Turks & Caicos Explorer II

Turks & Caicos Explorer II - review request

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Paul - 09 Jul 2007 16:27 GMT

Hi,

I am thinking about booking a holiday on the Turks & Caicos Explorer II. I
can not find any reviews for it on-line.

Have you been on it or know someone who has? What did you think of it. The
only review I found rated this vessel a 4 out of 10 which is not promising.

Paul

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Greg Mossman - 09 Jul 2007 20:24 GMT

> Hi,
>
[quoted text clipped - 3 lines]
> Have you been on it or know someone who has? What did you think of it. The
> only review I found rated this vessel a 4 out of 10 which is not promising.

People I've talked and corresponded online with were happy about the
boat. It's the 8/06 Undercurrent cover story if you can get a copy of
that issue (available online, but not free). Also, there's a great
side-by-side comparison/review on Scubaboard from someone who did
adjacent weeks on both boats (available for free, but Scubaboard might
still be down?!?). Short answer is that you get more creature
comforts on the Aggressor, but there weren't any real complaints about
"roughing it" on the Explorer.

I did the Aggressor in 9/06 and was very happy with the boat. The
diving at French Cay was nice, but the West Caicos sites were pretty
beat up.

I know at least one erstwhile rec.scuban is traveling on the Explorer
very soon, so maybe check back in a couple weeks to see if anything
was posted about his trip.

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George Cathcart - 10 Jul 2007 16:05 GMT

> Hi,
>
[quoted text clipped - 5 lines]
>
> Paul

I just asked a friend who organized a group trip on this boat last
year. Bottom line is it was a good trip, good diving, and he would do
it again. There were some issues, as there will be on a lot of trips.

One important one was that the nitrox system was down the week they
went out, which is a definite problem for people wanting to do 5 dives
a day for a week. They also had some conflict at the dock, and the
passengers had to wade out to a dinghy to carry them to the boat. And
on the last night, a quart of hydraulic oil leaked through the ceiling
in one of the guest rooms, fouling up some personal belongings. For my
money, those would probably discourage me from going again, but my
friend is more resilient about stuff like that than I am.

Good luck.

gc

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Greg Mossman - 10 Jul 2007 21:53 GMT

> One important one was that the nitrox system was down the week they
> went out, which is a definite problem for people wanting to do 5 dives
[quoted text clipped - 4 lines]
> money, those would probably discourage me from going again, but my
> friend is more resilient about stuff like that than I am.

I have to say the Aggressor there was flawless and I'm a real
nitpicker when there are nits to pick. The most amazing thing was
that the boat was run so flawlessly by a total crew of 5. I've been
on boats with over three times as many crew that still suffer
problems. But then luck has a lot to do with it. Even the best-
maintained boat can have something unfortunate go wrong. Then it's
just a matter of being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

The Undercurrent review did mention some issues getting to the
Explorer. Apparently they don't have their berthing nailed down like
the Aggressor. When we returned back to Turtle Bay after our week at
sea, the captain was a bit peeved to note that the Explorer had
grabbed the Aggressor's nice end-space spot on the dock, requiring him
to parallel park the 130' yacht in a 140' space. Quite exciting,
especially after several glasses (bottles?) of the Aggressor's "free"
wine. But the Explorer passengers seemed just as happy with their
week as we were with ours.

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