Liveaboard Diving During Covid: Behind the Scenes

Liveaboard Diving During Covid:
Behind the Scenes with Guest George Cathcart.

A firsthand account of diving and celebrating during the time of COVID. Plus a recount of international travel and new liveaboard health and safety procedures in the Turks & Caicos Islands.

Words by Guest George Cathcart

Turks & Caicos Explorer II

August 29-September 5, 2020

Diving and Celebrating in the Time of Covid

I had booked my trip on the Turks and Caicos Explorer II back in January, aiming to celebrate three milestones during the week spanning Aug. 29-Sept. 5. It would be my ninth trip on that boat, and it was the perfect place to celebrate 20 years of diving, my 73rd birthday, and my 1,000th open water dive (on my birthday).

Divided Cyanotype. Image By Guest George Cathcart

And then along came Covid-19, and everything was on hold for everybody. Eventually, Turks and Caicos reopened, with restrictions, and Explorer Ventures kept the trip on the schedule.

But I dithered for months, weighing all the pros and cons and second-guessing myself every day. I finally decided to go for it about three weeks before the trip was scheduled to start. At which point I said I wanted to go for two weeks, but since nobody else had signed up for what would have been my second week, the company wasn’t going to sail with just one customer. As it was they lost money on the week I did do, with just four other divers aboard. But I can tell you the crew was ecstatic to leave the dock for the first time in more than five months, and to spend the week diving instead of painting and scraping.

Most of the crew were familiar faces to me, and they welcomed me aboard along with four other intrepid souls, the boat’s first guests since the virus struck.

The diving was great, as always. Sharks on every single dive. Lots of color and life, but also lots of dead coral. Recovery from Hurricane Maria is happening, but it’s slow. The most memorable dive for me was the night dive on Thunderdome, not because of the great macro life but because the bloodworms were so thick the lights wouldn’t even penetrate to find the life! And there wasn’t enough hard coral around feed them to. But even that was worth a few laughs back on the boat.

I had filled my camera’s memory card with plenty of animals from sharks to blennies, slugs to sponges. It was a great way to celebrate my milestones, and a great way to resume operations even as we all continue to navigate the troubled waters of the Covid pandemic.

Photos by George Cathcart, Turks & Caicos Islands

The boat has instituted a few new procedures thanks to Covid: we had our temperatures and O-2 levels checked twice a day. All our bags were sanitized before they were brought aboard. There was hand sanitizer everywhere, and regular reminders from the crew to use it, especially before going through the buffet lines. We wore masks most of the time, although not as strictly as we probably do at home. After all, every one of us had had to go through a pretty rigorous screening process.

Reaching for the sky. Image by George Cathcart

That process, by the way, probably caused me more stress than nearly anything else. TCI currently requires proof of a negative Covid test within 5 days of arrival in Provo. At that time, the average turnaround where I live was about 7 days, but I was able to get my doctor to order a test, which gave me results in two days. So I got tested on the Monday before my Saturday departure, got the results on Wednesday and then had to fill out an on-line form to apply for a permit to enter TCI, upload my test results, buy a special insurance policy and upload that and then wait for the permit. I felt the pressure of a tight deadline, but I had my permit before the end of the day on Wednesday. I was already packed (of course), so I was able to relax for the next day and a half before driving to Miami on Friday to catch my flight Saturday.

The road trip, hotel overnight, airport experience and flight were all so easy that I started to wonder what I had been so concerned about. Lines were short and quick, almost all people wore masks, the plane was less than half full. I actually felt a sense of community with all my fellow travelers.

I took a few extra precautions, like bringing cans of chili to heat in the hotel microwave rather than go out to dinner, wiping down everything in the hotel and showering as soon as I arrived. Hardly anyone staying at the hotel, so also hardly any staff, which meant I had to take an Uber to the airport instead of the hotel shuttle, but that was more convenient anyway.

Now that I’m home, I’m on a strict two-week self-quarantine just to be safe.

Thanks again to the great crew of the TCExII for their professionalism and attention to all the guests’ needs, as well as great food and almost perfect diving. Now if someone could just invent a bloodworm repellent…