Dive Review of Turks & Caicos Explorer II in
Turks and Caicos

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Turks & Caicos Explorer II, Apr, 2007, by Eric Ault, IL, U.S.A. ( Reviewer 5 reports). Report 3348.
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	Our group of eleven, mostly from the Chicago area, spent an enjoyable week aboard the Turks and Caicos Explorer II. The boat, which holds up to twenty, is in good shape; the crew didn’t spend a lot of time fixing things as I have seen on other vessels. I found the cabins to be pretty roomy by liveaboard standards, even the lower cabins with bunks. Some people found the public areas of the boat to be a little cramped, however. Everyone agreed that the sectional sofa in the lounge was not very comfortable. The boat has a sun deck with about a dozen chaises as well as a covered flying bridge for those in the SPF 30+ crowd. Chef Stan who has been cooking on boats for years continues his culinary magic on the TCEII. His desserts were particularly good. Two refrigerators, one on the flying bridge and one in the lounge, stock soft drinks and beer. Red and white wines were available along with a limited selection of hard liquors. As on most liveaboards, no drinking and diving. There was a roomy, carpeted camera table overlooking the dive platform. A cameras-only rinse tank was available. Each diver was provided an aluminum 80 with a few larger or smaller tanks as options. Nitrox at around 31% was available for an extra charge. Most divers were using it. Each station on the dive deck had under-seat storage for small items. With everyone gearing up the dive deck became crowded. We soon learned to stagger gearing up to avoid our neighbors. The largely Canadian crew was joined by one Scot and one Frenchman. They functioned smoothly and seemed to enjoy working together. Divemasters were available to lead every dive but mostly gave a tour of the site rather than pointing out things of interest. The TCEII is a relatively tall vessel and as a result it swings at anchor as much if not more than any other of the many liveaboards on which we’ve been. This made site navigation a bit trickier than usual. Heavy Westerly winds with accompanying surge made diving at many of the usual dive sites impossible. Most of our dives were done at French Cay or West Sand Spit. Captain Jean-Francois took advantage of the flat calm seas on Wednesday to do a couple of semi-drift dives in an area the boat seldom visits. But by Thursday the winds had returned scrubbing the last two dives of the day. We enjoyed the healthy looking reefs during our week of diving along with the usual tropicals. Caribbean reef sharks were seen on a number of dives along with the occasional turtle, nurse shark and spotted eagle ray. We noted quite a few large Tiger and Nassau groupers, something not seen at many locales these days. Large schools of jacks swirled under the boat at many dive sites. Transfers to and from the airport are arranged but not included in the price of the cruise. What’s a dive trip without a travel snafu? The airport on Provo hasn’t changed since I was last there about eight years ago and is severely taxed by the current passenger volume. USAirways computers were down leaving their small staff to handwrite boarding passes for three 757’s worth of passengers on flights supposedly due to depart at hourly intervals. The airport manager (not USAirways) prevented total chaos by grouping passengers from each flight. Since we were on the last flight we waited in line over four hours to check in followed by 45 minutes more in the security line. Our 3:15 p.m. flight departed at 6:15 p.m. Passengers on other airlines did seem to fair better. Our group agreed that we enjoyed the trip and would return to the Turks and Caicos Islands and the TCEII. We also agreed that we wouldn’t fly USAirways.
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	501-1000 dives
Where else diving	Bahamas, Cay Sal Bank, Los Roques, Saba, Cozumel, Utila, Belize, Cayman Brac, Grand Turk, Hawaii, Galapagos
Closest Airport		Getting There
Dive Conditions
Weather	sunny, windy, dry	Seas	calm, surge, noCurrents
Water Temp	78-79°F / 26-26°C	Wetsuit Thickness	5
Water Visibility	50-100 Ft/ 15-30 M
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	yes
Enforced diving restrictions	Recreational Limits for Nitrox or Air
Liveaboard?	yes	Nitrox Available?	N/A
What I Saw
Sharks	1 or 2	Mantas	None
Dolphins	None	Whale Sharks	None
Turtles	> 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		Boat Facilities
Overall rating for UWP's		Shore Facilities	N/A
UW Photo Comments	Carpeted camera table overlooking the dive platform. Dedicated camera rinse tanks.

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Dive Review of Turks & Caicos Explorer II in Turks and Caicos

Turks & Caicos Explorer II, Apr, 2007,

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 Turks & Caicos Explorer II in
Turks and Caicos