Looking at my computer, the water temps were 77-81 degrees. Mostly 81, six dives at 77, one at 78, one at 79, two at 80 and twelve at 81. I dove a 3mil full suit and was normally a bit warm. Others dove everything from bathing suits to 5mil to semi-dry w/ hoods.
Glad to hear you had a good time and the crew was good. We did the trip (a SD trip in 06) and I swore I would never do an EV boat again due to the crew. I'm happy to hear they must have fixed the issue!
Just did an Aggressor trip to Fiji - they put 2 singles in single rooms w/o them paying the upgrade - might depend on if they have the room.
Glad you enjoyed your trip!!
Actually my Aggressor experiences have all been pretty good too. The empty room deal was pretty much a roll of the dice situation -- people had paid for S/O on my trips so they kept rooms empty since they couldn't just give them back cash. Easier to make cheap people (like me
) sleep in the D/O they paid for than to explain to the others what they paid extra for.The crew on this trip had a serious issue to deal with on Xmas evening. The black water system failed mid-day and they were up till 3AM doing repairs and bucket runs (the whole crew including the captain but sans the cook, thankfully). I figured the next morning would be a loss, but they were ready for breakfast and our dives on time. They all had a very positive and cheerful attitude that day considering the holiday evening they had. Guess the fact that they believe the offending washcloth was flushed in a prior week was a reason not to be sour with us.
As for the general ops, I would say they were the same as other liveaboards. Not fantastic nor perfect, but they did a pretty good job and tried to meet all our needs. Of the seven liveaboards I have been on now, I never have had a flawless/fantastic week (on the boat). But every one of them is easily in my top ten dive trips of the 30 or so that I have done in my 17 years diving. In the bang for the buck, I can't imagine getting more great dives elsewhere than being on liveaboard.
Oh Sandy, BTW I did hear a story on-board told by a repeat customer of this boat (one of the couples had been on this boat annually for 3-4 years). The story was that Captain JF came onboard this ship with a sudden firing of the entire crew starting with the old captain (JF has served on other EV ships). I never got all the specifics, but it sounds like the EV home office may have taken "corrective" actions since your trip.
