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Dive Review of Aggressor Fleet in
Costa Rica/Cocos Island

Aggressor Fleet: "Long Trip; OK Diving", Oct, 2014,

by Michael J. Millet, CA, US (Top Contributor Top Contributor 92 reports with 58 Helpful votes). Report 7877 has 1 Helpful vote.

No photos available at this time

Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Accommodations 3 stars Food 4 stars
Service and Attitude 4 stars Environmental Sensitivity 4 stars
Dive Operation 4 stars Shore Diving N/A
Snorkeling N/A
Value for $$ 3 stars
Beginners 3 stars
Advanced 4 stars
Comments After spending a night at the Holiday Inn, Escazu, myself and the other 20 divers were transported by bus to Puntarenas to board the Wind Dancer. It was about a 2 hour ride. We then set out for the 30+ hour crossing to Cocos Island. The Wind Dancer is a bit of a clunky boat with small double occupancy cabins below deck. I was fortunate to be assigned the "owner's cabin" that had a small queen bed but not a lot of floor space and oddly no window or port hole. It got a bit claustrophobic.

The dining area was could get a bit squeezed at meal time especially when the meal was buffet--breakfast and lunch. Most dinners were served. There was a good variety of food and plenty of it. The kitchen crew did a good job of not over-cooking the food. Even the beef was served medium rare.

On the dive deck, we had our lockers that were plenty large to hold fins and other stuff. There are 3 fresh water showers on the rear dive platform. The boat provides a decent camera table that got a bit crowded due to all the large wide-angle camera rigs. There is an outside battery charging station that tended to get either wet from the rain or cluttered with divers' miscellaneous stuff. There is also a battery charging station by the dining are that worked OK but at times was a place of congestion and tangled cables.

The divers were assigned to 2 dive groups and each group assigned to a panga. Dive gear was left on the panga where tank fills occurred.The dive sites and dive schedule was dictated by the Cocos Island park rangers. As a result, there was not the flexibilty to dive the better sites plus we were limited to just 2 night dives.

The boat did a good job of scheduling the 2 pangas for either dive times or different dive sites to avoid congestion underwater. with a back-roll, the water entries were usually negative due to the surface conditions and proximity to the rockiness of the dive site.

The water temperatures were a bit elevated (77-80 F), and as result, the shark action was not as good as hoped. We did encounter hammerheads on most dives and some Galapagos sharks but not in large numbers. The trip highlight was an encounter with a very large tiger shark at Dirty Rock dive site. It was a monster. Also, the night dive with the frenzy of hunting white-tip sharks was a trip. We had several encounters with large schools of jacks. Disappointedly, no encounters with manta rays or whale sharks.

After a brief hike on the island in Chatham Bay, we headed back to port. The trip back to Puntarenas was about 36 hours with decent sea conditions.


In summary, the Wind Dancer is an adequate boat with a very friendly and competent crew. On this trip, the dive conditions were not ideal resulting in marine life encounters that were a bit less than expected or hoped for.
Websites Aggressor Fleet   

Reporter and Travel

Dive Experience Over 1000 dives
Where else diving All over the Caribbean; Galapagos, Socorro, Fiji, Solomons, GBR, Vanuatu,
PNG, Philippines, Indonesia, Palau, Yap, Kosrae
Closest Airport San Jose Getting There

Dive Conditions

Weather sunny, windy, rainy, cloudy Seas choppy, surge, currents
Water Temp 77-80°F / 25-27°C Wetsuit Thickness 5
Water Visibility 35-75 Ft/ 11-23 M

Dive Policy

Dive own profile yes
Enforced diving restrictions No Deco and don't go "blue"
Liveaboard? yes Nitrox Available? yes

What I Saw

Sharks Lots Mantas None
Dolphins 1 or 2 Whale Sharks None
Turtles 1 or 2 Whales 1 or 2
Corals 1 stars Tropical Fish 2 stars
Small Critters 1 stars Large Fish 4 stars
Large Pelagics 3 stars

Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Subject Matter 3 stars Boat Facilities 3 stars
Overall rating for UWP's 3 stars Shore Facilities N/A
UW Photo Comments With several large camera rigs set up for wide angle, the camera table could get quite congested. Rearranging gear to find space was a fairly common exercise. The crew did a good job of handling camera gear on/off the dive pangas.
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Note: The information here was reported by the author above, but has NOT been reviewed nor edited by Undercurrent prior to posting on our website. Please report any major problems by writing to us and referencing the report number above.

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