Dive Review of
Kona Aggressor II in
Hawaii

Mainly the Caribbean (many times to Cozumel), Fiji, Africa, Bahamas.

Dive Conditions

Bottom limit on this Aggressor was 110ft.  

As with most liveaboards, the camera table is well suited, equipped  and
big enough to handle all of the activity.  Clean conditions and helpful
staff made my photo & video setup and cleanup experiences very
enjoyable.  

Overall Rating

Flew in the night before and stayed at the King Kam's Kona Beach Hotel near
the pier.  Next time we'll research alternatives as the hotel is in need of
a remodel job.  Clean though so not a BAD experience just felt we could do
better.  Stayed there because of the proximity but turns out the Aggressor
van will pick you up from any of the nearby hotels in Kailua, Kona.  The
boat was wonderful although they were experiencing engine problems (running
with only one). And no nitrox available on this trip but the profiles were
easy enough that it wasn't a huge issue.  Very little current if any and
some moderate surge near shore which made picture taking a challenge at
times.  The crew tried to make up for the equipment failure and for the
most part did although you could tell they were frustrated at times because
of their limitations.  Great crew and excellent food made the trip well
worth it.  The diving was easy and fun.  At first I was surprised at the
lack of BIG coral until I realized that the lava flows we were diving on
were only about 50 years old which in coral time is nothing.  There is a
lack of big fish which hints at overfishing in the area.  But the little
stuff was plentiful and colorful against the lava or black sand.  Dolpins
were around as well as Eagle Rays and the Mantas.  The highlight was the
Manta Ray Night Dive.  Two words, sensory overload!  My only complaint
would be the lack of dive sites we went to.  Again, the engine problems
limited us so we stayed at the same site for the 2 morning dives and went
to another site for the 2 afternoon dives AND the night dive.  This tended
to make me less interested in doing both the 2nd afternoon and/or the night
dive as it would be 3 times on the same site.  In our previous liveaboard
experiences, we moved to many more sites for a much wider variety of
diving.  Not a normal problem I'll wager if we had both engines.  Rooms
were clean and nice.  Mary & I got lucky and had the quad to ourselves
upstairs behind the bridge.  Very nice!  Weather cooperated and water temp
was tolerable but I did switch from my shorty to my 5mm in the
afternoon/night dives. 

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