We stayed on the luxurious Turks and Caicos Explorer II liveaboard and dove all over the islands.
Day 1
As we approached the island, my window seat gave me a great view of the coastline.As soon as we got on the boat, Calum got comfortable with captain’s seat on the flying bridge.Calum didn’t take it well when the captain told him that he couldn’t sit there any more.Bob was walking down the hallway to his cabin, and the downlights were casting spooky shadows on his face. I told him to “look creepy”. I think he did pretty good.The crew said that they tow this small boat in case of emergencies. Could be, but it sure looks like the boats that the paparazzi use to follow The Dispensibles everywhere we go.Bob M. and Nic watching the island go by as we leave the harbor. the tables are already set for dinner.There was a great sunset as we were sittign down for dinner. David had a seat by the window.Steve C pays close attention as the crew instructs us in using the life jackets and lifeboats on our first night on the boat.The Turks & Caicos Explorer II is set up pretty nice for photographers. This is the table that we used to set up and charge our camera gear.Divemaster Kris had some work to do on the first night out.They had low-placed dim lightign on the upper decks, making for great stargazing. The Milky Way was clearly visible, and David pointed out a bunch of constellations.Bob M getting his gear ready before our first dive.Sunday is always formal dive day for The Dispensibles. David and Calum before putting on their gear.Steve reprised the now famous green leisure suit.Nic went full Transylvania Formal, including the cape. The mermaid is Divemaster Jo. It turns out that the Divemasters dress up according to the theme for each dive site. The Dispensibles were right at home!Before each dive, the Divemaster gives a briefing to let everybody know what to expect. The briefings include a map of the bottom like this one.We heard that sharks patrol these waters, so Bob S modified his tank to help him blend in.The crew had other ideas about how Bob was going to blend in with sharks.We didn’t see nearly as many lionfish in Turks & Caicos as we have in the Western Caribbean, but they’re still around.Calum looking quite dapper in his underwater tuxedo.Nick kept the cape and Dracula headgear on for the dive. Unfortunately, we didn’t see any batfish.David’s bathing suit on the formal dive looks almost kilt-like.this Grouper is only a foot or so long, but they get really big.Bob likes to sneak up on barracudas from behind, and pinch their tailfins. It’s funny, as long as you have lots of bandages and Bactine on hand.Shortly after we dropped over the wall on the first dive, we saw our first shark. We saw sharks on pretty much every dive we did all week. Sharks are cool.The first of many turtles that we saw during the week.Jawfish are the grumpy old get-off-my-lawn guys of the sea. If you get too close they switch from giving you dirty looks to backing into their tunnel homes.Squirrelfish, also known as soldier fish, are common all over the caribbean.We dove at the former set of a French TV game show. This structure used to be a huge spherical cage on the ocean floor. A big storm busted it up, but the pieces are still there.One of the wall pieces curves upward at both ends, like a giant skateboard ramp.A school of squirrelfish browsing along the outside of the dome.It’s amazing and pretty cool how the sea life is reclaiming this structure.There are lots of species of coral growing on the dome.The Thunderdome site has a cool kind of “playing in the junkyard” feel. There’s lots of different pieces to explore.A couple sections of the dome are lying so that you can swim under them into a sort of artificial cave, and come out the other side.The climax of the game show was when contestants would swim into the dome and collect pearls that spewed out of this artificial coral head.The lighting in the dome is just dim enough that you get the feel of being inside something. Lots of fish seem to love it.Steve C completes a tour through the dome.David coming out from under the dome.There are some neat tree-like structures near the dome where staghorn coral is being cultured. After it grows to a certain size, it will be planted elsewhere.There’a a sign that explains the coral nursery.We went back to the dome for a night dive, and this guy swam past. He’s got about the cleanest shell I’ve ever seen on a wild turtle.There were also some squid swimming around the dome at night. This pair were using their tentacles to imitate bunny ears.Bob S made it his mission to show Steve C every flamingo tongue he could find. Here’s one now.
Day 2
Today Jo wore her flamingo outfit. She’s holding the conch shell that the divemasters blow to call everybody to the dive briefing.The captain let us fly the official Dispensibles flag from the ship’s mast.This is the door to the forecastle at the bow. My cabin was right next to it at the end of the hall. I’ve never actually used a real-live turn-the-wheel-to-unlock door latch before.This is the first shark we saw today. It wasn’t the last.Arline and Rich are a couple who were on the boat the same week we were. We hung out with them on the upper deck between dives.This isa pretty big brain coral that we passed right before going over the edge of the wall.This little guy blends in well with the coral he’s sitting on.I liked the way these blue fish contrast with the yellow coral.The top deck is shady, it has a great view, and there’s plenty of seating to hang out between dives.Calum found a great way to save save energy while diving. And sometimes, Bob didn’t even notice him hanging on to his tank.I like how the tubeworms look like flowers.A cowfish. See the horns?Trumpetfish are among the best hiders in the sea. This one’s doing a great job.It’s really hard to get a picture of lionfish from the front. They prefer to turn their backs on you so you’re looking right at their spines. This one seems more curious. Or something.This guy’s peeking out of a sponge that’s almost his color.At the start of each dive, I take a test picture to check my camera and strobe. At night, there’s not enough light to let my camera focus on things that are far away, so I took this picture of my hand. Now I know what my hand looks like under water.I’m surprised at how many species of fish like to lie on the bottom.Another shark I saw today. He looks like he’s on his way to gobble up some divers.This shark seems to have a little friend.Bob M fell asleep while we were sitting in the main saloon after the night dive. Hijinks ensued, and just be happy I didn’t post the next picture.
Day 3
We had beautiful sunrises to go with the beautiful weather all week. The only bad part was how many days we were up to see the sunrises.Divemaster Kris wore his elephant outfit for his briefing on the site called “Elephant Ear Canyon”. Here, he demonstrates his sign for elephant ear coral.Later, Kris briefed us prior to our dive in “Gnome Gulley”. Coincidentally aligning with The Dispensibles’ 5th guiding value, Kris always dresses appropriately.Here is the gnome after whom the gulley is named. He’s sitting in about 97 feet of water, which is the deepest I went all week.This old guy swam right through our group. You could almost hear him grumbling about the decline of the neighborhood.David positioned himself with a shark in the background, but it was a bit too far away to get a good picture.Calum found himself much closer to the same shark as David. We’ll all miss Calum.This is Calum on the pirate dive. Parrots don’t do well under water, so Calum carries a duck on his shoulder. Unfortunately, Calum over-estimated the lung capacity of the duck.Steve C on the pirate dive. The tutu has to do with a strange convergence of dive themes. The Dispensibles’ pirate dive coincided with the crew’s tutu dive, resulting in the first ever Pirate Tutu Dive.Bob M watches Steve C check his computer manual while David logs his nitrox analysis.Bob S is always on the lookout for potential danger. Or maybe he’s envisioning the future. Or he might just be staring off into space while waiting for his brain to unlock.This is the control panel of the machine that makes the minty fresh nitrox for our tanks.The sun deck wasn’t always this empty, but today Nic had it all to himself.I got a picture of this cowfish just as he was saying, “Mooo…”A Queen Angelfish shims undersome bright sponges.This is more garden eels than I’ve ever seen in one place before.A French Angelfish, the cousin of the queen.Why is Barbie underwater with lead weights tied to her feet? Maybe the first question is, “Why is Barbie dressed like a value-priced working girl?”. Or maybe we could just ask Bob S what he knows about this – but something tells me he’s not talking.Going by growth rate estimates, this huge brain coral several hundred years old, and still growing. Take that, Al Gore.TOday’s Flamingo Tongue for Steve C.I like the coloring of these giant anemones. Just don’t touch.The propellers of the Turks & Caicos Explorer II. Also a school of shade-loving. fishI managed to get this picture just before he lunged for my throat.Another stingray with a hanger-on who’s looking for a an easy meal. They looked swimmign along over the bottom together.This was about as close as I got to a shark. I didn’t see this one coming until just before he swam into my viewfinder. He was probably about 3 feet away at the time.This is a nurse shark that was swimming right past me. Just as I took the picture, she snapped her head to the right and looked straight at me, Christie Brinkley style. “Now give me SEXY SHARK!”This reef shark is heading from the wall into the sand flats.Another shot of the reef shark swimming over the shallow sand flats.I managed to get a quick shot of this shark between my fins as he swam under me on the wall.Divemaster Boy Joe gives us the briefign for tonight’s dive while divemeaster Girl Jo helps with the map.
Day 4
Divemaster Girl Jo briefs us on our first dive site, “Magic Mushroom”. Despite the awesome costume, it turns out the site is named for an above-water rock formation.For some reason, brittle stars like to hide at the bottom of these conical sponges.After the “Rescue”, Bob S took to protecting Barbie by zip-tying her to his BC. He’s like a real-life hero.You see these guys all over the place. This one was under a small coral ledge.Pretty!The themes continued, with Divemaster Girl Jo briefing us on a site called Spanish Anchor. It’s named for a giant anchor from an old Spanish ship that’s embedded in the wall.David tries to describe the size of the giant anchor that he’s floating right behind.Before our second dive at Spanish Anchor, we got a briefing from Divemaster Kris as Captain America.It’s not every week that you get to dive with Captain America – unless you dive with the Turks & Caicos Explorer II every week.This guy is pretty big for a burrfish. You can see the spikey spines on his back.It took me some waiting for this guy to show this much of himself. He’s still wearing some sand from careless fin kicks of the last diver to peek into his house.There’s just no avoiding graffiti.Between dives, Davis, Calum, Steve C and John decided to swim to the island. Purser Celeste warned them that it was impossible to get out of the water because of the jagged rocks and rough surf, but they went anyway.Steve C got some much-needed rest between dives.Always concerned about others, Calum prepares to check on the sleeping Steve C.Up on the top deck, we saw a helicopter circling our boat.The helicopter turned out to be the US Coast Guard. Maybe the heard something about Bob S.Bob tries the old “Hey – what’s that?” move to distract us.I had this idea to take a nice picture of Bob M on the top deck, and in comes the old photo-bomber…David grabs a beverage before dinner, while Bob S seems to have locked up again.Sunsets were kind of exciting. According to the captain, the weather conditions were right for a “green flash” – a rare atmospheric phenomenon. David says it’s a real thing, but we never saw one.Wouldn’t you know it – the one night I decided to skip the night dive, Batman shows up. OK, it’s really Divemaster Kris, but still, I can’t remember the last time I dove with Batman.Steve C takes a stab at blowign the conch shell to call everyone to the night dive briefing.Kris hanging out on the dive deck while the divers are getting ready for the night dive.
Day 5
Our last full day of diving was at French Caye. Kris went full Francais on facial hair.This is the famous Rock Beauty.Divemaster Girl Jo taught us her special sign for a fish called a Rock Beauty. Here, she’s doing the “Rock” part. It’s one of the more complicated signs I’ve seen.Of course, there were sharks at French Caye. Actually, there were a LOT of sharks. More than we saw anywhere else.For my money, these guys are way scarier than sharks. I just get the feeling that you can’t trust a barracuda.It’s a really big barrel sponge, but not quite big enough to swallow a couple of divers. That’s just perspective messing with you.If I’ve ever seen neck crabs before, I don’t remember it. They’re weird looking little critters.That dirty looking blob in the middle is a Sea Pearl, AKA Sailor’s Eyeball. It’s the largest single-celled organism in the world.I like pictures where you can see lots of species of coral at the same time as the surface.The second site of the day was called “G-Spot”. In the briefing, Divemaster Girl Jo showed us all how to find it. Have I mentioned that I really liked the dive staff on this boat?At one point, a big school of these guys came swimming through and completely surrounded me.THis nurse shark was resting on the bottom. You can see his creepy sleeping-shark eyes.Another sleeping nurse shark. There were a lot of sharks at French Caye during the daytime. at night, they all wake up to hunt.Today’s flamingo tongue is resting on a dark coral, making it easier to find.This is the biggest trumperfish I’ve ever seen. It also has a blue-tinted face, which I’ve never seen before.This looks just like a sand diver, but it’s sitting on a coral.Even though French Caye seems to be overrun by nurse sharks, there were still some reef sharks around, too.The night dive at French Caye was really fun. All the nurse sharks were awake and hunting, along with a lot of other predators.“Chubby” is a 4 foot snapper with a mouth full of needle-like teeth. He was out hunting with the sharks at night. I saw him grab a good sized fish. This picture pretty much sums up the night dive.This crab seems to have a pretty good grip on that barrel sponge.I saw a lot of dirt gettign stirred up in the water, and went to have a look. It was hard to get a picture, but there were four nurse sharks trying to get at something under a coral head. All I could see was their tails.Another nurse shark hunting on the reef at French Caye at night.
Day 6
Friday was a short day – only two dives, inclining a dawn dive. Both dives were at this site.This guy was hanging around a little grotto on the dawn dive.This lobster looked like he was sitting on his front porch waiting for the sun to come up.You don’t often see these guys out swimming around during the day. A dawn dive provides unique opportunitiesThese guys are hard to photograph, because if you get too close, they zip away so fast, it’s like a magic trick.It’s another one of those really big blue-faced trumpetfish. Maybe they’re a French Caye thing.The last dive of the trip was on my 57th birthday. It took some doing, but I hit a max depth of 57 feet and a total bottom time of 57 minutes.We added a Dispensibles sticker to the collection on the door between the main saloon and the dive deck.On the last day, the chairs on the sun deck were repurposed as drying racks for gear, to get them as dry as possible before packing.On the last night, we had dinner at a fancy-pants restaurant in town. Maybe it’s me but it seems like a hotel that has its own dolphin named Jojo should be able to hire someone to ring the bell when he shows up. Or teach Jojo to ring it. I saw Flipper.
