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