message
news:1104623073.928107.303950@z14g2000cwz.googlegr oups.com...
> The point was calm, no problems for anyone. However the first couple of
> days while we were away from the 'mainland' (at French Cay) we had some
> nice swells and i got a little green. Everyone else seemed to be fine
> though.
>
> -lance smith
>