Dive Review of Aggressor I in
Galapagos Islands

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Aggressor I, Dec, 2004, by Scott Johnson, ca, usa ( Sr. Contributor 20 reports). Report 1495.
No photos available at this time
Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Accommodations		Food
Service and Attitude		Environmental Sensitivity	N/A
Dive Operation		Shore Diving
Snorkeling	N/A
Overall Rating
Value for $$	N/A
Beginners
Advanced
Comments	I visited the Galapagos Islands from 12-16-2004 thru 12-23-2004. On the Aggressor I. The Galapagos Aggressor I is superb! Excellent service, food, accommodations, courtesy of staff etc. Nothing but the best.....well one thing needs to be improved... the Wine, a Bad Chilean blend. Excellent group on Board. We were all from USA except one Swiss couple. We had a great time together. Here is a description of the dives and general information about the Galapagos. Day One: Landed in San Cristobal, check out dive. Water about 72 degrees, Yikes! (I dive the South Pacific where temps are 82 degrees). Visibility about 15 feet. One seal made a brief appearance. Do not under estimate your weights. You need to be over weighted as you do backward rolls off dinghy’s and straight down. Day Two: North Seymour. Bad night, rough boat ride to Baltra. COLD water about 72 degrees wore my hood, vest and gloves this time. On the first dive visibility was about 30’ greenish color saw a Seal and not much else. Started to swim against a current, burnt through my air. People who could stay the extra 10 minutes saw a group of White Tips. Sick for the second dive. Everyone said they saw about the same as the first dive. Day Three: Wolf. This is about a 12-hour (or more) ride from N. Seymour. The waters were not as rough; ride (overnight) was ok. WARM waters about 77 degrees, 60’ visibility and blue. First dive, saw three Hammerheads (made my dive) but not much else. Second dive, this is what I came here for! Wall of Hammerheads a hundred or more, Excellent dive. Third dive same as first. Fourth dive…sick again. Day Four: Darwin. Finally calm waters, sunny and bright blue waters! First dive, water temp about 77 degrees. No Whale Sharks, they say this is the second year in a row they have not seen whale sharks in December. Saw a couple of Hammerheads, which was about it. Dive two, similar to the first dive but I sat in sandy area and had three Hammerheads that kept circling me and would come within four feet to check me out. Great Dive! Then back to Wolf for two more dives. Dive one at Wolf was only about 40’ visibility not much to see and sick for fourth dive. Day Five: Cabo Marshall. The one dive at Wolf and these two dives is what I expected to see in the Galapagos. First dive, water about 75 degrees. There was a school of Grunts that must have been in the tens of thousands covering the reef. Looking up you saw a school of Barracuda (about 100) and a Seal swimming through to break them up. Saw Mantas, Seals, Sharks etc. Great Dive! Dive two, not as impressive as dive one but a lots of small schools of fish. Day Six, Gordon rocks, one dive. This dive was well almost everyone’s least favorite. Cold water maybe 70 degrees. Rough waters, very strong currents and maybe 30 feet visibility. After fighting to get through the surface current, then you dealt with many different currents (some people say it is a washing machine). I could of dealt with the current if there was visibility. Saw three Hammerheads I was at 67 feet they were at about 90. Forget it.... surface. This diving is not for the beginner. First your dive masters (guides) tell you from the start, they are not baby sitters! You need to hang with you buddy or with the group and make you way to the top when you get low on air. Which is what I prefer as I am an air hog. The only complaint about the diving is a few times we swam against the current and I burned my air. Where i believe we could of have a great drift dive. Very frustrating as most of my dives were 35 to 40 minutes. One Big Thank you to the aggressor dingy drivers is when i would come up early they would take me back to the boat as i would get sea sick sitting in the dingy. By the way all dives are done from a dingy and they find you. You are given a folding dive flag (that goes about 5’ or 6’ high) and a waterproof radiophone. Just in case you end up in Open Water! Regarding rough waters they can be and are if you have a problem of motion sickness... You will be! Water temps, I refused to break out my 6.5mm as i do most of my diving in the South Pacific and have not worn anything but a 2-1 mm shorty for 5 years. Well BRING MORE THAN THAT! I brought an 3-2 with a hood and vest. I survived and was just OK with that. But their recommendation is a 5 mm…probably the best bet. Also i read suggestions to bring Kevlar gloves. I never found the rocks sharp more of the opposite slippery except the barnacles, which you do not touch. I suggest bring a reef hook for the strong currents. Overall I would have to rate the diving as a “C” trip. There were 3 couples on board that had been there before 3, 5 and 10 years ago. One couple said the Land and Marine life were 10 fold during the same week in the years past and there were always Whale Sharks. I had only three dives that I saw what I expected. Maybe they were on Vacation!
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	101-250 dives
Where else diving	Palau, Truk, Red Sea, Sipadan, Catalina, Loreto, Hawaii, Australia
Closest Airport		Getting There
Dive Conditions
Weather	rainy, cloudy	Seas	calm, choppy, surge, currents, noCurrents
Water Temp	68-77°F / 20-25°C	Wetsuit Thickness	3
Water Visibility	15-65 Ft/ 5-20 M
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	?
Enforced diving restrictions	none
Liveaboard?	no	Nitrox Available?	N/A
What I Saw
Sharks	Lots	Mantas	1 or 2
Dolphins	1 or 2	Whale Sharks	None
Turtles	1 or 2	Whales	None
Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):
Corals		Tropical Fish
Small Critters		Large Fish
Large Pelagics
Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Subject Matter	N/A	Boat Facilities	N/A
Overall rating for UWP's	N/A	Shore Facilities	N/A
UW Photo Comments	[None]

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Dive Review of Aggressor I in Galapagos Islands

Aggressor I, Dec, 2004,

Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Overall Rating

Reporter and Travel

Dive Conditions

Dive Policy

What I Saw

Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):

Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Dive Review of Aggressor I in
Galapagos Islands