Sea Dancer, August 1996, Helen and Pete Reihadt, Madison, WI. "Good: Wonderful, dependable, professional Peter Hughes service. Lush, pristine, gorgeous walls. Sharks! Organization and schedule. Eagle Rays! Picked us up in dingy (and without making fun of us) when we got lost. Good mix of divers on boat, friendly responsible, safe. Last night dive ! (nurse shark, spotted eel, lobster, sting ray, octopus). . . . Bad: We got lost! Three of four night dives were disappointing and uneventful. Nice, but not as nice as Wave Dancer. Open eating area. Our cabin was OK (cabin #M3), but others had limited storage space. Deep reefs mean small no deco numbers, so we skipped a couple of dives. vis: 80­120 ft. water: 83 degrees."

Sea Dancer, December 1996, David & Elaine Reubush. "Good: a bargain. Got the cheapest cabin in the boat with two bunks and a shared bath. Tiny, but the only time we spent in the cabin we were sleeping; $999 each for the whole week. Stan's cooking was outstanding. . . . Bad: Rough weather at beginning limited sites we could dive. Getting kicked out of the restaurant on Provo at the end of the trip so the restaurant could sell more dinners and drinks. What I wish I had known: Not to pack as many clothes and shoes. Stayed barefoot and in a bathing suit. Could have packed lighter. vis: 40­80 feet. water: 73­75 degrees. Restrictions: stay above 130 feet and return with 500 psi, but nobody checked."

Sea Dancer, May 1997, Kar DeGriso, Newouk, DE. "Water 80 degrees, vis 50-100 feet. Crew excellent, even Captain poured water at dinner. Helpful, knew the locations and pointed stuff out underwater, great briefings. Diving good. Walls, walls, and walls. Not for beginners as the shallowest was 50-60 feet. Accommodations cramped! Cabin next to bridge had room only for one person at a time. Food good; lots of juices, cookies and fruit. Dive deck great: big table for photography, hot towels and tanks taken off when you get on the dive platform."

Sea Dancer, May 1997, Bill Knoblauch, Rancho Cordova, CA & Graham McMullen, Sacramento, CA. "Extremely impressed with the entire operation. Sea Dancer is Peter Hughes' oldest boat so boat has small cabins, but were comfortable, clean and well appointed. For anyone over 6 ft. tall, the cabin will be tight, the beds are only 6 ft. long, the shower is only high enough for someone 5'10" without having to crouch. Plenty of hot water for showering, but can't control water temperature. Air conditioning worked great, but no individual temperature control other than opening or closing the vents. Coffee delivered to our cabin every morning at 6: 30 AM, a nice touch. All cabins have two bathrobes. Drinks, both alcoholic and non-alcoholic, included. Air-fills 3,000 psi, with tanks immediately refilled. Staff removed tanks from our BC's after diving, and handed everyone a warm towel after our rinse showers. One of the best ladder set-ups, great for tall divers. Excellent camera table, nice storage shelf underneath the table top, but fresh water rinse tank should be changed more often. Pre-dive briefing detailed and informative. Always a staff member in the water during dives to help if needed, but all divers had computers and were free to dive whatever profile they wanted. Two-hour surface interval between dives, allowing a maximum of five dives per day. E-6 processing cost $10 per roll (unmounted). Staff helped photographers with tips on how to take better pictures. . . . Diving typical of the Caribbean as to fish, corals and sponges. Abundant queen triggerfish and queen angelfish. Also reef sharks, eagle rays, dolphins, filefish, spotted drums, huge pillar coral, lots of barrel and tube sponges and a few beautiful sea fans. Visibility 70-100 ft. water: 80-82 degrees."

Sea Dancer, May 1997, Warren & Gilda Sprung, Houston, TX. "Second Peter Hughes trip (Belize on the Wave Dancer same week last year). Diving fantastic, better than Belize. vis: 100­150 ft. water: 82­84 degrees. Out of 22 dives, saw sharks on eleven. Got to see sponges spawning (awesome), a fingerprint snail, thanks to Captain Eduardo, who found it. Big fish, small fish, great corals (not up to those off Little Cayman). My wife and I missed the pod of about 15 dolphins and a Spotted Eagle Ray on one dive because we went in other direction. Crew as fantastic as the diving. Chef Stan has worked almost 11 years on the Sea Dancer and is purported to be the best chef in the PH fleet. I don't doubt it. Divemasters gracious and very helpful and not­ restrictive. We all dove our own (computer) profiles, and with a minimum of 2:00 surface intervals, off­gassing was more than adequate. Captain Eduardo the brightest of a lot of shining stars on the staff. A real people person, he made the week fly by. When you see the guests and staff hugging good-bye like family you know the week went by in a happy hurry. . . . Met Peter Hughes at Sea Space and he cautioned us that cabins on the Sea Dancer were small and that we should get a larger room on the Turks and Caicos boat. He was right. We had the largest cabin (#2) on the boat and it was small­queen size bed though. The air conditioner worked great! Forget the conch farm tour; it's basically defunct due to lack of funds and they still charge $6. Go into town and shopping or lounging by the pool or a nice local hotel."

Sea Dancer, August 1997, Ronald Bailey, Roanoke, VA. "Water 81-83 degrees; vis 70-150 feet. Suggested maximum depth of 120 feet. Excellent weather, good food, good crew. Deep diving, bring your computer and a back-up. Some cabins are small but for $995, good value. Some sharks and mantas."

Turks & Caicos Aggressor, November 1996, Christina Rudman, DDS, Treasure Island, FL. "Wonderful week of diving. Captain Julie Jordan and her entire crew were always willing to attend to our needs throughout the week. Numerous cloudy days could not dim their enthusiasm. Collectively as a group, I've never seen a better crew."

Turks & Caicos Aggressor, Alex Stuart, April 1997. "First and probably last trip on Aggressor Fleet, the MacDonald's of dive franchisers. Maximum depth limit of 110 feet and no solo diving. Many walls start at 70 feet. With a limit of 110 feet, that doesn't leave much wall to explore. A front came through during the week that limited us to only a few dives on the west side of West Caicos. Able to do the West Sand Spit and snorkel for conches. Fortunately, the crew used the honor system for the maximum depth and solo diving, but I don't like reporting incorrect maximum depths. Since one of the crew was in the water on most dives, I felt like I couldn't be too obvious about exceeding the maximum depth, but I left with the feeling of being a disobedient child. . . . I felt a lot of pressure to leave a big tip. People were talking about the tip being a percentage of the total trip cost (airfare included). Divers from California or Europe were supposed to leave a bigger tip than divers from Florida? obviously a ploy to get gullible people to leave larger tips. Crew were short-handed; a number of times people had no one to take their cameras when they returned to the swim step because the crewman was busy filling tanks. They had to work harder than normal but the service wasn't as good. Doesn't seem fair to punish the crew when the owners screw up but I'm not happy about rewarding substandard service."

Copyright 1998 by DSDL, Inc., publishers of Undercurrent. All rights reserved. No portions of this report may be reproduced in any way, including photocopying and electronic data storage, without prior written permission from the publisher. For more information, contact DSDL, Inc., P.O. Box 1658, Sausalito, CA 94966.