Sea Dancer Turks and Caicos April 1999

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I had a buddy, George Graf, who had never been on a dive trip. We wanted someplace not too far away that did not require advanced dive skills. I had never been on a peter Hughes Boat but had heard good things. I knew the sea Dancer was his original boat and did not have many of the newer features that made live aboard Dive boats more comfortable, but we decided to give it a shot. (FYI – The Sea Dancer has been retired and Peter Hughes does not currently operate from Turks and Caicos).

The trip lived up to all my expectations. It was a great first dive trip for George. The tropical fish were plentiful and the corals were colorful. We saw lobster, eagle ray, a nurse shark, and dolphins (not on the video). Also I had the greatest night dive in my diving career (unfortunately since it was George’s first night dive I did not take my video camera and it turned out to be a good decision for his safety). On that dive we had 4 small white-tip sharks actually come to play with us for about 20 minutes. We were not deep and just under the boat. Several times a shark would make a high speed run directly at a diver and just before hitting the diver the shark would turn away. George’s air gauge seemed to move rapidly toward empty. I had a hard time keeping him at our safety stop. When we got back on the boat he was so excited – It was hard for me to tell him that not all night dives were that good.

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