13 replies to this topic

[chinacat46]

Summary: One week aboard the Turks & Caicos Aggressor II. Made 26 of 27 dives. Personal milestones broke 200 dives(210) and over 7 days of bottom time(171 hours 16 mins). Beautiful wall diving with lots to see. I missed one night dive due to heavy O2 loading from doing 4 deep dives during the day. I probably could have done the dive but erred on the side of safety. Water temp was 78-79 and I dove a 5 mil suit all week. I was getting chilled near the end of the week and donned my beanie about half way thru the trip.

Dive reports: The diving in the T&C is mostly wall diving and while not tough it is mostly deep. The boat would usually moor over a sandy area but it was usually a good 45-50 to the bottom. The walls normally started about 50-60 feet and went as deep as you wanted. I was diving nitrox all week(32-33%) and my deepest dive was 109 feet. The reef in general were in good to excellent shape. Lots of different types of corals and sponges. Huge barrel sponges, tubes, elephant ears and other types. I've done fish surveys for REEF before and although I didn't do any on this trip I did record all the fish I was able to positively identify. I seem to enjoy diving more if I know what I'm looking at. While I saw other fish here is a list of what I know I saw: fairy basslets, blue chromis, brown chromis, bicolor damsels, yellow tail damsels, 3 spotted damsels, longfin damsels, cocoa damsels, neon goby, masked goby, goldspot goby, peppermint goby, yellow headed jaw fish, black durgon, stoplight parrotfish, princess parrotfish, striped parrotfish, queen parrotfish, redband parrotfish, bluehead wrasse, creole wrasse, yellowheaded wrasse, slippery dicks, peacock flounders, sharp nose puffer, rock beauty, gray angel, french angel, 4 eyed butterfly, spotfin butterfly, queen angel, banded butterfly, blue tang, ocean surgeon fish, longspine squirrelfish, longjaw squirrelfish, blackbar soldierfish. nassau grouper, tiger grouper, jew fish, graysby, red hind, great barracuda, yellowtail snapper, mahogany snapper, gray snapper, mutton snapper, schoolmaster, barred hamlet, butter hamlet, indigo hamlet, coney, hogfish, spanish hogfish, french grunt, bluestripped grunt, white grunt, ceasar grunt, sailors choice, harlquien bass, bar jack, horse eye jack, scrawled filefish, white spotted filefish, queen triggerfish, yellow goatfish, spotted goatfish, spotted drum, brown garden eels(1000s), green moray, spotted moray, sharptail eel, flying gurnard, sand tilefish, sand diver, porcupinefish, balloon fish, atlantic spadefish, greater soapfish, yellow chub, smooth trunkfish, trumpet fish, saucer eye porgy, sheepshead porgy, honeycomb cowfish, scorpion fish, permit, cero, silversides, red spotted hawkfish, pilot fish, tobacco fish, nurse sharks, reef sharks, scalloped hammerhead, southern stingrays, spotted eagle rays, hawksbill turtles, squid, octopus, tons of lobsters, slipper lobsters, crabs, hermit crabs, arrow crabs, conch, pedersen shrimp, banded coral shrimp, sea cucumbers, and a few other things I probably missed going thru my log book not to mention worms. A few others saw dolphins but I missed those. I had a really cool encounter with a huge lobster. It was between 3-4 feet(biggest I've ever seen) and was out in the middle of the sand during a night dive. I moved in front of it about 10 feet and got down on the sand. I shined my light right at it and it slowly walked toward me playing chicken to see who would move first. I held my ground and it veered to the side at the last minute. I could have easily grabbed him but just kneeled there with a big smile on my face as it strode by. The two fish I didn't see which was a surprise were Sgt. Majors and Tarpons. Two people said they saw two Sgt. Majors but nobody else did. Most of the diving was done off West Caicos and some off of Providenciales(Provo). We never made it to French Cay due to winds. The visiblity was fair to good with 40-80 feet depending on the site and wind. We mostly dived protected from the wind so waves weren't an issue except during crossings. The current was usually fairly mild(or none) except for maybe two dives.

The boat: The T&C Aggressor II is just over a year old and is 130 feet long. It sleeps 20 guests and we had 19 on our trip. The dive deck is very roomy and there is also a good sized camera table. I took my new camera but wasn't very familar with it and only took it on 5 or 6 dives. Once I go thru my pics I pull a few out for posting. The only part of the boat that needed addressing was the galley. They did lunch an breakfast as buffets and they don't have much room so only two people could get near the food at a time. When I was on the Peter Hughes boat in Feb. they had a center island which allows about 3 or 4 people per side so about 8 people can get food at time instead of just two. There is a great sundeck with a hottub and a covered area adjacent with a wet bar. All wine and beer is included as well as hot cocoa with rum cream liquior after the night dives. The rooms all had flat panel tv's with dvd builtin. That being said I didn't watch it once but did read 1 and 1/2 books. For my 200th dive I had one of the other divers video me holding a plaque up. Also upon exiting the crew made a cake on my head with raw eggs, flour and chocolate sauce. I have pics of that as well.

- Chuck

[WisconsinGal]

Great Report Chuck and Welcome Back!

Looking forward to seeing your pics.


WG

Edited by WisconsinGal, 16 May 2004 - 02:02 PM.

[Marvel]

Great Report Chuck and Welcome Back!

Looking forward to seeing your pics.


WG

Woohoo! You can say that again! Can't believe you kept track of all those fishes... Be sure & post the "cake" picture!!

[zendiver]

Nice report Chuck....I am very envious now....

[triggerfish]

hey, china, i forgot you were divin'. i LOVE T & C....clearest water i've seen in the caribbean (tho i guess technically it's not the carib).
glad you had a good time.

doncha just love liveaboards? eat, dive, eat, dive, dive, dive, eat, sleep...and if you can fit in that one SPECIAL activity, it's TRULY heaven!!

[Blublood]

Great report Chuck. Congrats on 200!

[chinacat46]

I'm not exactly sure how to add a photo but if this works here is a pic of the finished "cake"

(CC - I edited this picture for you for smaller resolution) -ZD

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[DivingGal]

Sweet. Sounds like a very interesting place to go to.

Hmmm I'm still hoping that Canada will get into an agreement with T&C .. first time the idea happened as back in the late 70's.. here's hoping it might work this time. Just think Canada with a permanent place in the sun!

[Marvel]

Ewwwww! Gooey stuff!

[Walter]

I'm jealous! Number 51 is my all time favorite fish and I rarely see it (only twice in the US, but more often in the Bahamas, Honduras and especially Cayman).

[chinacat46]

Well if I counted correctly you are refering to the Indigo Hamlet a beautiful fish indeed. Saw quite a few of those. Also saw them in Belize in Feb. I enjoyed T&C a lot and plan to return there with singledivers.com in the future(hint hint)

- Chuck

[Walter]

Chuck,

You made it easy for them.

[Jro]

Hey Chuck,

When was this trip, I was on the Explorer the 2nd week of April. Reading your trip report was almost like being there (although the Explorer lacks the hot tub), great report!

Jeff

[chinacat46]

The trip was last week May 8 - 15. It's now written up on the Aggressor site.