Tea and Cakes Explorer II (T&CEII), Providenciales - April 12th - April 23rd

[Venus]

The travel:

American Airlines 777 LHR to Miami, change planes American Airlines 737 to Providenciales

Weight allowance 2x 23kg hold + 18kg cabin

Outbound - delayed 30 minutes at Heathrow and 1 hour at Miami

Inbound – Six hour lay over in Miami + delayed 1 hour
This may have been something to do with me because the Steward asked me to move to a window seat and let the lady with a bladder problem next to me sit on the isle

No, I was not going to move. They put her in Business Class in the end

I have written the rest of the “Travel” bit at the end as it’s really really negative

[Venus]

The Crew:

I walked out of Providenciales airport and spotted the rep carrying the Explorer Ventures sign. I caught her eye at the exact same time she caught mine and in unison we said “I know you!”

Fear gripped me and I was thinking, “oh, no …. not her”. She may have been thinking the same?!

I had met this crew member on a trip to Saba and St Eustatius in June 2006 where she was covering the position of the Purser for one month because the Captain had sacked two of his crew who were now on the T&CEII

After the Saba trip I made a complaint of both the Captain and the Purser – the Captain was removed from his position

I have to say now that she, the Purser, is a completely changed person. She seems to have grown up a lot and she did tell me a few things that were going on during the Saba trip which helped me understand her behaviour …. all is forgiven

On this trip she was a dive guide, which I think she is more suited to

The other crew members were: a Purser, two more dive guides, engineer x 2, chef, and the captain

I can not fault the crew at all, they were great, especially the Purser who really went out of her way to help me and the other guests

This is the first live-aboard Captain I have travelled with who mingled/ chatted with the guests and showed that he really cared for them and not just steering the boat

[Venus]

The Other Guests:

American …. all of them!
I could not have asked for a nicer group of people to travel with

12 were from one group based in New York, two met this group on a previous trip and were invited to join them on the T&CEII this week, there were two guys that came together and one more guy who travelled on his own …. and me

I was so well looked after, once John got over his initial worry about Cy. He was convinced that he would have to rescue me at some point. Luckily he did not – I hope I proved myself?

- Donna lent me tooth paste and two different types of anti itch ointments (I was the only one to get bitten by sea lice)
- Anne lent me stuff to heal my bites/ stings and batteries
- Stan lent me meat tenderiser
- Trish lent me clothes and a hood (if I had asked her for the kitchen sink she would have produced that from her back pack and she let me keep the hood - thanks)
- Steve would pull me out of the tank stop when I did my impression of a demented turtle
- John tried to sort out my camera
- All the boys “zipped” me up!

Some notable things that were said to me:
- “oh, you are so teenee beenee”
- “don’t you speak English good”
- “when you talk, you sound so intelligent”
- “you must breathe under water”
- “why don’t you just use your pony as your main and the crack bottle on your DSMB as your pony?”
- “have you only just got back to the boat” said by people who were de-kitted, showered and half way through lunch as I emerged from the depths
- “you should add a few layers of fat so I don’t get so cold”

And, I gained the admiration of a few because I do my own planning and travel on my own and I solo dive

….. yes, I know what you’re thinking, and you’re right – I have no friends!

I have been invited to join them in Lake George some time over the summer, or on their next trip, which I would love to do. I will bring Wagon Wheels and Curly Wurlys

A few of them are going to Gos in two months so it gave me the chance to reminisce and talk about my trip there last October. I kept a few things to myself, though ;o)

[Venus]

The diving:

This was not at all what I expected!

We were told: 70 minute max dive time to a max depth of 110 feet and come up on 1500 PSI, up to five dives a day

This was fine for everyone

I have no idea what 110 feet is so I just stuck to my usual
plan of max 34 meters at PO 1.4 and I never run my gas down to 50 bar so I was not too worried about the PSI thing, and I’m so pleased I took my little pony

Actual average depth, for me, was 13 meters to 18 meters depending on the site with a max of 31 meters once in the whole week – no need to go deeper

The wall started at between 12 meters and 17 meters on all dives. So I would start along the wall and end on the flat bit …. what is that called??

Only felt current on one dive and surge on a couple of dives

There was little in the way of marine life and even less colourful soft coral

We had some sharks, the odd moray, no nudibranchs, one flat worm, a few hermit crabs, lots of lobsters. It was all hard coral and rock

The visibility was usually 20 meters, and the water was 26 degrees.

The only real mistake I made was not taking my dry suit. This was way too cold for me even when I was wearing four layers: under armour borrowed from Trish, AeroSkin borrowed from Jules, five mil long and three mil shorty

The best thing I did was solo dive for 25 of the 26 dives I made (the night dive I did with Steve was really good with those lobsters fighting, thanks. But after this dive he developed an ear infection and did not dive for the next three and a half days)

I was free to do what ever I wanted (within the rules of the boat, SDI and my own safety). I was doing 60+ minute dives and still coming up on 80 bar to the amazement of some of the people on the boat

I can’t really tell you anything else – this is, in my opinion, not a good diving destination

A couple of us, individually, mentioned to one of the crew about the “not so good” diving and we were told that they are saving the best for last.

Why?
Why don’t we go there first and stay there – weather and mooring availability permitting. And the weather actually got worse toward the end of the week. I accept that we can’t ‘hog’ mooring points, I think this was only a problem once and Captain Mark requested the Aggressor to move

[Venus]

The Boat - Tea and Cakes Explorer II (T&CEII):

The Tea & Cakes Explorer II undertook a refit in February 2007, so she still looks quite new

She is 35 meters long and holds 20 passengers and 8 crew, we had 18 passengers

There was lots of room on the sun deck and fly deck. The combo dining room and lounge was much smaller than other boats that I had travelled on and when all 18 people were in there it was full full.

But, on the plus side – the dive deck was huge and there were more mid deck state rooms than normal, and the engine was in the middle of the boat

I had a cabin to myself at the bow, I think it would have easily accommodated two people. The shower was a little ‘iffy’ but not enough for me to make a fuss about

The problem with cabin three and four is that there was a loud speaker mounted on the wall outside so that the Captain and the crew could communicate when approaching a mooring. The Captains voice would bellow through the speaker and the crew would yell back at him. Not very nice first thing in the morning

They made their own water! So, you can drink the water out of the taps and the toilet we were told, although I decided against that

Alcohol is included, but as I don’t drink anything other than Blue WKD (chilled in the freezer for exactly 45 minutes so that it just starts to crystallize) this was a cost I incurred and did not make use of …. other than Bailey’s and hot chocolate after the night dives

[dry suit diver]

did they ask if you were australian

[Venus]

More about the boat ....what is that swing about?

T&CEII is built of aluminum (spelling for my fellow American guests) and sits very high in the water. I was told that there is a battle between the water current and the wind

So, the winds pulls the boat in one direction, and as the wind drops the current pulls it back the other way

You could be making your ascent directly below the stern, and then the boat would swing and it swings fast so you have to chase after it, but it is very very fast and not easy to catch

Or, you could simply wait eight minutes for it to swing back again and grab hold of the drop line which pulls you along as it swings
Make sure you get a strong grip, if you let go you won’t catch it again

The smart ones amongst us – not me, I did not think of this until I saw people doing it on day five, a bit late by then! They made their ascent and stop on the bow line and swam under the boat to the stern and up the ladder.

What I was doing was navigating back to the entry point, I would watch for which way the boat was swinging, make my ascent at some meters away and hope that I reached 7 meters at the same time the drop line was passing me

[Venus]

Two nights on Providenciales after the T&CEII

There are only three things to do in Providenciales: sit on the beach, dive and drink!
I’m not a sun worshipper, I’d was already all dived out and when I drink I seem to get myself into trouble

[Venus]

More about the travel:

I called American Airlines two weeks before I travelled to see if I could book my seat in advance. I was told that you can only book your seat at the check in desk. This is strange because I went on their website allows you to select/ change your seat, but when I tried the entire plane was showing as full except for one seat

I got to the check in desk well over two hours before take off and asked for an isle seat close to the front of the plane. I was told that the seats are assigned at the departure desk. I questioned this and was told that this is how things are always done on all airlines!!!!?????

So, I skipped the usual compulsory duty free shopping and rushed through to departures and was given a pre-printed boarding pass for 44D ….. NO!
I was not accepting this seat at all, ever!

I was told that the plane was full and there were no other seats. I pointed out that there were no more than 20 people in the departure lounge and that she can switch my seat with someone else’s.

No, she said that the seats are assigned a year in advance to people. Well that just did not make sense to me and I was getting conflicting messages from American Airlines staff, she was not prepared to help me at all or provide any explanation to my questions and I reluctantly accepted the boarding pass.

As they started to board, I went back to the lady on the desk and appealed to her to change my seat. She sent me round the corner to someone else who it seems assigned the seats (had she been standing there for the entire past 12 months? I wondered)

Without much trouble she changed my seat to a front bulk head seat and there was a spare seat next to me! And the plane was not full

On the flight to Miami we were given an omelette – not very nice
Then five hours later we were given a snack – quite disgusting
And the drinks trolley came round once only

I was so hungry!

I asked for a glass of water after 7 hours and was shouted at to get out of the galley – I was not in the galley, the staff were rude and arrogant, clearly hated their jobs or maybe the people that they worked with from comments I heard from one cabin crew

There was a complete debacle at Miami airport
I had to go through immigration, pick up my bags, drop them somewhere else and then go straight through to departures

I’m so surprised when my bags turned up at Providenciales

I was impressed with the finger printing and that they took pictures of everyone as they cleared customs. Is Heathrow T5 going to implement this?

We were delayed an hour and all we were given to eat on the next flight was an airline measure bag of salted pretzels during the next flight

[Venus]

In Summary:

The Good: the boat, the crew, the guests
The Bad: the boat swing, Providenciales
The Ugly: the lack of colour and marine life on the reefs


Pictures to follow ……